Optimists Cricket Club

The Academy week is one of the highlights of the junior cricket calendar.    The arrival of our level 3 coach, Graeme Rickman, from the UK is awaited with great anticipation as he brings new techniques, challenges and games for the participants.

Graeme’s visit this year had an added ingredient in that seven of our local coaches underwent the first part of the level II coaching course with him immediately before the Academy itself.  The continuing growth of interest in junior cricket encouraged seven of us to start the next level of training in order to improve our skills.

Having spent two days of intensive course work, both theoretical and practical, we were well prepared for the juniors’ arrival at the Walferdange ground.

The maximum number of 40 young players, ranging from six-year old beginners to 17-year old regulars, spent five full days, concentrating on improving their overall physical as well as specific cricketing skills.    These varied between the more basic skills of catching and fielding to the more complex tasks such as wicket keeping.  Our new bowling machine, used at the Academy for the first time, proved an invaluable tool for Graeme Rickman, to help the older batsmen improve their technique and the younger ones to have a first taste of faster bowling under close supervision in the nets.

Games were another means of testing the newly learnt skills in a slightly more competitive environment.  Continuous cricket, diamond cricket and the pavilion game were always in constant demand.

The final Saturday attracted special interest as eight of the improving younger participants were selected to play in the senior game “in the middle”.   A 20 overs a-side match, played under the full set of junior rules, proved an entertaining and ultimately tense struggle, which went down to the last ball.    Not even the coaches could have managed to orchestrate such an exciting finish!

This was followed by the junior match, in which the beginners and other juniors fought out another keenly contested match. All the boys contributed to what was a superb exhibition, both competitive and fun, impressing parents and friends by the extent of their progress during the course of the week.  The pairs format, which allowed all batsmen and bowlers to have an equal share of the action, provided a similarly dramatic and sporting finish, which was a fitting conclusion to what had been a week of hard work, fun and friendship.

The climax to the week was the barbeque and awards ceremony, which this year attracted around 120 participants.  After the presentation of commemorative medals and certificates to all the participants awards were made to Costas Kaltsas, Euan and William Jenkins, Joachim Schjødt, Max McVeigh, and Oscar Ramsden, for their all-round improvement in the junior group and Luka Galliver, most improved batsman, and Thomas Martin, all-round improvement, both newly promoted to the seniors.

This rounded off another highly successful and action-packed Academy, on a glorious evening, with players and coaches ready for a well-earned break in August, but looking forward to another month of serious cricket and further matches in September.

Following the first visit in 2009 our under 14 squad was keen and optimistic when setting off for a four team tournament in early July 2010.   Teams involved this year were Denmark East, Denmark West, Penicuik, from Scotland, and ourselves.

 

Our first match saw Denmark West off to a comfortable start, reaching 60 for 1 after 13 overs.  However, the situation changed rapidly as James Barker removed five batsmen in the space of five overs for only 8 runs.  Two important catches were held by Tim Cullen.  From their strong position they collapsed to 87 for 8 at the close of their 25 overs.   This total presented only a modest challenge for our batsmen and we reached our target for the loss of only two wickets in the 20^th over.

 

The second match, against Penicuik, provided a tougher challenge.  Winning the toss Luxembourg batted first.  Timothy Barker hammered six fours and two sixes in a quick 53, at which point he was retired.   William Cope and James Barker attacked strongly and, with 33 and 31 respectively, added 73 for the second wicket.  This brought the innings to a close on 164 for 2.

 

A devastating spell from Charlie Ramsden, taking 4 for 16, helped by four catches from Timothy Barker, soon ruined any hopes that the Scots might reach their target.  Although two batsmen made decent scores there was never any doubt that Luxembourg would win.  The innings closed on 149 for 8, leaving us winners by 15 runs.

 

Denmark East were our next opponents.  An opening stand of 85 looked threatening but they were unable to accelerate towards the end of the innings.  While wickets remained intact they closed on only 139 for 1 from their 25 overs.

 

Another aggressive 50 from Timothy Barker, in which all but eight of his runs came from boundaries, ensured that we maintained the required run rate.   After his retirement wickets fell steadily but James Barker, with 27, supported by the middle order of Mark Radley, Tim Cullen and Alex Martin, chipped away at the target and victory, by four wickets, came with two overs to spare.

 

As winners of the round robin stage we played Denmark West again for a place in the final.  Another confident start saw them reach 79 for 1 after 11 overs.  However, the departure of their captain led to a dramatic change and from 92 for 2 they again collapsed, to 103 all out. The last five wickets all fell on this score.   Marcus Cope and Mark Radley took the bowling honours, with 3 for 6 and 3 for 3 respectively, aided by nine catches, three of which were taken by Alex Martin and two, plus a stumping, by William Cope.

 

A place in the final was the incentive for a successful run chase.   Steady progress was required and Charlie Ramsden’s watchful innings soon ensured that this would be a formality.  Victory came by 8 wickets in the 22^nd over, with Charlie unbeaten on 34.

 

The final, with 30 overs per side, matched us, unsurprisingly, against Penicuik.   Batting first, we were again indebted to Timothy Barker, scoring his third fifty of the tournament, and another ten boundaries to his name.    After his retirement the other batsmen, particularly William Cope, with 18, which included three boundaries off successive balls, and Alex Martin, with 14, all contributed to a final score of 167 for 7.  

 

Our hopes of a repeat of the first match were unfortunately not realised.  Penicuik made a very confident start and, despite some good ground fielding, we were unable to make a breakthrough until the score had passed a hundred.  A second wicket fell at 139 but Penicuik were able to coast home by 8 wickets with six overs to spare.

 

Despite this defeat the team can look back on another highly successful tournament, with four victories from five matches.  Everyone contributed: the 19 catches, from seven fielders, and 3 stumpings showed the quality of the fielding; seven bowlers took wickets; four different batsmen scored over 30.   These figures demonstrate the development of a strong squad within Luxembourg youth cricket.        

Over the weekend of 12/13^th June the Optimists U-14’s hosted Thoiry Juniors.   For many of our juniors it was their first experience of competitive cricket.

The opening game took place at Evrange, this being the first junior “international” match staged at this ground.

Although no batsman made a major contribution the visitors accumulated a score of 90 in their 25 overs.  Highlights for the Optimists were an accurate spell of bowling by Jack Stock, who took 2 for 8 in his four overs, an acrobatic catch by Oscar Whiteman and three sharp run–outs.

Thoughts of a comfortable victory soon disappeared as our young batsmen found the bowling too accurate.  Wickets tumbled regularly and even four sixes from Timothy Barker, batting down the order, could not rescue the innings.   He was last out for 36 leaving Thoiry winners by 19 runs.

In order to allow everyone to participate, the Sunday game at Walferdange was played with 15 on each side!  Thoiry again batted first and runs came more easily than the day before.  However, good ground fielding and excellent catching gave the bowlers fine support.   Zack Foley and Andrew Fry both took three wickets and a total of nine catches were held.   Thoiry batted through 29 of their allotted 30 overs, reaching a total of 107 all out.

In reply we started steadily until Alex Martin, with a couple of handsome boundaries, moved the score along.   After his departure the run rate dropped before skipper Mark Radley improved the run rate with two more boundaries.   The senior juniors again came to the rescue later in the innings as Timothy, followed by brother James Barker, calmed the nerves, bringing victory in the 28^th over by four wickets.

With one victory each both teams could take satisfaction from two hard-fought and enjoyable matches and look forward to the return fixtures in September.        

In the second game of the 1st XI campaign, the ball again triumphed over the bat to give the Optimists a handsome home victory. In a match reduced slightly by rain to 39 overs per innings, OCC bowled out the Ostenders for 130. The target was achieved with plenty of time to spare, but with 5 wickets down. A fine victory which puts the club in a good early position in the hunt for promotion.



Results, league tables and scorecards can be found on the Belgian Cricket Federation league website.