Happy new year to all our youth players, parents and carers! With a new year we can also look forward to a new cricket season which will come around soon.

We have booked the sports hall for indoor training at Kidlington & Gosford leisure centre on Sundays for 7 weeks from Feb 13 to Mar 27. We will send more details nearer the time but the provisional timings are:

- 3-4pm under 11 training
- 4-5pm under 13 and under 15 training
- 5-6pm under 19 and senior training

Of course this is subject to the covid situation at the time, but things seem to be improving at the moment.

Before the new season starts, I want to say a big thank you to all the volunteers who made cricket happen at KCC last year. Particular thanks go to our team managers Marco van der Linden, Pete Gaskell, Alex Babic, Kamran Ramzan and Jack Launchbury, but also to everyone who helped at matches and at training sessions including Chris Graham, John Moss, Michael Tipper, Sam Fransham, Neil Talmaki, Aaryan Jagnani, Marco Babic, Mike Donovan, Jeremy Skertchly, Ben Parish, Rakesh Padinjaremaddm, Murray Gardner, Nick Jeacock, Kevin Rodd, Jamie Burns, Stuart Symes and Mo Talmaki (and massive apologies to the people I have inevitably missed off the list). Running a cricket season is a big team effort and we are very grateful for everyone's input. A special mention goes to Marco van der Linden who was awarded the Youth Volunteer of the Year award for 2021, in recognition of the trail he has blazed for other people to get involved with volunteering at the club.

We were very proud of the achievements of all our players last year, and as always the spirit shown by our players was excellent. All youth players should have received a season medal - so if you didn't pick up yours at the end of season day please let me know.

In case you missed it, here is a list of the players who were singled out for special awards last season.

Under 11 hard ball

Bowler of the Year: Matthew Skertchly
Batter of the Year: Joe Campbell
Player's Player: Matthew Collett
All-rounder: Jack Gaskell

Under 13

Bowler of the Year: Kit Rush
Batter of the Year: Luca van der Linden
Most Improved: George Sherratt

Under 15

Bowler of the Year: Marko Babic
Batter of the Year: Sam Fransham
Fielder of the Year: Neil Talmaki
Player of the Year: Aaryan Jagnani

Under 19

Bowler of the Year: Aman Kalyan
Batter of the Year: Josh Behal

Finally, our overall youth player of the year was Cameron Babic who featured in the under 13, under 15 and senior 3rd team this year, making excellent contribution with bat and ball in both. A big shout out too to Josh Behal who won overall club player of the year for his stellar performances in the senior 1st team.

Look forward to seeing you at the cricket club soon!

Best wishes

Mark
KCC youth chairman
youth@kidlingtoncricket.com