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The intensive level of cricket played during the summer season was remarkable, with some 25-30 weekly matches plus interclub matches, festivals and daily training sessions. We also had our popular ‘Jeggsy’ coaching workshops. A big thank-you to our adult team captains, junior managers and coaches.
The men’s first team impressed in one-day competitions, winning the Dukes Essex T20 competition, as well as reaching the last 8 of the National Club Championship, the regional finals of the Vitality National T20 competition, and the semi-final of the Dukes Essex League Cup.
The men’s Second XI were Premier League Champions for the third season in a row. There are (unverified) reports that our Slow Coaches won a match.
Six of the Essex second team players’ squad have graduated through our player development program including Robin Das, the only player to make double centuries in consecutive Essex Second XI matches. Some have made Wanstead first team debuts, some have since moved to other clubs. 90% of our first team graduate from our juniors, but others leave to secure regular first team cricket elsewhere, so we continue to be a substantial exporter of players.
We continued the development of policies to make the club a leader in providing opportunities for girls and women to play cricket, not only at the highest level but socially as well. Girls and Women’s cricket is the fastest growing section of the club. With the successful introduction of a women’s second team (who made a great start in the newly formed Essex 2nd Division) and the development of talented u11, u13 and u15 girls’ sides, we are progressing along a development pathway from our five-year-olds to adult cricket. Our ladies first team were winners of the annual Spanish 7-a-side tournament and also won the Essex Women’s League Hundred Competition, and the Women's Softball team won their division and made the finals of the Essex Softball Series, playing at the County Ground (where the team were delighted to finish 4th in the finals). A special mention to our u13 girls side, who finished top of their League and were County finalists, and also qualified for the regional semi-final of the ECB T20 Cup. Not to forget our mums team, who were coached by Helen Quinlan
Junior boys cricket continued to flourish. The u19s were winners of the Ravi Bopara u19s T20 competition and the u14’s reached the semi-final of the Alistair Cook Essex competition. Our u13’s won the Len Stentiford Trophy, the u11 (B side) reached the final of the Haydn Davies Plate, the u11 (A’s) reached the semi-final of the Haydn Davies Trophy, and our u11’s were Midweek League runners up. A special mention of our promising boys and girls who played in the Fundamentals League. It's our u9’s who take the top-team award, chasing down 35 runs in the last three overs to win the Don Coates Cup off the last ball - congratulations to all involved.
We also started to publish many match reports and photos throughout the season on our website, which can be found under the 'Match Reports' heading. A big thank you to our report and photo providers and our editors.
Off the field, a thank you to Keatons who have been excellent sponsors. We welcome in their place our new lead sponsors, Bradley & Co - please look them up through the links on our website - together with our other impressive Community Partners and their respective business links.
We also continued to improve our Overton Drive facilities, and the new artificial pitch at Nutter Lane is a ‘game changer’ for our coaching capability. We have established a ‘Green Heron Forum’ to focus on responsible environmental practice. We also undertook another successful community tour, this time to Kenya where we sponsored the building of a new library, which is currently nearing completion and ready for us to stock with children’s books.
Many thanks to all of our players, coaches, volunteers and parents for making the season so successful, and already looking forward to being back next Spring!