Under 15 End of Season Report
September 14, 2009
PLUMTREE CC UNDER 15 SQUAD END OF SEASON REPORT – BY TEAM MANAGER MARK MILNES
Played 12 Won 9 Lost 3 Abandoned 2
Overall, a very pleasing season for the Under 15 squad. The feature was a good cup run in the National U15 Cup which saw us reach the County South Section final. Victories along the way against the stronger sides of Radcliffe, Wollaton and West Bridgford resulted in a final at Notts Unity. Unfortunately, it was not one of our better evenings and we were soundly beaten by the better side on the day.
In the league, we won 6, losing 2 with 2 abandoned, finishing second in the table behind Wollaton.
From a batting perspective, there were encouraging signs of both players and the team in general learning how to build an innings which will become even more important as they move into senior cricket. Matt Chilvers topped the batting, with significant contributions from Matt Milnes and Alex Nathanson. ‘ Nath ‘ provided my personal highlight of the season with his explosive innings at Radcliffe including several massive sixes.
On the bowling front, young Natty Sikand-Youngs finished with 16 wickets with good support from Jacob Whitehead and Jack Manton. A key development area for all of the bowlers is to learn to ‘ set their own fields ‘ – too often they left this to the skipper rather than having their own ideas.
Our fielding was on the whole very good and showed a marked improvement on the previous season. The players need to continue to learn about angles in relation to both specific fielding positions and the pace of the wicket but this will come with experience. A particular mention to Will Johnson who showed considerable promise behind the stumps.
I was particularly pleased with the many positive results in view of the lack of U15 players – only 5 played in ten or more of the games. This obviously reflects well on the many younger players who contributed during the season and in total, we used 20 players.
As regards 2010, I would to see the likes of Ross Carnelley, Chris Kerrison, Will Johnson and Natty Sikand-Youngs really pushing on to dominate games at U15 level and there is obvious potential coming through in the age group below them, several of whom more than held their own in games this season.
My thanks go to my ‘ accountant ‘, Eleanor Manton, Pete Chilvers and Tim Young for their scoring expertise and all parents etc who have provided support and most importantly a taxi service.
Mark Milnes.
