Bat’s the way to do it!

Jun 17 2009 by Paul Thomson, East Kilbride News

THE sun was shining on East Kilbride Cricket Club earlier this month as they hosted their popular Cricket Festival in Calderglen Country Park.

Around 200 primary school children descended on the park across two days of competition. On Tuesday, June 2 the club held its annual Cricket Festival before hosting a Kwik Cricket Tournament on the Wednesday.

The event was well attended across both days with primary fives playing on the Tuesday and primary six pupils taking part on the following afternoon.

A total of 140 primary five youngsters from West Overton, St Vincent's, Kirktonholme and Long Calderwood made it to the cricket ground at East Kilbride Cricket Club in glorious weather to participate in Tuesday’s cricket festival.

They were put through a series of cricket skills and points were awarded for each task completed.

Finally, for relaxation, the primary five pupils had games of non-stop cricket, which were enjoyed by everyone.

When the points were totted up at the end, the victors were Kirktonholme followed by runners-up Long Calderwood, West Overton and St Vincent’s.

To round off the morning's sporting work, each child received a certificate whilst much water was consumed by all to combat the hot conditions.

On the next day, again in marvellous summer weather, primary six pupils from the same schools turned up at the ground to take part in the annual primary six Kwik Cricket tournament sponsored by the local club.

Around 40 youngsters took part in this event and, after some tentative first matches, the atmosphere relaxed and the players began playing the games to ever-improving standards.

The matches were very competitive and after the three round-robin matches had taken place, three schools had the same points and they were separated by fewer wickets lost to obtain the finalists – Kirktonholme and Long Calderwood.

In a hard-fought and exciting match, it was the Kirktonholme players who held their nerve and pipped their opponents by a mere one run to win the trophy.

After the final, the players all received certificates as mementoes of the day.

East Kilbride Cricket Club’s junior section secretary, Alan Dickie, was impressed with the talent on show and was delighted with how smoothly the two-day programme went.

He told the News: “We had a fantastic two days at the cricket club and we were blessed with great weather.

“We’ve managed to spot two or three potential players for the cricket club, which is great, and it’s proved to be a very worthwhile exercise.

“The event was very well organised and we had the active schools coordinator there from South Lanarkshire Leisure who helped oversee things and they did a great job.

“The Cricket Festival on the Tuesday ran perfectly and the kids just seemed to get louder and louder on the day, so they must have been enjoying themselves.

“Conditions were perfect for cricket on both days and we had plenty of bottles of water there for the kids because it was very hot.”

It seems all the youngsters enjoyed the event and, although it was a bit of fun, Alan said he still likes to make these events friendly competitions.

He added: “Just like the football and rugby guys, us cricketers like to make things competitive. I don’t think you ever really get a ‘friendly’ football match and it was good to have the teams competing against one another.

“Everyone got plenty of games under their belts and I think the kids were pretty tired after it because of the conditions.

“But I think everyone had a good time and I’d like to thank the schools for taking part over the two days.”

If you are interested in joining East Kilbride Cricket Club then you can come along to junior cricket practice at Calderglen Country Park each Thursday from 6.15pm to 7.30pm.

There is a small coaching fee of £3 each evening for non members and all youngsters aged between eight-years-old and 18-years-old are welcome to attend the coaching sessions.

You can find out more information about the club by contacting Alan Dickie on 01355 222405.