Thought I'd add in a slightly different report. Not been doing them up to now- so this will be a season review so far. This is my 12 year old son's 2022 season- club won't be named for reasons that should be clear later.
U13s pairs- a tough season for the 13s. All but 2 of last years team moved up to U15s- so the team is young and carrying some new players too. My son has been keeping beautifully throughout the season- stands up to all but one of our bowlers and has barely missed a thing. Batting has been tough, since he is the main scorer in the team (1 other player is a decent batter, but tends to score a little slower). This means my son has felt a lot of pressure to score, but also is going into bat with the game often already out of reach. That said, he has consistently scored 20-25 in his shared 4 overs with only 1 failure against a very good team and his team had a negative total as he went to bat. Recognising he was unlikely to score the required 100+ runs needed, he decided t "have fun" and throw his bat at everything. In truth I was a little disappointed in him- he could have tried to win his personal battle- but it was hard to criticise too much given the circumstances.
U15s. First season of "when you're out, you're out". Another superb season behind the stumps- although he does deign to stand back for about half of these! Batting has been really focussed by the importance of his wicket. So few of these games are scored on play cricket I don't have many accurate figures. Obviously a few failures- something new for him to deal with. Opposition bowlers must be very good, since every ball was swinging 3 feet after it's passed him
, but generally his batting has held up ok, and he has significantly improved over the season. He is much more selective in his shots (something pairs cricket does not prepare you for in the slightest). High point of the season was retiring on 30*, then going back in and leading a last wicket stand to win the game on 47* with 2 balls to spare.
His club performances were enough to get him into both the U13 district and interleague squads. This has been a bit of an eye opener, as he has had to come to terms that there are other 12/13 year olds that are at least as good as him (and better). This has actually been really positive for him, as it's provided new goals and motivation for training. His keeping has held up very well, but being honest his batting has been harder work. He's certainly been outperformed by some of the other boys- but they are all playing senior cricket and that seems to bring a rapid improvements- he has another year to play U13s and will hopefully do better next year. Unfortunately both teams seem to have had a hard time getting fixtures played so he has only played a couple of games of each. He's looking forward to next year's opportunities.
Through the course of the season there have been some behind the scenes changes at the club. One change is the 2nds will be getting a new captain/manager with the view of improving their professionalism and standards. He has already spoken to me and said he wants my son to keep for them next year as they don't have a regular keeper and my son is well regarded. When the football season started a large number of players were suddenly unavailable for a Saturday game. I was asked if my son would be willing to keep for the 2nds. He was really keen, and we agreed- even though he shouldn't be playing until next year (this is why I'm not mentioning the club). He kept ok. Byes were kept low- which was a decent achievement for both his first 2nds game and not knowing the bowlers. He was quite defensive- standing back a decent way, and he did drop one chance- but everyone was really supportive and seemed pretty pleased with him. Since then he has played every game (2 more). He's taken 4 catches (no drops!). In 1 match there were 0 byes, and only 4 in the other (from 1 error). He is, however, very annoyed that he can't get his senior wickets under his own name! Batting has, again, been a challenge- but he has chipped in with a useful few runs.
One reason for the summary was a conversation we had on Friday. It was club junior training night, but there was an U11 game on- players concentrating on getting the ball down the pitch relatively straight, and batsmen happy to get bat on ball. My son pointed out that last season he would have been playing in that game- which drove home the massive progress he has made this year. I'm incredibly proud of him, his work ethic and commitment to improving- despite having no professional aspirations in the game. He works on his game purely to be as good as he can be- which is hopefully a characteristic that will support him in other areas of his life. He's got 1 match left for each of his teams- then his football starts!
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Topic: Your 2022 Season (Read 19631 times)