Cricket Club - Under 16’s
Huge effort to go from no 16’s team, then to a handful of kids in September and to end up with a talented and fun bunch of guys who ended up making finals. Here are your trophy winners & a wrap up from Coach Adam
The under 16s season for us was one that we didn’t think would happen a few weeks prior to the season starting but, due to the efforts of 3 young lads Conor Lidstone, Zane Lewis and Max Ashworth we managed to get a side together, which was our first at this level for almost a decade. Round 1 was a tough introduction to the competition for us as we rocked up with only 8 and playing the best team in the competition Stirling we copped a bit of a belting. At this point it looked like it may be a long season but over the next week or two we continued to pick up new players including young gun Lachy Knight who would prove to be the best player in the age group. From round 2 onwards we would prove to be one of the best teams in the competition only losing 1 more game whilst winning 6 including a win over Stirling which was their only loss for the year as we chased down a remarkable 148 in a T20 game. With our record of 6 wins and 2 losses we managed to secure 2nd spot and a home final but unfortunately, we fell short in the semifinal chasing 130 against a very talented Aldgate side. However the boys had a fantastic year and should be proud of how they went. They always played with a great attitude and always had fun out there even if some of the chatter was the silliest I have ever heard led by Conor Lidstone.
Award winners were as below;
Batting Average & Aggregate – Lachy Knight 456 runs @ 91.20. Lachy came to us in 2nd week of round 1 and straight away you could see he was just a step above, he played 2nd and 3rd Grade at Southern Districts on Saturdays which outlines his obvious talent. Throughout the year he scored 2 hundreds and 3 50s from 9 innings including a valiant 57 in the semifinal. Not only was he a gun batsmen but he opened our bowling doing a great job and was one of the best fielders I’ve seen at his age. If he is not too busy dominating down at district level, it would be awesome to see Lachy in our senior teams moving forward.
Bowling Average – Tom Esser 7 wickets @ 7.60. Young Tom started playing with us just after Christmas after having not played cricket for a few years and remarkably ended up winning our bowling average including taking a Hat trick against Uraidla. He was a terrific lad that showed a lot of talent considering how little cricket he had played recently.
Bowling Aggregate – James How 13 Wickets. James is one of our Gun under 14s but played basically the whole year in under 16s also. He opened the bowling most weeks for us and showed everyone the rewards of bowling good tight lines. Supremely talented and hopefully he sticks around the club to play Seniors as he is a leader of the future.
Best T20 Player – We played a separate 3-week T20 competition during the year also. Our best player for these was our Skipper and son of a gun Zane Lewis. He averaged 89 and struck the ball beautifully. Unfortunately he couldn’t bowl this year due to back injury but his batting improved throughout and in the long run it will be beneficial he could work on his batting. Has played Seniors also for the last 2 years and is a terrific young fella, everyone in seniors is excited to see how he develops.
Coaches Award – I gave my Coaches award to Conor Lidstone. Conor is a very talented opening batsman scoring the most runs in the competition for openers. He also kept wicket most of the year and is very talented in that regard, as with most keepers he doesn’t shut up and he was the life of the group on game days. He barely missed a training and has a love for cricket that was great to see.
Special mentions & Highlights;
Congrats to Lachy Knight on winning the batting average & aggregate for the competition
Congrats to James How for winning the bowling aggregate with his 13 wickets
Special mention to Tyler Quinn & Max Ashworth who came equal second in the aggregate for bowling. Tyler is a remarkable effort considering it was his first time playing cricket, he is just one of those naturally talented sportsmen. Max is a quality off spinner and was consistently our best bowler throughout the year.
My personal highlight of the year was Finn McMahon winning us a T20 game with his final 2 overs against Bridgewater when he stepped up in a real close game.
Also wanted to highlight the efforts of Jared Fathers, Ben Jones, Dylan Hoyle & Luke Modistach throughout the year.
A big thank you to all of the under 14’s that played during the year Riley, Archie, James & Lachy it was really appreciated and you all acquitted yourself very well.
Thank you to all the parents that helped with scoring, helping set up morning tea and just bringing your kids to games early on a Sunday morning. It was a really great group of young lads which is a testament to all of you as parents.
Another big thank you to Beau Thomas for coaching the boys when I was in Whyalla, really appreciate the help mate.
Can’t wait to see the progression of the lads into Seniors next year.