by Kevin Gresham – Yorkshire Women & Girls CAG Coordinator
250 people attended the Yorkshire Girls County Age Groups Awards Night 2021 in the Long Room at Headingley recently, celebrating a great 2021 season.
The U11s season took on several different formats, from inter-squad training games to T20 and Hundred Ball games with other counties. The highlight was perhaps a three-day residential tournament at Scarborough College with Lancashire and Durham – where one of Yorkshire’s two squads won the tournament trophy!
The U13s split into two squads, Development and Performance, with the Performance squad wining every fixture they played in 2021, home and away! The season finale saw both teams playing at the Scarborough College festival with Durham and Lancashire, with another trophy engraved with ‘Yorkshire’ by the end! An added bonus for the girls was a training session where they were coached by Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett, which proved a special experience for all involved.
The U15s took on numerous counties with a mixture of T20s and 40 over games. Gary Ballance also dropped in with a training session for the girls too! Several of the players were selected for the Northern Diamonds Junior Super 4s event at Weetwood with four also included for Senior Super 4s at St Peters & Ampleforth!
The U18s played games against Lancashire, North-East Warriors, Cheshire, Warwickshire and Notts with plenty of opportunity for all, with six being selected and also playing for the Northern Diamonds Academy – all of whom came through the Yorkshire CAG system – not to mention the four ex-Yorkshire CAG players involved in the full senior Northern Diamonds squad! Several of the players were also selected for the Northern Diamonds Senior Super 4s event at St Peters & Ampleforth during August.
Speaking about the programme Kevin Gresham, Yorkshire Women & Girls CAG Coordinator, said: “There is now a clear pathway for girls in the county from clubs, through County Age Group and to the Northern Diamonds and this is reflected by the number of girls that we are being asked to check on. It’s down to a lot of hard work at club level to make sure girls get the best opportunities. The ECB have requested that 30 plus players be part of our development plan at both the U11 and U13 stage and 2021 saw this come to fruition. The U15 and U18 age groups are key to development and working closely with the Northern Diamonds Talent Manager, Courtney Winfield-Hill, we are looking to produce players that can transition as seamlessly as possible if they are selected for the Regional Academy.”
For the awards night, Northern Diamonds and Northern Superchargers player, Rachel Slater, was on hand to present the awards – made all the more special by the fact Rachel has come through the very same County Age Group system! Courtney Winfield-Hill, Northern Diamonds Senior Regional Talent Manager, was also in attendance and presented the special CHAMP Awards – recognising C – Character, H – Hunger, A – Ability under pressure, M – Movement and P – Problem Solving!
The 2021 Award winners:
U11
Batting – Molly Kirton
Bowling – Molly Kirton
Players’ Player – Navya Gutta
Scarborough Festival Outstanding Performance – Molly Gamble (5 for 1)
U13 Development
Batting – Olivia Poskitt
Bowling – Easha Chotai
Players’ Player – Olivia Poskitt
U13 Performance
Batting – Maiya Charlesworth
Bowling – Jeanie Lee
Players’ Player – Olivia Kibler
U15
Batting – Olivia Vollans
Bowling – Kate Cooper
Players’ Player – Emma Wrightson
U18
Batting – Phoebe Turner
Bowling – Grace Hall
Players’ Player – Phoebe Turner
CHAMP Awards
U11 – Evie Hopper
U11 Development – Lottie Fletcher
U13 Development – Izzie Fidler
U13 – Lucy Randle-Bissell
U15 – Rhia Sedha
U18 – Annie Brown
A huge well done to all our 2021 award winners as well as all the girls that took part in this year’s programme! Thanks, as always go to the parents, coaches, managers, clubs al volunteers that make it all possible.
