We recently welcomed over 100 junior players, families, friends and coaches to Dalnacraig to celebrate the end of another successful season for the Dalnacraig Rocks.

Throughout the season our junior player numbers continued to expand with a regular 55 - 60 children attending weekly training sessions. With such great quantity and quality of players, this allowed us to field multiple U12 softball, U12 hardball and U14 hardball teams, and once again performances in all teams were impressive. Finally our annual Summer Camp was very highly attended this year as we hosted 35 children in a gloriously sunny week of skills, games and fun.

Looking across Scottish Cricket, it is clear we are currently in good health. There is a clear development pathway from our junior Allstars, Softball and Hardball teams into our Men's 3rd, 2nd & 1st team with many junior players already advancing. Evidently, there is lots of opportunity to play cricket for all ages and abilities and this Summer we fielded 33 players in one day, with the vast majority coming from our junior section or pool of long term players. Our club's key message is that our junior section is critical to the success of the club and we will always continue to invest in coaches, coach education, coaching equipment and facility improvement.

We'd like to say thanks to all the junior coaches that support our club and kindly donate their time and expertise to coach our juniors, including Angus, Brock, John, Craig, Bob, Rahim, Jack, Subbu, Gavin, Jags, Andrew, Shaun and Kevin. Thanks also to the parents that taxi kids around, pay their fees and volunteer to help at away games. Finally, thanks to all our juniors that have taken a great interest in cricket and keenly attend training and matches weekly.

Importantly, we must recognise our sponsors who play a critical role as their financial backing and support, is critical to keeping our club running sustainably:

Blue2 – Our whole club sponsor, represented by Nial Chapman, a current player and hard working committee member that has sponsored the club for many years. We are very indebted to Nial for his many years of hard work both on and off the pitch.

https://blue2.co.uk/

Harry Lawson – Our junior section sponsor, represented by Michael Lawson, a former player and we hope also a future player! Michael, as an avid sportsman and talented junior that rose through the ranks at Dundee High Cricket Club, has been instrumental in supporting our junior summer program in 2024.

https://www.harrylawson.com/

Active Schools Dundee – Jillian Walker, our liaison with Dundee City Council and all schools in the Morgan Academy catchment. We simply could not have developed the wonderful community links we have without Jillian, her hard work to support our schools program and Summer Camp has been incredible.

https://www.activeschoolsdundee.org.uk/

Maryfield Community Regeneration Forum (CRF) – We are hugely thankful to the Maryfield CRF for their very kind support for our schools program which has allowed Angus and Brock to regularly visit Clepington PS, Glebelands PS and Morgan Academy to deliver cricket sessions to kids of various ages.

National Lottery – Finally, the National Lottery has also very kindly supported our junior section with funding which will be used to support winter indoor facility hire, high quality coaching and training equipment purchase.

Looking ahead, junior outdoor training now takes a break until after the Dundee School October holidays. This Winter our indoor program will run at Mayfield Sports Centre (193 Arbroath Rd, Dundee DD4 7HS) on Monday evenings from 21st October 2024 until the outdoor season 2025 starts in April 2025. The Winter indoor program will again be led by the wonderful Steve Knox, the former international player and coach, more details will follow in the coming weeks.

Award winners for season 2024 are:

Dalnacraig Rocks 2024, U12 Player of the Season - Ayaadh Mohamed Rishard
Dalnacraig Rocks 2024, U12 Most Improved Player - Hugh Kennedy
Dalnacraig Rocks 2024, U14 Player of the Season - Sulman Irfan
Dalnacraig Rocks 2024, U14 Most Improved Player - Faheem Razak

Pictures taken on the night can be accessed by all registered members here:

https://www.dundeehighcricket.co.uk/photos/juniors-presentation-2024-1114511.html