Page 38 - West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club

GIRLS’ REPORT
Wow, again! The 2020/2021 season was again action packed. Sun, rain, COVID, and a bit more rain. In the end, a good season for all three of our Girls teams. This year the great games, fun, smiles and skill development certainly continued.
This year we were able to form two junior teams and one senior team, with some of the older girls moving on to play in other competitions or focus on other endeavours. Thanks to those who recruited their friends and acquaintances to join our club. This season in the junior comp we were able to play other girls teams from Castle Hill, Thornleigh Normanhurst /Warrawee and Kissing Point.
Due to a lack of girls teams in other Hornsby Clubs the first half of the season saw us play only Castle Hill and a combined Castle Hills and Thornleigh team. However, a chance opportunity to play in the North Shore Competition arose and we seized the chance... soaring to some great, close victories against Lindfield, Mercy College, Epping, Lane Cove, with a loss to Gordon. It meant that our games were later (3:30) and we had to travel a bit further afield, but playing different teams was an exciting challenge.
Our amazingly talented junior Sthalekar team made it to the Grand Final against Normanhurst/Warawee. Despite their very best efforts and very enthusiastic cheering they didn’t win the match, but their wonderful team spirit and camaraderie shone brightly.
A big congratulations to the Annetts team too. Their team had a number of new players to cricket and showed developing skills each week. Many laughs and fun times throughout the season were reported.
We had a number of girls, both Senior and Junior girls from WPHCCC, play representative teams, and Brewers competitions. Congratulations to all of the girls who made it to the next level; Teyana La Brooy, Mae Herring, Maya Singh-Grewal, Lilly Hayhurst.
A number of senior players also had the opportunity to play REP cricket in the North Shore comp. Congratulations Divyanshi Nirmal, Matilda Wilson and Aliya Colburt. A big shout out to Elysa Oliveri and Trinity Newbury for being selected to play some of the games in the Brewers competition. We look forward to seeing your names up in lights one day.
We are once again very proud and grateful to all previous WPHCCC players who have returned to coach younger players; Christina, Minoli, and Dani (through Academy). Your mentoring, skills and dedication have been invaluable. We would encourage any volunteers, in particular mums and senior players to assist us with this. The Club would happily support with training if/as required. Please send us an email if this is an opportunity you’d like to take up.
Once again a number of girls took up the opportunity to participate in Academy training with the club’s coach Harrison, with Dani assisting. Their skill development and confidence grew throughout the season. These sessions are very cost effective and give the girls skills and confidence to play better. We hope
that even more girls take up this unique club opportunity in the future. Early in the season Harrison (and his team) came to the girl’s regular training sessions on Tuesday nights at John Purchase Oval to provide additional drills and skills training. The timing of this worked well and we hope to do the same next year.
“Participation over Results” is the club’s mantra and we tried our very best to reinforce this to the coaches, managers and girls by rotating batting, bowling, captainship and other opportunities. We feel that this approach helps solidify team spirit and reinforce that everyone has a contribution to make that is valued. Each girl rose to the occasion with respect and responsibility, developing their leadership skills along the way. We will once again continue to uphold this ethos into next season. We look forward to seeing familiar faces and welcome any new ones who come along.
Girls Only Master Blasters, fills the gap for girls wanting to move to the next level up from Kanga, but who aren’t yet ready for the challenges of hard ball cricket. To once again make this viable, Daniel Anderson from Cricket NSW, continued with the Thornleigh hub. The structure allows girls (ages 6-11) from West Pennant Hills, Thornleigh and Normanhurst join together to participate in fun, games based skills and drills, and finish the sessions with a modified game of Blast cricket. Parent involvement is encouraged and the girls play in a fun atmosphere with music, friends and lots of energy! If you are looking for the next step
for your daughter after Junior Blasters, a.k.a Kangas, well, Master Blaster is it! Come and join us. A huge, “Thank You” to Monique for being the Hub Coordinator this season. If you are interested or able to help out with this position next year, we would love to hear from you.
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