Under 9s Club Cricket continues to grow in 2024!

After our increased focus on Under 9s Cricket began in 2023, we have been delighted to continue that focus in 2024 as we have seen the volume of Under 9s Club Cricket continue to grow.

The importance of having a vibrant Under 9s club offer was identified in 2023, with particular importance placed on:

1. Capitalising on the high interest levels from our All Stars and Dynamos programmes
2. Providing exposure to the first form of competition for our young cricketers
3. Ensuring there is a competition format to bridge the gap between All Stars / Dynamos and the beginning of the WYCL offer at Under 11s

In 2024, Wiltshire Cricket once again collated dates of Under 9s festivals and then promoted those festivals to the clubs that had confirmed their plans to run Under 9s Cricket during the season. We have also encouraged clubs to organise additional inter club festivals to provide further matchplay opportunities for our aspiring young cricketers.

In addition, updated resources were provided to assist clubs with delivering those festivals or to give more clubs confidence to host their own festivals.

League Table for Under 9s matches played

At this level, Wiltshire Cricket's main concern has not been wins and losses but more about opportunities provided. There are lots of ways of measuring opportunity and we are very aware that at Under 9s there will be lots of coaching sessions and intra club matches that are also providing invaluable opportunities for our young cricketers. However, based on the festival and inter club fixture information that has been sent to Wiltshire Cricket, we have combined all of those matches in to an overall Under 9s division that can be viewed here; https://wiltsclubcomps.play-cricket.com/website/division/123701. By our calculations, by combining the matches played by each club, it results in the following league table for Under 9s Cricket in 2024:

Congratulations to Cricklade CC, Chippenham CC and Swindon CC who have provided the most Under 9s matchplay opportunities in 2024. However, as mentoned above, we know the league table is not an exact science and so more importantly a huge thank you to all of the volunteers involved in the 21 clubs above who have all endeavoured to provide Under 9s opportunities during the course of the summer.

Our overriding message is one of thanks and positivity for the amount of Under 9s Cricket that has been played in 2024. For the clubs that are providing Under 9s Cricket, you are doing a great job for your young cricketers and more broadly we are ensuring that we are capitalising on the numbers of children that are emerging from the hugely successful All Stars programmes of recent years.