Cornwall Youth Cricket Festival

33rd FESTIVAL 2019 : Sunday 11th to Thursday 15th August

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ORGANISING COMMITTEE

President: David Meneer

Chair: Louise Casterton   email: louise.casterton@sky.com   01326 753923 / 07896 241029

Secretary: Richard Bannister   email: bannybanny14@hotmail.co.uk   07791 219656

Treasurer: Peter Hesketh   email: heskies@talktalk.net   01326 375517   07896 957879

Bill Williams (Grounds), John Molden (Umpires), Mark Mitchell (Competitions),

Phil Hinchley, Barry Raiker

 

 

HISTORY

The Festival started in 1987 from an idea hatched by Mark Mitchell and an associate, Peter Hickes, and a Committee was formed, which has now grown into a strong and efficient body, running a tournament over six days and featuring some 500-600 young cricketers aged between around 7 and 17. We use  pitches at Penryn School (now called Penryn Sports College), St Gluvias Cricket Club and Channel 4 at Falmouth. Matches begin at 9.30 am and continue now under floodlights. Various special events have taken place in the evenings, but the Festival is now 100% youth cricket. The players all receive our traditional Festival caps and there are many club prizes and sets of individual medals, in addition to the kit bags kindly supplied by the Lord’s Taverners.

The style of cricket is fast, but encompassing all of the skills and tactics of the full game. Each team consists of 8 players. The two main tournaments, Under 13 and Under 15, are played over 10 eight-ball overs per side, with only 5 overs for the Under 17’s, which is played in the evenings. The teams play on a qualifying day, where they each get three matches, and the majority (around two-thirds) return for the appropriate Finals Day. The Under 11 Softball tournament takes place in its entirety on the first day, the Sunday. We receive at present 60-70 entries, nearly all from within Cornwall, but our efforts at expansion in recent years have brought several entries from across Southern England

The style of cricket is fast, but encompassing all of the skills and tactics of the full game. Effectively, whether by luck or a natural learning process, it has advanced alongside the professional game. Over the past two decades the global game of cricket has altered almost unrecognisably, with coloured clothing and seemingly impossible scoring rates becoming quite the expected norm. Players at the top level have improvised and our youngsters have copied. In 1987 the use of an 80-ball innings as the mainstay of our competition perhaps seemed a dangerous gamble and might have produced around 60 to 80 runs, but to score 100 in 2010 guarantees you no more than a competitive total. That said, the most astounding performance of all 19 Festivals so far happened back in 1990, on Monday 13th August, when future Cornwall star Gary Thomas smashed 209 not out in an unbroken first-wicket partnership of 240 for St Just v Wendron, aided, and quite clearly abetted, by his opening partner Tim Edwards!

The main growth area has been first the Under 13, then Under 11 age-group, with the original ‘blue riband’, the Under 16 tournament (11-a-side), gradually fading in prominence and becoming an Under 15 event to match the age-group being played by most clubs. The Under 13 competition has reached a height of 18 entries in 1998 & 2010 and has always been well supported, however the Under 11 softball competition has grown immensely and it is a joy to see four games being played simultaneously on the St Gluvias ground. In 1993 we began the U19 six-a-side event in the evenings, after it was noticed that some of the young players who had previously been regular participants were keen to continue their association with the Festival. Eventually this competition was scaled down to Under 17, to fall into line with the other Festival, and nationally recognised, age-groups. It has always been an exciting feature of the week but, with older teenagers committed to work, the number of entries has fluctuated greatly in recent seasons.

The Festival changed its name from the ‘St Gluvias Youth Cricket Festival’ to the present CYCF title in 1999, in order to reflect its independence, though it has remained traditionally Penryn-based, due to the convenience and close proximity of available facilities and the established goodwill of the local supporters. Our income is from two main sources – sponsorship from local businesses (including kit and other goods, besides hard cash) and through funds raised during the Festival itself, such as raffles and food sales. We have also made an effort to collect advertising revenue for the programme, which is in itself sponsored by a local printer. The Lord’s Taverners have supported us extremely generously for many years, particularly in supplying the major kit bag prizes, and we have managed to obtain a major local sponsor throughout , firstly Dales of Falmouth, through the good offices of our late Chairman, Andy Ayres, then Mike Hodges Sports, One & All Sports (Redruth) and, to this date, The Cornish Cricket Company Ltd.

PREVIOUS  WINNERS 1987-2008

 

Under 11
1996      Truro                                              2003       Grampound Road B
1997      St Just                                            2004       Paul / Newquay (shared)

1998      Falmouth                                       2005       Falmouth
1999      Falmouth                                       2006       Newquay

2000      Falmouth                                       2007       Rosudgeon

2001      Redruth                                          2008       Paul

2002      Beacon

 

Under 13
1987      Werrington                                     1998       Helston

1988      Wendron                                        1999       Perranarworthal
1989      Werrington                                     2000       West Dulwich

1990      Mullion                                          2001       Falmouth
1991      Perranarworthal                           2002       Alleyn’s Old Boys

1992      Truro                                              2003       West Dulwich
1993      Grampound Road                       2004       St Austell

1994      Paul                                               2005        Spencer Wanderers
1995      Camborne                                     2006       West Dulwich

1996      Perranarworthal                          2007       Alleyn’s Old Boys

1997      Perranarworthal                          2008       Penzance

 

Under 15  (formerly Under 16)

 

1987          St Austell                                      1998       Truro

1988          St Just                                           1999       Truro

1989          Truro                                            2000       Perranarworthal

1990          St Just                                           2001       St Just
1991          St Just                                           2002       West Dulwich
1992          Werrington                                   2003       Paul

1993          Camborne                                    2004       Falmouth

1994          Grampound Road                      2005        West Dulwich

1995        Grampound Road                        2006       Grampound Road
1996        St Just                                             2007        St Just

1997        Camborne                                     2008       Margate

 

Under 17  (formerly Under 19)

 

1993          St Gluvias                                     2001       Perranarworthal

1994          St Gluvias                                     2002       St Just

1995          Truro                                            2003       Falmouth

1996          Truro                                            2004       Paul

1997        Camborne                                   2005        Falmouth
1998        Camborne                                   2006       Grampound Road

1999        Camborne                                   2007        Cranmore

2000        Truro                                           2008       Grampound Road