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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