Barry Athletic Cricket Youth section host presentation night

Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Barry Athletic Cricket Youth coordinator Mark Ellis. Mark was ably assisted by a team of coaches who help out with the training and matches for the under-9 and under-11 teams.

With the club completing its first year in the Cardiff and Vale Junior cricket league it was important to recognise a number of major achievements throughout the year.

These included hosting a Vale Schools festival at the ground in June; Chris Lewis giving a masterclass at training sessions along with visiting Communities First primary school back in May; a fantastic last ball win over Cowbridge Under-11s; training sessions taking place for both the under-9s and under-11s over the ground every Tuesday night; a number of the members becoming members of the Young Buds scheme and the youth section being guard of honour at the Glamorgan v Sussex T20 match in June.

The evening began with games of rounders and football and there were other attractions to keep the children entertained including a smoothie bike, a paint bike and facepainting. Some interactive children and parent games followed which was great fun and Chris Lewis, the Ex-England International marshalled the games in true “It’s a Knockout” style. Chris has taken the youth section to heart and become an integral part. With his cricketing knowledge and great personality the children and coaches really appreciated his presence and one child even mistook him for Usain Bolt which amused everyone present.

The awards ceremony consisted of individual awards to 38 children and 11 awards were handed out for individual performances.

The winners of the awards were:

Players Player of the Year – Owen Scott

Under-11s Player of the Year – Joe Ray

Under-9s Player of the Year – Brochan Evans

Coaches Player of the Year – Emily Stanley

Club Person of the Year – Libby Rae Robson

Most Improved Player of the Year – Morgan Price

Fielder of the Year – Iolo Davies

Bowler of the Year – Elis Ewington

Batsmen of the Year – Jonny Lowrie

Statman of the Year – Simon Bell

Champagne Moment of the Year – Richard Eastman

The evening finished with a presentation to Glan Williams who has been a stalwart of the club for more than 30 years. Glan made the The Cricketer magazine’s September edition as the “Hardy’s Hero” and was presented with a tankard, a trophy and a copy of the magazine.

A raffle made £163 towards the running costs of the club and the youth sections would like to thank the following people for making the presentation night a big success.

Nina Ray, Cynthia Ellis, Susan Miles and Mark Rees for helping with preparing the food, Martin Baker, Nathan Baker, Ben Collins and Peter Hellyar for helping out behind the bar and sponsors Cadwaladers, IOTS, Barry Town Council, Asda, Waitrose, Tesco and Plus Network Solutions.