We have been kept hanging for ages as to when the trials would be, we were told October and then we got an email saying it was the following week. Tom hadn't touched a cricket bat in over a month! We quickly got on to John asking for advice, he happily suggested he did a training session for him. Phew. He spent ages helping him with his batting technique - his weakest part of the game and gave me a list of hints and tips to work on. Oh and Under 11s use a hard ball - never done so before, so he had to wear pads, box, helmet, gloves and use a wooden bat. Not much to get used to then!!!!!
We then took him across to the field on Tuesday evening for a practise and once again spent ages with him on his batting.
Wednesday saw us at Sedbergh School for his trial. I am never comfortable in private schools, and we got lost immediately but luckily someone showed us where to go. It was your bog standard school gym, with the exception that it had 4 proper cricket nets. Think we counted about 18 children altogether including Tom and Charlie from Ingleton. Was strange watching them - Tom does stand out a bit at Ingleton, but here he didn't. They spent 2 hours bowling in the nets - having one go at batting. Tom's batting wasn't great but his bowling was good - he got a few wickets and was bowling straight. I think he looked about average and he certainly looked bewildered at the start. It wasn't until one of the adults went over to him and told him not to look so scared that he finally began to relax! Quite a few of the children knew each other already, John sends our kids to trials at 10, but there are younger teams too. Tom was in the boisterous lane - typical! He kept out of trouble (apart from almost bonking an adult on the head with a mis-thrown ball and getting in the way of another boy during his run up) and showed his love of bowling.
With my lack of cricket expertise, I was worried at the end if he did enough to get chosen. Matt was confident that his bowling would get him through. It was a nervous couple of days before we got the email on Friday afternoon saying he had been accepted. Unfortunately Charlie didn't, which is a shame as it would have been good to have friends to hang out with and share driving.
Tom was delighted, bouncing around for a while with a huge grin on his face. He now gets 18 hours of training with the South Lakes District Team. They then select a number to go to Cumbrian County Cricket Trials in December / January. If he isn't selected, he will still have the opportunity to play for South Lakes District team in some matches in the summer. It will be good for him to be around players of the same calibre and to have more training.
We need to take him to a specialist sports shop in Preston now to get him some kit.
Humm, another reason to go for QES: playing for a Cumbrian team it would make sense to go to a Cumbrian school. They hold training sessions during school holidays, but because North Yorks and Cumbrian schools have different holidays, Tom has been unable to go along to any.
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