The Durham Emerging Players Programme constitutes extra support in the form of coaching, psychology, physiology, and lifestyle for the best players in the age brackets of 14 to 16. The principle of the programme is that counties would give support to players in this age bracket and therefore find it easier and have more evidence for selecting their next intake of County Academy players.
Durham County Cricket Club’s Emerging Players Programme consists of winter skill sets (batting, pace bowling, spin bowling, wicket keeping), one to one sessions with the EPP Head Coach, practice with Durham Academy, and Junior Academy fixtures during the season, as well as occasionally young prospects getting opportunities to play in the full Academy team.
For Durham County Cricket Club the main emphasis for the Emerging players programme is to challenge players all the way through their development by exposing them to better standards of matches and practice. The programme also allows Durham to tap into some of the talent from other resources. For Junior Academy fixtures, we have included players from Scotland, Cumbria and Northumberland and in there are examples of players from these areas going on to play for the full Academy.
The Junior Academy has played various fixtures this season including a tour of some of the London Counties. Fixtures were organised against West of Scotland, Surrey, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Durham School, Derbyshire Youth, and Lancashire. In addition, the junior Academy played as a team in this year’s Longhirst Festival.
The games provided opportunities for players to compete with better players from this country and abroad as well as for the opportunity for coaches to observe players and make further judgement on their potential.
West of Scotland 1st Inns 282 for 9 dec, (S Male 16,0,67,0); 2nd inns 107 for 3 dec, (L Richardson 4, 0 26, 2)
Durham 1st Inns 179, (S Tindale 53) and 2nd Inns 187 for 5, (J Clark 67, J Coyne 51)
Durham JA 225 for 5 dec, 47 overs (C Martin 76 no, D Seymour 50, J Bousfield 36)
Durham School 229 for 9, 53.3 overs (S Hardy 61, A Tahir 64)
1. Middlesex 219 for 6 (T Thurlston 97, Charlton 40)
Durham 163 (J Burnham 38, A Tahir 33) Middlesex win
2. Durham 114 (D Wilkinson 46, A Tahir 27)
Hertfordshire 107 (S Male 7,0,31,3, J Quinn 7,1,15,3)
For this trip we were very lucky to gain the services of Neil Killeen in his coaching capacity. This was a huge benefit to all of the players involved on the tour, but particularly to the seam bowlers. Eleven players were involved on the trip and they were all a credit to the county in their behaviour. The cricket that we played was excellent, despite losing the Sunday game against Surrey due to bad weather.
North 240 for 5 (M Tully 45, J McNIchol 39.
Durham 183 (J Clark 67 G Dunn 49) North Win.
1. Durham 163 (C McCabe 37, D Wilkinson 36)
Derby Youth 164 for 3 (G Cork 51 no, M Bird 47) Derby Youth win.
2. Derby Youth 218 for 5 (T Lench 80 no, M Goodacre 39 S Male 10, 1, 21, 3)
Durham 63 for 6 Match Abandoned
Lancs 1st Inns 273 (J Taylor 100, G Butterworth 45, T Raglan 14.5,4,54,3) and 2nd Inns 94 for 4 (S Vandome 39 C van Heerden 6, 0, 3, 31)
Durham 1st Inns 303 (J Coyne 64, G Harrison 55 no, J Weighell 46, J Bousfield 43)
1. Durham 212 for 6 (D Wilkinson 85 no, G Dunn 31, R Carr 30)
YTCA 140 (S Mehra 47, A Khan 37, C Fellowes 6, 0, 4, 54)
2. Madan Lal 171 for 5 (S Behl 49, M Bhalle 49, S Thakur 35)
Durham 107 for 2 (J Mitchell 50 no) Durham win on Run rate
3. ZCA 130 for 9 (J Drurie 6,1,22,3)
Durham 131 for 2 (D Gunn 46, J Coyne 32)
4. Semi Final – Durham 180 for 8 ( J Coyne 67)
YTCA 145 Durham win
5. Final – Madan Lal 158 (J Clennel 36)
Durham 160 for 6 (J Coyne 85, D Wilkinson 37 no) Durham win tournament.
The Longhirst Festival was won by Durham this year. Yet again the Durham players seemed to enjoy playing in this 30 over format. It appears that the confidence, particularly of the batsmen is raised in this competition as they play much more positively. Notably, captain James Coyne was made batsmen of the tournament as he consistently scored 50’s in the matches we played. Daniel Wilkinson made a personal best of 85 during the tournament, Jonathan Mitchell was aggressive in making is highest score for Durham of 50 not out, and Coyne made scores of 32, 67, and 85 in five matches. Overall, the standard of cricket was good and our players all performed well. It is noticeable how much better our fielding is than any of the other teams in the tournament. This is a big achievement for our players and one they should be proud of. I hope that we will continue our winning streak next year.
The Emerging Players Programme moves into its’ fourth year and planning is in place for a busy winter of challenging players to realise and unlock their potential.