Junior numbers swell dramatically
"First year there were 20 kids attending, the following year we increased to 30-40 and now we’ve got 60 playing every Friday night. "
Todd Jackson on the Kerikeri junior cricket programme
Cricket may have suffered a major downturn across the district in the recent decade but the efforts by a handful of local enthusiasts to reintroduce the game to local children has helped reverse the trend in Kerikeri.
The junior development that has been re-established by Adam Scott and Todd Jackson several years ago is starting to pay dividends, the latter noted, with Kerikeri High School now represented by three sides in the Northland junior competition, with some of those students also going on to represent the province with various Northland age group teams.
The junior club teams also provide an organic route for keen players to go on and play at senior level with the WRMK Kerikeri Cricket Club senior side which has been the only team from the Far North involved in provincial competition for the past three years.
It is hoped that the growing numbers of juniors will result in the high school registering a team in the provincial senior reserve grade competition within the next couple of years, Jackson said.
“In terms of youth numbers now playing cricket, Kerikeri has had a bit of a resurgence which is great,” he noted. “Northland Cricket have also jumped on board now and are providing support to the junior coaches and with recruiting players from other schools.”
With the help of some proactive locals, Scott and Jackson’s junior cricket programme has been running on Friday afternoons for the past four summers. It caters to to Year 1-6 students with Jackson — who also coaches the Kerikeri team in Northland A grade (intermediate)
competition — noting there had been significant growth in the past few years.
“First year there were 20 kids attending, the following year we increased to 30-40 and now we’ve got 60 playing every Friday night,” he said, adding that those statistics served as evidence of cricket’s renaissance in the Bay of Islands at least.
The junior and high school sides are all affiliated to Northland Cricket through the WRMK Kerikeri Cricket Club. And Jackson said he could only see numbers increase with the game being promoted in Kerikeri through the development programme along with the local high school and the club’s senior team.
The programme runs from 4.30pm6.30pm every Friday at Kerikeri High School. Each child who turns up to play pays a fee and gets a shirt and a hat and has the option of going in three different grades: Kiwi cricket for Years 1 and 2, 1st Year Hard Ball for Years 3 and 4, and 2nd Year Hardball for Years 5 and 6.
■ Todd Jackson is also the coach of the Kerikeri team playing in the Northland Cricket A grade (Intermediate) competition. Results by his team and the three other Kerikeri sides in provincial competition over the weekend are on page 24.