Durham Cricket Academy Director John Windows is delighted with the season the academy side have had and is pleased with the progress made throughout the summer.
The Academy side withdrew from the North East Premier League last winter, but their schedule has still seen an action-packed summer of cricket for the young Durham stars.
“It has been a really enjoyable summer, really pleasing to see the development on so many fronts for the academy players.
“It was a big change not playing in the North East Premier League on a Saturday, but the lads have still played for their clubs on a weekend meaning their development still continued within their club.”, Windows said.
“I am really pleased to see that former academy graduates have gone on to make their mark in the first team with distinction, this is the main aim when they set out on their way to becoming a professional cricketer.
“Players like Brydon Carse, Scott Steel, Liam Trevaskis, Harry Adair and Matthew Potts have all played leading roles in the side so that was really encouraging to see.
“The side itself, this summer, have played well on numerous occasions, we won the North Yorkshire South Durham (NYSD) Macmillan T20 competition and got to the semi-final of the Protech Final.
“Some of the stand out performances came at the very younger end of the pathway, for example Ben McKinney scored four hundreds, the boys under-12s and boys under-13s won the Ampleforth Festival, so looking across the junior academy pathway the real performances came at that end.
“Ultimately what we are trying to achieve is a consistent conveyor belt through the player pathway and credit goes to the talent coaches for their hard work with their teams.”
Indoor winter coaching gets back underway in the new year for the Academy, John added: “We are planning the winter schedule now, there is a lot of skills practice going on soon with the spin bowlers and wicket keepers.
“The fitness starts in the next couple of weeks, the hard work which people don’t necessarily associate with the cricket.”
“We have a lot of good young cricketers coming through, a lot of promise and strength in the younger levels, we are in a really good place and hopefully there is lots more players to come in the later years.”