Early on Tuesday morning a travelling party of 35 kids and 8 ‘responsible adults’ left these shores to make the relatively short journey to the Channel Islands, Jersey specifically, leaving behind grey drizzle and landing in warm sunshine and blue sky. Result.
Our second annual youth tour was off to a smooth start as the behind the scenes administration of Tour Manager Neil Dalzell and the non-travelling Lloyd Scates came to the fore as boarding passes were handed out, excess baggage dealt with, security passed, breakfast eaten, photos taken and general merriment was had in the Terminal at Belfast International.
Frazer Mitchell even had time for a chat with his school principal in the pen at Gate 18 (nothing embarrassing about that in front of all your mates) and the pre-trip choice of colours for the kit was agreed by all as having the required visibility for counting the 43 into place at every possible change of direction, making sure nobody was left behind.
The flight was a good one and despite the landing being completely un-eventful it was still met with a sarcastic round of applause by the comedians in pink and sky blue. Before they knew it the kids were on their busses on the way to the first games just after lunch.
Coach Heron settled in for a quick nap on the way but was rudely awakened as it turned out the ground at Les Quennevais was just a 60 second journey.
From here the serious cricket began as our wee club took on the might of a whole nation. Jersey measures 46.2 square miles in total and has a population 103,267* but our hosts, the Jersey Cricket Board, use the games as preparation for their late season tours to the mainland so no favours. *2021 Census
Team 2 (our mix of 13s and 15s) took on home side’s 13s and over the course of the two days it was an excellent contest.
Coach Montgomery led the warm-ups and our guys batted first, scoring 137 in their 40 overs with the main contributions coming from Joshua Montgomery (37) and Thomas ‘Tizzle’ Atkinson (25). It looked a bit light and so it proved with the hosts young guns chasing it down with 5 overs to spare despite and couple of wickets from Thomas ‘T-Bar’ Barr.
On Day 2 the two sides locked horns again, this time in 2 x T20 encounters. Perhaps not surprisingly this suited the aggressive vistors a bit better and this was reflected in the scores.
Game 1 was tied after the hosts were restricted to 104, thanks to an excellent bowling display backed up by some stealth-like wicketkeeping from Matthew Heron who claimed 2 catches and a stumping. Issac Wilkinson clubbed 28 in reply but it needed a maximum off the last ball from our ringer Alex ‘Lazarus’ Fielding to take us to the same score.
Final Result; North Down win by default as Jersey ‘accidently’ fielded with 12 players for 12 overs!
In Game 2 the lads from The Green started to make themselves at home, putting in their best performance. Batting first this time they put a more imposing 132 on the board (Fielding 42, Montgomery 27no) and another all-round bowling display this time took them to a 34 run victory. Coaches Heron and Montgomery could hardly hide their delight when commiserating with the home team management.
The most welcome addition to the party this year was the girls team, our boys thought it was a particularly good idea actually, and they excelled themselves over the course of the trip with 4 wins from 4 games.
To make it possible we were joined by some quality young cricketers from the recently crowed All-Ireland girls u15s Champions Lisburn CC, and the Cricket Ireland Coach of the Year 2024 Mr Jonathan Waite. Now, swashbuckling opening batter Waitey had already tonked our 2s for a ton at Wallace Park earlier this year so we hatched a plan to take him outside and give him a good hiding as revenge, but he turned out to be far too good a bloke for that and great craic into the bargain – both him and the girls were a credit to their club too and hopefully our joined up arrangement is a blueprint for further collaborative efforts in the future.
Given the results it goes without saying that Amelia, Cherry, Lucy, Caitlin, Ava, Molly, Alexis, Olivia, Imogen and Abi, in no particular order, you were all great and thoroughly deserved the standing ovation you received from (some of) the boys when returning to the hostel on Wednesday evening, despite being scundered by it and the boys having to be ordered to do it.
Coaches Maxwell and Waite seemed to revel in the applause more than the young players, although the togetherness of the unit was brought into question slightly when reports of a couple of ‘dollies’ being spilled by gun all-rounder/ringer/mentor Gracie Keenan began to emerge on the Coaches WhatsApp group…
Over at the ‘National Cricket Centre’ in Grainville, boys Team 1 were getting it altogether tighter against a well-drilled home u15 side gearing up for a series against Lancashire this incoming week. Some proper players on show.
Having been on the wrong end of two pastings last year, Coach Crothers and the boys were determined to put up an improved show and they certainly achieved this, but will still have some minor regrets…
To put that in context, on last year’s trip we took 1 Jersey wicket across the two games – this year we took 15. Frazer was able to tell us that was a 1500% improvement, and nobody questioned the maths.
Once Olly Hull had got his playing trousers on the right way round, at the third attempt I kid you not, he and Jaxon D bowled well both days, in particular big Hull with 4 for 24 in game 2 that was ‘spell of the tour’.
DJ took a 3-for on day 1 and when Jersey only managed just over 200 our tails were up. But only briefly. Technically and tactically we’ve a lot to learn on the batting front, which is of course one of the main reasons we’re there! A couple of loose shots put us under pressure from early on and same on day 2, we were out of contention too early in the batting having been well in the game bowling first.
On day 2 we had them 29 for 5 but they had a long batting line-up!
BUT, and its a big but, what we did show was plenty of character to make sure it was always respectable. Guys chipped in and made sure we were always making the home side work to close it out, Jaxon, Luke C, Frazer in particular spring to mind and although we didn’t make it through the 40 overs in either game we certainly came very close.
Standout knocks were Jack Heron with 35 in the first game and ‘Trousers Hull’ with an unorthodox but powerful 30 odd on day 2, meaning we lost by 49 runs and 62 runs respectively chasing 200+.
Pleasantries were exchanged with our hosts who commended our guys on their efforts, and the invite was extended to return again anytime, before a welcome drink in the bar and ultra-competitive game of ‘one hand one bounce’ while we waited for the bus.
Day 2 was rounded off with a trip to the beach to cool off after a hectic couple of days at the cricket, followed by fish and chips, then an early night. Ok, that last bit is a lie, there was nothing early about it and there were some sorry faces on Thursday morning when the bedroom doors were knocked in preparation for the trip home. The kids too.
Touring is about so much more than playing cricket, it is a great life experience for those involved and helps as much with personal development as anything else. We should be proud that the club offers this opportunity to so many.
To the following, ‘thank-you’:
Neil and Lloyd for the organisation.
The coaching team.
Lisburn CC.
Wilko and the male voice choir for the tunes on the bus.
Jersey Cricket.
The local bus company for their flexibility and generosity.
Entwhistles Fish & Chips.
Sponsors who supported our kit raffle in particular the winners Penny Smyth Estates and John Fielding.
The residents of Gorey.
Last but by no means least, the kids who represented themselves, their families and their club so well both on and off the field, and their parents who stumped up the money to make it all happen!
Roll on our next adventure in 2025…
Below is a selection of photos taken by coaches on phones, there is also an extensive gallery HERE
