Junior Section History

From 1975 the club took advantage of the new structure of qualified coaches to promote and develop youth cricket. The Under 13s league started, supported by the generosity of club President FE Leatherby. The Centurions, the forerunners of the District Youth sides were based at Hamilton Crescent for their training programmes.

Following on from this promotion of youth cricket club, success followed in Scottish competition. The Under 13s side were Scottish champions. The Under 15s side featured in eight Scottish finals in a 15 year period. The 1995 side progressed to the last eight of 1500 clubs in the UK in their age group competition losing only to the eventual winners. In this period over 11 West juniors were selected for Scottish Young Cricketer sides and 5 went on to full international caps.

The club’s enterprise and success were recognised in the appointment by Scottish Cricket of its first ever Coaching and Youth Competitions Convener Alan Mills who was Junior Convener at the club at the time.

In the late nineties Alan was succeeded the club’s Junior Convener by Jim Young and in 1999 the new Western Junior Union was born. There followed a number of league reconstructions but the club’s junior section continued to flourish.

The Under 18s won two further league championships and a fourth Frank Smith trophy. The Under 11s, 12s, 13s and 15s all won league titles, and league cups. Two of our best teams in this era were the 2001 Under 15s who won the league and the Scottish section of the ECB cup, going on to beat the champions of Durham and Derbyshire in regional ties. The other were the 2013 Under 13s league and cup champions.

During Jim’s time as convener at least four juniors progressed to represent Scotland at all junior age group levels, including three under 19 World Cups, with three gaining full Scotland caps, and two earning English county contracts.

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Captain’s Interview - Gurjit Singh