Bradley Stoke Cricket Club – 2022 Season Review

Youth season 2022 review

Another busy season for over 100 local youngsters has ended, with the weather largely kind, albeit with matches postponed due to excessive heat for the first time. Eight teams between late April and late August completed over 80 matches.

We made it to an unprecedented four Bristol Youth Cricket League finals, with our Under 17s reaching that stage in their ‘Champions League’ style league championship, our main Under 15s and Under 13s teams reaching their knockout cup showpieces, and our main Under 11s team making their plate final. Unfortunately, we came up short in all four, by 28, 8, 14 and 32 runs respectively. Batting first may be the way forward!

Notable league success came in the form of our main Under 13s team finishing runners up in the performance (top) division, only on net run rate and having beaten the eventual winners; and our main Under 15s and 11s teams remaining unbeaten in and winning their participation (middle) divisional groups.

Additional experience was gained by 28 of our youth players in senior cricket matches, three of whom played on occasion for our Saturday 1st team in the West of England Premier League.

All in all a successful season and much to look forward to in 2023 and beyond.

As ever thanks to our coaching team, ground staff, committee, parents, players, the Bristol Youth Cricket League and the town council, all of whom play their part in facilitating training sessions and matches.

Adult Section 2022 Review

2022 presented an exciting proposition for the club with the first team moving into the West of England Premier League Bristol & North Somerset with the seconds and thirds hoping to back up strong 2021’s with promotions this season. Our fourth team had a great promotion year in 2021 and looked to solidify their spot in their new league and amazingly, our fifth team was hoping to become a more prominent fixture with availability at an all-time high.

Alas, the season did not go as planned for the first XI, suffering relegation on the final day of the season. Albeit, after a strong second half of the season which gives great belief moving into next season in what will be a tough Bristol & District Senior Division. Tom Laver finished top scorer for the side with 669 runs (8th overall in the league) which in itself is a great achievement. Competing with strong sides such as Congresbury, Keynsham and Brislington can only stand the team in good stead for future challenges!

However, it was the opposite outcome for the second team (photo) who had a great season to finish as runners up in the Bristol & District Division 4 to be promoted to Division 3! A hotly contested league, which saw many twists and turns, culminated in a final day victory at Long Ashton to secure promotion! Mikey Tromans finishing as top scorer with 455 runs (7th overall in the league) but the standout player was Club Legend and all-time top wicket taker Wayne Passmore who amassed an amazing 38 wickets finishing as top wicket taker in the league, 11 wickets ahead of his closest counterpart!

It was success for the third XI also who were promoted as champions of division 10! An amazing team effort this season, which saw the team, lose just 2 games all season. Harry Eccott scoring 401 runs (9th in the league despite only playing half of the games!!) A season in division 9 is one to look forward to for the third team, higher than the third XI have ever played.

Our fourth team had another great season finishing in a solid 7th position, which will set a platform for next season. A great mix of Youth and experience saw the side make great progress across the season. Prabhaukar finishing as the team’s top scorer with 433 runs! 

Our Women’s team also took further exciting steps this season as they entered the GCF Women’s 35 over league held on Sundays. Each team in the league was allocated 1 or 2 Gloucestershire players to further develop women’s cricket in the area, unfortunately our 2 allocated players were unavailable for selection for any of the games so we hope to see availability more promising next season from our allocated players. Despite this the team did amazingly well to finish 4th in the league! On the pitch, it was another great season with runs and wickets flowing including reaching the final of the GCF Women’s Hardball Hundred competition. Emma Vincent finished as top run scorer with 236 runs and she also bagged the top wicket taker prize with 10 wickets.

To summarise, the club had a mixed year with promotion and relegation across some of our adult teams, however the club continues to grow and shows its long-term future is very bright! 

A huge thank you to all the volunteers who make playing each game possible as without them it the club really wouldn’t be able to function in the way it does.

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