The Knockin Knights Receive Mary Hignett Funding, June 2013

Club President John Ward was pleased to attend a Monday night practice session of "The Knockin Knights", Knockin and Kinnerley's ever-growing Colts section, to present a cheque on behalf of the Mary Hignett Bequest Fund.

This highly successful junior section, started from scratch in 2008, provides coaching to girls and boys between the ages of 7 and 15 from a wide range of social backgrounds. As fundraising is still ongoing to pay back loans on the pavilion meant that finding funds for junior equipment was a challenge, so the Club applied for 75% of the cost of their shopping list from the Mary Hignett Fund.

Slip catch cradle - £345.00
Crazy Catch double reaction - £118.99
Fusion Skyer catch training bat - £79.99
Katchet cricket training aid x2 - £80.00

Total £623.98

Total grant £468 (75% of the application).

This grant builds on the development of the club after the 2010 grant from the Mary Hignett Bequest Fund which enabled the club to provide a quality net training facility and  bring an increase in junior participation and enjoyment.  Thanks to this, the junior section has grown dramatically.  In 2010 they had approx 40 junior members between the ages of 11 to 15, which grew to 55 in 2011 and now they have over 70 junior members of the club between the ages of 7 and 15, the vast majority of these in the under 11 age group .  They anticipate that next year they will see a further increase to around 80 members and believe that this steady growth will continue for the next 4 years to an anticipated junior membership of approx 110.

To enable them to cope with the increase in demand they aim to train a further 4 coaches to the ECB accredited level 1 standard and also enhance 2 of their existing level 1 coaches to level 2.  The coaching team not only provide coaching at the club but have also provided support to local schools and run sessions during after school clubs, an area that they have targeted for next year to build upon.

They are proud to have achieved accreditation of the prestigious Clubmark status in June 2010, an award given to clubs who set the benchmark for high quality cricket coaching within a recognised framework in the community.  This progress will be able to continue with the purchase of this equipment, as with the recently installed double net bay they can fully utilise their bowling machine to enhance their batting skills and bowling skills, they will now be able to build fielding skills, previously a gap in their provision.  The purchase of this specific 'fielding' training equipment (a 'Crazy catch reaction trainer', two 'Katchet trainers', a 'Slip Cradle' and a 'Skyer' training bat) will enhance the coaching sessions allowing the sessions to be more varied and therefore increase the enjoyment levels whilst also increasing the specific skill of fielding which is an important aspect of the coaching sessions at this age.