ACA Development Awards
Recognising oustanding cricket intiatives
The ACA Development Awards provide the opportunity to recognise and reward those clubs and schools who each season have designed and implemented an initiative or program that has been considered outstanding in its category.
There are five categories and each winner is also then considered for the national award in that category.
We have nowlaunched the ACA Development Awards for 2011.
You can find the nomination form here .
Nominations are due in to Neil Gray or Kieran McMillan by 5pm on Friday 18th March 2011. You can submit by post, fax or e-mail return.
The awards you can nominate your club/school/individual for are as follows;
Best Junior Cricket Initiative – recognises a club or school for a cricket activity/initiative providing junior players with a quality cricket experience during the 2009/10 season.
Best Youth Cricket Initiative - recognises a club or school for a cricket activity/initiative providing youth players with a quality cricket experience during the 2009/10 season.
Best Club Cricket Initiative - awarded to a club showing excellence and commitment to developing the game and increasing participation through quality cricket programmes.
Best Women’s Cricket Initiative - recognises a club or school for a cricket activity providing female players with a quality cricket experience during the 2009/10 season.
Service to Cricket Award - awarded to an individual who has made a significant contribution to grassroots cricket over many years.
Previous initiatives that have won an award can only reapply if the initiative can be shown to be significantly different than before and is 'bigger and better'.
The award winners for the 2009/10 season were:
- Best Junior Cricket Initiative - Awarded to Parnell Cricket Club for their Adaptive Cricket Day
The Parnell Adapted Cricket Day involved 50 special needs students from Somerville Special School and 20 from Homai and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand who took part in a series of skills stations run by club volunteers and St Kentigern school pupils. This day targeted a community where there is real potential for growth and a growing interest in the sport. Parnell have taken an exceptional first step in what is an exciting long term plan with a view to introducing Disabled competitions across Auckland."
- Best Youth Cricket Initiative - Awarded to St Peters College for their Kiwi 8's
Kiwi 8s was a new concept rolled out this year by Auckland Cricket and adopted by St Peters College as their house cricket programme. It primarily targets year 9's new to the school with each player bowling, fielding in every position and each pair batting for two overs to maximise involvement. The school has really embraced the concept and the lunchtime games draw large crowds from across the school with the seniors also getting involved in a mentoring role. The concept has successfully introduced cricket to those who might not play, as well as keeping involved those who might have potentially been lost to the game.
- Best Club Cricket Initiative - Awarded to Papatoetoe Cricket Club for their Sportsville Project
The Papatoetoe Sports Centre has been ten years in the making but the end result is a state of the art development with some of the best cricketing and sporting facilities in the country. The Papatoetoe Cricket club have been key drivers behind this concept and going forward have a number of major stakeholders in leadership positions. It has been a huge task to successfully bring together six different sports towards a common goal and produce a sporting and community facility that will drive interest and involvement in an area that has massive potential growth.
- Best Women's Cricket Initiative - Awarded to Parnell Cricket Club for their Promotion and Development of Girls Cricket
Parnell Cricket Club has gone from having no girls teams three years ago to fielding five sides in the past season as the result of a well thought out and passionately supported development plan. With parents' feedback that a number of girls' wouldn't have played in mixed teams, this development plan was crucial to encouraging and keeping girls in the game. The large increase in numbers coupled with their strong coaching programme augers well for the future development of women's cricket at Parnell Cricket Club.
- Service to Cricket Award - Tony Reidy
The only Development Award that doesn't recognise a particular initiative is the Service to Cricket Award. This is awarded to a volunteer who has made a significant contribution to the game over a 10-15 year period.
Tony Reidy has coached at Rosmini for 8 years, including Cup, Colts and all of their top four teams. He has led, organised and fundraised for many local and Australian tours and on many occasions he has funded gear, clothing and expenses from his own money. He has coached and continues to do so, even when his own sons have not made the team that he coaches.
Prior to his extensive work at the school Tony coached at East Coast Bays Cricket Club for ten years and was chairman of the junior club for 3 of those. His efforts at Rosmini and East Coast Bays are outstanding and the amount of time, money and personal sacrifice he has put in is extremely rare.
Tony is a popular figure around all first eleven grounds and his 18 years of coaching and administration service is a remarkable contribution.
To have a look at the range of Development Awards around Auckland Cricket, Previous Winners, and a Description of each award please click here.
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