Practising Cricket this week @ Epping Forest Sportability

After playing Tennis last week it was the turn of the 'other' summer sport this week - Cricket. Ray was busy elsewhere so it was down to Alan and Ollie to lead the session with the assistance of Teagan. After some tag games for warm up the kids started the cricket practice with some fielding work - throwing and catching.
First off, the kids worked in pairs throwing and catching to each other. They then played a game, the name of which we don't know, where if you don't catch the ball you drop to one knee, if you miss again then it is down on both knees. Another miss and one arm goes behind the back and one last dropped catch and you are out and your partner wins that game. It is a simple but fun game that has been around for ages - I even used to play it as a kid.​

​Next up was another throwing and catching game - Champions. In this game the kids line up in a row facing a coach who stands in the middle. The coach, Ollie in this case, throws the ball randomly to people in the line. If they catch it they throw it back and move one place up the row. Drop it though and they move one place down the row. The winner is the person at the top of the row at the end of the game. You have to stay alert in this game as you don't know who the ball will be thrown to next. Congrats to Pranav who was champion at the end of the game.

After a quick drinks break the kids tried their hand at bowling at the wickets. As you can see in the photos we had a few sets of stumps to bowl at and the kids took in turn to bowl and keep wicket.
Next was batting practice.  For this they placed the tennis balls on tees and hit the ball off there aiming to get it between two coloured cones at the far end of the hall. Points were awarded for getting balls between the cones so the player with the most points at the end of the game was the winner.

We finished this week with some games of Three Tee Cricket. This put together everything they had been practising. Taking it in turns to bat they had to hit three tennis balls as hard as they could off three tees. Then, whilst the rest of the group had to get the balls and tees back in position as quickly as possible, the batter had to get as many runs as possible between the wickets. The fielders were therefore using all their catching and throwing practice to get the balls from the back of the hall back to the front where they started.

Our star performer this week was Liam, pictured here with Teagan

​Our Star of the Week this week was Liam whose effort throughout the session was fantastic. Well done Liam!

Other BIG news this week is that our very own Head Coach won the Disability Sports Coach of the Year award this week at the Pride of Essex Sports award. Very well done Alan - we are very proud of you! 

Join our award winning team again next week for more fun and games​