Godolphin & Latymer – U13 Indoor Cricket National Champions!

On 11th May this year at the Indoor School at Lords’ Cricket Ground (the home of cricket), a team of 9 girls from The Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith, West London (representing Middlesex) won the national finals of the girls’ Under 13 Indoor cricket competition, run by the ECB and sponsored by the Lady Taverners. This is a prestigious competition, a ‘vital pathway for the development of grassroots girls’ cricket’ and the only national girls’ cricket competition of its kind in the country which attracts nearly 600 schools a year. The Godolphin team entered the London schools’ round of the Lady Traverner’s competition and after being undefeated progressed through to the county, regional and then national finals. The team was victorious in all of their matches throughout the entire competition

“To be crowned indoor champions is outstanding and shows that continuous encouragement and support to one another is paramont; but all this from just 50 minutes practice together a week is phenomenal and a real credit to both the girls and their coaches Mark and Buddy Mason.”

The popularity of cricket at the school stems largely from the involvement of inspirational MCC and Middlesex coaches, father and son team of Mark and Buddy Mason, who have done so much to introduce and promote girls’ cricket throughout London. They have encouraged girls with their enthusiasm and constant humour and the Godolphin cricket club has doubled in size over just the last five years. The high from the fantastic win has raised the profile of sport within the school yet again and has got everyone talking.  The PE department wants to use this excitment positively and allow more girls to experience the sport that has so far created the greatest success the school has seen. With this said cricket has been added to the school curriculum from September 2011 for UIII/LIV (years 7 and 8)

Mark and Buddy write:

‘From a slow and somewhat sceptical start from the girls’ secondary schools initially approached, we now, with the full and growing support of PE staff, have created something of a monster – more than 300 London girls of varying ages hungry to play more cricket! While at this stage many may not want the commitment of playing for the County or even joining a club, they are certainly desperate to play more competitive cricket against other schools and this is why the Lady Taverners competition is so important. We also arrange a number of tournaments through the MCC at the Indoor School at Lords which are massively over-subscribed. We really believe that cricket, and particularly indoor cricket, is the perfect game for girls; it can throw up some most unlikely suspects – girls with little interest or ability in any other sports suddenly find they have an aptitude for cricket. With regards to the Lady Taverners competition this year, the Godolphin girls’ success has given us some of the most enjoyable and proud moments of our coaching lives thus far. Although we are used to coaching technically some very high-level players, once we’d sorted the basics with these girls, surprisingly little further intervention was needed. They were obviously very gifted athletically, and one or two were already good cricketers through our coaching at prep-schools, but they just seemed to possess the necessary ingredients of a great ‘team’ … a shared love of hard work and of being pushed technically, physically and psychologically in their sessions. The nine girls had an equal motivation to succeed: no one player thought herself better than the others and all seemed to enjoy each other’s successes even more than their own – this is a wonderful thing to see. We talk about the importance of shared values and goals in a successful team (and the focus this can bring) but to see it in action is tremendously exciting. The shortened form of the game we play in these indoor cricket matches invariably leads to close finishes – frequently last over, even last ball, results which are hugely stressful for the girls and considerably worse for their coaches. This is where sports psychology and relaxtion techniques really come in useful – not just for the girls but for their unfortunate coaches and teachers. Football managers are famously prone to keeling over from stress-induced heart-attacks, but an otherwise resilient, gum-chewing, red-faced Alex Ferguson wouldn’t last five minutes watching these girls play a round of Lady Taverners cricket!

Godolphin & Latymer U13 National Indoor Cricket Champions!