5th July 2010

Dear John,

Thanks to the generosity of your Stirling County Community Trust and the sterling efforts of Kari Anderson from Cricket Scotland, Gargunnock Village CC was recently able to benefit from its first formal coaching session in the 5 years I have been with the club. We were also able to invite players from neighbouring village sides at Kippen and Doune to take part. In all 16 players and newcomers took part in a 2-hour session organised and run by Kreeson and Craig from Stirling County CC. Both of them were thoroughly professional, courteous, knowledgeable and well organised: a credit to themselves and to your club.

This initiative is part of a broader agenda we have been developing over the past 6 months to try and encourage more young, local players to take up cricket and to encourage them and some older players either returning to the sport or starting for the first time to develop their cricket skills. We regard both as equally important in ensuring a healthy club structure in rural areas. Another important aspect has been to set up a mini-league (the “West Stirlingshire League”) which plays 20-20 games throughout the season. The fourth side in that league is Old Talbotians, based in Milngavie, who I know would like to take part if we run another coaching session.  I have copied the captains of the other clubs in on this note.

I am delighted that our club has been able to bring 4 kids aged 13-14 into the game already this season and I am aware that that these initiatives have also helped the other 3 clubs return to playing regular fixtures as well as bringing on younger players of their own.

The session was a roaring success as you will see from the feedback of some of the attendees below. We are very grateful for your support and hope that we can work with Kari to make this a regular occurrence this year and in seasons to come. Clearly your trust is not a bottomless well and it would be helpful to understand how we could work together to make future sessions possible.

“Just wanted to say I really enjoyed the training session and got a lot out of it.  Whether that will translate into my first fifer or century I don’t know! I am sure you will pass on our thanks to the 2 guys who gave their time so generously. It would be good to repeat this next year too if at all possible.”

“I thought that both of the Stirling players embraced the opportunity in an excellent spirit and with good humour. We had a broad range if talent, experience and age on the field; they encouraged everyone to improve. Many thanks to you and the Trust for organising the session.”

“I thought the gentlemen from County were excellent. As Andy says, we had a very broad range of experience and ability present and I was impressed that they were able to give each person individual, tailored tips on how to improve their game. I myself, got some very useful advice on how to improve my batting and bowling, which I hope to apply in future matches.”

Thank you and kindest regards,

David G Farquhar

Gargunnock Cricket Club