The junior season started in April with the Easter Camp run by Dan Sutton our club coach the nice weather in March prior to the camp was followed by a snow storm on the week of the camp, with 50 children keen to get outdoors the coaching team carried on and the children had a great time (you have to be hardy to play cricket in Aberdeen).

With limited junior cricket in 2020 it was with trepidation that the weekly sessions started, with covid restrictions easing how many players would return, 4 players coming along on the first week it did not look promising.

Momentum started to build and each week brought new requests from parents to join the weekly coaching sessions and within 3 weeks we had to restructure the delivery into hardball on Mondays Intermediate and Advanced and the Fundamental softball group on Wednesdays with 68 players including 11 girls signed up across both nights it has been great to welcome so many new members to the club.

May brought the launch of the Allstars programme for 5–8-year-olds on Friday evenings and it was great to have 60 children signed up for this year’s programme some were returning Allstars but there was a good number of boys and girls coming along for their first experience of cricket.

The weather stayed fair most weeks and the Allstars were having fun enjoying the skill drills and small games, a big thank you goes to activators Gee, Findlay and Robert assistants Joseph, Nathan, Lewis and parents Tyler, Stuart, Shy for making the sessions such a success.

May also brings the early rounds of the junior national knock out competitions, the U/13 and U/15 ECB Vitality Cup competitions saw us playing and losing to Gordonians, with so many new players coming to the club it was always going to be a challenge for the players to step directly into competitive games.

The first round of the U14 Scottish Cup in early June was against Gordonians, with the players beginning to settle into the team a good win against Gordonians 108/1 v 103 set the team going and comprehensive wins against Huntly 100/8 v 35 and Arbroath 57/0 v 52 brought the Aberdeenshire U14 team to the Finals Day on August 1st to complete a good season for the team.

The established juniors many of whom are playing in the club’s senior teams had to wait until July before their U16 Scottish Cup against Gordonians, a good bowling effort restricting Gordonians to 133/5 a purposeful innings from Sajan Alawattage (50) well supported by Isira RangaBandara (24) brought the team close but with wickets falling Aberdeenshire finished on 125 and a loss by 8 runs.

The summer coaching camps during the school holidays in July were a great success with 87 children taking part over the two weeks.

With Gordonians Cricket Club the only other club in the area with junior teams a number of friendly fixtures of pairs and limited over cricket were played across all age groups allowing the players to develop their skills and understanding of playing cricket matches.

A number of junior players played for the Sunday development team on a regular basis which was an excellent opportunity for the players to experience playing with senior players in a non-competitive environment helping them to continue developing.

Several of the more established juniors played and performed well for the Mannofield and Aberdeenshire sides and their progression was recognised with inclusion in the Regional and National squads;

Caley U15: Manu Saraswat, Arnav Saraswat, Isira Bandara, Aayush Sinha.
Caley U17: Daniel Brown, Ken Yahathugoda, Joseph Horne, Jez Durward, Aarush Sharma, Sajan Alawattage.
Scotland U15: Manu Saraswat
Scotland U17: Joseph Horne
Scotland U19: Aayush Dasmahapatra