In the Community

Croxton Kerrial Cricket Club and Barrowby Kestrels Youth Footbal

Hi there,

My name is Leon Aylin and I currently work for the Permanent Division of Elizabeth Michael. I thought I would take the time to share a couple of passions of mine, outside work of course!

Croxton Kerrial Cricket Club:

I have been actively involved in sport since I was at school and quite frankly, that was too long ago to remember. Since 1993 I have been heavily involved with Croxton Kerrial CC and on a couple of occasions have had the privilege of captaining the side. (www.croxtoncc.tk)

In recent years though we have looked to develop a youth side which has progressed over recent seasons, with a couple of the lads now playing regular senior cricket.

With the advent of Twenty:20 cricket, we are trying to encourage more youngsters to take up the sport so over the next few months I will be looking to coach and develop a new batch of children where we will begin with the basic coaching of Kwik Cricket and hope that they wish to progress to the 11-a-side version. Not only do I take an active role in the development of the youngsters but I am also a Level II qualified Umpire so am always keen to impart knowledge from the “middle”.

Barrowby Kestrels Youth Football:

My other passion is football and in 2008 I started to become heavily involved with Barrowby Kestrels football team. My youngest son Danny has been playing for them since 2004 when it was U10’s and played as 7-a-side. He then progressed through the age groups and began playing 11-a-side at the age of 12. It was though this season at U16’s that I became the most involved and was appointed joint manager. It was a tough season last year as we finished poorly in the league although managing to win the League Cup Final played at the Grantham Meres Stadium, beating the eventual League Champions 2-0 in the Final (www.gyfl.co.uk)

I decided that this year we wanted to turn them into “footballers” and try and get them to play the game the way it was meant to be played. I am sure we can all remember when we were at school that the kids seemed to hunt the ball in packs, although I think if you have watched League 2 football nothing seems to have changed. It seems though that this season we have succeeded. We are unbeaten in the League with one game to play, we have been crowned Champions and we have our third successive Cup Final to look forward to in April. I am hoping that come April 27^th we will have completed the League and Cup double for the first time in the clubs history and can move on next year to the challenging Mid Lincs League at U18. I also referee all our sides home matches, when on occasion, I am suddenly not always their “best friend”!!