Trent Bridge Annual Report 2018

57 ACADEMY REPORT With a small professional playing staff in 2018, it became a year in which a number of Academy players had exciting opportunities to showcase their abilities higher up within the cricket structure of the Club. There have been some excellent individual performances, but to see fast bowler Jack Blatherwick and seam bowling all-rounder Lyndon James make their first team debuts was a particular highlight. Lyndon was in fantastic form throughout August, before taking his chance in September with three wickets in the Specsavers County Championship against Essex at Trent Bridge. Meanwhile, it’s just rewards for Jack that his hard work – over a number of years – has resulted in his first professional contract. Being handed the opportunity to sign for the Club he supported as a boy is a great and emotional achievement for Jack.We wish him all the best for his inaugural year as a professional cricketer. The achievements of Lyndon and Jack provide examples as to how Academy players can achieve their ambitions.They are both, however, aware that this is a very strong Club and to play regular first team cricket will require tremendous amounts of hard work, dedication and skill. Elsewhere, off-spinner Jordan Cook and fast bowler Nick Kimber both represented the England Under 19s this summer, with Cook earning the player of the series accolade for his performances against South Africa. Joey Evison, a middle-order batsman that came to the Club via our productive linkup with Lincolnshire, represented the Midlands at the Super 4s. Meanwhile, ten of the 11 players on our Academy represented the Second XI, indicating that our development programme is working in terms of its core objective of producing players who compete for positions in senior cricket. With this year being the first for some time where we didn’t enter an Academy team into the Nottinghamshire Premier League, we played four one-day matches against other county academies, winning three and losing one. Ideally, we would have liked ten days of cricket as an Academy squad. However, we lost six, due to a very wet April. There was also a concerted effort to avoid clashes with Under 17 MAT T WOOD ACADEMY REPORT “THERE HAVE BEEN SOME EXCELLENT INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES, BUT TO SEE FAST BOWLER JACK BLATHERWICK AND SEAM BOWLING ALL-ROUNDER LYNDON JAMES MAKE THEIR FIRST TEAM DEBUTS WAS A PARTICULAR HIGHLIGHT.” Matt Wood