Wraye Wenigmann - Women's Cricket Officer, German Cricket Federation

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The German Cricket Federation hosted their inaugural Girls U17 tournament in Oldenburg on the 17th to 18th February 2007. We were honoured to host the Holland National U17 team, together with girls from the Mounts Bay School in Penzance and our partners from Gloucestershire, the Newent Community School not to mention our ECC experienced umpires and scorers.
The Swiss team unfortunately had to cancel at the last moment, but volunteers from all teams formed a President’s Select 8 under the wing of DCB Chairman, Dr. Brian Fell.

The tournament started on time on Saturday with a welcome speech by Lower Saxony Sport Minister Lutz Stratmann. The eight teams were seeded into two groups playing on two small pitches.  We seemed to hit the right format on the first day, with four teams always in the field and the other four teams vociferously supporting their friends. Some of the games were heavy defeats but several games went down to a thrilling last over challenge. A buffet was available so that the girls and officials could rest and refresh in their own time, thus avoiding unnecessary delays in play. The girls were so keen to play that we actually finished all the preliminary rounds ahead of time and were able to play two further knockouts in order to save time on Sunday.

On the second day, we opened the hall to provide one large field of play to provide the finalists with more of a tactical challenge, which they met with energy, intelligence and skill.

Based on our experience of this weekend, we have seen that it is indeed beneficial for minnows to play with better teams. The German girls watched, noted and improved their game skills over the course of the two days in a wonderful way. Moreover, almost all of our guests were happy to share and encourage the girls and many new friendships have been established.

The most important point to note is that despite some small problems, which always happen in events of this size, all of the girls went home happy.  We had no serious injuries, no umpire dissent, no sledging and no arguments. In fact, all girls from all teams behaved impeccably and were a full credit to their families and loved ones, their schools, counties, States or countries. Well played, girls!

The winners were:

1. Holland U17
2. Mounts Bay School
3. Newent Community School
4. Metropol Berlin Foxes
5. Bavaria and Tengernsee Girls
6. Schwerin Pädagogium Girls
7. Oldenburg Girls
8. Presidents Select 8

Special prizes were given to the following players for exceptional
performances:

Bavaria: Jessamine Badcock-Scruton (age 10 - wicketkeeper) Holland U17: Miranda Veringmeyer Mounts Bay: Nicole Richards (Captain) Newent Community School: Emma Brazington Schwerin CC Girls: Luisa Giesler (captain)

Special thanks to the umpires, scorers and organisers:
Steve Tovey (Netherlands), Richard Eames (Belgium), Lee Goldsmith (Germany), Hoshang Kharadi (Germany), Pete Baldwin (Germany) and Paul Baldwin (Germany) Hetty Reimers (Holland), Judith Abrahamsz (Holland), Wraye Wenigmann
(Germany)
Carsten Höfinghoff and his all team in Oldenburg, Ian Moss for Gloucs Womens’ CC for vital support.
Without them, none of this would have been possible.

For a pdf of photos from the competition click here

Photos were taken by one of the Umpires at the tournament, Paul Baldwin.