SOLIHULL Blossomfield Cricket Club are celebrating the recognition of one of their coaches, who has received a prestigious accolade from Warwickshire County Cricket.
John Boyce – a senior coach at the club – has been awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award, which comes on the back of his work in developing grassroots cricket, and particularly girls cricket in the local area.
Boyce received the accolade at Edgbaston Cricket Club, at the Warwickshire Cricket Board’s Annual Coaching Conference, on March 2.
John has coached cricket at all age groups for over 30 years at Blossomfield’s Widney Lane home in the centre of Solihull, delivering high standards of coaching and passing on his substantial knowledge of the sport to hundreds of players throughout his years of service.
He is currently head coach of Bloss’ girls section, having introduced girls cricket to the club in 2012, whilst also devoting time to coaching the boys section at the club.
Currently, the number of young girls playing at the club is just below 30, with nine having turned out for the county squads during the Winter, whilst the under-13’s girls side took the Warwickshire Cricket Board’s hardball league title last year.
Girls manager Linda Smitten gave testimony to the work that John has done for the community and for giving girls in the area the opportunity to take up the sport.
“John goes above and beyond to give the girls his time and attention and develop their cricket as far as they want it to go, whether that be club, softball or county representation.”
Solihull Blossomfield are currently running indoor cricket nets for the boys section on Friday evenings, with players receiving coaching from ex-county cricketers, giving them the best standard of coaching available in the hope of fast tracking the progression into the senior teams.
Meanwhile, girls coaching is held on Tuesday’s, to newcomers to the sport and to more experienced players, of ages from seven up to 17.
The club also run the All Stars programme aimed at younger children from ages five to seven, who want to get into playing the sport.
Solihull Blossomfield ask parents or players to contact Liz Steventon by email at [email protected] for further information.
