The first ever summer camp to be held by the Tucber Park Cricket Club (TPCC) — which also was the first official cricket camp to be held in the New Amsterdam area — has been hailed a huge success.
Colin Stuart and Michael Hyles were part of those conducting coaching sessions for the Tucber Park youths
Having commenced on Tuesday August 13, a day later than originally planned, because of the national holiday Eid-ul-Adha, it culminated on Saturday August 17 at the Berbice High School Ground/Tarmac in Queenstown, New Amsterdam.
Within that time, coaching sessions were conducted by qualified personnel the likes of former West Indies fast bowler Colin Stuart, veteran Michael Hyles, Cricket West Indies (CWI) Level Three Coach Julian Moore, and the CWI Level Two Coaching duo of Tremayne Smartt and Anthony D’Andrade, among others.
On opening day of camp, New Amsterdam Mayor Ms. Winifred Heywood congratulated the participants for attending this historic event, and encouraged them to learn as much as they can during the camp. She emphasised the importance of education, and encouraged everyone to find the right balance of sport and education, and not to neglect one for the other.
President of the Berbice Cricket Board, Hilbert Foster, also reiterated the remarks of the Mayor while encouraging the youths to say no to drugs so they can become good ambassadors of TPCC, Berbice and Guyana.
During the camp, D’Andrade presented on leadership and captaincy. The importance of education and its relationship to sports was presented by Carl Ramsammy, a teacher of the Canje Secondary School. Discipline was presented by Mr. Zaheer Moakan, a Berbice High School teacher; and Region Six Child Care and Protection Agency officer Ms. Zipporah Joseph presented on the rights of a child, and how children should be wary of the different types of child abuse.
The camp was focused on basics skills in cricket: batting, bowling, fielding and wicket-keeping, along with other life skills. Such presentations were done every morning of each day of the camp before cricketing skills were imparted. Topics like leadership and captaincy, the importance of education, discipline, and the rights of a child were some of the topics covered.
Smartt and D’Andrade covered batting and fielding, while Stuart and Hyles did basic bowling (pace and spin) along with wicket-keeping. Moore did a presentation on fielding positions, modes of dismissal of a batsman, and running between the wickets.
On the final day of camp, all participants were involved in matches to facilitate them implementing some of the skills they had learnt during the camp.
A small presentation ceremony was subsequently held in the Berbice High School Auditorium to culminate the camp, and the more-than-50 participants were each presented with a medal and a certificate of participation.
Gifts and trophies which were donated by Trophy Stall, Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) and Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) were presented to outstanding participants of the camp.
As Coordinator of the camp, D’Andrade has said he was encouraged by the response of the children, who had come from as far away as Goed Bananen Land in East Canje.
The Tucber Park Cricket Club would like to thank the Principal and Staff of the Berbice High School for allowing the use of their facilities, not just for this camp, but for the past 20 years. They would also like to thank all the sponsors and all those involved in making this camp a success.
