A variety of cricket skills based activities will be conducted that will enable mums, dads, boys, girls even nans and pops to test their skills and qualify them to be in the draw to win prizes.

The most valuable prize is a cricket bat worth $250!

Parkes Junior Cricket is also putting up a further $600 in prizes (12 x $50 gift cards for Parkes Sportspower) to be drawn on the night for participation in the skills activities.

A highlight of the night will be the presence of the Sydney Thunder Van which will provide Big Bash style music to create a festive atmosphere for this exciting night.

Parkes Junior Cricket will be providing a free sausage sizzle to cater for the hungry taste buds for those in attendance.

Cold drinks will also be available for a gold coin donation.

A number of players from the Parkes and District Senior Cricket Association will be on hand to help conduct the various activities.

These senior players recognize the important role Parkes Junior Cricket has played in developing their cricketing careers to the extent that Parkes has won the Western Zone of NSW Premier League Championship no less than eight times in the past 15 seasons, defeating much larger centres such as Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst.

The senior players would like to see Parkes juniors develop to maintain this quite amazing record at senior level.

To do so will mean that plenty of players can register to play junior cricket in Parkes.

Parkes Junior Cricket Officials will be onsite to accept any late registrations for the upcoming 2018/19 season that is scheduled to begin on Saturday, October 20.

Our activities for the evening are:

Accuracy Throwing – involving pairs of participants aiming to throw at a stump to see who can get the most hits over approximately 3 minutes. Pairs could be Father/Son, Mother/Daughter or just good mates for example.

Continuous Catching – Using the “crazy catch” machines – who can take the most consecutive catches in 3 minutes?

Beat the Ball Around the Bases – involves throwing and catching skills, Participants will need to run in the opposite direction to the ball as it is thrown around the baseball diamond.

Big Hitting – who can hit the ball the longest distance within a V shaped area.

Crazy High Catches – who can take the most high catches?

Bowling for Accuracy/Speed – Who can hit the stumps the most in 6 deliveries. The speed gun will also be on hand to measure how quickly each bowler delivers the ball during the accuracy test.

NOTE: At each activity station participants will be given a ticket to show they have participated, these tickets are to have the participants name written on them and placed in either the boys or girls container at each station. At the end of the evening 1 ticket will be drawn from each container to see who will win a $50 gift card from Parkes Sportspower. All containers will then be poured into a larger box and a lucky draw will take place to see who wins the cricket bat valued up to $250. The more activities everyone participates in means more entries to win one of our amazing prizes.

Hard cricket balls will be used for U/17 and U/14 events while soft balls will be used by U/12 and U/10 players.

A celebrity announcer will be on hand to add to the fun packed atmosphere that should ensure the new cricket season in Parkes gets off to a terrific start.

U/14 and U/12 Parkes Representative Cricket Squads

Any players who would like to have the opportunity to play representative cricket for Parkes in the Lachlan Cricket Council Inter-Town Competition for 2018/19 should make every effort to be in attendance at the Woodward Oval Cricket Nets from 9am to 11am on Saturday, September 22.

Players will be able to receive coaching from highly qualified coaches and cricketing identities if they are in attendance.

The Lachlan Inter-Town competition is scheduled to begin in October.

Late Registrations for New Season

We strongly encourage people to get in and register before September 24, so teams can be formulated.

However, if any players have not registered by this time they should see Association Secretary Greg Morrissey (PH: 0428 963 605) at the nets on Saturday morning (at the rep trials 9am – 11am) to register.

Costs are - $100 for U/17’s, $80 for U/14’s, $60 for U/12’s and $30 for U/10’s.

Selection and Grading Meeting

New teams for the 2018/19 season of junior cricket will be formed at the selection and grading meeting of PDJCA at the Parkes Services Club on Monday, September 24, beginning at 7pm.

Working With Children Check

A very important reminder for those that are going to be volunteering as coaches or scorers etc, that as of this season you will need to provide a current Working With Children Check number. This is a new ruling by Cricket NSW that ALL clubs must follow.