June Newsletter 2025: Academy successes, Potential Tournament, Summer Holiday Courses, and More

 

I hope everyone is continuing to enjoy the cricket season. For the most part, the weather has been excellent and this has created great opportunities for everyone to train and play as much as possible.

 

It is always a great experience to play fixtures against other clubs and the most important part of these matches is to have fun testing your skills against other players and to enjoy the camaraderie that comes with playing in a team. The U9s are looking very smart in their whites and we hope they are enjoying getting experience of playing – keep going and a win should be just around the corner. Meanwhile, the U11s have recently had very good wins against Bledlow, Aston Rowant, and West Wycombe: they are currently unbeaten and sit at the top of the league. Particularly well done on a hard fought victory at Bledlow on last week; the team played extremely well and so copied below is the Match report (this win was then followed up by another win the very next day). 

 

Well played everyone once again! Today’s man of the match is Nathaniel for his excellent last over with a brilliant caught and bowled to help win the game!

Also special mention for Thomas and Bens batting

Ben hit 5 boundaries in just 5 balls, absolutely superb

Also today was Leo’s first match in U11 cricket and he also hit a boundary and took 2 wickets

Luke, Andrew, Sammy and Alex all batted well and bowled well too

Excellent team performance by everyone, well done

I really enjoyed watching you all play well today, it was smart cricket despite only 8 players you all performed very well. 

Great “Cheeky Monkey” cricket

 

The U13s are not as strong a team this year however it is still pleasing to see everybody playing well as a team and experiencing the benefits that come from playing sport. Participation as well as having fun playing and training are the most important aspects of playing cricket. 

 

 

To add to the opportunities provided by fixtures, we were thinking of putting on some tournaments at the ground in the month of June. It is a testament to the hard work of Manoj and others over the years that we are one of the only local clubs around that has two cricket squares which gives us the ability to host two matches simultaneously. This is the perfect set up for a Four team 100 ball tournament played in a Round Robin format. We plan for an U9 tournament featuring an MP side to take place on the 29th June; an U11 tournament is planned for the 6th july. Please do get in touch to let us know your thoughts on this idea – we would only want to put something like this on if there was the necessary demand and interest. 

 

The Summer Holidays are rapidly approaching as we speed through the Summer Term. We have Summer Courses available throughout the holidays catering for both softball and hardball cricket. These courses are a great way to learn more about one of the nation’s favourite summer pastimes and spend time out in the Sun (weather permitting) with friends old and new. The courses also provide a great way for the children to stay occupied in what is a long summer holiday. All the dates for the courses are now up on the website which you can see here: MP Cricket Academy Summer Courses. If you have any further queries about course, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Also, spread the word about the courses to anyone else who may be interested.  

 

MP Cricket Academy Voluntary (Physical): We have recently planted some more English Willow Trees. Our ambition is that these will be turned into cricket bats for the next generation of aspiring cricketers.  We require a few people who have some free time to help water the Willow trees at the ground, they have been growing very nicely over the last few years and that is without doubt thanks to our volunteers who want to remain nameless. If you would also like to help, please contact us using the information below. 

 

MP Sports Development Trust (Admin): We would like someone to help organise events and locations and to help sort funding for the various free Events we do, for Example Sports in the Street, Free Badminton Tournaments, Free Cricket courses, Free coaching at schools etc. 

 

Alternatively, you can also help by volunteering, to do so just go to the volunteering section of our website linked below: https://mpsportsdevelopmenttrust.org.uk/

We are currently in the process of looking for sponsors/investors. 

 

Founder and Director, Manoj Parmar is an ex-first-class cricketer from Saurashtra in India.  Mr Parmar’s main aim is to inspire future generations of young cricketers to achieve their maximum potential and to help children become more active.  For the past 36 years, he has worked tireless to offer a high-quality coaching and competition programme in and around Thame.  He is determined to introduce children to the world of sport and offers a vast array of sporting opportunities at the ground.  MP Sports Cricket Academy offers a comprehensive list of activities throughout the year including, indoor cricket matches during the winter; soft and hard ball practice; international courses; and diving catch practice at the local pool. The ground currently boasts two full sized cricket grounds and has brand new grass nets.  Since its creation in 2009, the club has continued to grow, supporting 27 state schools in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and catering for children as young as six, up to adult. The academy has a membership of over 100, with 400 children attending cricket camps over the summer.  Clubs from across the county attend tournaments throughout the year and cricket teams/companies rent the ground for private matches and corporate events.

 

We are looking to acquire some more basic facilities at our sports ground, such as men’s and women’s toilets. Currently the cost of the changing rooms and toilets is about £25,000, this is the kind of money that we do not have. We would greatly appreciate any donations or sponsorship from your business; we will provide an invoice. Your donation would make a huge difference to our daily operations as we will be able to provide people with even more events at our ground with these facilities. Sports are vital in our daily lives, they help improve your health, mental health, and is the ideal way to get rid of your stress.

 

Any donations would be most welcome, our bank details are: Account name: MP Sports Development Trust Sort code: 30-98-56 Account number: 19852860 Cheques are also acceptable.

 

With such a vast network, sponsorship at MP Sports Cricket Academy is a great way to advertise your products or services to a whole new group of people.

 

If you are interested in sponsoring us or investing in the cricket academy, or know of a company that may be, please do let us know, we can give you a wide range of options to choose from. 

 

 

We are always looking for ways to improve our Website and develop new features. As part of this, it would be appreciated if you could send in a short testimonial focusing on your experiences of MP Cricket Academy and the services we offer (eg. Indoor nets, Summer Coaching, Ground facilities, pitch conditions, or coaching quality etc.).

People like to be informed by the experience of others. Personal testimonies on the Website would be helpful in engaging users and ultimately enabling more children to play cricket at MP Academy. Therefore it would be much appreciated if you could take just 5-10 minutes to write a short paragraph on what you think of us at MP Cricket Academy. 

Please could you do this before the 23rd of June. 

 

 

Thanks very much for reading this extensive newsletter. Your support is very much appreciated. 

 

Many thanks, 

Joe Barnett