Watford Jaguar has pledged its support to Hertfordshire County Representative cricket, with a focus on, the U17 and U15 Boy’s squads in a two year deal that will see vital funding being provided for the potential cricketing stars of the future.
Complimenting the sponsorship of the England cricket team by Jaguar UK, the deal signed by Watford Jaguar provides support at a local level and will help encourage young, aspiring cricketers. The deal will see the Watford Jaguar logos appear on the shirts of the players and well as branding in literature supporting the games as well as at the Hertfordshire grounds.
Commenting on the deal, Mike Dodds (to the left), Managing Director of Watford Jaguar, said: 'Jaguar has always, at a national and local level, encouraged the best and brightest – be it in the form of engineers, designers, sales staff and technicians. It's therefore a tremendous honour to be able to support the best new cricketing talent in the same way. We wish the Hertfordshire squads the very best of luck.'
Colin Chatfield (to the right), Chief Executive of the Hertfordshire Cricket Board said: 'The support and encouragement provided by Watford Jaguar is a real boost for youth representative cricket in Hertfordshire, especially the U17 and U15 squads and will make a meaningful difference to their ability to compete effectively. These young cricketers possess enormous potential; we're thrilled that we're able to build on this through the sponsorship provided to us.'
The sponsorship programme will run for two years with Watford Jaguar logos appearing throughout the upcoming, highly competitive ECB Championship games.
Update on success so far from Chief Executive of Herts County Cricket Board Colin Chatfield
The U15s won their semi final match in the ECB U15 Championship yesterday beating Oxfordshire by losing fewer wickets, both teams having scored 160 off 50 overs. A Hertfordshire batsman was run out off the last ball of our 50 overs trying to get a single to win the match outright, great direct throw down of the wicket by the fielder, so the teams were tied by as we had lost only 6 wickets to Oxfordshire’s 9 wickets, we go through to the competition final which is being held on 25th August at Kibworth CC, Leicestershire.
The U17s play their semi final match on Friday 19th August vs Cornwall at Welwyn CC and having beaten them last year to reach the 2010 final we are cautiously hopeful of repeating the feat. If we are successful then the U17s will play the final at Kibworth CC on 4th September.
This is as good a season as the County have had at junior level and we once again thank Watford Jaguar for their strong support of youth cricket in the County.
Update on ECB County Cup from Chief Executive of Herts County Cricket Board Colin Chatfield
The Hertfordshire U17s beat Norfolk last Sunday and therefore are the national 2011 ECB County Cup Div B winners!!!! What a fantastic day with plenty of smiling faces (players, team officials, supporters) at the end of it.
It was raining so the final was delayed until after lunch. Play started at 1:30pm in a 42 over a side match (reduced from 50 over a side). We won the toss and asked Norfolk to bat and they made heavy weather of it scoring only 66 of the first 20 overs. As they tried to push the scoring rate up, wickets fell steadily and we bowled them out for 155 in the 41st over.
Hertfordshire lost a wicket in the first over and feel to 45-3 but two batters took the score to 90 before they were both out in quick succession so we were about 100-5, a 30 run partnership ensued before we lost another wicket, so 130-6 and then those batters took us past the score in the 34th over to win the match quite convincingly in the end.
Fans can follow the fortunes of the Hertfordshire squads at www.hertscricket.org.