Muckamore bowled over by Parkhall ‘production line’
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Howzat! Muckamore’s Neil Gill in action for Ireland.
OVER recent years Muckamore Cricket Club have noticed a significant increase in numbers within their Junior section.
This surge in popularity is down to the game of cricket becoming more of an entertainment spectacular, with the growing interest in the shortened 20/20 format.
Of course this is only part of the reason why Muckamore have steadily produced quality senior cricketers from their junior ranks. The other contributing factor in this success rate is the ongoing work of schools in the Antrim area and in particular one - Parkhall Integrated College.
It seems astounding that just over a decade ago, Parkhall College did not have Cricket on their list of after schools activities, yet today they boast the largest amount of junior club cricketers in the Antrim area and have had several pupils represent Ireland at different age levels.
Cricket was first introduced into the school in 1999 and from then the interest from pupils in the sport increased year after year.
Largely thanks to Head of Sports Glenn Martin the Antrim school now find themselves with a cricket team at each age level (Year 8-12), with many of these pupils continuing to play every weekend at Muckamore Cricket Club. Currently there are approximately 25 pupils, past and present, from Parkhall College playing for various Muckamore teams this season.
In recent years, Parkhall have helped produce some of the most talented youngsters to wear the Muckamore colours, none more so than current 1st XI vice captain, Neil Gill.
Neil who has been playing cricket for almost 10 years, learned to play the game thanks to Parkhall. His talents bloomed further when he joined Muckamore and he went on to play for Ireland at several age groups including featuring in the under 19 World Cup squad in 2006 and more recently for the Ireland A team.
Being part of the Ireland cricket setup also allowed Neil to travel the globe, visiting many European countries as well as Sri Lanka.
Of course Neil is not the only pupil from the Antrim school to wear Ireland cricket colours. Current 1st XI players, Jason van der Merwe and Craig Drummond have also played for Ireland at different age groups.
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