Rye’s under 13s next week participate in the Sussex Junior Cricket Festival, the largest tournament of its nature anywhere in the UK. Rye will be competing in the under 13 Division W shield along with Lewes Priory, St Andrews (Burgess Hill) and St James’s Montefiore.
The Sussex Junior Cricket Festival (SJCF) was founded in 1967 by Tony Austin and a few like-minded stalwart supporters of youth cricket who recognised that, with the then decline in the amount of cricket being played in schools, the very future of club cricket in Sussex could be threatened through the lack of sufficient new recruits into the game.
The aim of the SJCF is to encourage clubs to provide cricket for local youngsters by running colts sections and to organise matches. Each cricket season would end with every club taking part in a competitive Junior Festival Week of Cricket across the whole county, with the finals being played on high quality and prestigious grounds, with trophies for both winners and losers, so that every youngster participating could feel that they had taken part, and contributed even in some small way, in something that was both enjoyable and bigger than just himself and his club.
On Monday, August 10, the Rye team welcome St Andrews to The Salts. The next day they travel to St. James in Ditchling, and on Wednesday welcome Lewes Priory to The Salts. All games start at 2pm and last 70 overs. Spectators are welcome to all games. You can follow the team’s progress at League Table