A season of kids' cricket can take over your weekends, but it's great family time, finds Gill South.
Every Saturday morning from the end of October until the end of March, with a six-week break around Christmas, the alarm goes off at around 6.50am in our house. We rouse ourselves groaning, while two cricket-mad boys, Malachy, 8, and Fintan, 10, slip on their uniforms in double quick time. It is earlier than we get up during the week - big nights on Fridays are not advised. We sleepwalk through breakfast, filling drink bottles, pulling out snacks, and head out the door with map book in hand.
By 8:15am, we parents are setting ourselves up on a field, which might be anywhere from Colin Maiden Park in St Johns to our favourite, the home ground of Grafton United Cricket Club, Victoria Park. We try to position ourselves so that we won't get sunstroke, close enough so we can see our darlings take a great catch - and yet far enough away that we don't get concussion from an errant hard ball.
We then sit there in deck chairs and on rugs for the next three or so hours, waiting patiently for someone to volunteer to go and get the coffees. To entrepreneurs out there, cricket parents are a captive audience: they will buy any food or drink on offer. They've caught on at Parnell Cricket Club - the last time we were there, staff from a local cafe came by selling muffins.
Why do we do it to ourselves, week in week out? "It's enforced leisure," says the Grafton Vincents' team manager, Lisa Middelberg.
"It allows you to relax, you can't fold washing or empty the dishwasher."
The parents like the confidence cricket brings the kids. For Kate, a long-term cricket parent, her oldest, Ian, just 13, is still finding his way academically but is an ace at cricket.
"It is a chance for him to lead and shine," she says.
Many of us see it as quality family time. And it's not just parents. Graham, the grandfather of my younger son's best friend, is the heart of the Grafton Taylors team coached by Roger Seavill. Graham can be counted on every Saturday to turn up, with Crunchie bars and a bottle of Coke which he shares with his grandchildren. "It's a good way to interact with the family. I get up at six anyway," he says.
Our kids are learning some important life lessons from cricket, we think. My 10-year-old, now playing hard ball cricket, has just started playing the "you're out, you're out" rule. Up until now, the kids had some runs deducted when they lost a wicket. Now they have to walk like the pros do, which has led to some tears of frustration.
It may not be you, the parent, who helps your child get over their disappointment, it's likely to be one of the other grown-ups associated with the team. In both my sons' teams, they have excellent male and female role models: other dads who train the kids on a weekday afternoon and mothers who score expertly and know their cricket.
This is the fourth year that publisher Travis Field has coached my son. Field, an ex-army captain, says he enjoys being a role model, and his son feels special that his dad coaches him. Field enjoys his relationships with the boys and says, "We have become a little community".
The emphasis is definitely on fun in the early years. I remember when the mothers played the kids in a friendly game. Field and Mike Currie, the assistant coach, dressed up in frocks, put on wigs and transformed themselves into Travita and Michaela, to join the team and make some runs. Not that we mothers needed any help of course. And for keen girls these days, there are plenty of opportunities to play in all the clubs, either in mixed teams or all-girl teams.
Choosing a club tends to be based on recommendations from friends, as happened with us, though we knew very few people at Grafton. We find it very relaxed and friendly with the emphasis on fun and fairness. Restaurateur Luke Dallow coaches my younger son's rep team with a breezy pizzazz and puts a big emphasis on sportsmanship.
According to Grafton United's administrator Gill Gregory, the main thing about Grafton that is different from other clubs is that kids come from the local community of Herne Bay, Grey Lynn and Westmere, with a few of us coming from Mt Albert.
"I'm not sure that other clubs share that same sense of community and that's what makes sport for GUCC great for kids and families. The city central location brings a certain atmosphere too."
Each cricket club around Auckland has its own individual idiosyncrasies, say Andrew Eade, the chief executive of Auckland Cricket, which funds the city's main cricket clubs. Cornwall Cricket Club, which claims to have the largest junior league in New Zealand, possibly Australasia, has 1250 juniors. The children don't play outside the club until year six, though the top rep teams will play other clubs from year four.
"Our philosophy is to take the competitive aspect out of junior and midget cricket - we are focused on more involvement, more engagement, and interaction with the players. The whole concept is backed up with a good development training programme to get them to develop their cricketing skills," says junior chair Chris Coombe.
The North Shore Cricket Club in Devonport, with a big British contingent, is known for its Junior World Series tournament every January, an ambitious three-day event where children from all over Auckland are allocated to international teams.
Junior World Series organiser and North Shore junior chairman John Brook says: "The series is a great leveller. We go out of our way to make the teams as even as possible, we mix them up. The kids who are struggling get to play with better cricketers, the others learn some humility."
He likes the lessons his three sons have learned from cricket.
"You can't have a go at the umpire. It's a good thing for them to learn about authority."
The future of kids' cricket in Auckland looks rosy. Andrew Eade from Auckland Cricket says in the 2009-10 season there were just under 6900 children between 5-12 years old playing cricket for a club in the Auckland region - a 17 per cent increase on the 2008-09 census result. Eade puts this down to more cricket development officers visiting primary schools giving Milo cricket awareness lessons in the pre-season recruitment period.
The chief executive tells me what I've got to look forward to in the years ahead.
By the time they hit high school, the boys may be playing for the school in the morning and for the club in the afternoon. And then they might have trials on Sundays.
What we're doing at the moment is child's play it seems. When am I going to do my washing?
* Tips on coping with kids' cricket:
Set the alarm: Give yourself plenty of time. Nobody wants to rush on a Saturday morning.
Take a step back: If there are tears when they're bowled out, give them some time alone under a tree to adjust. They may well listen to a parent they respect or the coach rather than you.
Remember, it's just a game: Don't get so passionately involved with the game that you embarrass your child. You're doing this for them, not you, and the kids have forgotten a loss as soon as they leave the field.
Participate: If sport has never been your thing, volunteer to be manager or learn about scoring.
Be prepared: You can never pack enough. Take mountains of food, thermoses of tea, ice packs for sudden injuries and home baking always goes down a treat.
Invest: In deck chairs, a rug, a chilly bin, a beach umbrella and a large rain umbrella.
Be prepared to travel: If your child makes a rep team, you may well spend the odd Sunday travelling further afield.
* The costs of kids' cricket:
Club uniforms for soft ball: Shirt and shorts: $50, optional cricket vest $50, cap $25, trainers $40+
Club uniforms for hard ball: Shirt and long pants $80, underpants for box, $20, box, $6
Gear for soft ball players: Bat: $50, soft ball, $10
Gear for hard ball player: Bat $100 - $400, hard ball $12 to $13, leg pads, $40 to $120, gloves, $120, thigh pad $25 to $50, helmet, $60 to $180, arm guards, $10 to $20, bag to carry gear $40 to $90
* Local cricket clubs:
Club contact and registration fees for 2010/11 for juniors and midgets (Fees may change for 2011/12)
Grafton United Cricket Club
Fees from $95 to $180.
Cornwall Park Cricket Club
Fees $120 to $135
Parnell Cricket Club
Fees $110 to $160
North Shore Cricket Club, Devonport
Fees $95 to $140
East Coast Bays Cricket Club
Fees $100 to $140
Auckland University Cricket Club
Fees $115 to $175
Birkenhead City Cricket Club
Fees from $60 to $110
Eden Roskill
Fees $90 to $135
Ellerslie Cricket Club
Fees $85 to $150
Howick Pakuranga Cricket Club
Fees from $120 to $175
Papatoetoe Cricket Club
Fees $65 to $125
Suburbs New Lynn Cricket Club
Fees frrom $70 to $110
Takapuna Cricket Club
Fees $50 to $135
Waitakere Cricket Club
Fees $65 to $110
Hibiscus Coast Community Club
Secretary: Susan de Alwis. Ph: 021 546 936 or (09) 428 5428. Email: admin@hibiscuscricket.co.nz
Kumeu Community Club
Chairman: Stephen Nobilo. Email: stephen@waimariewines.co.nz. Secretary: Christine Maber. Ph: (09) 416 1005 or 027 285 3450. Email: christinemaber@xtra.co.nz
