Epping Cricket Club

The Colts training sessions are held on:

If you are interested in joining our colts section or just want to find out some more information please contact our Colts Manager, Dan Sly, on our Contacts page.

Epping Cricket Club and Colts Cricket

Epping Cricket Club has a great history in regards to youth cricket with many of the Club's past and current young talent play a high level of cricket in and around Essex as well as Epping's own teams retaining the talent as well.

Improving, encouraging and enhancing young cricketers is something that Epping Cricket Club has always been pro-active in doing. In all of Epping's teams, both on a Saturday and Sunday, you will see an abundance of young cricketers who not only play adult cricket to make up the numbers but are actually picked on their own merit.

Youth Cricket is the back bone and future of any cricket club. We at Epping know that without young cricketers being encouraged to participate in Colts Cricket, and having the opportunity to be coached and improve their skills, our Cricket Club will struggle in the future. With talented and committed young cricketers coming through we can look to the future and hopefully improve the standard of cricket the Club plays and achieve success on and off the field. 

Epping has run a Colts section for most of the last 30 years and has seen many young cricketers come through its gates and represent the Club in all of the teams. Melvyn Kaye started the clots on a small level in the 1978 season by managing the under 13's. Peter Farrar then took over in 1982 and continuing for the next 10 years. The Colts under Peter’s leadership had a very successful time with the highlight in 1983 with them being finalists of the Essex 'Terriers' Under 13s with the final being played at the County Ground (Epping beat the previous years National Winners 'Wanstead' on route to Final). In Peter’s time the colts also achieved the following:  

WECA Terriers Champions in 1983 & 1984 (at least)
WECA  Under 17 Champions in 1985, 1986 & 1987
WECA Under 15 Champions in 1983, 1984 & 1985
Peter Coe Knock-Out Cup – (Under 15) Winners 1985    

The West Essex Cricket Association (WECA) team comprising mostly of Epping Cricket Club colts won the Trevor Bailey Shield 3 years running in 1985, 1986 & 1987 under Captaincy of Gary Edwards, who at the time was an Epping Colt. 

Robin Jagai, Martin Oliver and Mike MacElarney took over the Colts section from Peter and continued the good work running under 13’s, 15’s and 17’s in the WECA leagues, toping the tables on numerous occasions in the 1990’s. One of the highlights for the colts of this era was being presented their end of season awards by the Essex and England bowler Mark Ilott.

In 1996 and 1997 John Sanger became the Colts Manager and with help from Dan Sly, Lee Newman and Kevin McCann organised and ran the under 13’s and under 15’s. Geoff Maynard and James Eggleston ‘Eggie’ managed and coached the colts after John.

Adrian Beavers was Colts Manager from 2003 until 2007 and produced some fine young cricketers who are now starting to work their way up the senior teams. Dan Twitchett was one of the star players in Adrian’s time and Dan was selected to represent the West Essex Cricket Association in 2004 and he also had the honour of captaining the side in the 2005 season.

The 2007 season sees a new Colts Manager at the helm, Dan Sly, who brings with him youth, enthusiasm, cricketing skill and knowledge that would be invaluable to any young cricketer who wants to enjoy the game and improve their standard.

Currently when you look at all of Epping’s senior teams you will see how important a youth section is to a cricket club. With our own Club Chairman and First XI Captain, Geoff Maynard,  being one of those members who started at the Club as a colt and has risen through the Club. This is the same for Simon Oliver, Ian Farrar, Simon Moore, Nick Simms, Paul Offord, Lee Newman, Dan Sly, Ed and Selby MacElarney, Terry and Graham Preston, Andrew Clapton, Dan Twitchett, Ed and Billy Holden, Dan Fowler, Alex Merritt, Max and Sam Tetlow, William Beavers and Jack Simmons, to name but a few, all of whom still play cricket for the Club on a regular basis, or have gone on to play for other clubs, and all who have come through the Club’s Colts system.

A big thank you goes to all of those people who have managed, coached or helped out with the Colts teams over the year as without the many hours, if not days, that you have given up our youth section would not exist, and possibly our Club as well. If I have missed anyone of the list of Colts Managers please do not hesitate to contact the Club and this will be altered. This brief history of our Colts section has been put together from memory so there, I am sure, will be things that have been missed off, and for that I apologise.