CRICKET: England call-up for boy wonder
A MORPETH teenage cricketer who was mixing it with the big boys at the age of 11 has now received a call-up for his country.
After impressing at the famous Bunbury Festival in Chester earlier this summer, Jack Clark was selected for the England U15 squad.
He recently attended a three-day training session at the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough, which included some intensive one-to-one batting coaching with the ECB Head Batting Coach and working with state-of-the-art technology.
The 15-year-old, who played his first senior match for Morpeth CC's third team four years ago, enjoyed the experience and is now hoping to play at the home of cricket next month.
"I was a bit nervous before going down there but the coaches were very nice and made me feel at ease," he said.
"It was a tough few days but very useful. We did drills, nets, batted against bowling machines and used the new ProBatter simulation where you see the world's top bowlers on a screen and the robot replicates the exact deliveries they were bowling in the World Twenty20 Cup.
"And afterwards I was given a DVD with commentary from the coaches telling me what I was doing right and what I need to work on with my technique.
"There were 22 players at the session and hopefully I will be in the squad to play an MCC side at Lords on September 13."
Jack started playing cricket at the age of three and dad Steve, who used to play cricket for Newcastle, took him to junior training at Morpeth. His talent quickly shone through and he won Junior Player of the Year many times.
After impressing for the third team he made his second team debut at 13 and later in the season he scored a half-century for the side.
The meteoric rise for the player, who prefers to open the batting, continued last summer after the good scores kept coming for the seconds.
He was promoted to the first XI and hit 28 in his debut at home to Annfield Plain in the Northumberland & Tyneside Senior League, Division A1.
In August 2009, he achieved his first half-century at first team level with 51 against Percy Main.
Jack said: "I'm very grateful to Alan Gray, who was the main coach at Morpeth that taught me how to play the game, and Ben and Chris Maxted for giving me the opportunity to play in the senior teams.
"My parents have also given me a lot of support by ferrying me to games, buying equipment and washing my kit.
"It was hard at first getting used to the faster pace of bowling at senior level, but I think of myself more as a senior cricketer now and I treat every match the same."His skills have been recognised by his county, as he is captain of the Northumberland U15s as well as opening the batting and bowling. He also has the highest batting average (43.8) for the U17 side.
The Stobhill Manor resident has played a few matches for the Durham CC Junior Academy and is aiming to get a contract with them.
He represented the North of England U15s at the Bunbury Festival, scoring 46 in one of his matches and achieving the most economical bowling figures of the competition with 1-8 off six overs.
"I have quite a wide batting stance at the wicket, similar to South Africa captain Graeme Smith, which has earned me the nickname 'Smithy'," said Jack.
"I'm a medium/fast bowler and in senior cricket I concentrate on putting the ball in the right spots to make batsmen play. In the long term I'm aiming to be a first change bowler so I can have something to offer a team with both bat and ball."
He now plays for Benwell Hill CC in the North East Premier League and somewhat ironically he was in the first XI which beat Morpeth in the Tyneside Charity Bowl earlier this month.
Dad Steve said: "Jack is a mature lad and he can handle playing against pros and semi-pros.
"Coaches, players and spectators say to me that they like the look of him, with comments such as he's got an excellent technique and a good range of shots all around the ground."
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Weather for Morpeth
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 18 C
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