Richard Stretch

During the past week we held the final dinner and John Mooney (Irish Cricket Union) was voted as the "Players Player of the Academy" for 2004 by his team mates.   In addition the last two matches were played, both against the Eastern Province Cricket Academy which is also run from UPE.  All the hard work over the past eight weeks paid off as the team put in two very good performances to win both matches convincingly.

Over the period a lot of attention was focused on the physical side of the development of the players - early morning runs, gym sessions and "The house of Pain" on the athletics track.   The general consensus of the players is that they have never been as fit as this before.  If they are able to maintain this level of fitness, as well as taking all the mental, technical and tactical aspects that they have been exposed to, the Academy have no doubt that they should achieve their cricketing goals this year.