Laurier Women’s ‘Cricket Olympics’ Event – a great idea.
Participants at the Laurier Women’s ‘Cricket Olympics’ Event
Wonder why there was great throwback music being played on July 6th Or why there were car tires laying around in Waterloo Park? Or why the team’s personal cheerleader Sheero was going crazy? Or why people were cheering others on as they completed the Bull’s Eye, Target Practice 2.0, the City Bus Route, the Country Block, the Texas Leaguer, Pit Stop and the Bouncy Ball?
Well, let me tell you that Laurier Cricket Club was hosting the first ever Women Cricket Olympics from 10am to 1:30pm in Waterloo Park on July 6th, 2018. And since I know you are curious about the events, let me provide you with the highlights of each and every event.
One of the first events played at the Women Cricket Olympics was called Bull’s Eye. This batting event involved lightly hitting the ball towards a car tire on the left or on the right. Each player had 3 tries per side and gained maximum points by having the ball travel through the tire. It wasn’t an easy drill, but Hiba managed to hit a Bull’s Eye on the right side. For this event, Maaike and Hiba went neck and neck through sudden death for first place as both received a score of 7 points. Through a few intense rounds, Maaike took first place, Hiba received second and Annie won third.
SHEROO
Every bowler’s dream is to go through a game with bowling no balls, so we created the event called Target Practice 2.0. The strong focus of this event was to hit the wicket with the ball as you bowled. In this event, various players tied, leading to a few fun rounds of sudden death. Yvette pulled through and stole first place from Patience. Hiba went neck and neck with Laurel for third place. With a few very strong bowls, Hiba just managed to take third place from Laurel.
What is an Olympics without a conditioning event? The city bus route is like suicides, but better. It required each player to get down and dirty and roll over at each pilon. While all players were very close in their time, Annie was able to claim first place with a time of 27 seconds. Sarah Chu placed second with a time of 28.6 seconds and Hiba snagged third place by 0.1 seconds from Maaike.
Every batter’s dream is to hit a few six pointers, so why not have an event called the Country Block. As Abdul bowled 5 balls to every player, the batter had to try and hit the ball as far as they could without anyone catching it. Although no one managed to hit a sixer that day, there were multiple players who managed to snag 4 points. The finalists for the Country Block were Allison in first, Hiba in second and Yvette in third.
Everyone can catch a ball when it comes straight to you, but can you still catch a ball when its 10 steps behind, in front or beside you? For Rebecca, the Texas leaguer event was not a problem as she managed to get a perfect score of 10 and took first place. In second place, we had Maaike and in third, was Sarah Laws.
In every cricket game, you have 90 seconds to put on all of the batting equipment. This led to the creation of the pit stop event. All players were in an 11 second spread with putting on all the equipment, giving Abdul a high-five and then taking it all off again. Annie had the fastest time with 1 minute and 30 seconds. Maaike finished 0.5 of a second later and Allison beat Sarah Laws by 0.1 of a second, snagging third place from her.
Finally, the last event played was the Bouncy Ball. Grounder balls are always difficult to stop as they tend to be unpredictable. Through a round of sudden death, Annie was able to cleanly stop 1 more ball than Sarah Chu to take first place. There was a three-way tie between Kinj, Hiba and Allison for third place. While all players did a great job, Kinj took third place.
After a fun few hours in the sun, the Laurier Cricket Olympics came to an end. All players played great and excelled at one or multiple events. Overall, we had Annie in third place, Sarah Chu in second place and Hiba took the title as being the first ever champion of Laurier Women’s Cricket Olympics, receiving a Laurier Cricket jacket.
The club would like to thank Abdul NAeem for providing us with the car tires, everyone who took pictures, and all who came out to make the event such a great hit. Sarah Laws would like to thank on behalf of everyone who came out to the event Maaike for organizing such a great skill building day. And as Hiba says “It was very well organized and creative. The routines were both fun and important for skill development. Though I didn’t know all the people who came, I did feel like a team. Everybody was supportive of one another and there was great team spirit through out the day.”
Written by Maaike van Wingerden
