James will serve Carew well for years to come

One of the talented young sporting all-rounders currently emerging at Carew is 16 year old James Hinchcliffe, who plays as a stylish young batsman for the village cricket team and at centre half for the junior football team, where he uses his skills in the air alongside strong tackling and good distribution skills.

Useful athlete

He is also a more than useful young athlete who won his school events in the triple jump and 1,500 metres steeplechase and came third and fourth respectively in these events in the county sports. What is extra nice to report is that James just enjoys competing and goes as company for a school friend named Jack Lear who James describes as a ‘tremendous athlete’ – now that proves that James really is a good friend to have.

Slow starter but now up and running

Perhaps even nicer again is the fact that James readily admits that when he set out with Carew under 11s under the watchful eye of Tony Scourfield he was a ‘useless player’ but was lucky to have expert guidance and endless support from his step-father Rob Scourfield, whom James says has been a huge influence in his developing into a second team regular who is already scoring runs in the second division.
That’s a long way from the time when he used to turn up for the thirds, bat at No 11, have tea and field out. He had plenty of encouragement from Martin Cole and Wes Cole as he gradually moved up the order and had a top score of 51 and best bowling figures of 4 for 11 against Camrose/Spittal 2nds. Then he was promoted to the second XI, where he now opens the innings with Adi Harries and already has a creditable 47 to his name at Johnston, in a team captained by Martin Scourfield or Barry Evans. Since then he has gone from strength to strength, with 2 for 18 against Cresselly Seconds and a cracking 56 at Stackpole, both of which games ended in victory for Carew 2nds.
There has also been recent success in the club’s Ormond Youth side because James played an influential role in the winning semi-final against Narberth where he scored 42 not out in a Carew total of 123 for 5 and then claimed 2 for 26 as Narberth were shot out for 76 runs.
James has previously been captain of the club’s junior team and scored a 50 and a couple of 40s as they have won all their games so far, earning selection for the county team for his age group alongside other talented youngsters like Matthew Morgan (Fishguard) and David Dunfee (Pembroke Dock).

Football flair

It is a similar story in football because James clearly enjoys playing for Carew after starting out as a six year old playing for the under 10 team when they were short and gradually gaining in size and confidence so that he could stake a claim for a regular place. He is now playing for the under 16s and  is full of praise for the hard work undertaken on the team’s behalf by Rob Lewis, better known as a county council cabinet member with responsibility for sport.
“We only won four out of about 18 games and were third from the bottom of the league but we are all local lads and we have a great time,” says James. “Our heaviest defeat was 16-1 against Tenby but we showed how much we have improved because we only lost 1-0 to them in the second half of the season.”
James scored just one goal last season but it was an important one for the team because they trailed by a single goal against Camrose when he moved up for a last minute corner, latched onto a loose ball in the box and volleyed it home to earn his team a draw.

Football favourites

Ask him about his favourites in football and he would unhesitatingly nominate Manchester United as his No 1 team and central defender Nemanja Vidic as his top player. He also enjoys watching the Carew senior team play on Saturday afternoons and his favourite player there is Ian Sefton, who doubles up, like James, as a cricketing opening bat.

James Hinchcliffe says that his main sporting ambition is to play both football and cricket for Carew at first team level and is a modest and unassuming young man who is a credit to both his family and club – and is clearly going to serve Carew well for a number of years in both cricket and football. Pembrokeshiresport.co.uk was impressed by his enjoyment of sport and his willingness to take part – and we will chart his future sporting career with great interest.