RAE at Super 4s (Regional U17s)

The Super 4s is an annual event, held at Loughborough, for the four regions at the U17 age group. Having run for the last seven years, the South & West, London & East, the North and the Midlands compete in 3 50 over matches and 2 T20 matches. Essentialy it is part of the selection process for the Young Lions, England’s U19 side.

What do we find? Q1 & Q2 percentages are higher than Q3 & Q4.

The data shows evidence of a Relative Age Effect at this point of the Performance Pathway. It reflects the same findings found for the next point along the pathway, selection for the Young Lions (U19s).

These Birth Quarters (BQs) are fairly similar to those found for U19s World Cup squads where Q3 & Q4 are further reduced and Q1 comes down a little with Q2 going up to match the Q1 level.

Q1 37.3 -> 34.5

Q2 27.2 -> 34.5

Q3 20 -> 17.2

Q4 15.5 -> 13.8

*Using the BQ%s for U19 World Cup Squads 2014-2020.

Trends Over Time

The last 4 years show a difference between Q1/Q2 and Q3/Q4 whereas the first 3 years of the competition had Q2 & Q3 at similar levels with just the differences showing up between Q1 & Q4.

Regional Differences

The regions all had various levels of RAE. The Midlands had the least difference between Birth Quarters but still had a 59:41 half year split between Q1/Q2 and Q3/Q4.

The Highs & Lows

In 2015 exactly half of all the players were from Q1 alone while in 2018 only 10.4% were from Q3.

NOTES

Data for all 7 years is included (from cricketarchive.com).

The total number of participants studied was 355 (if a player played more than one year then each occurrence is counted).

No Date of Birth was available for 20 players. These were excluded leaving n=335.