[Cricket] The village / amateur 2024 CRICKET thread...

[ForestRowSeagull]

Not personally involved in it but interesting to see the Sussex prem title is going down to the wire!!

 

[ROSM]

Rottingdean have an interesting final weekend.

1st battling likely relegation from div 2 after getting promoted last year
2nds pushing for promotion from div 7
3rds pushing for promotion from div 11 level
4ths either automatically or in a play off for promotion from div 12 level

There has been a regular Sunday team plus midweek friendlies, some slam sides midweek and 3 junior teams got to festival finals (the u11 girls losing to preston nomads).

And all this against the backdrop of having lost one of the great sussex village administrators earlier this year.

As @hans kraay fan club says, this only happens due to dedicated people giving up a lot of time. I've scored and umpired a lot of junior cricket (as well as being responsible adult when coaches doing so much more) in the past but this was a mere drop in the ocean compared to what so many others did.

My son missed 5 weeks through his dislocated/cracked thumb but is now back and managing his playing time ready for winter nets and throwing everything at next season after his a levels

 

[Ali_rrr]

Oh, and aside from blowing my own personal trumpet - to balance the doom and gloom around the state of amateur cricket - here's some background to what has been going on at my club.

When I joined the club, just THREE years ago, we had two teams, and no junior section. The facilities extended to a pitch and a pavilion (which is owned by the parish council, but really only used by the club and a playgroup who use the main room in the week). And covers - they did have the pitch covers.

In those three years, we have grown to three Saturday league sides (with the first team gaining two promotions).

The junior section that started with a single U9 side two years ago, now comprises 6 teams, 3 at U11 and 2 at U9. At least 4 of our juniors have been chosen for Hampshire teams, and we've won a promotion and an indoor league.

This season has seen the club form it's first women's team - they secured their first ever victory last week, and the club achieved ClubMark status.

Facilities-wise, the addition of the extra teams has helped hugely with our attractiveness to those that allocate grant funding - and in the three years we have added site screens, and electronic scoreboard. Just in the last two weeks we have had two artificial nets installed (yet to be opened) and over the winter we are adding an artificial strip on the edge of the square.

The Parish council have become a bit more relaxed on the pavilion, and allowed us to put up new club signage and some honours boards, which has made it feel more of a proper cricket pavilion.

Remarkable effort (as with any club, by a few incredibly dedicated people).

Great stuff! Out of curiosity, do you feel the interest was there for your junior sides or did it require a lot of extra work? It's something we're looking into a pushing with youth days, going into schools etc, but finding it very hard for kids to hold interest. That, or they move to our rivals who have an established youth setup...


Scoreboard is an excellent addition, but blimey they're expensive!

 

[Peppermint Tea]

I’m going to miss this thread, now we’re at the bitter end of the season. Thanks to all contributors - especially @hans kraay fan club for your brilliant match reports and congrats on a great season with the cherry.

The thread has helped this badger relive my playing days!

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Great stuff! Out of curiosity, do you feel the interest was there for your junior sides or did it require a lot of extra work? It's something we're looking into a pushing with youth days, going into schools etc, but finding it very hard for kids to hold interest. That, or they move to our rivals who have an established youth setup...


Scoreboard is an excellent addition, but blimey they're expensive!

It began with the club signing up to the ECB's Allstars program.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) - The Official Website of the ECB

www.ecb.co.uk

Every kid that signs up gets a shirt, cap, and their own plastic bat and rubber ball. They get 8 sessions (all run by club volunteers) on Friday evenings in the early summer. It went well, and properly spiralled.

On the busiest nights we had 150 people (kids and parents) at the club. The parents enjoy a drink from our tiny little club bar, while the kids play, and the takings are far from insignificant. Record for an Allstars evening I think is about £700 from the bar and the BBQ.

This all funnels back into facilities - and as previously mentioned - if the club can demonstrate it is inclusive, and providing opportunities for lots of kids (and in our case now, a women's team), then any grant applications you make are received far more favourably. I'm not privy to the exact figures but we've 'won' significant grants from Sport England and from the Parish Council to improve the facilities.

The scoreboard I think was around £2,000. I think the huge sight-screen at the bottom end of the pitch (has to be double height because of the slope) cost more than that. The nets were thousands.

Allstars warming up:

Kids teams:

Pitch:

Women's team celebrating first win:

Brand new nets - yet to be unlocked:

2024 new scoreboard:

(Tiny) club bar (with visiting touring side from Bahrain!):

 

[Guinness Boy]

It began with the club signing up to the ECB's Allstars program.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) - The Official Website of the ECB

www.ecb.co.uk

Every kid that signs up gets a shirt, cap, and their own plastic bat and rubber ball. They get 8 sessions (all run by club volunteers) on Friday evenings in the early summer. It went well, and properly spiralled.

On the busiest nights we had 150 people (kids and parents) at the club. The parents enjoy a drink from our tiny little club bar, while the kids play, and the takings are far from insignificant. Record for an Allstars evening I think is about £700 from the bar and the BBQ.

This all funnels back into facilities - and as previously mentioned - if the club can demonstrate it is inclusive, and providing opportunities for lots of kids (and in our case now, a women's team), then any grant applications you make are received far more favourably. I'm not privy to the exact figures but we've 'won' significant grants from Sport England and from the Parish Council to improve the facilities.

The scoreboard I think was around £2,000. I think the huge sight-screen at the bottom end of the pitch (has to be double height because of the slope) cost more than that. The nets were thousands.

Allstars warming up:
View attachment 188327

Kids teams:
View attachment 188328

Pitch:
View attachment 188329

Women's team celebrating first win:
View attachment 188330

Brand new nets - yet to be unlocked:
View attachment 188331

2024 new scoreboard:
View attachment 188332

(Tiny) club bar (with visiting touring side from Bahrain!):
View attachment 188333

Fantastic! (Minus one point for the Southampton FC on the flag but I guess, being where you are, that's inevitable and will be fun when we turn them over this season).

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Fantastic! (Minus one point for the Southampton FC on the flag but I guess, being where you are, that's inevitable and will be fun when we turn them over this season).

They were very bullish on play-off final day. To the point that the skipper wanted a bet with me that they'd finish 'above your lot'.

I jokingly suggested £100 but that sobered him up, and we settled on 'a curry'.

 

[Eeyore]

As a side note, this day in 1980 John Arlott put his microphone down for the last time. It was the following year that I married cricket so I missed him completely. Do folk have any memories ?

 

[Ali_rrr]

It began with the club signing up to the ECB's Allstars program.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) - The Official Website of the ECB

www.ecb.co.uk

Every kid that signs up gets a shirt, cap, and their own plastic bat and rubber ball. They get 8 sessions (all run by club volunteers) on Friday evenings in the early summer. It went well, and properly spiralled.

On the busiest nights we had 150 people (kids and parents) at the club. The parents enjoy a drink from our tiny little club bar, while the kids play, and the takings are far from insignificant. Record for an Allstars evening I think is about £700 from the bar and the BBQ.

This all funnels back into facilities - and as previously mentioned - if the club can demonstrate it is inclusive, and providing opportunities for lots of kids (and in our case now, a women's team), then any grant applications you make are received far more favourably. I'm not privy to the exact figures but we've 'won' significant grants from Sport England and from the Parish Council to improve the facilities.

The scoreboard I think was around £2,000. I think the huge sight-screen at the bottom end of the pitch (has to be double height because of the slope) cost more than that. The nets were thousands.

Allstars warming up:
View attachment 188327

Kids teams:
View attachment 188328

Pitch:
View attachment 188329

Women's team celebrating first win:
View attachment 188330

Brand new nets - yet to be unlocked:
View attachment 188331

2024 new scoreboard:
View attachment 188332

(Tiny) club bar (with visiting touring side from Bahrain!):
View attachment 188333

This is fantastic, thanks for this! I know there is something similar over here but it's practically useless, the website doesn't even work properly so it's useful to see this and give feedback though to the KNCB. We held 2 sessions over the summer but retention has been our biggest problem.

Side note, we have the same scoreboard but because of Brexit it cost us around 4.500€ (around £3500) but they drove over and delivered it in from the UK. Works very well and we're very happy with it!

 

[Audax]

It began with the club signing up to the ECB's Allstars program.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) - The Official Website of the ECB

www.ecb.co.uk

Every kid that signs up gets a shirt, cap, and their own plastic bat and rubber ball. They get 8 sessions (all run by club volunteers) on Friday evenings in the early summer. It went well, and properly spiralled.

On the busiest nights we had 150 people (kids and parents) at the club.

Similar story here at Uckfield. We've also been doing All Stars / Dynamos.

We ran our sessions on Sunday mornings, and had around 50 kids across all the age groups (All Stars starting at reception / KS1, and all the way up to our junior squads for playing ... which IIRC this season was 2x hard ball teams and 1x soft ball). We had a few of the juniors step up into adult cricket this season and play with our seconds, where they did really well and were instrumental in some of their wins (including one match where 9 of the ten wickets went to juniors). The success of our junior setup is one of the reasons why our firsts have struggled this season, due to our hard ball juniors coach (and best bat at the club) stepping down to captain the seconds and support the juniors coming through.

It takes a fair bit of effort to get it all up and running, but with dedicated coaches (we've got a couple, and we've invested in bringing in someone from Sussex as well) and a bit of persistence it will pay off. The key is engaging with the parents - our sessions we try to have at least 1 or 2 elements where the parents are brought in to help out as well, and the kids really love that.

 

[Titanic]

Very sad news for Sussex Cricket...

Remembering Daniel Oliver | Sussex Cricket

Sussex Cricket is devastated to announce the sudden death of Daniel Oliver at the age of 50.On Sunday morning Daniel collapsed at home and was taken to A&E at St Peter’s Hospital Chertsey where, after undergoing some tests, it was confirmed that he not only had a blood clot to his brain but also...

sussexcricket.co.uk

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Well, just 3 weeks now until Jnr hits the Southern hemisphere for a winter of Aussie cricket. Hes just done his Level 1 coaching course too, so will be coaching the school cricket team where he will be boarding, and also coaching privately with North Tamworth CC who he will be padding up for at weekends. Its going to be a real adventure for him over the next six months.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Well, just 3 weeks now until Jnr hits the Southern hemisphere for a winter of Aussie cricket. Hes just done his Level 1 coaching course too, so will be coaching the school cricket team where he will be boarding, and also coaching privately with North Tamworth CC who he will be padding up for at weekends. Its going to be a real adventure for him over the next six months.

I'm sure he's going to have a fantastic time. I'm hugely jealous - I'd love both, to have done this, and to have been good enough to have been invited to do it!

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

I'm sure he's going to have a fantastic time. I'm hugely jealous - I'd love both, to have done this, and to have been good enough to have been invited to do it!

Its going to be a long 6 months for mum and dad though!
The fact that Tamworth have provided everything (air tickets, a car to use, work, board) has made it all possible tbh - no way we could afford to do it. We are hoping to get down there in January for a couple of weeks though to see him...fingers crossed!

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Agreed, this has been a great thread, hearing the stories for everyone's cricket experiences this year.

No wish to hijack the thread, but I didn't want to start a thread all of it's own. One of our ladies at our cricket board office is doing an Alpes 3-peakes challenge to raise funds for Chance to Shine Street Cricket - those of you involved or close to cricket will need no further explanation.

If you would like to support Sacha, her page is here: https://gofund.me/fad33854

I know Sacha would appreciate anything you could help her with.

Many thanks ....

 

[Blinkers]

10yrs ago, this was pasted outside the Park View pub at the top corner of Preston Park. I suspect that one or two people on this thread may well have watched or played in this game.

 

[abc]

Anyone going to Sussex this evening? Forecast is crap

 

[Shaktarman]

Anyone going to Sussex this evening? Forecast is crap

I have tickets but as it is a 45 min journey each way I’m a little unsure. Forecast has cleared up a bit on the bbc app?

Don’t fancy travelling that way for a wash out or 8 over a side game or whatever

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Met office forecast is looking much more promising now. The BBC radio forecast this morning was saying that the showers may come in further West than originally thought and that now seems to be what they are saying. Been dry here in Goring By Sea all day so even if there is a short shower before the start, it hopefully won't have too much impact on the match.

 

[Arkwright]

Oh, and aside from blowing my own personal trumpet - to balance the doom and gloom around the state of amateur cricket - here's some background to what has been going on at my club.

When I joined the club, just THREE years ago, we had two teams, and no junior section. The facilities extended to a pitch and a pavilion (which is owned by the parish council, but really only used by the club and a playgroup who use the main room in the week). And covers - they did have the pitch covers.

In those three years, we have grown to three Saturday league sides (with the first team gaining two promotions).

The junior section that started with a single U9 side two years ago, now comprises 6 teams, 3 at U11 and 2 at U9. At least 4 of our juniors have been chosen for Hampshire teams, and we've won a promotion and an indoor league.

This season has seen the club form it's first women's team - they secured their first ever victory last week, and the club achieved ClubMark status.

Facilities-wise, the addition of the extra teams has helped hugely with our attractiveness to those that allocate grant funding - and in the three years we have added site screens, and electronic scoreboard. Just in the last two weeks we have had two artificial nets installed (yet to be opened) and over the winter we are adding an artificial strip on the edge of the square.

The Parish council have become a bit more relaxed on the pavilion, and allowed us to put up new club signage and some honours boards, which has made it feel more of a proper cricket pavilion.

Remarkable effort (as with any club, by a few incredibly dedicated people).

That's fantastic to read when so many club's are in decline, great effort.
Have you ever thought if nominating any of those for an ECB OSCA (If they still run the scheme), it's a great way of giving recognition to individuals for efforts off the pitch