The Cricketer Club Cricket Guide 2020

Club Cricket Guide 2020 Eco-Friendly CC

s e d a l B glory

How one club is setting the bar

Get Cricket Ready

of 28 b&aratstetedsted

Training, fitness & nutrition tips

Club Life

Standout performances from 2019

Samit Patel masterclass

Notts allrounder shares his top tips

Everything you need for the new season

CONTENTS Get Cricket Ready 6 Introduction 8 Fitness 10 Bowling exercises 12 Batting exercises 13 Owzat-Cricket

“Hold your nerve in a battle of wits.”

– SAMIT PATEL PAGE 16

14 Diet tips 15 Coaching masterclass 18 Coaching masterclass 20 Katchet 22 Getting kids ready 26 Tips for an ageing body

Good Gear Guide 32 Bats 44 Boutique bats 52 Masuri 54 Softs 56 A day at BACA

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BATS PAGE 32

SOFTS PAGE 54

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

“To beat the batsman, you must use the deceit that a rotating ball enables you to offer” –PAGEDavid Parsons masterclass 18 Club Life 62 Welcome to Club Life 64 Performances of 2019 66 Club life in 2020 80 Indoor cricket

CLUB PERFORMANCES OF 2019 PAGE 64 “This is some expert handiwork and picks up really nicely, like a wand.

It’s got a great middle and I would feel confident batting with it.”

BOUTIQUE BATS PAGE 44

81 BOLA 82 National Village Cup 84 Women’s club cricket 86 Kia Summer Smash 88 Groundsman tips 90 Going green 92 ExtraCover Insurance 94 Financial advice 95 How to set up a women’s section 96 Running a junior section 98 Durant Cricket 100 Club stories of 2019 102 total-play 104 Serious Cricket

KIA SUMMER SMASH PAGE 86 WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

106 Club noticeboard 109 Stockists

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GET CRICKET READY MAXIMISE YOUR POTENTIAL 6 Introduction 8 Fitness 10 Bowling exercises 12 Batting exercises 13 Owzat-cricket 14 Village diet tips 15 Coaching masterclass 18 Coaching masterclass

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

20 Katchet 22 Getting kids ready 26 Tips for an ageing body WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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intro

Forget what you’ve heard…

wonderful

this is the most

time of the

year

Sam Morshead introduces The Cricketer’s Club Cricket Guide 2020

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CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GET CRICKET READY hen do you start thinking about the start of the new cricket season?

For some, it is in the pavilion bar on a gloomy September evening, the square put to bed and the whites packed away for another winter.

For others it is the morning after the first February indoor net, upper arms as rigid as age-old oaks and muscles you didn’t know existed screaming in irritation.

Perhaps you do not give it consideration until you wake up on that brisk April Saturday, trembling at the prospect of balls shooting around ankles and stinging palms.

For me, it is the day when the fixture list is confirmed.

In our digital age, there is something comforting about the physical handbook produced by my club every year; the same cover design that has been used since the late 80s giving way to a series of names and dates that will go on to define my summer.

Because club cricket really is more than just a game for those involved in it. It is a ritual. It is routine.

Diaries can be planned by Thursday evening slog-a-thons

The mechanics of club cricket are incredible.

Pitch preparation, accounting, logistics, fundraising, maintenance, cleaning, barwork... all done for free.

All done for the love of the game.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

and crucial Saturday afternoon trips to face the top of the league; life landmarks associated with centuries and five-fors, unlikely victories and humiliating defeats.

Is it not amazing how a bat, a ball and an open field can provide so much joy to so many?

Cricket introduced me to the social fabric of my village when I was a teenager, it facilitated friendships which have spanned the best part of 20 years, it taught me skills I would otherwise never have learned. It has gone way beyond its initial purpose, of filling idle and lonely days in the summer holidays.

And that, I am sure, is because of the overriding sense of family.

It is because of the support a club offers its members in times of sorrow: an opening batsman grieving for the loss of his partner, or the captain’s wife fighting against cancer.

It is because of the collective good that can be achieved by a community: the thousands of pounds raised for good causes through marquee balls on the outfield, or the farmer who donates land to ensure the show can still go on.

It is because of the sheer selflessness and generosity of the men and women who keep their clubs not only afloat but thriving: the marketing executive who sets up and runs the All Stars programme, the retiree who stocks the bar, the lawyer who dons a white coat every weekend, rain or shine.

The mechanics of club cricket are incredible, when you give them more than a cursory thought.

Pitch preparation, accounting, logistics, fundraising, equipment maintenance, cleaning, barwork and so much more, all done for free. All done for the love of the game.

So as you gear up for the 2020 season - whether you’re the star player, treasurer, tea person or groundsman - give yourself a pat on the back.You are part of a magnificent institution, without you it would not be the same.

And so, on with The Club Cricket Guide - essential reading for everyone making their preparations for the new campaign.

Jampacked with kit reviews, coaching tips, expert advice on conditioning your body in the gym, nutritional guidance, hacks for groundsmen and much, much more, it is essential reading for club cricketers in the lead-up to the first ball of 2020.

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fitness

GET CRICKET READY

Fail to prepare,

prepare to alloween. Bonfire Night. Christmas. New Year. If you’re a club player who has over-indulged over the winter, rest assured that you’re not the only one.

And if the prospect of the new season approaching gives you the same concerns as a weekend with the in-laws, don’t worry.There is still time to turn things around.

Sports scientist Ross Dewar is here to help.

Dewar – the owner of Cricket Strength, which provides individualised six-month training programmes – has worked with three counties, including Worcestershire, whom he helped to a maiden T20 Blast success in 2018.

“There is one thing we know about cricket is that for the first month it hurts,” he warns. “And the chances of getting injured in that first session back are a lot higher, especially if you aren’t prepared properly.

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fail

“In my 20 years in the professional game those players who have come back unprepared have struggled, if not with injury then performances dropping off during games.”

Dewar says the biggest danger when returning to action – whether it be a winter net, a jog in the park or bowling off a five-yard run-up – is going too hard, too early. Preparing your body for the jolt of strenuous exercise can be the difference between a fast start to the new campaign and having a watching brief over late spring.

“The big area where I’ve seen players hurt is when they jump straight into the nets with no prep,” he added.

“When you do it properly you can actually use warm-up times for nets to not only get the body ready for what it’s about to do but also have a great training effect.”

For more information visit www.cricketstrength.com

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bowling

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Get In Shape: Seamers Derbyshire’s Tony Palladino shares his bowling drills

RUN-UP The best thing I ever did for my run-up was go to a hardware store and buy a large tape measure for £7.99. My run-up is 17 metres and seven inches, and for every game or training session I use the tape measure to mark it out. Next time you’re in the nets, mark your run-up as normal and if it feels good then grab the tape and place it either on the front or back line and measure it out.Write it down somewhere so you remember it, and you’re set.

ADAPT TO CONDITIONS If you find yourself bowling into the wind, don’t fight it and try to run in harder or bowl quicker. It’s a fight you won’t win.Try staying low for the first part of your run-up, gradually getting taller as you approach the wicket; this will keep you under the wind and save energy.

WRIST POSITION There is an easy way to ensure you’re keeping your wrist behind the ball and presenting the seam upright. Use either a red and white half/half ball or stick some white electrical tape along the seam of a regular ball.Then get a team-mate to stand roughly where the umpire would be and film a few deliveries.You should get a good idea of how the ball is coming out and get some instant feedback.

SHOW VARIETY Freshen up your target bowling drills by introducing a challenge. Get a team-mate to stand as umpire. As you run in the umpire will shout either ‘bouncer’, ‘yorker’ or ‘slower ball’ as you get close to wicket; if they don’t shout anything then it’s a good length ball.The challenge is to adapt and execute the required delivery.You can also put cones down to define the targets further.

CHANGE YOUR OUTSWINGER If like me you have an outswinger as your stock delivery, give this variation a try to complement it.Tilt the seam between the wicketkeeper and fine leg, run in and deliver the ball as you would normally. If executed correctly the ball will come out with a more scrambled seam and, when it pitches, will either nip off the pitch or carry on its original line.The beauty of this delivery is you don’t have to change anything else other than the seam position.

PERFECT PRACTICE Every net session is an opportunity to practise a skill. Bowl with a new ball, bowl with an old ball, practise your variations, set fields and scenarios that you and the batter agree on.Work on something that maybe didn’t quite feel right in the previous game. If you know the team you’re playing next has a few left-handers then make sure you bowl at a left-hander in training and practise over and around the wicket.

Challenge yourself in every session and you’ll be amazed how quickly your skill set and execution improves.

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batting

Bat to the future Batting performance specialist Gio Colussi on how to prepare for the new campaign

SEE THE BALL I think where a lot of guys go wrong with pre-season is getting caught up in the fact that they haven’t hit a ball in ages. They will be worried about their technique and focusing on drill work. It takes their focus away from the fundamental of batting, which is to see the ball.

STABLE TO STABLE Regardless of how rough you’re feeling or how long it’s been since you hit your last ball, your first focus is on seeing the ball. That’s going to give you the best chance of actually moving and reacting. Focus on being balanced.

Move from a stable position to another stable position.

The big pitfall is going down to your first net or first game and worrying about your technique while trying to face bowlers, whether you’re in the middle or in the nets.

In that case, refer back to seeing the ball and staying stable when that happens. Literally, that’s how simple it is. Don’t try to do something that you can’t do and isn’t going to come off.You’ll lose confidence.You have to do away with any anxiety.

Ask yourself a question – is worrying about your game going to help you be successful? When the answer is no, what is going to give you the best chance? See the ball and be stable. That’s it. Whether you’re in nick or out of nick, if you’re doing those two things, you’re giving yourself the best chance possible.

Don’t get caught up in all the technicalities. Everyone

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thinks that some new gimmick drill is going to make you a better cricketer. Putting your energy into the basics will give you the best chance.

UNWEIGHT THE BAT Unweighting the bat means lifting your bat to its highest point at the top of your swing, where the toe points vertically to the sky and the face will be pointing – in a perfect world – towards point. Obviously, there are slight variances, depending on different grips. Steve Smith’s bat-face is slightly more closed than Virat Kohli’s or Ricky Ponting’s.

The fundamental is that it’s the highest point your bat gets prior to striking the ball. The reason it’s ‘unweighted’ is because if you took the bat by the handle and balanced it on the end of your finger, that is the lightest it will ever feel because all the weight is running through the handle.

If you hold the bat horizontally to the ground, it feels heavy. The benefit of unweighting it is that when you commence the downswing, you are now relying on gravity and generating lag, and consequently bat-speed. It allows you to accelerate through the ball when you want to attack, and decelerate onto the ball from a steep angle when you want to defend.

Gio Colussi is a batting performance specialist and Cricket South Africa Level 3 coach. He is director of The Cricket Academy and works with several county cricketers.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

Owzat-Cricket

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

GET CRICKET READY

Kitting out the

next generation Buying cricket equipment for the first time can be daunting, but Owzat-Cricket are on hand to help 019 could be considered a breakthrough year for English cricket.

The ODI side won their first 50over World Cup while Ben Stokes inspired his team-mates and all who watched in ways not seen since Ian Botham in 1981.

And with the All Stars Cricket programme continuing to grow, more and more children are progressing to the hard-ball game.

Across the nation, youngsters have been inspired and, as we approach the start of the season, they have been flooding into shops to buy their first set of kit.

Retailers have been inundated with new cricketers, and Owzat-Cricket’s Gavin Young tells the Club Cricket Guide more.

“I’ve never known Saturdays to be this busy, particularly in January! But some parents bring their children to get them kitted out and don’t know much about the game, what kit they need, what brand they should go for or how much they should pay.”

With a new young audience this can be a problem, and parents who are also new to cricket are in danger of buying overpriced or inappropriate kit.

“Fortunately, we are there to guide them through the process,” said Young. “My top tip would be to get the right size. There are lots of young players out there with bats far too big and it ruins their technique and teaches them bad habits.

“They want exactly the same bat as Joe Root or Stokes but that is not what they need.

“We have a bat size chart in-store which tells you exactly which size you should have. We can also make sure your child has pads the correct size, as well as gloves and a helmet.”

Adult players will know that bat prices can be high, but you don’t have to spend the same sort of money on junior kit.

“Parents can sometimes come in, see an adult bat for £300 and start to panic. But at Owzat we can do all the kit a child will need – bat, pads, helmet and gloves – for around £100.”

Buying the kit is only the first part of the story, which leads into Young’s second tip.

“It is important for youngsters to look after their kit. They can sometimes leave bats out in the rain which significantly reduces how long they will last. The quality of the bat is also important and that is why I would recommend English willow as it gives you good long-term quality but also it looks and performs better.”

There is no greater excitement than heading to the cricket shop to get your new kit. It’s a feeling that doesn’t go away and OwzatCricket are giving young cricketers that sensation for the first time.

“Because of our central location in Derbyshire we get people travelling from an hour and a half away to visit us,” said Young.

“The key thing is the amount of choice we have, both in-store and online, to ensure you get the best kit at the best value. We will also endeavour to offer a great service and give all of the guidance you could possibly need.”

For more expert advice, visit www.owzat-cricket.co.uk, call 0800 542 8711 or visit them in store WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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diet

Get in

shape Surrey CCC strength & conditioning coach, Darren Veness, offers an insight into how the county’s first-class cricketers keep their bodies in peak physical condition…

HYDRATION, HYDRATION, HYDRATION Plenty of water; that’s our biggest focus. As soon as you reach a slight level of dehydration, it can have a significant impact on your cognitive function but also speed and power. Dehydration can therefore have a huge impact on cricket performance.

GETTING A HEAD START If you want to perform at your highest level, you need to give your body a head start. Get decent carbohydrates down your neck in the morning, along with some protein. I’d take oats over toast as they’ll offer you more energy for longer.

The chefs at Surrey like to mix it up with various meat and fish dishes, and always plenty of steamed vegetables. In the mornings we have salmon, eggs, oats or muesli.

POST-MATCH RECOVERY Players need to refuel after a game. If you have had a well-balanced lunch - plenty of vegetables, some protein and carbohydrates - then your evening meal should be something similar to make sure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you need.

SUPPLEMENTS, NOT REPLACEMENTS Supplements are quite popular but should not be used as a meal replacement. They are designed to support a wellbalanced diet.

The good thing about supplements is they give you a window, regardless of what time a game finishes, to get something into your body quickly. We use a blend of protein and carbohydrates in a shake which allows players to get protein in to their system which aids muscle recovery. We

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may also use electrolyte tabs in their water to replace the minerals lost in sweat.

WHAT ABOUT VEGETARIANS AND VEGANS? With vegetarians and vegans you need to be switched on to your protein and calcium intake. When you are removing things like dairy, you need to find ways to maintain protein and calcium levels to support good quality bone and muscle tissue.

FORGET FADS The one thing that stands out with fad diets, regardless of format, is that you can see a short-term pay-off. People will attribute it to the change in diet when more often than not it is simply that they are paying attention to their nutrition and being more aware than before.

Rather than have the pendulum swing one way or another, you need to find a middle ground. That is where you will find your biggest benefits and you’ll end up reaping the rewards for a lot longer. Balance is everything.

LET THEM EAT CAKE… IN MODERATION My recommendation is that you treat tea very lightly and if in any doubt, feel free to hand it over to the coaching staff!

Cricket is a game dictated by high ground reaction forces. That means a lot of stress is going through the body. If you are carrying a few extra pounds from a few months of cricket teas, it will come at a cost.

I know some people count carrot cake as one of their five a day! I’ve got a lot of time for a slice of cake but you need to treat it with caution.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

coaching masterclass

GET CRICKET READY

Opening powers

BACKGROUND AUDIO ON VIDEOS: /WWW.BENSOUND.COM/LICENSING

Georgia Adams gives her top tips for getting the innings off to a solid start

ussex captain Georgia Adams opens the batting for her county. She also performed the role for Loughborough Lightning in the Kia Super League.

The 26-year-old predominantly plays white-ball cricket and here she offers her insight here into how she approaches her innings and why the strategies she employs are transferable across to the club game.

BE POSITIVE AT THE TOP OF THE ORDER – SET THE TONE I go out to bat with the mentality of batting the whole innings. I’m always looking to get one away early – settle the nerves, feel bat on ball, feel it coming out the middle. But sometimes you find that if you get two or three boundaries in your first over, you get carried away. It’s that fine line.

STICK TO THE V EARLY ON – ASSESS WHATEVER SWING IS ON OFFER I look to play as straight as possible, as the bowlers are probably getting a bit of movement.That’s crucial – try to WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

assess whether the ball is moving. If it is swinging away from me, I might get a little bit further over onto off-stump so I’m not flashing at a big swinging ball. As an opener, you have to assess what’s going on as quickly as possible.

GET CLOSE TO THE BALL WHEN IT’S MOVING AROUND I try to hit the first 10 balls that I face into the ground. If I’m doing that, I know I’m getting my head into the ball, I’m not being lazy and I’m having to really focus on the ball.

FOCUS ONLY ON THE NEXT DELIVERY I’m a big believer in pre-delivery routines. I like to mark middle three times each ball. If I do play a poor shot or the bowler bowls me a decent delivery, then I focus my energy solely into my routine, so it stops me from reflecting – good and bad. I have a tendency to get carried away, so it keeps me grounded if I’m going after every ball, but it also helps me forget the bad stuff.

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coaching masterclass

The art of

captaincy

Sussex skipper Georgia Adams explains her leadership techniques…

Keeping it tight Nottinghamshire allrounder Samit Patel shares his advice on how to prevent batsmen taking the game away in T20

As a captain, everyone has their own style.

I don’t like to dictate at all because, especially with young bowlers, you don’t just want to tell them what to do. They have to be able to think for themselves. I like to be really clear about what my bowlers are trying to do before the game, especially in T20 when you don’t have much time.

I would always try to avoid ‘telling’. I know a lot of captaincy has become instructive because you are under the time pump a lot of the time, but you need your bowlers to be confident and to want to bowl their best delivery.

As a captain you’re there for Plan B or Plan C if Plan A isn’t working. That’s when we come into play. How are we going to get a wicket here? How are we going to change things up?

You want to be as relaxed as possible on a matchday. If you’ve got someone out on the pitch who can help you out, delegate. Don’t feel like you have to take it all on. When I play with the England players in our side, it’s brilliant for me. I’ve got Freya Davies talking to my bowlers and Georgia Elwiss talking to my batters.

A good relationship with your club coach is important. Having trust is huge. If I’m batting and we’ve got five overs left, I trust my coaches to do what’s right for the team and send the right player in.

Keeping a dressing room positive when you’re losing games is possibly the toughest part – trying to understand what’s going wrong and trying to identify why you’re not winning. Are you simply getting outplayed? If players are giving you everything, then that’s a skill problem.

As a captain or coach, realistically you can’t do anything about that. All you can go away and do is tailor your sessions around what you’re struggling on.

But if it is more than people not giving everything, it can be difficult to know when to go hard and get stuck in.You need to understand whether to go hard at someone. If that’s going to spiral them and make them angry, then you’re not going to get the best out of them.

That said, some people do need a bit of a kick.

It comes down to gut instinct. It’s easy to shout when the going gets tough. But I always trust that my team is giving everything.

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hen a new batsman comes to the wicket, I’m looking to drive the ball into the wicket and trying to spin it as much as I can.

Try to bowl on a good length and pretty straight, so they can’t manouevre the ball either to extra cover or midwicket. Stop the batsman from getting off strike.

Defensively, bowling at the end or in the latter overs, you need a yorker.You’re trying to land the ball by the batsman’s toes so they can’t get underneath it.

Make sure the batsmen hit dead straight because that’s where the fielders will be. If a batsman is really good at hitting straight balls, we’re chucking in a wide yorker to make sure they’re reaching for it.

Think about your field: you might want three fielders in the point region and extra cover out on the boundary, and then you can bowl out there to take away the batsman’s ability to swing his arms through the ball and drag to leg.

If I take pace off, I want to be chucking it wide. If I take pace off and I land it straight, the batsman can still get after you. If I drop it a bit wider, there’s a lot more margin for error for the batsman and he can get caught in the point area or in the deep.

It’s risky business if you’re slowing it down straight – it’s much better to go slow and wide.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GET CRICKET READY Samit’s five top tips for bowlers in T20 For me as a spinner, the first thing is about controlling lengths.

When I drive the ball into the wicket, I want to tuck the batsman up so there’s no actual room for them to hit the ball – I’m bowling at their thigh pad.

attack On the

If I’ve got a batsman who’s well set, I’m going to bowl yorkers.

They might need 40 off 20 – I’m in defensive mode. I’m driving the ball into the wicket.

I use the crease a lot – sometimes I’ll bowl off 23 yards, just to try to beat the batsman in the flight and do him for length.

If I get brought into the attack in the final few overs, I’m looking to bowl yorkers. Straight or wide. I’m always looking to mix up the line.

Pace is less useful unless I’m bowling at someone who likes to sweep, Drop the length back so they don’t have any leverage to hit.

Samit Patel’s five-step lesson for completing a big chase in T20 Take the game deep. I always back myself to score the runs in the last over and take down one bowler. I will always visualise a couple of shots where I can release the pressure.

A bowler who’s been brought on to get me out will bowl short, and set fine leg and deep square leg back. I’m looking to ramp him over the keeper, beat third man and try to skirt the ball over point.

Hold your nerve in a battle of wits. The bowler would keep me guessing with slower balls and then a surprise bouncer. I’d counterattack that as well, looking to hit a boundary early in the over.

Don’t leave yourself too much to do. Ten would be the maximum that I’d like to chase in the last over. With 10, you only need one boundary to win the game. I’m visualising the boundary and I like to use the pace to beat point. If third man is up, I’ll just deflect.

Go for simplicity against spin. If a spinner is bowling in that last over, I’m more of a pocket player. I try to chip over extra cover or hit wide of midwicket, while still looking to hit any slot ball straight for six.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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David Parsons

O T T I N I P S 18

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GET CRICKET READY KEEP YOUR SECRETS FROM THE BATSMAN When playing spin, the batsman is looking to pick up cues from both the bowler and the ball. Secondly, they’re making a prediction as to where, when and how the ball will arrive before making a decision about their shot and executing their skill.

The only bit of that the spin bowler can have an influence over is the observation stage, so a spinner has to try to ensure that the cues that the batsman is picking up are mistaken.

To beat the batsman, you must use the deceit that a rotating ball enables you to offer, because getting real revs on the ball gives deviation off the pitch, overspin for drop and bounce, and curve in the air.

If you present the seam perpendicular to the line in which you’re bowling, that’s called barrel spin and the ball is likely to hit the string and turn sideways upon pitching.

If you present it in a direction which is consistent with the direction in which you are bowling that’s likely to give you overspin.

CONTROLLING YOUR BODY Spin is all about what you do with your body, but ultimately the things I look out for are what you do with your fingers and your wrist, what you do with your shoulders, and your delivery stride.

Naturally, the fingers and wrist are how you impart that final spin. With the shoulders, you should be getting a vigorous forward rotation in to transfer the energy onto the ball, and help you direct it towards your target along the most appropriate line.

How do we actually influence the batsman?

Are we finding the edge? Are we hitting the pad? Are we trying to get them to go aerial?

Finally, you’re looking for a delivery stride which is long enough that you really have to drive hard over your front leg to generate energy on the ball, and a run-up which is adding to your product rather taking away from it, with suitable pace, angle and rhythm.

T I N I W UNDERSTAND YOUR GAME AND GOALS How do we actually influence the batsman?

Are we finding the outside edge? Are we hitting the pad? Are we getting the batsman to hit the ball in the air? Are we encouraging them to attack the ball rather than defend it?

We can control the length that we bowl, the line that we bowl, the pace that we’re bowling from, the trajectory of the ball, the amount of spin that’s put on the ball, and the axis of rotation around which that spin is delivered.

I always recommend that spinners have a clear understanding of how they use their body, what is their right length, line and pace, and then what impact that has on the batsman. Those are the starting points for anyone really looking to grow their game.

Having an appreciation for those aims helps you find the essence of what spin bowling is about: trying to upset the batsman’s observations, to then lull them into a false or inappropriate shot.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

OACH EXPERIENCED C GIVES DAVID PARSONS R HIS TOP TIPS FO ART MASTERING THE

DRILL: INSIDE OUTSIDE OR OUTSIDE INSIDE Without getting too conscious about the technical side of bowling spin, this is a drill you can use without needing a batsman.

Imagine a line drawn straight down the pitch, from the point of release to the batsman at the other end of the wicket.

The challenge here is to land the ball on one side of the line and then get a sufficient level of movement to turn it to the other side.

For example, by getting curve on the ball, an off-spin bowler should go outside that line on pitching.

For a leg-spin bowler, it works the other way around.

You can set this up by just putting down cones or poles on the pitch to mark out where it is you’re looking to turn the ball.

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Katchet

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

Katchet if you can

With the help of international cricketers, Katchet are revolutionising how cricket is coached om Sibley has made quite the impression during his first winter as an England player. His international career started with a sweetly-timed clip through midwicket for four and he has since scored an outstanding century in the New Year Test against South Africa. Sibley’s 133 not out at Newlands showed technique and discipline not seen in an England opener since Sir Alastair Cook.

As evidenced by his first ball in Test cricket, ZWINGO Katchet have developed the Zwingo, an orange bar that helps batsmen develop balance and efficiency in their shots.

Co-founder Colin Smith tells the Club Cricket Guide more.

“You hear commentators and writers go on about balance all the time. It can be something that players really struggle with when their head falls over as they play across their front pad, and it’s even more of a problem for taller batsmen.

“The Zwingo helps batsmen find their balance.”

Just standing on this coaching tool can be hard

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Sibley has relied upon his technique to score runs. A tall man, his leg-side tendencies would make him a prime lbw candidate were it not for his strong head position and balance.

While there is a bucket-load of natural talent in Sibley’s batting, he hasn’t become a Test batsman overnight.Years of practice and coaching have made him the force he is.

Now, thanks to Katchet and their coaching equipment, amateur cricketers can also maximise their potential. enough, even before a bat is introduced.

“You just have to be in your batting stance and to find your centre of gravity. Then you can start holding a bat and playing air shots without the ball. Finally once this is comfortable you can start hitting throwdowns, gradually increasing the speed.”

The benefits extend further than improving balance.

“You’re also getting your core stronger. All these little muscles that don’t normally get exercised are now being strained. After a short while you will start to feel muscles you didn’t know you had.”

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

SPINTECH Another one of Katchet’s new products is the brainchild of South Africa wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock.

The Spintech is a roll-up mat covered in wavy nodules, which replicates spin when the ball bounces on it.

“The concept behind the Spintech is that there really is nothing out there to simulate spin bowling, whether you are a batsman or a wicketkeeper,” Smith explained.

“Facing a spin-bowling machine isn’t quite the same as it swings more than spins and indoor surfaces don’t tend to turn. Unless you have a Merlyn you’re just not going to get the necessary simulation.”

The metre square mat is difficult to predict, just like spin bowling. For batsmen it encourages pro-active footwork, while for wicketkeepers it helps improve reflexes.

KOLLECTABALL Katchet have come up with a superb solution to every coach’s least favourite job. The KollectaBall is a device the allows you to retrieve up to 24 balls from the ground without having to bend over.

“I love this,” Smith laughed. “I used to pick up thousands of balls, I hated it, my back was painful and it took so much time.”

Originally designed to allow farmers to pick up olives and nuts, the device is an oval cage about the size of a rugby ball with a long handle.You roll it over a ball and the wires part to allow it into the cage.

What would previously have been a five-minute job can now be completed in 30 seconds.

“When I coach children, they’re often more than happy to watch you do it, but give them a KollectaBall and they are off!”

WIN! A SUPERB BUNDLE OF COACHING EQUIPMENT FROM KATCHET! Katchet are offering one winner and two runners-up these fantastic prizes.

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KollectaBall, Zwingo, SpinTech, 2 embroidered KoachSaks

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SpinTech and KollectaBall K-strike

OMTEX Katchet have recently made a new signing, with Omtex products now available. Cricketers the world over know the pain in the feet when standing in the field for eight hours, even more so for a batsman who spends much of that time running between the wicket or a bowler with plenty of overs under their belt.

But the Omtex socks provide both comfort and stability. With ventilation, cushioning and support, performance will not be disrupted because of sweaty or painful feet.

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21

getting kids ready

Looking after the

next generation FORMER LEICESTERSHIRE SEAMER AND ECB LEVEL 4 COACH SCOTT BOSWELL GIVES HIS TIPS ON HOW TO PREPARE YOUNGSTERS FOR THE NEW CAMPAIGN

s a former fast bowler myself – and now as a coach, I know how important it is to prepare a young seamer for a new season.

The first port of call is making sure each individual rests and recovers from the last season. I want them to have two months off to rest, recover and then reflect.

I want to get as much self-awareness from them, so they understand their action, a little bit about the mental side and a little bit about the physical side – just to see where they are at. I do that with all our cricketers.

22

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GET CRICKET READY

Then, after a good warm-up and a good stretch, I will video their action at four different points. From that, I will make sure that their actions are safe – I’ll analyse that myself and I’ll make sure that WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

there’s nothing looking drastically dangerous within their action. If there is, then I will go back to the individual and their county coaches, depending on what level the player is at.

I talk to them a lot about workloads, which I think is really important over the winter. Kids just want to bowl, which is great. But we have to make sure that we monitor their workloads. It’s something we’ve done over the last two years.

We have bought our bowlers clickers, so they can write

23

getting kids ready

down how many balls they’ve bowled. I go on the ECB 7-4-2 – in seven days, they’ll bowl no more than four times and not for more than two days in a row. I wouldn’t want them to bowl more than 36 balls in a session. Some of them are playing at school, club and county level. They might have four or five nets per week.

We have had boys break down with stress fractures because they’re constantly bowling the whole time. They are enthusiastic and keen, which is great.

One thing we did last year, which worked brilliantly, was that we colour-coded our sessions. If you had a green session, it was very coach-friendly – a lot of advice, we’d help them through the processes they were working on, whatever it may be.

We then did a yellow session, where there was a little bit of coaching but the ownership was more with the bowler.

With the red sessions, it was all about pressure. No coaching. Just you and your ball. You have to hit the stumps six times out of six. Or you have to bowl a perfect yorker or a bouncer. Let’s see you under pressure – if you don’t do it, there’s a consequence.

It worked brilliantly and the kids loved it. The kids knew what was coming, so they were preparing themselves mentally for what they’d be facing. It’s not easy to replicate pressure in a net situation, but this – giving them time to know what was coming – did help to do that.

We’ve also worked on the bowling warm-up itself. So much stress goes through the body when you bowl. I have really instilled it in them that they don’t just pick up a ball and run in to bowl. They actually have to prepare before

24

We all love quick bowling and club captains love having quick bowlers in their team.

But if you overbowl young faster bowlers the stats say that they will break down or they will lose their action launching a ball down.

We have created an environment where I will leave the medicine balls out and I won’t have to tell anyone that they should be using them. They’re there. You have to get these kids understanding how important it is to activate your muscles and get your heart rate up.

It’s the same at the end of each session – you have to get them understanding what they’ve been working on.

What has the goal been? What have they got from it? It’s the environment you create – you have to get the kids thinking for themselves.

There are times they won’t do their preparations, and I’ll just say: ‘Look, you’re putting six times your bodyweight through your front leg.’ Bowling is unnatural. You need to prepare yourself physically and mentally before you do it.

We all love quick bowling and club captains love having them in their teams, but if you continue to overbowl young fast bowlers, the stats say that they will break down.

Either that or they’ll lose their action. You are going to put them in a red zone. You have to monitor that very carefully. You have a duty of care as a coach.

Scott Boswell played for Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. Now an ECB Level 4 coach, he is head of cricket at Trent College. He also runs his own coaching company, Dynamic Cricket.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

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tips for an ageing body

Getting

older gracefully t’s not comforting to feel I will no longer be a power in the land. I have found personal success very gratifying.”

Sir Jack Hobbs,Test cricket’s oldest centurion, summed up the pain of leaving the greatest sport perfectly. Despite enjoying a glorious Test career spanning 22 years, and a firstclass tenure which had four more to run, Hobbs still found it hard to let go.

Imagine if he knew what we know now.

Over the past 20 years, knowledge of conditioning, nutrition and recovery in sport has multiplied.Teams and individuals are increasingly keen on marginal gains and any advantage they can have over a prospective opponent.

26

Hobbs played first-class cricket until he was nearly 52. He was far from unfit, even ignoring the lure of alcohol in his advanced years. But even someone with such longevity could learn something from recent breakthroughs.

In March, England Over-50s will participate in the World Cup in South Africa, with the final set to take place at Newlands.

Former England one-day international and Gloucestershire allrounder Mark Alleyne captains the team.With close to 700 professional appearances under his belt, the 51-year-old has ample experience in a pressure-filled environment, and in looking after his body.

“Cricket as a game is very demanding physically and as you CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

PETE DAVIES/TOPICAL PRESS AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

Nick Howson talks to England Over-50s captain Mark Alleyne about how cricketers of advancing years should look after their bodies

GET CRICKET READY get older the expectation diminishes somewhat, but those demands are still there,” he said. “If you are still playing at this age it means you probably react fairly intuitively to situations in the field and when batting and bowling.

“You need a decent response from the body, firstly to keep you safe, so you are not stressing a part of the body that is not up for it but, secondly, for enjoyment.

“It is great when you get two hands to a catch, hold onto it and maybe break your fall to the ground safely; it is great if you can run twos and threes when you play good shots; and it is great if you can bowl a second spell without feeling like a bit of cardboard.

“So mobility and maintaining a decent range of movement is important.”

Over the coming weeks, players will begin taking small steps back into cricket after a winter of idleness. Creaking bones and tired muscles make this prospect all the more daunting.

As Alleyne explains, if your preparation is insufficient then a period of disappointment awaits, “With a lot more wear and tear on our bodies, maintenance is important to avoid serious damage to joints,” he added. “We need to maintain the health of our tendons and muscles because together they provide the flexibility and strength the joint needs to function effectively.

“So the risks are central immobility from a damaged back and restricted movement from knee pain. Both restrictions make applying skills very difficult.

Being ill-prepared or undercooked is no fun. It hurts, and your recovery between innings and games is slowed down immediately. This can affect your mentality and confidence.

“Being ill-prepared or undercooked is no fun. Physically you cannot apply your skills for as long a period; it hurts, and your recovery between games and even between innings is slowed down immensely.This often affects your mentality and confidence and can often result in a slow start to the season.

“Trying to play catch-up causes anxiety which can further damage your confidence.You are more likely to injure yourself so even if you manage to start playing well, that could be cut short as you look to recover from your injury.”

If impending physical activity fills you with fear, then the worst thing you can do is put it off. Small steps now will feel like major leaps come mid-spring.

“My main advice will be start your preparation early so you can start slowly and increase as you approach the season,” Alleyne said. “The subtle change in intensity is better than huge changes. A maintenance programme is essential so you can manage yourself throughout the year.

“Cricket seasons can be very sociable, which is a huge part of the attraction; it may mean you have to work a bit harder but that is okay too.”

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Five steps to preparing the body for the new season 1. SUPPLEMENT YOUR TRAINING Alongside regular exercises, you would be well-advised to add vitamins to your diet.

Glucosamine, which assists with joint pain, anxiety-fighting Omega 3 and bone-strengthening Vitamin D, can assist with various ailments.

Sir Jack Hobbs

2. CONSULT YOUR COACH Your closest confidant upon your return to action should be your coach, who should be advising you on how to nurture yourself back to full fitness. They should be devising plans to ensure you are efficient in your work, and not overbearing yourself.

3. EXERCISES: BATTERS Balance at the crease is absolutely key. Ensure your legs are strong and reliable by strengthening them where possible. One-legged stances on wobble boards or beams can assist with this. Make it harder by adding a weight to the exercise.

4. EXERCISES: FIELDERS Reaching down for the ball is one of the most repeated skills on a cricket field. Prepare for this with Russian deadlifts using small weights. Develop the exercise by raising one leg off the ground and lifting it behind you.

5. EXERCISES: BOWLERS The most physically demanding skill must be prepared for properly. Concentrate on your back, initially, rocking back and forth on your heels while lying on the floor activating your glutes in the process. With your shoulders, ensure you have free and painless movement by rolling them over, trying to touch your ears.

27

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1 WEDNESDAY

APRIL 1 FRIDAY

MAY

2 THURSDAY

3 FRIDAY

Kent v Oxford 4 SATURDAY MCCU Canterbury Leeds/Bradfor d MCCU v Yorkshire Weetwood Durham v Durham MCCU Chester-le-Stre Middlesex et v Cambridge MCCU Merchant Gloucestershir Taylors e v Cardiff MCCU Bristol v Loughborough MCCU Grace Road

5 SUNDAY

6 MONDAY

2 SATURDAY

3 SUNDAY

4 MONDAY

Hampshire v Yorkshire Ageas Bowl Lancashire v Essex Old Trafford Surrey v Warwickshire The Oval Gloucestershir e v Somerset Bristol Northamptons hire v Kent Northampton Durham v Middlesex Chester-le-Stre Glamorgan et v Worcestershir e Cardiff Sussex v Leicestershire Hove Nottinghamsh ire v Derbyshire Trent Bridge

01 MONDAY

02 TUESDAY

04 THURSDAY England v

JUNE

Bir v Yor Edgbaston

5 TUESDAY

05 FRIDAY

West Indies

Yor v Lan Headingley

Dur v Lei Chester-le-Stree t

Not v Wor Trent Bridge Mid v Ham Lord’s

Sus v Som Hove Glo v Gla Bristol

6 WEDNESDAY

1st Test, The

Bir v Lan Edgbaston Nor v Dur Northampton

06 SATURDAY Oval

Ken v Glo Canterbury

1 WEDNESDAY

WORLD CUP

PREVIEW

JULY

01 SATURDAY

AUGUST

England v

02 SUNDAY

1 TUESDAY

Ken v Ham

ALL SUNDAY 2:

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08 MONDAY

04 TUESDAY

S Brave v T Ageas Bowl Rock

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05 WEDNESDAY

06 THURSDAY

07 FRIDAY England v

11 THURSDAY

09 SUNDAY

10 MONDAY

Test, Old Trafford

5 SATURDAY

6 SUNDAY

7 MONDAY

8 TUESDAY

Eng W v SA W 1st ODI, Canterbury Hampshire Lancashire

9 WEDNESDAY

v Northamptons

11 SATURDAY

12 SUNDAY

Eng v Aus 1st ODI Lord’s Der v Nor Derby

I

England Women

ODI/T20I

Specsavers

County Championshi p Div 1/2

Vitality Blast

14 SUNDAY

14 TUESDAY

Eng v Aus 2nd Ageas Bowl ODI

Ken v Mid Canterbury

15 MONDAY

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13 MONDAY

16 TUESDAY

17 FRIDAY

17 SUNDAY

18 MONDAY

L Spir v S Brave Lord’s Oval I v W Fire Beckenham S Brave v M Orig Hove

Trent Bridge

16 THURSDAY

Eng v Aus 3rd ODI Bristol Herts v Mid Radlett

18 THURSDAY

17 FRIDAY

18 SATURDAY

ALL FRIDAY 17:

15 SATURDAY

16 SUNDAY

Eng U19 v WI U19 T20I, Beckenham

ON SALE

17 MONDAY

B Phoe v L Spir Edgbaston M Orig v N Old TraffordSupe

18 TUESDAY

Eng U19 v WI U19 1st ODI, Beckenham

Women’s 100 Men’s Semi-Final Hove Final 100 Semi- RL50 Semi-Final Lord’s Women’s 100 TBC Men’s 100 Final Hove Final RL50 Semi-Final Lord’s TBC

T20 Group

21 THURSDAY

20 SATURDAY

hire v West

24 FRIDAY

25 SATURDAY

19 WEDNESDAY

20 MONDAY

23 SATURDAY

24 SUNDAY

22 MONDAY

Wor v Lei New Road Lan v Not Old Trafford Dur v Der Chester-le-Stre

Ham v Gla Ageas Bowl Ken v Ess Canterbury

23 TUESDAY

N Supe v Oval I Headingley

25 MONDAY

Bir v Nor Edgbaston

21 FRIDAY

22 SATURDAY

Pakistan 3rd

l

14 MONDAY

Test, Trent Bridge Eng U19 v WI U19 2nd ODI, Beckenham Eng U19 v WI U19 T20 Quarter-Final T20 Quarter-Final 3rd ODI, Beckenham TBC TBC

Yorkshire

ON SALE

One-Day

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17 THURSDAY

18 FRIDAY

Headingley v Gloucestershir e Old Trafford Essex v Kent Chelmsford Somerset v Surrey Taunton Northamptons hire v Warwickshire Northampton Durham v Worcestershir e Chester-le-Stre Glamorgan et v Leicestershire Cardiff Sussex v Nottinghamsh ire Hove Derbyshire v Middlesex Derby

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21 MONDAY

23 SUNDAY

23 WEDNESDAY

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22 TUESDAY

The Hundred

ND

England Under-19

29 WEDNESDAY

30 THURSDAY

Lan v Nor Liverpool

West Indies 28 SUNDAY 3rd Test, Lord’s Eng W v India 29 MONDAY W 1st T20I, Taunton Eng W v India Lei v Yor W 2nd T20I, Bristol Bir v Der Grace Road Edgbaston Der v Wor Yorkshire Yor v Wor Derby v Essex Headingley Headingley Lancashire

Sur v Gla The Oval Sus v Glo Hove

Dur v Lan Chester-le-Stre

Nor v Not Northampton

24 FRIDAY

25 SATURDAY

Northampton

B Phoe v S Brave Oval Edgbaston I v M Orig The Oval B Phoe v S Brave T Edgbaston Rock v W Trent Bridge Fire M Orig v Oval I T Rock v W Sedbergh School Trent Bridge Fire Sus v Ken Eastbourne Dur v Lan South Northumberland CC

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24 THURSDAY

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29 WEDNESDAY Oval I v L Spir The Oval Oval I v L Spir The Oval

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25 TUESDAY

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27 SATURDAY

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15 TUESDAY

16 WEDNESDAY England v Ireland Eng 3rd ODI, The Oval 4th W v SA W ODI, Grace Road

28 THURSDAY Worcestershir

26 FRIDAY

Ham v Sur Ageas Bowl Gla v Mid Cardiff

L Spir v N Supe Lord’s L Spir v N Supe Lord’s

B Phoe v M New Road Orig Ess v Wor Chelmsford

Der v Gla Derby

War v Nor ECSG, Portland Road

Lei v Sur TBC

20 THURSDAY

England v

27 WEDNESDAY

Ess v Glo Chelmsford

23 THURSDAY

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S Brave v M Ageas Bowl Orig

Dur v Glo Scarborough

26 TUESDAY

Sur v Mid The Oval

25 THURSDAY England v

Som v Ham Taunton

et

22 WEDNESDAY

L Spir v T Rock Lord’s

War v Som Edgbaston

28 TUESDAY

Sus v Ken Hove

24 WEDNESDAY

Som v Mid Taunton

21 TUESDAY

27 MONDAY

e Canterbury v Lancashire Edgbaston v Surrey Headingley

Warwickshire Yorkshire

Somerset v Hampshire Taunton Northamptons hire v Essex Northampton Worcestershir e v Sussex New Road Middlesex v Derbyshire Lord’s Leicestershire v Glamorgan Grace Road

ON SALE

19 SUNDAY

T Rock v B Phoe Trent Bridge W Fire v S Brave Cardiff

26 SUNDAY

Kent v Gloucestershir

ON SALE

22 FRIDAY

03 nationa

Royal London

23 THURSDAY

ON SALE

21 SUNDAY

Indies Northampton

12 SATURDAY

13 SUNDAY England v Ireland 2nd ODI, Edgbaston Eng W v SA W 3rd ODI, Headingley

FINAL AT

North/South

22 WEDNESDAY

England Lions v West Indies Taunton Hampshire v Lancashire Ageas Bowl Warwickshire v Somerset Edgbaston Gloucestershir e v Surrey Bristol Northamptons hire v Yorkshire Northampton Kent v Essex Canterbury Worcestershir e v Nottinghamsh ire New Road Durham v Glamorgan Chester-le-Stre Middlesex et v Leicestershire Lord’s Derbyshire v Sussex Derby

19 FRIDAY

T20 Quarter-Final T20 Quarter-Final TBC TBC

ON SALE

20 WEDNESDAY

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Suffolk v Ken Ham v Wor Herefordshire Copdock, Ageas Bowl Ipswich Wor v Lincs v Dur Eastnor Lan v Mid Staffs v Lei Grantham Sedbergh Norfolk v Knypersley School Not Horsford, Norwich Sus v Dur Northumberla Hove v Yor Jesmond nd Cheshire v War Ess v Ken Chester Boughton Devon v Som Hall Chelmsford Beds v Nor Exmouth Yor v Not Bedford School Wilts v Glo Scarborough Wales MC South Wilts, v Gla Sur Salisbury Newport v Nor Shrops v Der The Oval Oxford v Sus Shifnal The Parks

14 FRIDAY

20 MONDAY

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19 TUESDAY

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Dorset v Ham North Perrott Cambs v Ess TBC

13 THURSDAY

19 SUNDAY

Hampshire 21 TUESDAY v Kent Ageas Bowl Warwickshire v Northamptons hire Edgbaston Surrey v Somerset The Oval Gloucestershir e v Lancashire Bristol Essex v Yorkshire Chelmsford Durham v Nottinghamsh ire Chester-le-Stre Glamorgan et v Middlesex Sophia Gardens v Leicestershire Derby

Derbyshire

17 WEDNESDAY

et

Gla v Sus Cardiff Glo v Som Bristol

12 WEDNESDAY

18 SATURDAY

Ham v Som Ageas Bowl Mid v Ken Lord’s Sus v Sur Hove

ire v Glamorgan

15 WEDNESDAY

Berks v Mid Falkland Cornwall v Som Truro

IN D IA v EN G LA

Travel

16 SATURDAY

Hampshire v Warwickshire Ageas Bowl Surrey v Kent The Oval Yorkshire v Lancashire Scarborough Essex v Northamptons hire Chelmsford Somerset v Gloucestershir e Taunton Derbyshire v Worcestershir e Chesterfield Durham v Leicestershire Chester-le-Stre Sussex v Middlesex et Hove

Ess v Ham Chelmsford

11 TUESDAY

Worcestershir

England Test/ODI/T20

15 FRIDAY

16 THURSDAY

10 THURSDAY

Bowl

v Yorkshire Old Trafford Surrey v Essex The Oval Gloucestershir e v Warwickshire Bristol e v Derbyshire New Road Middlesex v Durham Lord’s Glamorgan v Sussex Cardiff Leicestershire v Nottinghamsh ire Grace Road

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14 THURSDAY

2nd Test, Edgbaston

Not v Lei Trent Bridge

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11 FRIDAY England v Ireland Eng 1st ODI, Trent Bridge 2nd W v SA W ODI, Derby hire Ageas

13 SATURDAY

West Indies

Wor v Not New Road Yor v Nor Headingley Lan v Der Old Trafford Dur v Bir Chester-le-Stre et Sur v Ess The Oval Gla v Som Cardiff Sus v Ham Hove Glo v Mid Bristol

L Spir v Oval I S Brave v W Lord’s Ageas Bowl Fire B Phoe v T L Spir v W Rock W Fire Edgbaston Fire v L Spir T Rock v Oval Northampton T Rock v N Cardiff I W Fire v M Derby Wor v Dur Orig Trent BridgeSupe Oval I v B Phoe B Phoe v L Bristol Mid v Glo New Road Spir The Oval New Road Radlett Ken v Lan L Spir v T N Supe v S Rock Ess v Sus Canterbury Chelmsford York CC Brave Chelmsford Gla v War N Supe v B Phoe Not v Som Cardiff York CC ALL SUNDAY 9: Trent Bridge Yor v Sur Dur v Ess Lei v Der York CC Not v Lei Chester-le-Stre et Welbeck Grace Road Sus v Glo Der v Sur Horsham Derby Ham v Lan Nor v Gla Newclose, IOW Northampton Mid v Ken Som v Yor Radlett Taunton

T20 Semi-Final Edgbaston

Southall

12 FRIDAY

Nor v Wor Northampton Mid v Sus Lord’s et

9 THURSDAY

10 FRIDAY Eng W v India 4th ODI, Hove W Nor v Bir Lan v Yor Northampton Old Trafford Glo v Ken Bir v Wor Cheltenham Edgbaston Sur v Sus Lei v Dur The Oval Grace Road Mid v Ess Not Merchant Taylors Trentv Der Bridge Ham v Mid Ageas Bowl Som v Gla Taunton Sur v Ken The Oval Sus v Ess Hove

13

Yorkshire v Kent Headingley Lancashire v Somerset Old Trafford Surrey v Northamptons hire Guildford Essex v Hampshire Chelmsford Worcestershir e v Middlesex New Road Glamorgan v Derbyshire Cardiff Leicestershire v Durham Grace Road Nottinghamsh ire v Sussex Trent Bridge

England v

08 SATURDAY

Pakistan 2nd

N Supe v M Headingley Orig

T20 Semi-Final Edgbaston T20 Final Edgbaston

Dur v Sus

11 MONDAY

N Supe v M Headingley Orig

War v Sur Ess v Lan

10 WEDNESDAY

Yor v Der Headingley

8 WEDNESDAY

12 SUNDAY

MONDAY Yorkshire 14 TUESDAY v Gloucestershir e Headingley 15 WEDNESDAY Lancashire v Kent Old Trafford Somerset v Warwickshire Taunton Middlesex v Worcestershir e Lord’s Sussex v Durham Hove Nottinghamsh ire v Leicestershire Trent Bridge Hampshire v Loughborough MCCU Ageas Cambridge Bowl MCCU v Essex Fenner’s Glamorgan v Cardiff MCCU Sophia Gardens Northamptons hire v Leeds/Bradford MCCU Northampton Oxford MCCU v Surrey The Parks Derbyshire v Durham 12 TUESDAY MCCU Derby 13 WEDNESDAY

Lan v Lei Old Trafford Dur v Not Chester-le-Stre

hire v Lancashire Northampton Middlesex v Glamorgan Merchant Taylors Leicestershire v Sussex Grace Road v Nottinghamsh ire Derby Worcestershir e v Durham New Road

S Brave v T Ageas Bowl Rock Dur v Ham Darlington Lan v Ess Liverpool Glo v Wor Bristol Yor v Nor York CC Der v War Derby Sur v Not The Oval Som v Lei Taunton

Som v Yor

09 TUESDAY

11 SATURDAY

10 SUNDAY

Ham v Ess Ageas Bowl Gla v Ken Cardiff Glo v Sur Bristol

Derbyshire

Wor v Lei

9 SATURDAY

10 FRIDAY

I want kids to play on the outfields at Tests”

4 SATURDAY

Nor v Glo

KEY:

07 SUNDAY

Eng v Aus 1st T20I Eng 5 SUNDAY Chester-le-Stree W v India 6 MONDAY W Eng v t 2nd ODI, Chelmsford Aus 2nd 7 TUESDAY Old Trafford T20I Eng W v India Lei v Der W Eng v 3rd ODI, Canterbury Aus 3rd Grace Road Gloucestershir Headingley T20I e v Yorkshire Cheltenham Warwickshire v Kent Edgbaston Surrey v Hampshire The Oval Essex v Somerset Chelmsford Northamptons

B Phoe v M Edgbaston Orig

Lei v Yor Grace Road Nor v Som Northampton Gla v Not Newport Sur v War The Oval

8 FRIDAY

Lei v Bir Grace Road Ham v Glo Ageas Bowl Mid v Gla Richmond Som v Ess Taunton

Wor v Dur New Road Nor v Lei Northampton

03 MONDAY

Test, Lord’s

T Rock v Oval Trent Bridge I W Fire v S Brave Taunton Oval I v B Phoe Beckenham

Wor v Ken New Road Lan v Sus Old Trafford Glo v Ham Bristol Ess v Mid Chelmsford

3 FRIDAY

7 THURSDAY

Der v Bir Derby

Not v Lan Trent Bridge Glo v Sus Cheltenham Ken v Som Canterbury Sur v Ham The Oval Gla v Ess Cardiff

Pakistan 1st

W Fire v N Supe Cardiff T Rock v N Supe Derby

Eng W v SA W 1st T20I, Hove

SEPTEMBER

T20

2 THURSDAY Eng W v India 1st ODI, New W Road Yor v Ess Yor v Bir Headingley Lan v War Lan v Wor Nor v Sur Old Trafford Mid v Sur Lord’s

Ken v Som Gla v Dur Sus v Der Lei v Mid Not v Wor

8 WEDNESDAY

Wor v Yor New Road Lan v Dur Old Trafford Nor v Der Northampton

Lei v Wor Grace Road Der v Not Derby Sus v Gla Hove Ess v Ken Chelmsford

Som v Sur Taunton

Glo v Ham

Summer fix tures wallcha rt 2020

Kent v Surrey Beckenham Warwickshire v Hampshire Edgbaston Essex v Gloucestershir e Chelmsford Somerset v Northamptons hire Taunton Middlesex v Nottinghamsh ire Lord’s Sussex v Glamorgan Hove Leicestershire v Worcestershir e Grace Road Derbyshire v Durham Derby

03 WEDNESDAY

Wor v Nor New Road

WOMEN’S

7 TUESDAY

Lancashire 9 THURSDAY v Durham MCCU Old Trafford Cambridge MCCU v Nottinghamsh ire Fenner’s Loughborough MCCU v Worcestershir Sussex v Oxford e Loughborough MCCU Hove Somerset v Cardiff MCCU Taunton Leeds/Bradfor d MCCU v Warwickshire Weetwood

Leicestershire

Ken v Glo Tunbridge

30 THURSDAY England v

29 SATURDAY

31 FRIDAY

Pakistan 1st

N Supe v S Headingley Brave W Fire v N Supe Bristol T Rock v B Phoe Grace Road

Wells

Test, Lord’s

M Orig v L Spir Old Trafford

M Orig v L Spir Old Trafford S Brave v Oval I Hove

Ham v Sus Ageas Bowl Wor v Mid New Road Ken v Dur Tunbridge Wells Nor v Lei Northampton Gla v Yor Newport War v Not Edgbaston Som v Der Taunton

30 SUNDAY

Eng v Pakistan 1st T20I, Headingley

31 MONDAY

Eng v Pakistan 2nd T20I, Cardiff

25 FRIDAY

Kent v Hampshire Canterbury Warwickshire v Surrey Edgbaston Essex v Lancashire Chelmsford Somerset v Yorkshire Taunton Worcestershir e v Leicestershire New Road Durham v Sussex Chester-le-Stre et Derbyshire v Glamorgan Derby Nottinghamsh ire v Middlesex Trent Bridge Northants v Gloucs Northampton

26 SATURDAY

27 SUNDAY

Hampshire v Somerset Ageas Bowl Kent v Lancashire Canterbury Warwickshire v Essex Edgbaston Surrey v Yorkshire The Oval Gloucestershir e v Northamptons hire Bristol Worcestershir e v Glamorgan New Road Middlesex v Sussex Lord’s Leicestershire v Derbyshire Grace Road ire v Durham Trent Bridge

28 MONDAY

29 SUNDAY

30 MONDAY

Nottinghamsh

National counties

50-over match

SEPT/OCT 2020 3 X ODIs & 3 X T20s

WW W.S TSP ORT

Pakistan tour

match

West Indies

tour match

MCCU/Unive

rsity matches

JAN/MA R 2021 5 TEST MATCH ES

S.CO M/C RICK

Day/night

match

All fixtures are correct going to print at time of but are © The Cricketer liable to change.

Published Publishing,

by The Cricketer 2020.

Publishing Ltd.

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GOOD GEAR GUIDE THE LATEST BATS TESTED & RATED 32 Bats 44 Boutique bats 52 Masuri 54 Softs

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

56 BACA feature

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

31

bats

£120 – £180

Kookaburra Pace 5.2

RRP: £125.00 Weight: 2lb 6 oz

Gunn & Moore

RATING

7.3

Eclipse Signature

Owzat price: £99.99 Edges: 31mm

RRP: £165.00 Weight: 2lb 11oz

32

Owzat price: £131.99 Edges: 33mm

Who it is

Not Beyoncé, or even Kelly Rowland

Once great, now out of place

Dion Dublin

The budget Kookaburra trailed its monochrome colleagues, promising a light feel for versatile strokeplay but leaving several testers wanting more gusto. Frankie was a fan until he hit the nets, calling it “unforgiving”, Georgia found it “lacking ping” and Guy noted uneven grains on the bat face.

Pick up/feel

7.3

Who it is

Michelle Williams

Initial Impression

RATING

7

Build Quality

7

7.6

Performance

7.6

Emily and Frankie each found Gunn & Moore’s budget option on the heavier side, though Steven grew accustomed to its bottom-leaning weight and found it far more suited to frontfoot play. Good first impressions and sturdy build quality could not make up for what Nick called a “horrible” pick-up, though Simon found it “alarmingly light”.

Initial Impression

7.7

Build Quality

8

Pick up/feel

6.6

Performance

6.7

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GOOD GEAR GUIDE Adidas

8.2 Gray-Nicolls RATING

XT GREY 5.0 RRP: £175.00 Weight: 2lb 9oz

Maax 200

Owzat price: £139.99 Edges: 36mm

RRP: £175.00 Weight: 2lb 10oz

6.9 Owzat price: £139.99 Edges: 36mm

Who it is

Who it is

Lives up to expectation

Fluorescent and tolerable

Mo Salah

Simply Red

“Very light with a fantastic weight transfer,” were Sam’s comments and Nick was equally enthusiastic, calling it “the best bat so far”. Its glorious middle ensured there are rewards for those who go after the ball, and the quality grain completes a well-rounded bat.

Initial Impression

7.3

Build Quality

8

Pick up/feel

8.6

Performance

8.9

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

RATING

Frankie enjoyed the Maax’s middle, finding “a lot of ping” when his shots connected, but the new model found itself at the lower end of our collection thanks in part to its lime green trim. Sam and Guy found it little more than adequate, pointing out a weighty feel.

Initial Impression

6.2

Build Quality

7.6

Pick up/feel

6.4

Performance

7.4

33

bats

£180 – £200

New Balance TC560

RRP: £190.00 Weight: 2lb 9 oz

RATING

7.3

Owzat price: £153.99 Edges: 35mm

Gray-Nicolls RRP: £200.00 Weight: 2lb 9 oz

Owzat price: £159.99 Edges: 36mm

Who it is

Who it is

Superstar with muscle

Not a great sound

Cheryl

New Balance bats now come with high expectations because of the stars who currently use them. Georgia commented on its “glitzy” look while Steven liked the increasing handle thickness. The weight worked for Frankie – “it allows you to swing through your shots” – and Nick enjoyed its “ping off the middle”.

Pick up/feel

34

7.7

Oblivion Stealth 4 Star

Zac Efron

Initial Impression

RATING

Steven found the Oblivion’s shape confidence-boosting, and high scores across our testers in the performance and pickup categories had it as an early frontrunner. However, Emily and Ross both found its middle too elusive, with shots “not coming out cleanly” and praise reserved for its appearance.

7.5

Build Quality

7.3

Initial Impression

7.2

Build Quality

7.3

7

Performance

7.3

Pick up/feel

8.3

Performance

8

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GOOD GEAR GUIDE Kookaburra Concept 2.0 RRP: £200.00 Weight: 2lb 9 oz

Newbery

RATING

7.8

RATING

7.0

Axe G4

Owzat price: £159.99 Edges: 35mm

RRP: £200.00 Weight: 2lb 9 oz

Owzat price: £159.99 Edges: 34mm

Who it is

Who it is

Chunky and intriguing

Unspectacular but always around

The Hulk

Chris Packham

The transparent grip and intriguing design proved divisive, with Sajeer noting the tapered toe design resulted in a sweet spot that was shorter than expected and a stodgy bottom end. However, Frankie and Emily disagreed and enjoyed the weight distribution that resulted from a blade half an inch shorter than that of a standard short handle bat.

Initial Impression

7.4

Build Quality

8

Pick up/feel

7.8

Performance

7.8

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

The Axe divided opinions, with a clunky feel in the hands and a fusion of gaudy modern design with Newbery’s traditional template. For Georgia, the top-heavy construction led to a “plank-like” feeling, while Nick found it “hard work” to get his strokes away.

Initial Impression

7.1

Build Quality

7.3

Pick up/feel

6.7

Performance

7

35

bats

£210 – £300

Kookaburra Shadow 3.3 RRP: £240.00 Weight: 2lb 9oz

RATING

7.9 Owzat price: £189.99 Edges: 35mm

Gunn & Moore Siren 808 RRP: £265.00 Weight: 2lb 9oz

Who it is

Who it is

Eccentricity reined in

A trusty companion

Donkey from Shrek

After middling first impressions, each of our testers warmed to the Shadow as the day went on. Emily enjoyed its low middle and Guy called it the bat of the day, while Nick praised its light pickup and straightforward presentation. Ross was the biggest fan, describing it as “one to rely on if you time it well”.

Pick up/feel

36

7.4

Owzat price: £209.99 Edges: 34mm

Harry Styles

Initial Impression

RATING

More attention-seeking than the other designs, Georgia found the Siren “forgiving” should one miss the middle. The Nottinghamshire manufacturer’s mid-range option earned consistent, reliable scores across the board from our team, with only Ross’ remark that it was “a little heavy” bringing down its final score.

7

Build Quality

7.8

Initial Impression

7.5

Build Quality

7.2

8.2

Performance

8.7

Pick up/feel

7.8

Performance

7.2

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

BEST OF THE BEST Cricket bats for every budget.

Available online now.

bats

£210 – £300

New Balance Balance DC680 RRP: £265.00 Weight: 2lb 8oz

RATING

8.1

Owzat price: £209.99 Edges: 35mm

Adidas

RATING

8.3

Incurza 3.0 RRP: £275.00 Weight: 2lb 9oz

Owzat price: £219.99 Edges: 35mm

Who it is

Who it is

Flashy performer

Flashy, nimble, fast

Cristiano Ronaldo

As modelled by Steve Smith, the DC680 started off well with its glittery blue tones but truly made its case in the net. Sajeer praised the “good balance and perfect weight” and Georgia found it a strong option despite being slightly bottom-heavy. Rating it as his joint-favourite of the day, Sam said “it puts the effort in so you don’t have to”.

Lewis Hamilton

The Incurza 3.0 is one of the modern breed of bats. Its eye-catching design couples with its light pick-up to create a big-hitting willow for the shorter formats of the game. Nick praised its “big middle” while Frankie commented: “it feels great in the hands”.

Initial Impression

7.9

Build Quality

7.8

Initial Impression

Pick up/feel

7.9

Performance

8.8

Pick up/feel

38

8

Build Quality

8.2

8.2

Performance

8.7

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GOOD GEAR GUIDE

£300 plus

Chase

RATING

7.8

RII Volante RRP: £295.00 Weight: 2lb 11oz

Gray-Nicolls

7.9

Powerbow 5 Star Lite RRP: £300.00 Weight: 2lb 8oz

Owzat price: £234.99 Edges: 38mm

RATING

Owzat price: £239.99 Edges: 32mm

Who it is

Who it is

Bland yet pleasant

Brilliant in prime, cracked under pressure

Britney Spears

Alexander Armstrong

The more affordable Chase bat in our test selection also earned praise for its smart presentation and even weight distribution, with Frankie hailing its “strong, hearty middle” and Guy saying it goes about its work with “minimal fuss”. Its scores slipped compared to its high-end sibling primarily in the hand feel.

A slimline throwback to a Gray-Nicolls classic, this vibrant bat “promised much but delivered little” in Sam’s hands and was the first to show surface signs of strain (“it’s a slightly damp bonfire”). Nevertheless, throughout the day our testers loved its low middle and grew fond of what Frankie called “its odd shape” and “jazzy appearance”.

Initial Impression

7.5

Build Quality

7.8

Initial Impression

7.6

Build Quality

7.7

Pick up/feel

7.5

Performance

8.2

Pick up/feel

8.4

Performance

8

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

39

bats

£300 plus

Newbery

Optimax

RATING

7.2

The Master Players RRP: £350.00 Weight: 2lb 10oz

RATING

7.4

Black

Owzat price: £279.99 Edges: 35mm

RRP: £325.00 Weight: 2lb 9oz

Owzat price: £299.99 Edges: 36mm

Who it is

Who it is

Statesmanlike but no longer in power

Developed in-house

An old-fashioned, narrow-handle design from the Hove-based batmakers, but nevertheless one Guy thought resembled a “traffic cone”. Nick and Sam found a very strong middle in the heavy blade, while Simon saw high-quality willow and the curved bottom end to be suitable for several different batting stances.

Frankie praised its performance off the middle and Nick did compliment its build quality but the weight didn’t seem to give much back for most testers. The bat does look sharp, though, and when it does come out the screws it travels.

Barack Obama

Initial Impression Pick up/feel

40

Matt Baker

7.1

Build Quality

7

7

Performance

7.6

Initial Impression

7.5

Build Quality

7.8

Pick up/feel

6.8

Performance

6.8

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GOOD GEAR GUIDE SF

8.2 Chase RATING

Summit Elite RRP: £400 Weight: 2lb 9oz

RATING

Four Leaf Clover

Owzat price: £319.99 Edges: 36mm

RRP: £430.00 Weight: 2lb 10oz

Who it is

Turns out to be all right

Classic magical being

Gandalf

Nick claimed this bat made him “feel like Brian Lara” and liked the updated branding. Simon praised its “unbelievable middle” but Georgia said it was “almost there”. The longer handle caused slight bruising on the wrists but the slightly heavier feel contributed to a smooth, even pick-up.

Pick up/feel

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

Owzat price: £344.99 Edges: 37mm

Who it is

Lewis Capaldi

Initial Impression

9.1

Our runaway winner thanks to its elegant looks and performance to match. Guy found the Hampshire bat “inspires confidence” while Sam got carried away: “one to take home to the parents”. Emily and Frankie both loved the long middle, which Chase claims to be an eight-inch sweet spot, while Ross struggled to mis-time his strokes.

8.2

Build Quality

8

8

Performance

8.5

Initial Impression

9.5

Build Quality

8.8

Pick up/feel

9.2

Performance

8.8

41

bats

£300 plus

Gunn & Moore Icon Original RRP: £440.00 Weight: 2lb 9oz

8.2 Masuri RATING

RATING

8.6

TLine

Owzat price: £349.99 Edges: 31mm

RRP: £450.00 Weight: 2lb 9oz

Owzat price: £359.99 Edges: 35mm

Who it is

Who it is

One to put a ring on

Handsome, multiple careers

Beyoncé

David Beckham

The premium member of the Gunn & Moore range made excellent first impressions with minimal, transparent stickering, and the majority of our testers found it enjoyable to play with. Georgia found the hexagonal grip pattern excellent for bottom-hand play, Steven found it converting him to the curved toe design. Praise was not universal, however.

Masuri’s transition from helmets into bats has been a success and this fine bat is proof. Steven called it “a brilliant all-round bat” while Nick is so convinced that he “might buy one himself”. The 35mm edges “encourage aggression”, and when one comes off the middle it “goes with a bang”.

Initial Impression

8.7

Build Quality

8.5

Initial Impression

8.5

Build Quality

8.7

Pick up/feel

8.3

Performance

7.3

Pick up/feel

8.3

Performance

8.8

42

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

Boutique Bats

Garrard & Flack 2.20 Grade One RRP: £300

Weight: 2lb 9oz

RATING

7.7

Edges: 38mm

Mongoose

RATING

MMi3 Super Premium RRP: £280

Weight: 2lb 14oz

7.1

Edges: 41mm

Who it is

Who it is

Reliable and understated

Full of clever ideas

Kimi Raikkonen

Simon Cowell

This classic-looking bat received a positive reaction from the testers. “It plays lighter than it looks,” said Nick, and Emily complimented its sturdy build, central middle and even weight distribution. There is also clever innovation with the slanted toe, so the end rests flat on the ground when the batter is in his or her stance.

Remember when Mongoose tore up the rule book a decade ago? They’re back and hitting further than ever before.

“When you nail it, you really nail it,” Nick said. “But it takes a bit of getting used to”. Emily reflected on “an outer body experience” but Simon wasn’t entirely sure of the bat’s balance. 10 years on and this bat is no less intriguing.

Initial Impression

7.8

Build Quality

7.5

Initial Impression

6.4

Build Quality

7.8

Pick up/feel

7.8

Performance

7.8

Pick up/feel

6.2

Performance

8

44

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

WHEN YOU

LET LOOSE THE GOOSE YOU’RE BATTING FOR MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE!

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Boutique Bats

Prophecy

RATING

7.4

Prestige L.E. RRP: £225

Weight: 2lb 8oz

Edges: 32mm

Willow Twin Gold Edition RRP: £355

Weight: 2lb 8oz

RATING

8.2 Edges: 38mm

Who it is

Who it is

Better than expected

Shiny and charitable

A newcomer to the scene, Simon praised the Prophecy’s grain and the craft that went into its manufacturing. Nick was pleased with the performance, saying: “It felt really good in the hand and came through the swing nicely”. Some testers were still to be convinced by the appearance but the middle performed strongly “even when defending”.

Simon complimented the bow of the bat and praised the “decent grain”. Emily liked the weight distribution while Ross approved of the shiny design. When you purchase a bat from the range, you become a ‘Willow Twin’ and are paired with a Change Foundation young person, helping support them through the Change Foundation programmes.

Vegan Sausage Roll

Mick Jagger

Initial Impression

6

Build Quality

6.8

Initial Impression

8.6

Build Quality

8.4

Pick up/feel

8

Performance

8.6

Pick up/feel

7.9

Performance

7.9

46

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

WILLOW T WIN

In partnership with

Be part of THE CHANGE. 20% off with code CRICKETER

Willow Twin

@willowtwin_uk

willowtwincricket

www.willowtwin.co.uk

Boutique Bats

Woodstock Airstream Player L.E. Grade RRP: £345

World Class Willow 7.5

RATING

Weight: 2lb 7oz

RATING

8.1

Blue

Edges: 38mm

RRP: £275

Weight: 2lb 9oz

Who it is

Who it is

Classic British technology

Precise and professional

James Hunt

Gabby Logan

“Love a Woodstock,” were Nick’s first words. “This is a great bat to use if you haven’t played for a while. Easy pick-up and hits well”. Guy described it as “unadulterated wood” and compared hitting the middle to “nailing a gear change”.

Initial Impression

7.5

Build Quality

8

Pick up/feel

8.5

Performance

8.3

48

Edges: 40mm

“You can tell that the wood has been selected very carefully,” Simon commented. “This is some expert handy work and picks up really nicely, like a wand. It’s got a great middle and I would feel confident batting with it.” Simon certainly approved, as did Nick who said: “It goes as well as anything I’ve felt in a year.”

Initial Impression

7.2

Build Quality

7.8

Pick up/feel

7.2

Performance

7.8

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

Handcrafted Professional Bats

Woodstock Cricket Company are makers of the finest hand crafted professional cricket bats and kit. We bring traditional cricketing qualities and professional craftsmanship to today’s modern, competitive game.

• • • • •

Made in Shropshire, England, from the finest English willow Bats are fitted with the highest quality 12-piece sarawak cane handles Bespoke service for those who are after a custom fit Full gear for all ages including luggage, pads, gloves and balls Used by pro & amateur cricketers around the world

Woodstock Cricket Co. Red Furlongs, Clee St Margaret, Nr Ludlow Shropshire, SY7 9EB Mobile 01584 823575 Email john@woodstockcricket.co.uk Website www.woodstockcricket.co.uk

Woodstock-HalfPage 14.1.16.indd 1

15/01/2016 11:18

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Boutique Bats

World Class Willow 7.7

World Class Willow 8.4

RATING

ProX20 RRP: £325

Weight: 2lb 9oz

RATING

Orca

Edges: 40mm

RRP: £325

Weight: 2lb 11oz

Who it is

Who it is

Easy to be yourself

Long, straight drive

John Craven

Tiger Woods

“This bat is like the friend you want on a night out.You can be yourself and have a great time.” Sam’s opinion on the ProX20 makes some sense. This is a bat that allows players to express themselves by going for either the big shot or a cute dink. It has meat and precision in equal measure.You can do what you desire and the bat won’t stop you.

Initial Impression

6.6

Build Quality

7.4

Pick up/feel 8.6

Performance

8

50

Edges: 40mm

The name fits; this bat is a whale. The 40mm edges ensure a delivery stays hit. Nick agreed – “it goes big if you get it right but hurts slightly if you get it wrong”. Steven declared it his bat of the day and Georgia was pleased with the light pick-up of the large willow.

Initial Impression

7.5

Build Quality

8.8

Pick up/feel 8.3

Performance

9

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

WORLD CLASS WILLOW @worldclasswillow_uk worldclasswillow.uk @worldclasswill1

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Masuri

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

Padding up

Masuri

with

Masuri have a long-standing pedigree in the cricket industry and are known globally for their helmet range.

In 2019 they brought a new collection of protective equipment and bats to market, differentiating the range based on levels of protection rather than colour or player endorsement.

The Club Cricket Guide put the kit through its paces.

BATTING Market leaders in helmet manufacturing, Masuri are proud to place a premium on protection - and it’s required with the ‘body on the line’ attitude to today’s ambitious strike rates.

Having invented the neck protector, and having been the first to offer head and neck protection for batters at the crease, Masuri have now applied their experience in impact absorption to a new batting range.

The new E Line Batting Gloves showcase Masuri’s pioneering innovation and unique protective elements, all in a catching silver.

There is a Thumb Claw and the Meta Shield on the inside forefinger, and two Wrist Bars on the wrist strap.The glove slips on beautifully and it is hard to imagine a batting glove has ever offered more comprehensive protection from a ball which might rear up.

The game has certainly moved on since Garry Sobers would go out to bat without a thigh guard. Already a very popular product among the Masuri team, the wraparound Thigh Pad Combo is available in both E Line (navy blue, shaped to suit professional demands) and T Line (white and more traditionally styled, for all levels of the game). Both are unusual for their adjustable flap at the top, which allows a batter to swivel without discomfort. An additional pad hooks into the strap of the main thigh pad to protect

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The Club Cricket Guide tested and reviewed all the latest kit from Masuri’s 2020 range

the inside thigh against balls which sneak past the inside edge.

When combined with the peerless Masuri E Line Titanium helmet and batting pads, this range leaves you with a secure feeling without compromising on flexibility or comfort.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE

Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey

WICKETKEEPING Wicketkeeping is and has always been about trusting your reactions – and Masuri’s latest range assists the gloveman in every possible regard.

Masuri’s wicketkeeping range is brand new for the 2020 season.We tested the E Line keeping gloves which are available in both navy/yellow and white. Both were developed in association with and are currently worn by Australia international wicketkeeper Alex Carey, and designed to his personal specifications.

The short cuff style with internal Pro-Foam protection offers comfort and safety, whether you take it on the palm or fluff it on the finger.

They slip nicely on top of the T Line inner gloves, which have a padded chamois palm and Velcro tab to stop them slipping off every time you remove a glove.

The E Line wicketkeeping pads, also developed with Carey as a consultant, have a smooth silhouette two-piece frontage, topped by a forgiving flap at the top.They are also impossibly light.

The white T and C Line wicketkeeping pads are ridged in the more traditional sense, with a less flappy top, but decorated with the Masuri DNA of navy, yellow and silver inside.

Glovemen everywhere will tell you that the best keeping pads are those you don’t know are there at all, so it is a delight to know that you can bounce around the stumps none the wiser with this keeping stash.The pads do protect your shins if the ball scoots through unexpectedly.

Best of all, perhaps, Masuri’s famed StemGuard can be detached while keeping, to give the wicketkeeper maximum flexibility as he bobs and weaves behind the stumps.

It is an impressive new range and Masuri are the first manufacturer to sell on the protective technology and capability of their softs. Available in both senior and junior sizes, it is very likely that the collection will grow in popularity.

For more information visit www.masuri.com WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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softs Bags

Adidas Incurza 3.0 Duffle RRP £75 Owzat Price £59.99

Great value with padded back support and external compartments for pads and shoes.

Batting gloves

Newbery SPS Wheelie/Duffle RRP £120 Owzat Price £94.99

Lightweight option which can be dragged or carried on your back. Pads slip in external pockets, creating more space in the bag.

RRP £120 Owzat Price £99.99

Lightweight foam pads new for 2020 with easy release tabs. Perfect for quick singles.

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Newbery The Master 100

Value glove offering excellent protection with smart colourway.

Traditional sausage fingers with sheepskin leather palm.

RRP £37 Owzat Price £29.99

RRP £80 Owzat Price £64.99

softs

Batting pads

New Balance DC1080

Adidas Incurza 4.0

Footwear

Kookaburra Pace 3.4

New Balance CK10 Spike

Unique slim-fit design, perfect for players who are buried in normal pads.

Brand new design makes a superb lightweight allrounder shoe.

RRP £45 Owzat Price £35.99

RRP £120 Owzat Price £95.99

Adidas Howzat Spike RRP £70 Owzat Price £55.99

Unique two-spike heel, light as feather for keepers, batsmen and spin bowlers.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GOOD GEAR GUIDE

Wicketkeeper gloves

Gray-Nicolls Oblivion

Gunn & Moore Siren

Incredibly supple, lightweight keeping glove.

So soft you can play the same day as purchase.

Excellent value with comfortable cotton lining.

Classic design to let your glovework do the talking.

RRP £125 Owzat Price £99.99

RRP £35 Owzat Price £27.99

Helmet

Gray-Nicolls Atomic 360 RRP £60 Owzat Price £47.99

Payntr Bodyline

Payntr have launched their Bodyline range for the 2020 season. The collection is inspired by Eddie Paynter, great grandfather of founder David, who bravely discharged himself from hospital so he could bat in the fourth Ashes Test at Brisbane in the 1932/33 Bodyline series.

The Club Cricket Guide were given access to the range to put the shoes through their paces. The footwear selection caters for all, with the 225 aimed at bowlers, the 263 for allrounders, the 124 for batsmen and wicketkeepers. A trainer – the 412 – is also available.

RRP £119.99

RRP £99.99

RRP £79.99

RRP £69.99

The high ankle on the 225s gives bowlers stability they can trust, protects their bodies and ensures they can keep taking wickets.

Allrounders need only one pair of cricket shoes thanks to the 263s.They are light and flexible with a sturdy toe, encouraging batsmen to take quick singles and bowlers to charge in.

Accredited by both Australian and British standards and includes a factory-fitted 360 faceguard.

Training Kookaburra Fielding Bat

RRP £39.99 Owzat Price £31.99

Effortlessly catapults ball on contact, perfect for a coach running fielding drills.

Gray-Nicolls Powerplay Bat and Ball RRP £15 Owzat Price £11.99

To help the next generation fall in love with the game.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

The 124s are all about agility. They are light and provide comfort to the soles of the feet, perfect for a wicketkeeper on their haunches all day. A batsman’s footwork won’t be restricted while the spikes allow for grip when turning for that second run.

The range is completed by the 412 trainer and comfortable is an understatement. Put these on after a hard day at the crease or in the field and your feet will thank you for it.The thick spongey sole adds a spring to your step, perfect for a pre-season net or fielding session.

For more information visit www.payntr.com

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BACA

Amazing

Aldridge Academy sets state school benchmark The Cricketer lets youngsters in Brighton try out latest bats in the company of Samit Patel, reports Huw Turbervill

or cricket lovers, has there ever been a state school like it?

The Cricketer journeyed south to test out the latest bats – a £10,000 Aladdin’s Cave – for our Club Cricket Guide, at the perfect venue – hosted by two inspirational women in the shape of Alexia Walker and Georgia Adams, who both had famous players as mentors and are now nurturing future stars.

Nottinghamshire’s Samit Patel was also there as our special guest, having hotfooted from the airport after his successful stint at the Big Bash, coaching the youngsters alongside The Cricketer editor Simon Hughes.

The Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, in Falmer, is 10 minutes from the seaside city of Brighton and Hove.

There used to be a high school there but it needed some love, and was reborn in 2010 as an academy school – with added cricket! It caters for 1,000, including a thriving sixth form, is impressively clean and modern.

It was the brainchild of retired businessman Rod Aldridge, who went to school locally. He donated a lot of money for the academy’s cricket centre and helped raise the rest.

The cricket centre nestles in its valley, with three lanes of

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nets, a gym with equipment used by England’s 2015 World Cup rugby union squad, and a splendid pitch, curated by the Sussex groundstaff, now led by Ben Gibson.

The facilities have persuaded Sussex to make it their base for girls’ and women’s cricket.

It is also home to the school’s sixth-form cricket academy and junior pathway programme, from years seven to 11, which should see state school youngsters break into county cricket – alongside those from famous private schools like Bede’s, Eastbourne and Brighton Colleges, Hurstpierpoint and Worth. Already, the school’s left-arm quick, Will Sheffield, has graduated into the Sussex first-team squad, with Tara Norris in the women’s set-up.

The college work closely with Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew and director of cricket, Keith Greenfield, an arrangement that sees the senior men train there occasionally. And it is an MCC hub.

For aspiring cricketers who cannot afford even subsidised private school fees, it is quite the place. Studies in the morning… cricket in the afternoon – that is a nice life!

It is also in a well-connected area – near Sussex University, and one of Brighton University’s three campuses, and CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

GOOD GEAR GUIDE

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club’s splendid Amex Stadium, next to Falmer Station.

There are plans to expand the junior cricket programme to up to 30 youngsters, from years seven to 11, and to continue to grow the sixth-form academy. No wonder David Bowden, who chairs the management committee of the centre, evokes Ronald Reagan when he says: “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Youngsters come from far and wide in the county, including Sajeer Nizam, who took his place among our budding bat-testers. A wicketkeeper who was with Crawley Eagles and is now joining Preston Nomads, he commutes every day from Crawley via two trains.

Nizam is coached on a day-to-day basis by Walker and Adams.

Walker – the most-capped player for Sussex and an England academy cricketer for eight years – is director of cricket at the centre, and Adams, current Sussex WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

captain and daughter of former England international Chris, is her deputy.

Walker, from Bexhill, fell in love with cricket watching the 1993 Women’s World Cup in England.

She loves working at BACA. “The County Ground at Hove is the home of all cricket in Sussex but girls and women needed somewhere to call home and we have a superb partnership with the county,” she said. “It’s great for them to feel they have worldclass facilities allowing them to become the best cricketers they can.

“We are also helping to develop cricket in the local community. It’s not been a cricket hotspot, but with Rod’s vision cricket is now going places in this area, and suddenly teams are entering local tournaments. I didn’t get to play much cricket at school, but now more people in state schools like this are playing the game and it’s wonderful. Our pupils have been delighted not to attend any lessons today and hit 500 balls each instead!”

Walker has a plan to make the ground even more authentic – she is going to sprinkle deckchairs around the boundary to evoke Hove.

Her mentor became Graham Dilley when she started coaching

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BACA

at Loughborough. “He helped me grow as a coach and person,” she said. “He was a fantastic man, and a massive supporter of women’s cricket. So many cricketers have much to thank him for.”

Alongside the nets is Chris Adams’ coffin from England’s 1999/2000 tour to South Africa – showing youngsters what they can achieve.

His daughter has been playing for Sussex for eight years, and has been skipper for the last three. This summer she is also going to play for Oval Invincibles in The Hundred.

“We are so lucky to have Aldridge as our hub, it’s a fantastic facility,” she said. “We didn’t have licence to go into Hove freely even though we do play there, and at Arundel occasionally, but we can come here whenever we all want.

“It’s great that it’s not elitist here, and we cater for cricketers at all ages – those who want to turn pro, and those who want to play for their club’s 2nds on a Sunday.”

She says she is “a front-foot bully like my father”, the man who captained Sussex to their long-awaited maiden Championship in 2003, and followed it up with further titles in 2006 and 2007.

She is teaching cricketers an all round game, however, and recently held what was called ‘survival week’, with batters having to stay in with fielders surrounding the bat, ready to pounce, as if playing on a Bangalore ‘bunsen’. This is in preparation for the academy’s longer matches against Sussex Martlets and MCC this summer.

Adams says she is excited about playing in The Hundred, although she “needs to learn the rules first!” “It felt strange at first signing for a Surrey-based team but we are getting used to dotting all over the place as women cricketers. We are playing at Beckenham, and Lydia Greenway, my coach, says it’s a beautiful batting track, so that should suit me.”

She says she broke into Sussex’s cricket set-up quite late, but had a great education. “My childhood was spent playing with Tom Moores on outfields and in the nets all day, every day. We were thick as thieves. I faced Mushtaq Ahmed in

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the nets and was taught by Murray Goodwin! All I can remember from being a kid is learning about the game. That is why I tell the girls to watch more cricket, rather than just playing. Learn the ropes a bit!”

She is relieved to have missed out on inheriting her father’s nickname of Grizzly. “I am Gadams or Gads. It’s not great, but it’s better than Grizzly!”

Principal Bob Speight is proud of the facility. “We are lucky to have such an amazing centre, with such great coaches, and enthusiasm from boys and girls who come from Sussex and beyond.

“Cricket helped this school to be rebuilt and reborn. We have elite successes, but it’s also great to see players go from the sixth division to the third, thanks to our focused, high-quality programme. We hope to have 20–30 soon on our junior pathway, starting from year seven, for the whole seven-year journey.”

Patel was also impressed. “There’s a lot of talent here – young cricketers giving 100 per cent. We did fielding drills with them and it was great to see such bravery – they were going hell for leather.”

He played eight matches for Melbourne Renegades, bowling well and dismissing AB de Villiers in one match.

“Getting him out was unbelievable – I was a little bit lucky but I’ll take it. The hype around the Big Bash was unbelievable – it’s all anyone talks about over there.”

Patel’s next stint is with Lahore in the Pakistan Super League. “The standard of fast bowling out there is exceptional so I’m looking forward to seeing that.”

Then it is back to Trent Bridge, where he hopes to help Notts back into the top flight of the Championship.

“Things didn’t go to plan for Notts last year. People said we had a bad year but we reached the semi-finals of the Royal London Cup, and Finals Day of the Blast. There was a lack of four-day runs – that was not good enough from such a talented batting unit. We hope we can put it right, and more runs are on my radar.”

The Cricketer took 28 bats with us, made up of 18 brands, from major manufacturers to boutique. Thank you to Owzat-Cricket for supplying them; Serious Cricket for our shirts; and Katchet for the coaching equipment we used.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

Brighton Aldridge Community Academy

Leading The Way In Elite State School Cricket

BACA is a state school offering unique, tailored academic study and cricket development programmes for male and female cricketers from Year 7 through to Sixth Form, in partnership with Sussex Cricket. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

World class £2m indoor cricket centre High quality gym for strength and conditioning programmes Premier league square maintained by Sussex Cricket Home of Sussex Women & Girls Cricket Overseas tours including South Africa, UAE and Sri Lanka Equal opportunities for talented girls and boys of all experience levels Graduates currently representing county 1st X1and England Physical Disability squads Excellent progression into university, apprenticeships or employment

“The cricket facilities and programmes at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy are outstanding.” Rob Andrew, Chief Executive, Sussex Cricket

For more information please visit www.baca-uk.org.uk/cricket or email Director of Cricket, Alexia Walker alexiawalker@baca-uk.co.uk

FIT FOR PURPOSE Batsman? Bowler? Fielder?

We’ve got you and your feet covered.

CLUB LIFE

ANTICIPATING THE NEW SEASON 62 Welcome to Club Life

92 Extra Cover Insurance

64 Performances of 2019

94 Financial advice

66 Club life in 2020

95 How to set up a women’s section

80 Indoor cricket in 2020 81 Bola 82 National Village Cup 84 Women’s club cricket 86 KIA Summer Smash

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

88 Groundsman tips 90 Going green

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

96 Running a junior section 98 Durant Cricket 100 Club stories of 2019 102 total-play 104 Serious Cricket 106 Club noticeboard 109 Stockists

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league

welcome to club life

The

is your bread and butter

Huw Turbervill returns to competitive cricket for the first time in 20 years curious to know how the landscape has changed, and is half-scared/half-excited gnarled captain returns to the fray after being missing in action for two decades. How have things changed?

Will he be able to cope, physically?

But enough about Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Star Trek.

I am returning to club cricket for my first full season since 1999. I am scared and excited in equal measure.

Men’s club cricket between 12 and 27, for Halesworth,Yoxford and Woodbridge in Suffolk, was my true love. They were great days, learning about cricket and life, from postmen, policemen, farmers, teachers... all sorts really.

They bought me Adnams shandies at 14 that sent me home squiffy (scandal!) and ordered me vindaloos for my maiden curries (arrrgghhh!).

“Stand so close to me at slip that when I fart you can smell it,” said wicketkeeper Dick.

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“Never cut left-arm spinners!” advised Geoff.

“What goes on tour stays on tour,” said Barry, after I told his wife he’d been throwing up all night when we arrived home – oops.

There was my debut for Woodbridge when I came into bat with my school coach on 96 not out. At the end of the innings I had struck 19 off six balls, and he was stranded on 99. He took it quite well, to be fair.

There was that time after a match in the changing room when no one knew where to look, as our captain told our star batsman: “If I ever see you shake your head at me again I’ll smack you on the snout!”

Taking the field at Mildenhall as one of six fielders for 20 minutes because a carful of hungover team-mates were ridiculously late.

And the temperamental team-mate who was so displeased with an umpire turning down lbws that he clattered into him when bowling (he’d been watching too much Colin Croft, I CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE suspect).

These are the kind of life lessons that have proved indispensable.

I was captain of Woodbridge from 1994–99.

We won more matches than we lost (phew), although our victory percentage on Saturday (about 80 per cent) plummeted on a Sunday (33 per cent) as most of our team were young, footloose and fancy-free.

For the last 20 years I have played a fair bit of cricket, but of the jazz-hat variety. Now it’s going to be serious again.

Is it still fun? Is the yobbishness now out of control?

A friend of mine who returned to the club game last season after an even longer absence than me said he was shocked by the sledging, with one opposition captain laying into a 15-year-old in one bad-tempered game.

Players umpiring their own matches led to fury and indignation, even when honest mistakes were made.

Even the plumbest lbws are rarely given.

After a string of convincing shouts were declined, he said that they had looked back through the scorecards for this club (all online) and found that they hadn’t given one of their own batsmen out lbw in matches against their top six rivals in three years (sounds like the Aussie umpires of 1970/71).

Cheating, no?

He concludes by saying that there was some kind of argy-bargy in pretty much every match.

I’ll brace myself…

Beddington in South London/Surrey is my new club. It’s a lovely two-pitch ground in a public park, between Carshalton and the Ikea Towers of Purley Way. They field five Saturday sides, two on Sunday, and have more than 100 colts, so they are much bigger than the clubs I played for in Suffolk. Former Leicestershire and Northamptonshire seamer, and local hero, Ryan Cummins is the (unpaid) club pro.

I fell in love with the venue while walking my WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

dog, and have been coaching my son’s team for the last six years. Next year I’m captain of the 5th XI, although there’s even talk of upgrading me to the 4ths as they don’t have a skipper at the moment. Decisions, decisions.

I went to my first cricket club AGM for 20 years in December. It was interesting.

I knew it already of course, hearing about problems from readers and colleagues at/ of The Cricketer, but keeping clubs afloat is a challenge.

Beddington CC own the pavilion, but only use it for half the year. The rest of the time they lease it to Carshalton Football Club.

They lease the ground from the council. At the last review their rent increased by nearly 50 per cent. The battle commences again with another scheduled for this year.

They have Sky TV. Do you know how much it costs a club to have it? £302 per month!

That’s £3,624 a year.

That is despite Beddington being on the ECB tariff scheme, set up when cricket shifted from terrestrial to satellite in 2006.

There was talk last year at World Cup time of subsiding Sky for clubs, but any benefits of that haven’t reached Beddington yet.

Sky’s nice to have, watching the Test as you eat your tea, but an optional extra. It could be the difference between adding a fiver to everyone’s subscription. No final decision has been made.

Heating the pavilion is also expensive.

Beddington paid £6,800 last year for electricity. They have an old boiler and it needs replacing.

They seemed to have a stroke of luck last year. The club was selected by Nissan for a visit by the World Cup trophy, and Phil Tufnell.

He told me on the night “it was a lovely little spot”, and he was right.

A Nissan electric eco-system was installed, with solar panels on the roof, and although there have been teething troubles and repairs are imminent, this should ultimately save a lot of money.

There’s also the problem of theft and vandalism, as so many clubs have. Dogwalkers in the park are often a tremendous help, keeping a vigilant eye on wrongdoers. As well as morons driving cars and riding bikes on squares, ground-maintenance equipment is often stolen at clubs.

Of course I was already aware of the No.1 problem clubs face, from working for The Cricketer: attracting/retaining players.

A problem shared is a problem – errr – duplicated. Beddington’s problems are now my own.

It’s nice to be back (I think).

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performance

Club

Performances of 2019

The Club Cricket Guide looks back on stand-out displays from around the country last year

SIX OF THE BEST NOT QUITE ENOUGH South Wingfield player Liam Mitchell achieved the batsman’s fairytale of six sixes in a single over in June, but the feat proved in vain as Ockbrook & Borrowash came away 20-run winners from the Derbyshire County Cricket League fixture.

Mitchell’s innings of 61 included a perfect 36 from the 14th over, delivered by Jamaal Sadiq, and launched his side right back into contention for a space in the Jackson Cup semi-finals.

“It was a bit of a whirlwind really. Once I had got to the third ball I thought I might as well go for it,” Mitchell remarked.

“We needed 50 off the last five overs at that stage so we thought ‘let’s try and go for it now and see what happens’, but I hit one more six next ball and then got out the following ball so it didn’t really work very well!”

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CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE KHAN’T FORGET THIS IN A HURRY Houghton Main allrounder Muhammad Usman Khan ended his season in some style, claiming all 10 Worsborough Bridge wickets in a blistering new-ball spell that conceded just four runs and finished as the best recorded figures in club cricket during the 2019 summer.

Khan’s handy contributions – including eight wickets bowled, and following a career-best 88 with the bat – helped save the South Yorkshire Cricket League side from the Division Seven relegation battle, and brought his final season tally for the second team to 26 wickets.

However, the performances were not quite enough to force him back into the 1st XI side for the National Village Cup final at Lord’s the following weekend, where Houghton Main’s bowlers managed just three wickets between them while trying to defend a target of 161 against Reed.

SOMERSET YOUNGSTER HAS WEEKEND TO REMEMBER A young prodigy from Taunton St Andrew’s had a weekend to remember in May, hitting 94 from 41 against Bath on Saturday and following it up with a 12-ball half-century in a five-over chase against Minehead one day later.

The performances of Tom Banton, then 20, have since seen him go on to finish the T20 Blast as the country’s secondhighest scorer behind Somerset team-mate Babar Azam, earn international debuts in both white-ball formats, and pick up lucrative contracts in the IPL, Big Bash, PSL and The Hundred.

Yet, despite his burgeoning reputation at the professional level, the matches were among six appearances Banton managed to fit in for the club across his breakthrough professional season, culminating in a 45-ball 84 to seal a four-run win over county captain Tom Abell’s Taunton in a midsummer derby.

YOUNG BROTHERS DOMINATE SUSSEX CRICKET LEAGUE FIXTURE Pevensey opener Guy Moore celebrated a remarkable double century against Willingdon in May, reaching the milestone on the final ball of the innings after 126 deliveries and 37 boundaries.

The 14-year-old helped his club’s 3rd XI extend their unbeaten debut in the Sussex Cricket League’s Division 12 East, while 11-year-old sibling Ollie – who had obtained special dispensation from the ECB to participate in adult league fixtures – was determined not to be outshone as he turned in a spell of 5 for 9 in five overs to seal a 257-run victory.

Bill Filby, who oversees the club’s junior section, commented: “Guy did the typical thing of lifting his bat and his helmet. He was obviously very excited and pleased, although he is a pretty calm character.

“Their parents deserve a lot of credit. I remember visiting their house when there was an impromptu game of cricket in the kitchen with the washing machine as the stumps.

“What we are hoping now is that they continue in cricket. We are ambitious as a club and we have a good group of young players who we hope will play together and gradually improve the level of cricket here.

Equally, if and when any of them outgrow us and need to step up to another level that will happen with our good wishes.”

CLUB STALWART BACK IN ACTION JUST SEVEN WEEKS AFTER CARDIAC ARREST Nutley player Colin Parsons returned to the field in August just seven weeks after suffering a cardiac arrest during a home game against Hadlow Down.

The visiting side had reached 36 for 3 before Parsons left the field with chest pains, and doctors among their ranks swiftly came to his attention once the severity of the situation was realised.

Hadlow Down’s Karim Iqbal and Simon Rogers administered CPR while waiting for an ambulance, yet a remarkable recovery meant Parsons was cleared to return to the field in time for Nutley to host a four-team tournament to mark its 150th anniversary.

Parsons joined Iqbal and Rogers in Hadlow Down colours for the day, which raised £900 for to be split between a defibrillator fund for Hadlow Down and a pavilion extension for Nutley.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

65

club investigation

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CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE Everyone is hoping the epic 2019 summer will lead to a surge in people picking up a bat and ball. But what are the main challenges facing the clubs in our villages, towns and cities?

Humble clubbie James Coyne investigates

PLAYING NUMBERS GETTING TO THE CORE How many people play cricket in England?

Somehow the simplest questions are the most complex to answer.

It’s a moot point: so moot that the ECB have not released definitive figures on the subject for five years.This at a time when growing grassroots participation is behind much of what they are trying to do, right up to The Hundred.

The last time they released the figures, in 2014, they were hit with an avalanche of state-of-the-game articles decrying the decline of cricket in our national life.The killer stat – based on 37,500 responses to their National Playing Survey – was that that all recreational participation for 14 to 65-year-olds had dropped from 908,000 in 2013 to 844,000.

Moving beyond anecdotal stories to hard numbers is notoriously difficult in the diffuse club world. The Cricketer has given it a go. Is there a crisis in playing numbers – or is it something more complex than that?

Officials in almost 1,000 clubs responded to our survey, conducted through the Cricket Club Development Network. Sixty-two per cent of these clubs have ECB Clubmark status – the Sport England scheme which acknowledges steps taken to achieve a certain standard of administration, especially high levels of player welfare – and 38 per cent do not.

First, the encouraging news. Not quite half of respondents (46 per cent) reported that the number of players had gone down over the last 10 years. Slightly more than half felt that numbers had either stayed about the same (30 per cent) or gone up (24 per cent).

The devil is in the detail.There is mounting evidence to suggest that the real issue is commitment: players turning out fewer times a season, and potentially investing less care, time and money in their local club as a result.

Back in 2014 the ECB defined a “core player” as someone who turned out 12 weeks or more of a 26-week season – and estimated that there were 247,000 of these diehards across the land.Whether that number was anywhere near accurate, it seems that those kind of week-in,

week-out players are on the wane.

And the most telling findings in our survey related to availability. Fifty-four per cent of clubs said that between half and three-quarters of players were available two weeks out of three on average.

Sixty-four per cent of respondents felt that regular availability at their club had gone down; 28 per cent believed it had stayed the same; just 8 per cent thought it had gone up. A number of clubs told us they needed more members than ever to get all their teams out.

Of course, no league or club is the same.

And the fact our survey was conducted with a majority of Clubmark clubs – when just 1,762 of the country’s 6,500 or so clubs have that status – suggests that the overall picture may be less rosy than this set of results.

Either way, the results confirmed there are two particular demographics that club cricket is in danger of losing.

The ECB say that 40 per cent of junior cricketers drop out of regular cricket by the age of 19. Everyone knows that this age group is the most examined in history.The flipside is that, once exams are done with, availability can improve drastically.That’s if they’re not doing a weekend job. Or playing for a private school until July. Or go to university and never return.

Or just doing something else in a world of myriad glittering attractions.

The second demographic is parents who are starting families.The latest employment figures suggest that 71.4 per cent of women aged 16 and over are in work – so increasingly fathers are taking on shared parental responsibilities.

No one is seriously suggesting that fathers should shirk that load. But the weekly frustration from captains who are missing out on some of the best cricketers is palpable.

Clubs usually try to plug the gap with juniors.

And so the Friday-night or Sunday-morning swarm of colts onto the ground – and their parents to the bar or the barbeque – has become the most reliable form of income for many clubs. However, Nick Gandon, chairman of Hoddesdon Town and one of the originators

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club investigation

FORMATS

of Chance to Shine, says clubs should avoid accepting every kid just for the quick buck.

“Too many clubs offer what is in effect a crèche service,” he says. “My impression is that while many clubs are happy to take the money from junior fees, the attrition rates are sky-high.

“Working with manageable numbers, we ensure that everyone gets regular matches.

We feed them into adult cricket when they are 13, 14 or 15 alongside a few old sweats. Of 70 cricketers who have played in adult Saturday league cricket for us, 47 have come through our junior section. It works.”

There is a tendency to lump all South Asian cricketers in Britain into a single mass – as if they all think or behave the same. But there is no doubt that many South Asian cricketers – who make up a third of recreational players, and in some parts of the country, way over half – keep some clubs in existence.

The ECB say that 79 per cent of South Asians play “every week”, compared to just half of white British players. As they are, on balance, keener to both bat and bowl than the average club cricketer, they are often golddust to a poor, overburdened skipper.

Our survey was carried out by John Swannick of the Cricket Club Development Network, on behalf of The Cricketer. Officials in 991 clubs responded out of 4,300 asked. Thank you to everyone who did

THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS ON RECRUITMENT, RETENTION AND AVAILABILITY OF ADULT PLAYERS Average result when asked to rate the importance of each factor from 1–5

Contribution of volunteers 4.3 Social environment and friendships 4.0 Effective junior cricket programmes 4.0 Cricket played in the ‘right spirit’ 4.0 More cricket being played in local schools 4.0 Strong links between club and schools 4.0 Availability of coaches 3.9 Transition between junior and senior cricket 3.8 Competitive league cricket 3.8 Family involvement and support 3.7 Free-to-air TV coverage 3.6 Length of games 3.6 Travel time 3.5 Quality of playing facilities 3.5 Post-match social facilities 3.5 Quality of opposition 3.3 All Stars Cricket programme 3.3 Shorter time of games 3.3 Shorter format of games 3.0 Weather 2.7 Impact of crime 2.6 1

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THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT The playing format of club cricket is in flux.

The ECB say a total of 121 leagues have been through some adaptation of their format over the last 10 years.

Whether leagues are settling on the format that will safeguard their existence for the foreseeable future, or just fiddling while Rome burns, is more of an open question.

At the risk of over-generalising, younger cricketers want a shorter format so they can fit more in on a Saturday. A generation reared on white-ball run chases are bemused by the prospect of taking most of the day to finish up with a winning or losing draw.

More traditional players love the time in the open air and away from other stresses in life.

Players of a certain vintage will remember 11am starts, 7.30pm finishes and 10pm arrivals back home; 65 overs shared out between two bowlers.

When the vote came up at my old club – to stay in a league nearer London which played the draw rule; or move to a rural league playing a shorter result format – the old sweats were lined up one side; the youngsters on the other.

It feeds into a narrative that ex-players on the committee are fighting to preserve formats which are redundant to the younger players.

And yet, in that case, and I would venture many others, the traditionalists conceded the argument if the reduction in overs meant younger players didn’t give up playing altogether.

And the feedback to our survey does suggest that, in many cases, the switch to win/lose formats may well have kept many twentysomethings in the game.

Already the ECB are through year six of the ECB Under-19 T20 – a post-exam midweek tournament in the regions aimed at retaining the precarious demographic caught between age-group and senior cricket.

Even so, at a time when T20 is the format driving the world game, and the ECB are bringing in The Hundred, there is a temptation to believe that an even more drastically shortened format could be the panacea for weekend cricket too.

Harry Gurney – once of Loughborough Town CC, now a short-format specialist at Nottinghamshire and in franchise leagues – tweeted in February: “All club cricket should be T20 or The Hundred. It would lead to increased participation at grassroots level.”

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club investigation form phenomenon, played in coloured clothing and often on non-turf pitches. LMS UK is part-funded by the ECB and included in their participation figures.

The Surrey Slam is played on Sundays and midweek evenings, hoovering up London commuters and others who feel they cannot give up all day of a weekend.Warwickshire launched a 100-ball Sunday Smash, with games starting at 2pm. All are targeting the young male in work who lacks the time – or feels they do – to play regular club cricket. .

LMS say three-quarters of their players had not been playing cricket for the previous five years – so they are bringing some back.

Under their previous director of participation and growth, Matt Dwyer, the ECB nailed their colours to the mast in favour of 40-over, win/ lose cricket. Long enough to contain a tactical element, and still give most players a fair go during a match; short enough to start at 2pm and be home in time for dinner. Many leagues are edging closer to that format.

Even then many youngsters would prefer to start at, say, 11am, if it meant the evening could be free for socialising; older players often use the time before 1pm to spend time with the family.

There was a steadfast response to Gurney’s tweet from many club cricketers. Simon Prodger, managing director of the National Cricket Conference, conducted what he admits was not a scientific straw poll with first-team cricketers: “The majority said they favoured 5050, win-lose, with coloured clothing and a white or pink ball.”

Gulfraz Riaz, chairman of the National Asian Cricket Council and a leading light at Watford Town CC, says: “I firmly believe 50-over cricket is the benchmark of good club cricket. I can’t see any value in playing T20 on a Saturday.”

Besides, would a switch to a T20 format be more or less likely to keep players around for the post-match social – the lifeblood of many a club’s finances – or would they just skulk away quicker?

Timothy Abraham of Carmel & District CC says that in some regions where the survival of clubs is at stake, there may be little choice: “Cricket needs to cultivate a sense of being like a game of five-a-side football which people can squeeze into their day.”

In several ECB Premier Leagues, half the

The ECB have nailed their colours to the mast: 40-over win/lose cricket. Long enough to contain a tactical element, short enough to be home in time for dinner

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season is now pink-ball, win/lose conditions at the start and end of the season; white clothing, red balls and a draw rule in midsummer. Some of the best leagues have abandoned the draw altogether.

Prodger maintains: “Anybody who’s playing first or second-team cricket, of a level, wants the best opportunity of engagement in the game. Despite the fact they are amateurs, they still want to gauge themselves.You want enough time in the game to be a contributor.”

The worry will be that, if T20 comes to dominate, batsmen whose approach was forged in a different era could be rendered obsolete.

Is four overs enough for a bowler to get their money’s worth? Cricket can ill afford to lose any players.

In much of the club pyramid, the main issue seems to be travel. Many clubs have reassessed their priorities after years of travelling to chase best possible standard.

Mark Fletcher, president of Stockton CC, reports: “Numbers went up last season after we returned to the North Yorkshire & South Durham League, which offered us shorter games, especially for the 2nd XI and more local games than the North East Premier League had for 19 years.”

In the Hampshire League, everything but the top two divisions has some form of regionality – which cuts down on travel. In the Hertfordshire League, though, 21 of the 25 divisions are still played pan-county – and beyond, to Middlesex and Bedfordshire.That means potential three-hour round trips as low down as Division 10B. I can vouch that driving from Flitwick to Ware and back again takes up quite a chunk of your Saturday…

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE FACILITIES A BETTER PLACE TO PLAY Head back perhaps 40 years, before the mass selling-off of industries and playing fields for development, and there were many more sports fields in our urban or industrial environments. Back then, recreational cricket was not merely weekend club cricket: it was works cricket, church cricket, pub cricket and more.

A glance at some of the outgrounds used by counties up to the 1980s lays bare the social change: Coventry’s Courtalds ground (textiles); the Ind Coope (brewery) ground in Burtonon-Trent; the John Player (tobacco) Ground of Nottingham.There were plenty more.

Some works clubs have reinvented themselves.

The Steetley Company (bricks) ground in the Nottinghamshire pit village of Shireoaks was bought up by a private company and Shireoaks CC reformed there in 2002. Houghton Main is now the Asos clothing distribution centre, but at least the old colliery recreation ground is protected by the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation.

Town clubs are often under most pressure.

The lucky ones might have a long-term covenant on the ground dating back to Victorian times, paying peppercorn rents to the local council. Others, like Hastings & St Leonards Priory – whose old square is now somewhere underneath Shoe Zone in the Priory Meadow shopping centre – moved out of town. Some have died out altogether.

“It looks as though some provincial town clubs are struggling,” says Simon Prodger.

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“Vauxhall Mallards in Norwich are the latest to have folded, though they were a result of a merger.” They struggled after the money from a rich benefactor dried up.

Four years ago Mallards were producing an England bowler, Olly Stone, who in 2018 even went back to play nine matches for them as a bowler on his way back from injury.The breaking point was a four-hour round-trip to Frinton-on-Sea for which they failed to raise a side. And that was in the East Anglian Premier League.

Of course, it’s not just urban clubs where facilities are an issue. From 2020 the ECB will offer a County Grant Scheme, a City and Strategic Fund and Emergency Fund, plus interest-free loans through the England & Wales Cricket Trust. Sport England offer a Community Asset Fund and Small Grants.

Carmel & District CC play in the North Wales Cricket League, and draw on a mixture of Welsh and English speakers.Their former secretary Timothy Abraham says they have been burned by the experience of applying for central funding: “The general impression is the ECB are only interested in bigger clubs who can provide pathways for players to move up to the elite level.

“A couple of smaller clubs in our region have gone to the wall – and one or two I know wouldn’t have with help from the ECB. Inevitably these were clubs with the worst facilities.”

The ECB maintain they put considerable work into “holding the ground” on existing facilities. Matt Dwyer told The Cricketer in 2017: “A large percentage of my discretionary budget is going on facilities where we can hold the ground.”

The ECB’s national funding and facilities manager Bruce Cruse has at his fingertips software which allows him to map all cricket clubs within distance of a residential development – and therefore identify those under specific threat from being bulldozed.

Why does all this matter? Current projections are that 88 per cent of Britons will live in towns and cities by 2030, yet just 10 per cent of cricket clubs are located in high-population density areas.There must be plenty of urban dwellers heading out of towns and cities (mostly by car) on weekends to play for and against village teams. Could the Arcadian ideal of English cricket, to play at an idyllic village ground, actually be a millstone round the neck of club cricket?

A lack of accessibility to facilities

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disproportionately affects South Asian cricketers, who live overwhelmingly in urban areas. One in five Asian cricketers told the ECB they have encountered a problem finding somewhere to play, compared to one in 20 of all cricketers.

The ECB have pledged by the end of 2019 to build three urban cricket hubs in areas where facilities have been hard to access.The first two are Leyton and Bradford Park Avenue, famous venues which used to host Essex and Yorkshire.

Chevy Green, cricket development officer at the Surrey Cricket Foundation, says accessing grounds in London is a continuing issue.

“Some people have to travel a bit further afield.There’s just not the space. In London, the facilities that are there are more expensive than in the rest of Surrey.

“If you look at black British cricket years before, the nomadic West Indian leagues used to travel, because there was no support for a clubhouse.There was a similar issue in South Asian cricket.They had to travel, they had their own leagues, playing on council pitches. Over the last seven years, when the first ECB South Asian Engagement Strategy started, the funding has helped teams and leagues secure better facilities.

“But, because there’s not many pitches, those leagues fight over who can get on them.

So there’s still an element of not everyone

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accessing the better grounds, but it’s better than nothing.”

Lonsdale Skinner, the former Surrey wicketkeeper who is chairman of the African Caribbean Cricket Association, says that over one winter the rate of ground hire in Tooting almost doubled – £130 to £250 – for his club, Carnegie Herne Hill, who are now wandering again.

‘The reason non-turf pitches are going in is because of the massive cutbacks at local authorities. It’s difficult to justify cut wickets’ One of the ECB responses to this has been to embark on a wave of installing non-turf pitches, which require only periodic upkeep.The ECB are committed, through their South Asian Action Plan, to install 100 NTPs in urban areas by the end of this year, with an “ambition” to put in 1,000 more by 2024.They will “install or upgrade” just 25 and 100 grass pitches over the same periods.

Artificial pitches are the staple diet in many Associate nations where acquiring groundskeeping equipment or personnel is difficult. Even in Australia, 95 per cent of junior cricket is played on NTPs. But the reaction from most English clubbies to the prospect of playing on matting is sniffy to say the least.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE Gulfraz Riaz, who fed into the South Asian Action Plan and praises it, thinks there are less palatable reasons for the push towards NTPs. Around 28 per cent of cricket grounds are owned by local authorities, and after a decade of local council cutbacks by Conservative-led governments, built-up areas have lost an average of £386 per capita over the last eight years.

Easy to see how a hoary old concern like a cricket wicket is one of the first items for the chop.

Riaz says: “The reason non-turfs are going in is because there have been massive cutbacks at local authorities, and it’s difficult in this economic sphere to justify fresh-cut wickets in parks.

“For those who don’t have a choice, they will just make do. My view is that NTPs are a solution to get people playing in the first place, but I can’t remember how often my club have used our non-turf pitch.We are lucky to have a brand-new one that gets upgraded by the local authority, but how often do we actually play on it? In traditional clubs how often are they utilised?

“The majority of club players want to play on grass, even if it’s in a park and it’s a bit dangerous and flying off a length.”

Riaz says that the reaction to NTPs has been lukewarm in the Birmingham Parks leagues.

“Some people have pulled out when there are no turf pitches.You can understand if the top divisions are played on grass, but then lower divisions should play on artificial. But some have said ‘no, we don’t see that as real cricket’.

“So how much money has been invested, and has it been put in the right place? I would argue that at times have they been put in the wrong communities.”

The ECB have targeted 4,000 matches involving 12,000 players on NTPs by the end of this year.

“How are they measuring it?” asks Riaz.

“Are they calling it a ‘match’ on an NTP because some kids have gone along there and used a milk-crate as wickets, or is it an actual league game played there every week for a whole summer?”

Conversely, there are areas of the country seemingly oversaturated with cricket grounds, but not the players to fill them.This seems especially the case in affluent villages where younger people WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

have moved away for work or to settle in more affordable areas.

Martin Leary, of Royston CC in Hertfordshire, says: “There are too many clubs in the area – lots of villages – all still trying to put out a competitive Saturday side, harking back to the days when people worked and lived in the same place.There just aren’t enough players – especially youth players – in villages to support the what some clubs are trying to do.

“Bigger, more established clubs suck up most of the decent cricketers who might move to the area and so the village clubs keep bumbling along but with dwindling numbers. My club is lucky as Royston is one of the larger towns, however we still struggle to retain players as the town is a commuter town and so people come and go fairly frequently.”

There are 24 clubs within a five-mile radius of Riaz’s Watford Town.

“Where traditional village or town grounds are not as active as they used to be on Sundays, they could hire out their facilities to an Asian team,” he argues.

“Traditional friendly cricket is dying out. Our Sunday cricket at Watford Town wasn’t that strong for a time, so we leased it out to the British Tamil League, who used it on a Sunday. If you allow them to play on really good grounds, five or six might say ‘I want to play for this club on a Saturday’ and therefore become a member here.

“South Asian leagues don’t have junior set-ups, so if kids want an avenue to play they have to join a traditional club. All of a sudden you’d have Asians coming to play at a young age, and that’s the seed of integration sown.”

Riaz offers the tantalising thought of schools which have multiple cricket squares, and might stop using them in mid-July, opening them up to clubs for the latter third of the summer.

It is already happening. A club in Shropshire are looking to lease part of Ellesmere College’s land; Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar have recognised the paucity of council pitches in their corner of Kent, and are looking to rent out their square.

“I’m not sure if county boards have any sway over private schools,” says Riaz. “It goes without saying that clubs and leagues have got to pay the going rate for ground hire, and leave the grounds as they find them.

“But wouldn’t it have been a great statement: ‘we, the traditional, have allowed the nontraditionals to come in and use our facilities’.

Because I can’t see local authority grounds getting any better.”

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A VANISHING BREED

When I was a lad I had nightmares about a BBC film called Threads, depicting a nuclear attack on Britain. It never happened thankfully, but that apocalyptic scenario was replaced by another – the destruction of my beloved East Suffolk club cricket scene.

Since leaving Ipswich, and the East Anglian Daily Times, for the bright lights of Fleet Street in 1998, grisly news has reached me of one club after another biting the dust. It’s been a story of the odd club going super, others folding or struggling, and enough combining to interest the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

So Ipswich used to have Copdock CC, and Old Ipswichians: they merged, and are flourishing, the biggest club in the region, with East Anglian Premier League status. Browns and Tattingstone merged; Achilles folded (though their youth section joined another club); as did Bourne Vale; Ipswich & East Suffolk are troubled as they have concerns about their future in the public Chantry Park; and St Margarets survived.

As the Spice Girls once sang, two became one in Felixstowe, 20 minutes down the A14, as the town team and Corinthians combined.

Waldringfield are battling hard due to a lack of funds, while Kesgrave are well-run.

Back on the East Suffolk Railway Line, Woodbridge is big and lovely, and it used to have two clubs, one named after the town and affiliated to the state school, Farlingaye, and the other, Deben Valley, to the private school.

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They merged, but struggled to find or afford pitches in the town itself, and now play eight miles away, at Campsea Ashe. They flirted with extinction but are now having a renaissance.

There is also Melton St Audry’s, just outside Woodbridge, and they have flourishing junior and women’s sections. It’s all about facilities you see – they own their own.

As do Easton. They are in the Wickham Market area, and because they own their own ground, have a clubhouse and can sell their own beer, they are doing well, and have attracted players from a number of other clubs, especially Woodbridge. It’s that same story nationally: one or two ‘superclubs’ expanding, sometimes at the expense of others. Nearby is Sudbourne Hall, a lovely ground. They survive.

Next down the line is Saxmundham, doing quite well. Leiston (near Sizewell Power Station) have gone however, and Aldeburgh has not had a club in my memory – bizarrely, when you consider the wealth of this popular seaside town (although there are a lot of second homes there). Framlingham has also bitten the dust, despite having two schools in the town, the private College, and Thomas Mills. They have pitches aplenty but not enough players.

Yoxford are ailing despite their lovely ground.

Halesworth folded a decade ago. Worlingworth are doing well, but Southwold are fighting for their future, despite having a glorious venue with the sea in view and Adnams on tap.

That is 24 clubs reduced to 15, by my calculations, in the 25 years I have been away...

That is considerable change, and I am genuinely scared how they will change again in the next 25.

© MATTHEW WISKIN/GEOGRAPH.ORG.UK/CREATIVE COMMONS

Huw Turbervill considers the fate of the East Suffolk scene he left behind 21 years ago

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE STRIKING THE BALANCE (SHEET) The financial challenges facing cricket clubs in a world of rising prices is significant. For those with small membership bases, it is even more stark, writes Sam Morshead

NIGEL DAVIES/CHRISTOPHER LEE/GETTY IMAGES

White Horse CC is five miles outside Swindon, in the Wiltshire countryside.With a playing group 30 strong, it runs one Saturday league side in addition to a Sunday team and a midweek XI. Around a decade ago, the club was made homeless after being evicted, and were rehoused thanks only to the generosity of a local farmer, who allowed the conversion of a dairy field into a new ground.

Club members and their friends flattened the land, sowed the seeds of the square, dismantled the pavilion at their old haunt and rebuilt it block by block in its new location.

Since then covers, sightscreens, an electronic scoring system and new changing rooms have been added, and new machinery bought. Its growth is considerable and impressive, yet it masks a cold truth of club cricket.

“The key message that I always play back at AGMs is that if we didn’t have the catering aspect and significant fundraising, the club would not survive from membership and match fees alone,” treasurer Mark Watling said.

In 2019,White Horse brought in £1,628 in membership fees (it costs an adult £60 a year), and added £2,847 in match and net subs.

That combined income (£4,475) only just covers the annual liability insurance (£1,375), rent (£700), electricity bill (£284), league entry (£349), and equipment and maintenance costs (£1,011).

As Watling says, if it was not for the money that changes hands over the bar, or for the hundreds of hours of voluntary work put in by members to run events such as the club’s biennial Summer Ball, then there would be no club.

In 2019, the primary fundraiser – a six-a-side competition – made £314 profit, but that did WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

not even cover the £451 in cash stolen during a robbery earlier in the summer. And that brings us onto another troubling trend.

There is little that can be done to predict the impact of criminal activity on club cricket.

Local media has been littered with reports of vandalism of private or community property associated with cricket clubs over the course of the past two years, and more than 250 such incidents have been recorded in that time.

It is another burden on the already strained club circuit, with the cost of rebuilding substantial.

In West Oxfordshire, Eynsham CC report themselves as being in a “precarious” position after they failed in their efforts to overturn a £37,500 VAT bill incurred reconstructing their pavilion following an arson attack in 2012.

The club had been initially advised that they would be able to benefit for a zero rate of tax because the building was a community asset, but they found themselves hit by HMRC in 2015 and multiple appeals have failed.

Zero ratings can be offered to the construction of buildings for a ‘relevant charitable purpose’, with charities defined as “non-profit distributing bodies established to advance education, advance religion, relieve poverty sickness or infirmity or carry out certain other activities beneficial to the community”.

Eynsham was found not to have been founded on a purely charitable basis because it provided “social facilities” in addition to its recreational purpose.

Chairman Ian Miller told the local press that Eynsham would not “have been allowed to win

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purely because of the implications for HMRC with other clubs throughout Britain in a similar position”.

“We will have to pay back the money that was lent to us by friends and club members,” he said. “If something goes wrong, we can’t possibly pay these loans and also buy equipment.

Without equipment, we can’t play cricket. It puts us in a very precarious position.”

In County Tyrone, Sion Mills CC are fighting for their future after yobs set their equipment store ablaze, inflicting thousands of pounds worth of damage.The club, which staged Ireland’s famous victory over West Indies in 1969, has a small membership of around 30 and will struggle to replace the lawnmowers, strimmers and other machinery lost.

In Sussex, just weeks after £50,000 of renovations were completed on its clubhouse, Jevington CC fell victim to a similar attack, and lawnmowers were also stolen.

It is the same story up and down the country – and extends beyond arson.Theft to order is a common concern, with high-value machinery in modestly protected buildings a major issue.

In May,Thorton CC of the Shropshire League were victims of a break-in for the second time in 11 months, when thieves made off with two mowers and a strimmer. In addition to the incurred cost, the team was unable to prepare its wickets as a result and had to rely on the generosity of the cricket family.

In North Lincolnshire, Barton Farm CC had their £700 boundary rope stolen, and despite installing 16 CCTV cameras have failed to identify the culprits.

Such tales are becoming two-a-penny in the local press. It is hard to tell if there has been a huge spike, or if, with more clubs building a social media profile, these stories are just reaching a national audience now.

Vandalism presents an additional headache for overstretched committees already drowning under the weight of paperwork required to keep a club operating. In addition to the age-old tasks of managing ledgers, monitoring player availability, ordering supplies and liasing with leagues, the introduction of various safeguarding requirements over the past decade puts more pressure on volunteers.

Some clubs have pursued a different financial model. “I went over to a club in the Herts League,” says Gulfraz Riaz. “It was a hive of activity. Afterwards five or six people came out.They were clearing the boundary markers, watering the pitch. A couple of mums came out to do it.They said: ‘We’ve all bought shares in

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the field.’”

Some leagues require teams to be registered with ECB Clubmark as a condition of entry.

Clubmark’s intentions are undeniably admirable, but the application process and triennial requirement for re-accreditation is timeconsuming and lengthy.While it may help in enticing new parents, or assist in the application for grants, there are some around who struggle to see its overall worth.

Local media is littered with reports of vandalism of private or community property at cricket grounds. More than 250 incidents have been recorded over the last two years Providing umpiring training – as many leagues ask for each competing club to provide their own standing official – can come at a cost, though some county boards subsidise these arrangements; DBS checks are demanded of all senior or responsible figures at every club; and the cost of bringing amateur coaches up to scratch to cater for junior sections is not small.

It costs more than £300 to go through the relevant courses to gain a Level 2 coaching badge, while the ECB Certificate in Coaching Children’s Cricket costs around £350.

These are sums which many clubs cannot afford – that would represent more than 10 per cent of White Horse’s earnings on memberships and matchday subs.

Those who can swallow the outlay, meanwhile, worry about getting a member trained up only for them to move house or team.There have been instances where coaching courses are paid for by a club based on a commitment that the member will stay at the club for a specified period of time. Even that is not legally executable, however, and can be scuppered anyway by job changes, family relocation or a personal falling-out.

Additional reporting

by James Coyne CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE VOLUNTEERING

MOVING ON FROM THE ‘TAKE’ GENERATION “My fear is there’s a big nightmare scenario which we’re not ready for. Can you identify your club’s next secretary, your next chairman, your next treasurer, your next welfare officer? Who’s going to run our clubs when the current generation is too old?”

Gulfraz Riaz is just one of many club stalwarts reaching the conclusion that the biggest issue facing club cricket is a shortage of younger volunteers. It is the single biggest issue identified by clubs in The Cricketer/ CCDN’s own survey.

If club cricket faces a battle to keep players in the game, then persuading them to take on some of the administrative burden is an even WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

tougher sell. There doesn’t seem much glory these days in running things – only stress and blame.

The most common excuse given is busy lives: that people of working age lack the time, in this demanding and flexible labour market, and with modern family commitments, to sacrifice some of it running a colts side or attending fraught committee meetings.

It means that some committees or associations are populated entirely by people of retirement age. Even if there is undoubted expertise to be found in this life experience, it does run the risk of clubs becoming detached from the playing membership.

“My experience is that club committees are dominated by ex-players, veterans and parents

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of juniors who have come into the club,” says Simon Prodger.

“My general impression is that young participants of the club game want to play but don’t feel they are time-rich enough to do much more than that. Now that might sound like a crass generalisation, but I don’t think it’s a million miles off the mark.

“We can all prioritise our time to some degree. But there is no doubt that the 18 to 35-year-olds of today feel more time-poor than I did 20 years ago. Perspectives are different today, work life is different, social life is different. Obviously there are going to be pockets that disprove that – motivated young people who are keen to be involved – but we need that to be the norm.”

There are plenty doing superb work for their clubs and leagues, as witnessed in the annual nominations for the ECB NatWest OSCAs, some of which verge on genuine heroism.

Prodger had considered that his views might be coloured by his proximity to the London economy and all the implications that brings.

“But when Chris West – the chairman of the Yorkshire Cricket Board, president of Stokesley CC and president of the North Yorkshire & South Durham League – says the biggest issue in participation

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at the moment is getting volunteers to help run club cricket, you realise this is a national issue.”

Riaz, 47, is the first to praise volunteers of all ages. But he fears the situation is to some degree generational.

“We’re the ‘take’ generation – we’re not so likely to give,” he says. “It comes down to the same old thing: a minority doing the majority of work. It’s the same everywhere – people just expect things to be done.

“The most important role in a cricket club now could be the social secretary. At how many clubs do the seniors and juniors know each other? How many seniors come down to help with training?”

Riaz set up the NACC to represent the interests of British Asian cricketers, but he thinks there are both traditional and Asian players who could do better.

“Just as we’re educating your traditional player, umpire or club official about Asian culture, we need to educate the Asian community that it’s not right that you turn up 10 minutes before the start of play, then leave five minutes after the end. Actually you have to be here an hour before and an hour after.

You have to make sure that the boundary markers are brought in, the shutters are put down… all those things that need to get done. If you don’t do those kind of things, you don’t become part of the fabric, that erodes integration and creates resentment in some quarters.

“Of course alcohol is very important in an English club – but there’s nothing to say you can’t have a can of Coke or an orange juice afterwards, or do a Halal barbeque, or a curry.

Something that embraces everyone. Life is a lot easier if you meet everyone halfway.”

Play-Cricket is the official portal for club cricket, and its selection facility has generally made team selection easier over the last decade. But Timothy Abraham says some captains underestimate personal contact.

“Having a captain with excellent communication, organisational and peoplemanagement skills is imperative. I don’t CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE

believe enough captains place value on face-to-face contact or speaking to someone on the phone. People are bombarded with messages, emails and texts. It’s easy to ignore them. It’s harder to say ‘no’ when someone calls you on the phone and even more difficult to say it face-to-face.”

But too much time pleading with people to play is bound to eventually break even the most committed volunteer.

And, on a micro level, club chairmen have been made personally liable for a maximum £20,000 fine if there are irregularities in the engagement of an overseas player. It does not seem fair to burden a young person – perhaps saving for a mortgage or bringing up a young family – to bear these kind of potential risks.

to 16-year-olds in coaching, umpiring, scoring, groundskeeping, First Aid and fundraising.

In women’s club cricket, 73 per cent of respondents to ECB surveys felt an absence of volunteers was a barrier to achieving more in the club game.

While a third of all recreational cricketers are South Asian, that figure drops markedly among females. Asian women are particularly underrepresented in the 6.3m people volunteering to make sport happen in the UK. The ECB are badly lacking the role model of a female Asian playing for England; the nearest they have is Isa Guha, who is now a prominent broadcaster.

To try to tackle this, in late 2018 the ECB secured £1.2m funding from Sport England to finance 2,000 South Asian female ‘There is no doubt that 18 to 35-year-olds volunteers, who will coach All Stars in seven of 10 ECB core cities, which of today feel more time-poor than I did make up 61 per cent of the country’s 20 years ago. Perspectives, work life Asian population. The hope is that this and social life are all different’ will gradually diversify the make-up of teams, club committees and county Prodger says: “We are running quasiboards. businesses, with all of the social and legal “Two of our board members – Saba Nasim considerations around running a small in east London and Kay Baig in Manchester business or a small enterprise. There are – are doing a huge amount,” says Riaz. “It’s serious matters that have to be considered – about healthy lifestyles for women and girls, and yes, there are some things that you can becoming mobile in their mindsets, embracing learn only through a process of time. new cultures. We are seeing progress.”

“And you can quite understand why Coaches have started heading into mosques potential liabilities of being part of a cricket and temples. Shilly Pancholi, the Leicester club turn people off. It’s one of the challenges city programme executive, says: “We’re using of finding volunteers in any recreational sport. different things to get women to consider This isn’t just a cricket problem.” volunteering. I do a Bollywood cricket class, The ECB think they have the answer: make where someone teaches dancing and I do 45 volunteering attractive. Make it a virtue minutes of cricket. The women doing it have in a competitive jobs market – a way for loved it, and the class has trebled in size.” young people to stand out from their peers.

So why do the ECB think this can suddenly By coaching All Stars Cricket at their local work now? They have reason to believe that, club, or becoming the social secretary, or across all ethnic backgrounds, Generation Z captaining a team full of adults, a young (16 to 25-year-olds) could be more likely to person can acquire crucial life skills which volunteer than Gen X or Y. for their CV or just help them become more As a self-confessed time-poor 34-year-old assured. a little burned by previous experience of Already some county boards are running putting my name forward, I hope they’re Young Leaders in Cricket – a course for 14 right.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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Behind closed doors Indoor cricket nurdler James Coyne on the much-maligned form of the game uch like rugby, there are two distinct ‘codes’ of indoor cricket.

There is eight-a-side cricket as played most impressively in Australia – Action Indoor Cricket. It’s played at five centres in the UK – Birmingham, Derby, Leicester, Mansfield and Nottingham – which combine to pick an England team. Action Indoor is aptly named, with the netting and run-penalties for dismissals making for a sometimes chaotic time in the court.

Then there is the six-a-side, harder ball version which club cricketers outside the midlands may know. It’s played in a standard sports hall, with rules that vary depending on the hall, the ball and the pitch. There’s an ECB national competition, culminating in a finals day at the MCC Cricket Academy at Lord’s.

In Bedfordshire, we have a well-run league which has run since 1975/76, with most clubs in the county competing across four divisions.

The ‘winter league’ is an object of ridicule among some players, mainly those who can really hit the ball. But there’s good reason for everyone to be infuriated. In the first game of this season I was run out twice: once for a hopeless single in the dash for runs at the end; second when a team-mate tore his calf and I had to run for him – helmet and all.

The format favours the fleet-footed nurdler. A gentle push off the side wall and a 22-yard dash earns you three runs. Outside you’d be run out for contemplating it. The team which runs most threes usually wins – unless you ruin it all

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by sending down endless wides (punished with four runs indoors; and if the ball hits the back wall and the batsmen run as well, it’s seven).

There’s also four or six for hitting the front wall.You retire on 25, but can come back in.

Because the top two divisions of our league have dispensed with the mat and simply play on the vinyl of a sports hall, the red Readers indoor ball (a bit like a hockey ball) barely bounces above knee-height. When a batsman skies it and the ball crashes down off the basketball hoops, we are in pinball territory.

The ball gets stuck in curtains; beautiful lofted shots through cover or midwicket that would be six outside can be caught off the wall.

It’s the same ball used through all five matches on a Sunday morning, so a bowler’s best hope is to be allocated the 9am or 10am slot – assuming he’s not hungover – when the ball is swinging around corners.

It may not be to everyone’s taste, but indoor cricket is more vital than ever. It’s usually fun.

It’s low-maintenance. It keeps clubs in contact over the winter. And with the ECB setting so much store by participation numbers and promoting shorter formats which allow the time-poor to play, it makes sense to strengthen something which exists.

And, with South Asian cricketers more than twice as likely to want to play indoors than the average club cricketer, it meets the goal of providing more formats for the most passionate cricket-playing demographic.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

PAUL MAYES

indoor cricket

Bola

Innovative application PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

CLUB LIFE

For over 35 years BOLA have been making the best bowling machines in the game, but that doesn’t stop them looking towards the future OLA bowling machines have long been the No.1 product on the market. Models such as the Merlyn, Truman and Professional have been essential bits of machinery for countries, counties, clubs and schools across the world for over 30 years. These machines continue to be innovative and those who make them are passionate in their quest to help cricketers improve their practice and become better players.

But how do you improve something that has been at the industry’s peak for so long? Nye Williams, managing director at BOLA, told the Club Cricket Guide more.

“We’re trying to bring new technology to the market,” Williams explained. “It’s important for youngsters coming into the game to see contemporary technology that they see everywhere else.

“We are bringing out a BOLA app which enables the user to all use all the functions of the machine remotely via Bluetooth.”

This technology will change the way that cricket is coached. Coaches will now be able to run a session without having to be by the bowling machine. Instead they can watch the batter from all angles, seeing things they never would have been able to see from 22 yards away. The same goes for wicketkeeping; technique can be examined closer than ever before. All the settings of the machine, such as direction, speed and spin, can be adjusted from the coach’s phone.

The app can be used with the Professional, Merlyn and TrueMan machines.

As well as remote function, the app enables players to log and share their progress.

“We can create leader boards for things such as most balls faced, longest time spent batting,

fastest delivery faced and average speed faced.”

There is no doubt that such rankings would encourage all sorts of competition and banter at clubs around the world, but the BOLA app will also be able to give people access to top cricket facilities.

“The app was very much developed with clubs in mind. Those clubs who have one of our machines can rent them out, and charge per hour or number of balls. The machine can then shut off after the allotted time is up.

“This time and ball counting function can also settle disputes at team practices over who has faced more balls from the machine or spent more time facing it!”

BOLA are already the world’s leading manufacturer of bowling machines but their new app is proof that they are always looking to the future.

“We have a duty to the game to be innovative and keep improving our products.”

Williams concluded.

And it is a duty in which they are certainly succeeding.

Nye Williams,

managing director “Following the successful introduction of the updated panel format a year ago, BOLA Professional machines are Bluetooth enabled to allow connection to a phone or tablet and remote control of the machine with the BOLA app.

The app will emulate all the machine panel functions, with further development bringing access to ‘session statistics’ which can be downloaded to the remote device. The stats generated will summarise practice sessions with number of balls faced, average ball speeds, highest and lowest speed faced and swing used, so players will be able to see what they have batted against in their sessions on the BOLA. This technology will also allow remote access to the machines for service-related information like number of balls bowled and run time. It is also planned to roll the app out for the Merlyn and TrueMan machines in the coming months.”

For more information about Bola, visit www.bola.co.uk or call 0117 924 3569 WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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National Village Cup

Reed are the most successful NVC club of the 2010s, winning the competition three times

The National Village Cup: Bigger and better than ever before

With entries topping 300 for the first time since 2014, the competition is in rude health, writes Thomas Blow s the Village Cup enters its 49th year, the competition remains one of the most celebrated club competitions in recreational cricket.

The tournament, founded in 1972, gives amateur cricketers across the country the chance to play in a Lord’s final. Hundreds of players take part in the Village Cup each year, all of whom dream of gracing the hallowed turf. It is a competition like no other.

And the Village Cup is only continuing to grow in stature. 2020 marks an increase in clubs, with more than 300 registered for the first time since 2014, and the tournament now has its own social media accounts (@ TheCricketerNVC on Twitter and @villagecup

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on Instagram), allowing greater interactivity between clubs, players and fans.

Meanwhile, the NVC’s website (www. nationalvillagecup.com) is updated with articles each week.

We have also introduced various awards, including the Golden Bat and Golden Ball categories for the leading run-scorer and wicket-taker, Performance of the Year and the coveted Team of the Year award, which is voted for by the public.

With so many great initiatives, the 2020 NVC promises to be one of the best yet. Best of luck to all those competing this summer – you never know, a trip to Lord’s may just be on the horizon.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE

NVC 2019 in review: Reed again triumphant at Lord’s The club added a third title at the end of a memorable competition Reed emerged with their third National Village Cup crown in 2019 to move within one of the all-time record.

The Hertfordshire club beat Houghton Main by seven wickets at Lord’s, to edge closer to Woodhouse Grange’s four-title haul.

Their victory at the Home of Cricket was underpinned by a man-of-the-match performance by captain Tom Greaves, who made 67 not out, while Robert Lankester contributed 59 runs and two wickets.

The showpiece finale brought to an end another classic tournament, played in terrific spirit by the 297 competing sides.

It started in style as Foxton’s Harry Hopwood smashed a superb 106 not out to lead his side to victory over Milton in the opening round.

The 17-year-old’s innings came four years after he was 12th man in the final.

His efforts were overshadowed, however, by a brilliant display from Worlington’s Craig Estlea, who hit an unbeaten 173 in his side’s win against Matching Green.

Estlea finished as the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 522, despite Worlington exiting in the fifth round.

There were plenty of family affairs. Fatherand-son duo Neil and Billy Yarham put on a 216-run opening partnership for Overstrand in their victory

Team of 2019 Sean Tidey (Reed) Simon Ward (Houghton Main) Josh Hill (Sarisbury Athletic) George Retter (North Perrott) Craig Estlea (Worlington) Harry Ackland (Cumnor) Imran Khan (Houghton Main) Tom Greaves (Reed) Biswick Kapala (Houghton Main) Alex Porter (Borstal) Sam Hill (Sarisbury Athletic)

Houghton Main’s Imran Khan scored 127 and took five for 22 against Frickley Colliery

over Coton, while Tom, Jamie and Jack Billings – the cousins of England international Sam – led Fawkham Guzzlers to the second round. “One day we’ll win it, don’t worry about that!” Sam said.

There were several tight matches. Sarisbury Athletic – who reached the semi-final in their first year competing – beat Hook & Newnham Basics by just four runs, Milford Hall overcame Pelsall with only one wicket and one over to spare and, closest of all, Findon beat Rottingdean by virtue of fewer wickets lost.

Two players scored double centuries, with Rockhampton’s Jordan Khan hitting 208 not out against Oldbury and Sarisbury Athletic’s Josh Hill posting 203 not out against Bramshaw.

The best bowling figures came from Billesdon’s Anthony Voss, who picked up 7 for 32 to dump Lubenham out of the tournament.

The star of the 2019 NVC was Imran Khan, who was outstanding for Houghton Main as they progressed all the way to the final. Khan was leading wicket-taker with 24 dismissals at 6.83, and he also scored 310 runs for good measure. Astwood Bank, who lost the first ever final to Troon back in 1972, were knocked out by Houghton Main in the semi-final.The latter inflicted misery on defending champions Folkton & Flixton as they skittled them out for just 58 before slipping up in the final to Reed.

Runs

Run Rate

Wickets

Wicket Average

347 336 453 364 522 340 310

43.38 48.00 64.71 72.80 130.50 113.33 38.75

16

12.13

24 17 20 16 16

6.83 11.94 11.65 8.44 13.56

Top run-scorers

Team wicket-takers

Craig Estlea (W)

522

Josh Hill (SA) George Retter (NP) Richard Ford (Worlington) Sean Tidey (R)

453 364 356 347

Imran Khan (HM) Biswick Kapala (HM) Tom Kitcher (Sarisbury Athletic) Tom Greaves (R) Alex Porter (B)

24 20 17 17 16

You can follow the 2020 NVC at www.nationalvillagecup.com WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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women’s club news

Women’s

Club Stories

of 2019

The Club Cricket Guide picks out some of the highlights

CLUB T20 CUP REACHES 100 TEAMS The second instalment of the Vitality Women’s Club T20 saw Newport CC again play host to the National Finals Day, where Bishop’s Stortford defeated Ansty by seven wickets to seal the coveted title for the first time.

The national knockout tournament launched in 2018 and grew to 100 clubs last summer, with fixtures played out across four groups at both Cup and Plate level before champions from each region fought it out in South Wales in June.

DEFEAT FOR MIXED-GENDER ANGLICANS IN VATICAN CLASH The Archbishop of Canterbury’s XI headed to Rome in July for its fifth meeting with the St Peter’s team, and its first with women featuring in the final XI. Thea Smith, who was ordained at Guildford Cathedral just one day before making the trip for the fixture, was joined by her Bristol clergy teammate Becky Heath-Taylor in the Church of England team.

However, the hosts emerged 75-run winners, with Australian opener Tom Christie carrying his bat for 71 in the T20 clash. Smith scored four as the Archbishop’s side mustered 59 for 8 in response.

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CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE

DUNDEE, BORN AND READ EVENING TELEGRAPH

RESIDENTIAL FESTIVAL LAUNCHES FOR YOUNG GIRLS TO PLAY AND LEARN Young girls from across the country assembled at Repton School in August to participate in the inaugural girls-only Wicketz Festival.

Wicketz was launched in 2012 to provide cricket sessions and workshops on social issues for young people aged eight to 19, and the first residential festival took place the following summer.

However, a five-fold increase in involvement during 2018 saw girls making up 20 per cent of all participants nationwide, and 55 youngsters travelled to Repton for the inaugural girls-specific event.

“The Wicketz programme isn’t just

about cricket, but it’s about helping the girls gain confidence and learn more about themselves,” said Vicky Reeve, the scheme’s development officer in Plymouth.

“Women’s sport has grown massively over the last decade and we want to help these girls find their path.They have their role models now and we want to continue to inspire them.”

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

GIRLS-ONLY SIDE JOINS MIDLANDS YOUTH LEAGUE Hayfield CC celebrated the growth of its girls’ cricket programme by entering a girls-only under-13 team into the Derbyshire & Cheshire Cricket League.

The team competed against boys’ and mixed-gender teams throughout the tournament, emerging as winners over High Lane’s under-15 boys’ side by 38 runs in only their second completed fixture.

Mark Peacock, who runs the “progressive and inclusive” village club’s girls’ section, told the Buxton Advertiser that the existence of the team was testament to the dedication and enthusiasm of the youngsters taking part.

“This is the first time an all-girl team has entered and played in the league and is a great achievement for the girls, the club and girls’ sport in general in the High Peak,” Peacock told the Buxton Advertiser.

“We now have girls playing in all the traditional junior league teams at every age group – U9, U11, U13, U15 and U17 – and we have even had three girls playing with the men’s second team this year, which is great to see.

“With the women’s international cricket being played in England and the women’s football World Cup on as well, I think it’s massive that the girls are seeing women’s sport getting the high-profile coverage it deserves and that they have role models to aspire to.”

WOMEN’S CRICKET LAUNCHES IN FORFARSHIRE AFTER 139 YEARS Forfarshire made a historic announcement in May, adding a women’s section to its offering for the first time since its establishment in 1880.

After finding success with a programme of CricHIIT sessions introduced in 2018, the club launched its women’s section with a softball cricket festival, and aims to develop a squad to compete at national level in the coming summers.

Hopes are high that the new programme will replicate that success and help uncover the next Priyanaz Chatterji, who joined the club’s junior section aged six before going on to establish her place in the Scotland national side in 2008.

“The club is 139 years old so it’s a wee bit overdue that we move into the 21st century,” said club president Clark McConnachie.

“We started out with CricHIIT for women only, which was provided

by Cricket Scotland. That turned into playing wee games of softball cricket and they got very popular.

“We want to grow our women’s section and juniors. They need a high profile and this new group should give them that. It is a proper recognised home for the ladies playing.”

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KIA Summer Smash

Here come

the girls The Kia Summer Smash, a grassroots T10 competition exclusively for women’s clubs across the country, launched in 2019 with great success, writes Nick Howson andwiched in a summer including a spectacular 50-over World Cup and ferociously competitive women’s and men’s Ashes series was an event to warm the heart.

The Kia Summer Smash offered a unique stage for female club players across the country, and a prize individuals competing at any level would cherish.

They came for the chance to play at The Oval, where more than a century of England Tests have been staged. But they stayed for the community spirit which only cricket can guarantee with regularity.

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Mid-summer was punctuated by four bespoke festivals, showcasing 38 teams of varying standard, experience and depth.

Cricket’s new-vogue format, T10, acted as the leveller.

Alongside the teams, England World Cup winners Dani Hazell, Ebony RainfordBrent, Lydia Greenway and members of Loughborough Lightning illuminated the events, with youngsters given coaching sessions on specific skills. Add in the face painting, fete games, candy floss and batting simulator and these were festivals of cricket in every sense of the term.

Millfield School had hosted England Women in an Ashes warm-up in the summer, but the Western Festival promised to have a far more competitive edge.

This was arguably the most picturesque venue of the four, located in the shadow of Glastonbury Tor; one of western England’s most iconic sites.

It was Plympton who were most at home amid the resplendent conditions. They cruised to Finals Day with an eight-wicket win over Newport, having sauntered into the knockout stage.

Good fortune was the name of the game at CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE the Southern Festival at Wellington College in Berkshire, with overnight rain throwing the event into severe doubt.

But once the clouds parted and the sun took over a full day of play was possible. It was only fitting that a thrilling final followed, with Hursley Park clinching victory in the final against a despairing Ansty.

If you wanted the best example of the importance of spirit, the Northern Festival at St Peter’s School in York was the place to be.

Inclement conditions played havoc with the schedule, forcing organisers to take drastic measures to get games completed.

Helped by some perseverance from the 11 teams involved and the standing umpires, a full competition was possible which ended with Sessay storming into the last four, thanks to a batting masterclass on the day from Jess Watson.

The festival circuit concluded at Caythorpe CC in Nottinghamshire, where the Midlands event enjoyed fine conditions throughout.

There was no stopping Berkswell in reaching The Oval as they swatted their opponents

aside. The Coventry side overcame Charlbury in the final after Sophie Buckton’s triplewicket maiden.

Four thrilling festivals ensured the stage was well and truly set for the inaugural edition of Finals Day. Taking place just four days after the men’s Ashes had concluded at the same venue, this was a high-class event showcasing the best women’s club cricket has to offer.

After Hursley Park eased past Plympton and Sessay outlasted Berkswell, the two sides took their place in the final as the sun beamed in south London.

Sessay Emeralds were aiming to emulate their male counterparts by lifting the national competition and add to a list of club honours which includes two National Village Cups.

Reduced to 11 for 2 in the third over, they rallied well to set 83 to win. It was a target which Hursley struggled with initially after slumping to 2 for 2.

But in Emily Windsor, the Southampton side’s prospects were in safe hands. She had earlier struck 39 in the semi-finals and kept calm again with a well-crafted innings which included punchy off-drives and tidy touches behind square. Windsor made short work of the 29 needed off the final three overs, guiding Hursley home by six wickets with two balls remaining. It was a performance befitting of the stage and the occasion.

The cricketing summer of 2019 offered plenty to celebrate. It will be engrained on the memory of everyone who experienced it.

But for heart, soul and inspiration you could search far and wide to find an event to eclipse the Kia Summer Smash, and fail miserably. It embodied everything that cricket stands for and offered hope that those who will revel in English cricket’s growing women’s game are more than equipped to deal with the expectation.

WHAT IS THE KIA SUMMER SMASH? Invitations to enter were extended to teams from across the country, with an impressive 38 sides taking their place in the four regional festivals.

Millfield School in Somerset hosted the Western Festival, the Southern Festival was played at Wellington College, St Peter’s School was the stage for the Northern Festival while the Midlands Festival went to Caythorpe CC in Nottinghamshire.

Playing XIs were permitted to include girls as young as 13 though at least five of the team had to include players aged 18 and above.

Following a round-robin stage and a knockout phase, the winner of each festival progressed to Kia Summer Smash Finals Day at The Oval.

A draw was then conducted to determine the semi-final line-up, with the victors from both matches progressing to the inaugural final.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

Performer of Finals Day: Emily Windsor Hursley Park were inspired to victory thanks to two brilliant knocks from Emily Windsor at The Kia Oval.

She struck 39 not out in the semi-final win over Plympton and an unbeaten 42 in the final over Sessay to guide her side to glory.

Both innings combined deft strokeplay with destructive blows, as the right-hander peppered the boundary on regular occasions.

Windsor lost her Southern Vipers contract in 2019 but hopes her performances will be enough to reignite her career - with half an eye on a berth in The Hundred women’s competition.

“I wanted to spend as long as I could out there,” said the 22-year-old.

“Luckily I did in both games.

But it wasn’t just down to me – it was a fantastic team performance all the way through this competition.

“With the restructure, the eight teams and the 100-ball, my ambition is to make one of those. But you just have to control the controllables and come up with performances like these and hope the right people see.”

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groundsman tips

“It is the

little jobs that make the

difference” Gary Barwell, head groundsman at Edgbaston, gives his top tips for producing the perfect wicket

roundsmen are the unsung heroes of our cricket clubs. They are at the ground before anyone else and leave long after the final ball has been bowled. Gary Barwell knows this more than most. The head groundsman at Edgbaston has been preparing some of the finest pitches in the country since 1993 and is well placed to give his top tips about the industry he so reveres.

COMMUNICATE WITH THE CLUB My top tip is to always work with your club. It is so important to establish a good relationship with the players and the coaches.

If I was a new groundsman at a club, the first thing I would do is invite the club captain, 1st XI captain, 2nd XI captain, president and even the secretary to sit down and discuss a plan for the season.

Players can sometimes grumble about being on an end wicket, but because of my relationship with the captain he can tell the team that we are simply saving the centre pitch for a 1st XI game. The

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club may even have a marquee fixture where a central pitch will need a bit more preparation.

With Warwickshire, players understood that some strips had to be saved for England matches, but generally the county was my main priority. Sometimes they would want to play a pre-season friendly on a particular wicket and because of our planning I was able to facilitate that.

Paul Farbrace, Ashley Giles, Jim Troughton and Ian Bell have all been brilliant and our open dialogue means we can keep moving in the same direction.

KNOW WHEN TO START WORK Keep an eye on what’s coming up. If you have a lovely week ahead, make the most of it, but if it’s going to be frosty don’t do too much.

Don’t go on the pitch if it doesn’t look fit to go on, you can sometimes do more harm than good. But if you can get on there’s nothing wrong with giving the square a little trim, although make sure you don’t take too much grass off in one go.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE PREPARE THE GRASS Stripe it up if you can and give it some nice presentation. Some fertiliser would also be good to give the grass a feed. If the temperature is above seven degrees it might be worth putting some grass seed on, but if the temperature isn’t right there’s no harm in waiting until it gets a bit warmer.

It is the little jobs that make the difference.You can trim the outfield, start at 25mm and gradually lower it a couple of millimetres at a time.

Doing these jobs on the grass early will put you in good stead for the year and get you ahead of the game.

GET YOUR EQUIPMENT READY If the weather isn’t kind, do some inside jobs. These can be as simple as making sure your equipment is clean and fully serviced.

The last thing you want when you get a window of sun is for your mower to not work.

Have a look at your rope as well. Many people forget but rope can wear over time and you don’t want to realise that your boundary rope has snapped on the morning of the game.

I would also organise all my equipment and make sure my shed is tidy. Make an inventory of everything you have and when it was last serviced. It’s good to do these indoor jobs in bad weather because you don’t want to waste a sunny day by spending the first six jobs in the shed.

BE SPARING WITH COVERS Once the season begins, you may have prepared perfectly but the British weather will always intervene.

Many club grounds have a slope which means rainwater can run underneath the sheet and any uneven ground results in puddles collecting underneath.

If you put the covers on in the rain and went home, the rain could stop overnight but the water doesn’t evaporate properly because it is under canopy.You come back the next morning and the puddles are still underneath the sheet while some areas are dry. This creates an inconsistent pitch which is a nightmare to bat on.

Leaving the covers off can ensure the pitch dries evenly. This is where preparation is key. If you know the rain is going to continue all night, then leave the cover on but if you see the rain is going to stop there is no harm in leaving them off. The pitch will have a dry night to WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

evaporate evenly.

It is sometimes better for the entire wicket to be low and slow rather than uneven and unpredictable. But there are ways to dry a wicket in the morning…

HOW BEST TO DRY A PITCH? Get a light roller and run up and down for five minutes every half an hour, this will flatten the pitch and bring the moisture to the surface which will evaporate. But make sure you don’t overdo it.

If the captains agree to do this, you can give the pitch a roll between innings. The pitch may be flat at the start of the first innings, but it will still be slightly damp meaning by the interval it may have a couple of chunks in it. The second innings then becomes a lottery.

That means the toss determines the game, so it’s good to flatten the pitch again between the innings to ensure a competitive game.

BE FLEXIBLE IN ORDER TO GET THE GAME ON With some clubs traveling far to get to a fixture, it is important to make sure some cricket is played.

Sometimes it might be best to give the opposition a call and push back the start time. If it’s no longer raining, a few hours in the sun will do the pitch the world of good. A shortened game is far better than no game.

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going green

Nick Howson hears about Earley, who are one step ahead when it comes to eco-friendly initiatives t’s clear that 2020 is our last chance to bring the world together to take decisive action on climate change.”

Our world is staring through the looking glass. Weather patterns are more erratic than ever. Natural disasters are becoming increasingly destructive. Wildlife is being wiped out.

As world leaders backtrack, countries outline sensational targets and the human race gradually begins to respond to the crisis, every sector is trying to make a difference.

The Climate Coalition’s Game Changer report in 2018 said cricket was the sport at greatest risk of being extinguished by the damage being done to the planet.

Researchers have suggested the Boxing Day Test in Australia could cease to exist in future due to extreme heat. Droughts in some areas and rising sea levels in others also threaten venues around the world.

Half-a-dozen of the grounds used during the 50-over World Cup in England attempted to restrict their impact on the environment, either by being powered by renewable energy or cutting back on single-use plastics.

But with administrators slow on the uptake, it is down to us as individuals to instigate change, both to protect our game and the world.

Berkshire-based Earley Cricket Club are pioneers as cricket wakes up

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CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE from its climate change slumber. In 2019, they became the first club to provide a completely vegan tea. It was a move which initially caused consternation.

“We started making vegan teas for two reasons, the main one being that many of our players couldn’t access the teas at other grounds due to their faith,” says chairman Gary Shacklady.

“With a vegan tea, we could all access all of it.

We have several members who were becoming more environmentally conscious and, as a club in an area of environmental protection, it was valuable to us to consider the impact we were having.

“The transition was easy enough, as I had been making the teas for a few years and, being vegan myself, I was producing fully- or mostlyvegan teas already.

“We had a committee meeting in which we decided to become a vegan club and make the decision permanent, with very little changing on the face of it.

“The reception has been hugely positive. We usually find one player on the opposing team who remarks ‘vegan?!’ followed by a dismissive comment.

“On almost all of these occasions, that person will pile their plate high with our plantbased food, enjoy it and then praise us for making such a good tea.

“We have seen that several other clubs are considering making their teas vegan for this season, too.”

But trying to alter the impact on the environment is much more than having a cucumber sandwich and a pot of hummus. And for Earley, mid-innings refreshments are just the start. Every step of the club, from on-site facilities to equipment, is being overhauled in an effort to make a difference.

“We have plans to build a pavilion at our ground, which would be entirely powered by renewable energy and provide a habitat on

its exterior for a variety of wildlife,” added Shacklady.

“We have moved away from pairings with charities which use animal testing in their research, instead opting for mental health charities and aid charities.

“We have had discussions with clothing manufacturers about using a playing kit made from bamboo but that hasn’t become financially viable yet.

“We are also working on developing a non-leather ball, without the need for animal agriculture and the damaging dyeing process.”

Former Australia Test seamer Jason Gillespie is leading calls for more testing of synthetic balls, to replace the traditional leather. But if the resistance to four-day Tests is any barometer, bucking that particular tradition is a major challenge.

We have plans to build a pavilion at our ground which would be entirely powered by renewable energy and provide a habitat on its exterior for a variety of wildlife Shacklady wants to see the sport at all levels rally around the cause, with there being an endless number of simple measures that can be adopted to make a difference.

“I don’t see any obstacles to club cricket becoming much greener,” he says. “Some people will be resistant to it, but there are plenty of small steps clubs can take to make a big difference.

“From the food, to reducing the number of miles driven, a huge number of players could each make a small change.

“We have already seen an increase in clubs around us serving more plant-based options in their teas. With the growth in demand for plant-based diets, I can only see this increasing.”

Five ways your club can be more green Car-sharing.

Travelling for an away game? Why not help cut-down on emissions by filling all the spaces in your vehicle.

Alternatively, look into hiring a minibus to ship your entire team in one fell swoop.

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

Buy local.

Support your local business by purchasing food for teas from nearby stores. Even if you’re unwilling to go vegan or cut down on your meat intake, reduce your impact by cutting out imported products.

Cherish leftovers.

Food is inevitably left over after a mid-innings tea, but retain as much as you can for next time.

Don’t allow anything to go to waste.

Cut down on plastics.

Try to restrict the amount of one-use containers your food is kept in. Provide wooden cutlery rather than plastic. And, once again, local outlets are much better as far as packaging is concerned.

Reusing equipment.

Try not to readily replace all of your gear when it suffers some damage.

And if you feel compelled to replace an item, offer the original to a team-mate or family member.

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fitness ExtraCover Insurance

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

The importance

of having the right

club insurance Before the season gets underway, make sure your club is fully protected lub insurance is incredibly important.

Cricket clubs don’t operate on a huge budget, meaning their existence can hinge on being adequately insured.

Cricket is unpredictable. With a hard ball flying towards buildings, people and cars, there is no knowing when you will need to make a claim, or if it will result in a pay-out.

Clubs are one broken windscreen away from being in real trouble, and that is where Marshall Wooldridge come in. The Yorkshirebased brokers run the ExtraCover Insurance scheme and want to help clubs avoid getting into difficult situations.

“We frequently have people ringing up for advice,” said sports development manager Mark Dearden. “We are always happy to help.”

Ahead of the season, now is the time for clubs to make sure that everything is in place.

“A common question we field is about who at the club is covered as certain aspects of our policy, such as personal accident, refer only to club members.

“This is particularly relevant with smaller clubs, who often invite friends to make up the numbers. What if they get injured? It is up to the clubs to determine who a member is. It could be everyone at the club, including spectators, those making the tea and anybody who is a player. But it is always important to ask and to know the answer.”

Another question ExtraCover are often

asked is about security. Break-ins are becoming more frequent so it is essential to make sure all items are covered. If preventative measures aren’t up to standard, this can affect the claim.

“A lot of clubs have very basic security that just isn’t fit for the job. Our policy has a minimum security specification which is no less onerous than that you would have on the buildings and contents protecting your own home. Some insurers will impose security requirements that many clubs will find difficult to comply with. Always check and double check.”

ExtraCover are committed to helping clubs, even if it means the club will look elsewhere for a provider.

“One club’s property is in a high-risk flood area, and our quotation would exclude flood cover. Our advice was that if their current policy protects against floods, they should stay where they are. We would be doing them a disservice by bringing them on to the scheme for their property, but it does not preclude them from having the correct liability cover through ExtraCover.

“Marshall Wooldridge and ExtraCover are in it for the long haul. We’ve been doing this for 45 years. The team are always happy to have a conversation with anyone.”

Contact the dedicated ExtraCover Insurance team if you would like a quote or would like a review of your cricket club insurance.

Call free on 0800 289 301 to speak with Mark, Helen or David or email extracover@marswool.com

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CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

THE MARKET LEADING CRICKET CLUB INSURANCE POLICY JOIN THE THOUSANDS OF CRICKET CLUBS WHO CHOOSE EXTRACOVER INSURANCE TO PROTECT THEIR CLUBS AND THEIR MEMBERS EVERY YEAR

CONTACT US TO GET A QUOTE OR A REVIEW OF YOUR CRICKET CLUB INSURANCE

SPECIALIST INSURANCE COVER FOR CRICKET CLUBS, LEAGUES, BOARDS AND ASSOCIATIONS. CALL US FOR FREE ON 0800 289301 OR 0113 250 6614 E: extracover@marswool.com www.marshallwooldridge.com Marshall Wooldridge Limited Insurance Brokers, 14-16 Ivegate, Yeadon, Leeds, LS19 7RE

financial advice In-club fundraising ideas

Money talks

– thriving and surviving…

Tips and advice on how to generate muchneeded extra cash for your club t is the biggest challenge facing amateur clubs. How do we keep this going? How can we renovate? How can we afford to fix this?

Well, there are numerous opportunities out there for grassroots clubs. And while this is by no means exhaustive, it might just be a start…

ENGLAND AND WALES CRICKET TRUST (EWCT) INTEREST-FREE LOAN SCHEME This is one of several existing schemes that allows amateur clubs to apply for capital assistance for projects that will benefit an entire community rather than a single team.

Any club with ECB affiliation is permitted to apply – Clubmark accreditation is not necessary, while organisations can also apply.

In terms of what might meet the EWCT threshold as an appropriate project, these might include the following: • Changing room development • Clubhouse renovation • Social area development • Machinery store • Score box • CCTV/security shutters • Outdoor lighting • Water/energy consumption/saving systems • Flood defence measures An application could also be put in to help cover equipment purchases. Machinery, covers, sightscreens, scoreboards, net cages, non-turf nets and fencing would all be suitable.

Applications can be made via an EWCT Interest-Free Loan Scheme expression of interest form on the ECB’s website.

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Clubs can apply for anywhere between £1,000 and £50,000, depending on whether they have a junior section, which opens up the higher bracket.

FUNDING THROUGH SPORT ENGLAND Sport England offers several opportunities for additional funding.

The Community Asset Fund is one option for larger cricket projects. The grant’s website specifically states that it cannot fund ‘smallscale’ cricket projects.

However, it will look to fund projects to take over underused sports facilities or those facing the threat of closure. Similarly, it will help with changing room installations and improvements to toilets and heating systems.

Private projects or those run for revenue – such as coaching courses, for example – also cannot be helped by this option.

Small Grants are targeted at helping communities where people might not have had many opportunities – whether that be through income levels, underrepresented areas or personal situations. More wideranging projects can also be considered, but the grants’ key audiences are those on lower incomes, women, inactive people and BAME communities.

Any not-for-profit voluntary or community club/organisation, registered charity, notfor-profit company or community-interest company, school or statutory body can apply.

Purposes of these grants might include purchasing kit or equipment, funding staff or coaching costs, venue hire or transport.

Social events: Quiz nights, cheese and wine evenings, BBQs, making sure the clubhouse is the place to watch a big sporting event Club website: Can you make your club’s digital home the place to go for your members? The more content you can provide – informative or fun and quirky, perhaps a series of ‘60 Seconds with’ videos, the more traffic you can direct there. Decent numbers can translate into a potentially profitable product to sell to sponsors. Not necessarily big business, but speak to local firms about the prospect of advertising…

Sponsorship: More generally, this can be a great source of funding.

And we’re not just talking about front-ofshirt deals. Get your matchballs sponsored for the season or your scoreboard that stands front and centre as you enter the ground. How about your player of the match awards? Or some simple advertising hoardings around the perimeter?

Hiring out the place: It doesn’t just have to be your main square.

Could you rent out the outfield for a local school to run around on? What about your clubhouse? Would it make a nice wedding venue or even a spot for a weekly bridge club?

Fantasy leagues: Easy.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE How to build a women’s section, no experience required set up a women’s section

Jem Green of Hursley Park tells Xavier Voigt-Hill how her club grew from a Sunday XI to become Southern Premier League champions

THE TIME IS NOW Right now is a great time to set up a women’s section.When we started in 2006, the playing numbers weren’t there, and it was hard to find opposition.Yet, from 23 players in our first season, we now boast women’s and girls’ membership of over 100 and have played almost 1,000 senior matches.

Today, you can start a soft-ball team before working up through the county system and into regional leagues. Alternatively, many clubs start with a social side playing in the county leagues.

We run two league sides outdoors and an unofficial 3rd XI for friendly matches, so anyone wishing to play hard-ball cricket can slot in. As of 2019, we have also offered a form of soft-ball cricket called W10, which is played across the Hampshire region.

A lot of women and girls did play men’s or mixed-gender cricket, and we make sure to schedule men’s fixtures for Saturdays and women’s fixtures on Sundays.

Likewise, a lot of our juniors have grown up playing alongside boys and have family connections to clubs, but those who want to carry on playing seriously will seek out a club with a dedicated women’s section.

FILL YOUR FIXTURE CALENDAR If you play hockey, rugby or football, you would generally expect to have a fixture each week, and we have WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

learned to enter everything.

As soon as the league fixtures are released, we look to schedule either a tournament or a friendly on every available Sunday and bank holiday.

There is an element of chicken and egg, as you have to have the players to enter all the competitions, but I have experienced several situations where a new club relies purely on a dozen or so outdoor fixtures in the summer and gets left with a skeletal calendar after losing a few games to rain or teams defaulting.

Indoor cricket is a massive programme for us – it keeps everyone together over the long winter, and the short format can be great for attracting newcomers.

Between January and April we have indoor training sessions at three different venues so everyone can get involved, and ‘Super Sundays’ can often feature up to 10 matches across the senior teams and our three junior sides (U11, U13 and U16).

KEEP THE FAITH WHEN TIMES ARE TOUGH Many clubs will see the setup we have today and not realise that we also went through years of struggling to field a side, along with other organisational issues.You just have to keep going.

When we first got promoted into the Southern Premier League, we travelled from Winchester to North London as huge underdogs with a highly weakened side, only to get bowled out for 39 in a 50-over game.We spent a good few years just avoiding relegation and only recently have we started seriously challenging at that level.

We have the usual ‘dropout’ age, where juniors start to have other interests, or players go to university and never return.The biggest challenge is to ensure there is enough cricket to engage everyone.

But winning the league for the first time in 2019 meant so much for everyone as it really was a reward for 13 years of building, turning up for every game, never giving up, and continuing to improve.

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junior cricket

Inspiring the next generation Advice on how to set up and run a successful junior section at your club he lifeblood of any amateur sports organisation should be its junior section. Of the many benchmarks against which to balance the health of a club, it might just provide the most accurate picture – not only of the talent coming through the ranks, but in terms of the wider culture.

Richard Nicoll heads up the junior section at North Middlesex CC. The Londonbased side run five senior teams and have more than 200 registered colts. In 2019, for the first time since 1990, they were crowned Middlesex Premier League champions – the core of the team made up of homegrown talent, with seven of the side that clinched the title on

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the final day of the season having come through the club’s youth setup. It is a rarity in the modern club game.

Ethan Bamber, Joe Cracknell and Luke Hollman – three recent juniors all within a two-year age-gap – have signed professional deals with Middlesex CCC, just 12 years after the club’s U13s won the ECB National Championship. Nine of that side have never left the club and are now regulars in senior teams. The key to it all, Nicoll explains, is integration.

A TEAM EFFORT IS A TEAM EFFORT - SHARE YOUR SUCCESS Our recent successes have been achieved by many people working together. We have been so fortunate to have recruited groups of talented volunteers who put the club first and are not just focused on their own children.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE ENSURE INTEGRATION WITHIN THE WHOLE CLUB – NOT A STANDALONE SECTION When I took on this role in 2003, a key priority was to improve integration between the junior and senior sections. Another was to try to boost the number of qualified coaches, so we could increase the numbers of juniors and the quality of our coaching. The objective was to see more juniors progressing into the senior teams and to involve more senior players more in the coaching and running of the juniors.

Growing numbers of our ex-juniors have become coaches and several of our older juniors have been helping with coaching sessions for some years.

PUBLISH GOALS AND MONITOR PERFORMANCE AGAINST THEM It’s easy to be cynical about mission statements and the like, but having headline goals has provided us with a benchmark for making difficult decisions and monitoring progress. We say we want to be a “spirited, inclusive, committed, collegiate and high quality cricket club of which our juniors and seniors (male and female) all feel part”. I think we live up to that in practice.

Another goal is to offer “affordable ‘Cricket For All’ alongside a pathway to develop our strongest players to Middlesex Premier League standard, together with county and international representation”. For some years we have been running our academy alongside

Richard Nicoll

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

our Cricket For All sessions (summer and winter). The number of young players involved in winter sessions is 140 and this winter we have delivered over 220 session hours. We have also recently engaged our first director of cricket.

VALUING OUR VOLUNTEERS We have great relationships with some excellent outside coaches who we have worked with for some years now. While their contributions are hugely important, the lifeblood of the section remains our group of volunteer coaches and helpers. It is important that they are valued and supported. They benefit from having access to the pro coaches and our director of cricket for advice – for example, on the planning and delivery of sessions. We also award bursaries to cover fees for coaching courses and make sure those attending have sufficient slots for their Level 2 supported practices. We run our own “coaching the helpers” sessions in the spring and hold an end-of-season coaches’ curry night.

OFF THE FIELD Having a vibrant social scene is another key to a successful and joined-up club. As well as usual pre and post-season dinners, we run events through the year which our parents are invited to. A highlight is our end-of-season Juniors’ Club Day which often attracts well over 200 people.

We also run a highly successful fantasy league linked to the performances of players in all our five Saturday teams. It ensures that all players (junior and senior) take an interest in each other’s performances.

ESTABLISH SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY LINKS It’s vital to give something back to the local community – we run and host competitions at our ground, while links with schools help to ensure a steady flow of new entrants.

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Durant fitness Cricket

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

Living the Dream Durant Cricket have released their Dream Netting System for 2020, making practice more efficient for players and groundsmen ottinghamshire’s Lady Bay Sports Club training ground has recently taken delivery of a Dream Netting System from Durant Cricket, installed under the expert eye of former Glamorgan CCC groundsman Keith Exton.

The new system is designed to give greater flexibility to groundsmen in getting optimum use out of their practice squares, giving the players the very best surface on which to train. Mick Newell, director of cricket at

98

Nottinghamshire, picks up the story.

“With more coaches and innovations in cricket, players practice more than they ever have in the past,” he said.

“The installation of these new nets means we now have one of the best training facilities in the country, with the option of more than 50 quality grass pitches now available.This allows the nets to be used throughout the club, including academy and junior county teams.”

Newell explained that the new system is much safer than traditional fixed nets or roll-on cages.

“From a coaching perspective, not having the traditional poles and uprights has made a huge difference. Balls tend to ricochet off the uprights which can be extremely dangerous – particularly with the power the ball is hit with nowadays,” he said.

“The new system means that when balls are struck, they are absorbed by the netting, which is so much safer.”

The new netting system allows for nets to be set up anywhere on the practice square and also provides the option to turn the net around to bowl the opposite way. Steve Birks, head groundman at Trent Bridge, believes the system has made a huge difference.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE

“You can use your netting surface far more efficiently,” he said. “We cut the pitches five feet wide which means we have more than 40, compared to just a few fixed nets.You can push all the nets back and tie them up, which makes maintenance so much easier.

Other counties have taken note, and Lady Bay have since been joined by Leicestershire, Durham,Worcestershire and top cricket school Bradfield College in installing the Dream

Netting System.

Former Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire cricketer Mat Dowman was part of the Durant Cricket team that worked on installing the nets.

He explained just what a difference the new system would make for players.

“We used to use the fixed nets at Trent Bridge, where the pitches would often get pretty tired.That meant batting became very difficult.You keep playing and missing with the ball misbehaving off cracks or turning square. By the time you got to match day, your confidence could be shot to pieces! With so many more pitches now available thanks to the flexibility of this system, the quality of practice will be transformed, both in terms of technique and confidence.”

Fully enclosed tunnel netting systems in highquality knotted netting

Technical Specification Location: Lady Bay Sports Ground Area: 24 metres long x 35 metres wide Details: Net area spanned by 9 upright posts, at 3 metre intervals, standing 4 metres out of the ground on each side.

Each post has a cable fixed on one side which runs on pulleys over the upright and is then fixed by a secured torque winch. There is no requirement for additional intermediate supports due to the unique wire tensioning system. This system can support widths up to a maximum of 45 metres.

www.durantcricket.co.uk • enquiries@durantcricket.co.uk • 01572 822013 WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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club news

Club Stories

of 2019

The Club Cricket Guide scours the country for tales of the village scene from last year THE HUNDRED’S FIRST TROPHY GOES TO SHAKESPEARE COUNTRY Players across Warwickshire got an early taste of cricket’s new 100-ball format this summer as 15 teams competed for a place at Edgbaston and a shot at the inaugural Sunday Smash competition.

The pink-ball tournament was devised to help boost participation numbers in the area, with sides often struggling to field an XI for a full 40-over fixture.

Instead, the Sunday Smash games could be completed inside two hours, and tempted players in with the prospect of a Test ground final.

Stratford-Upon-Avon emerged 14-run winners in the final, led by 57 from Dexter Purser and 2-16 in four overs from Ben Pigott.

“The general feedback from most teams that have played in this new format is extremely positive with players enjoying a new format of cricket which is played in two-and-a-half hours on a Sunday afternoon,” said Andy Wyles of the Warwickshire Cricket Board.

“I was pleased to see a good mix of players on both sides with [beaten finalists] Knowle & Dorridge deciding to pick six players under the age of 18.”

“I can see no reason why next year’s professional competition will not have the same positive impact on the game [as] what we have seen in Warwickshire through the Smash this summer.”

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CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE BAD LIGHT, RAIN AND FIRE DO NOT STOP PLAY IN WORLD RECORD GAME Blunham CC fought the elements in August on their way to completing a world record 168-hour match.

Coming seven years after the club’s own records from 2008 and 2010 had been toppled by 150 hours of continuous play at Loughborough University, 24 members of the Bedfordshire side played for one complete week through torrential rain and even a pitch-side fire when flames were blown from a pizza oven onto nearby conifers.

“We are all overcome with a little bit of emotion to be honest,” Blunham’s George Hutson told The Cricketer.

“It is the first ever major event that I have organised and, although my body is still in bits, I am massively proud of not just the players but the whole community.”

More than 150 volunteers took part across the week, which supported both Mind and the local Sue Ryder hospice in addition to raising funds for a new pitch to be constructed at the club.

A NET WITH A DIFFERENCE Neighbours of Whitby CC can breathe a sigh of relief ahead of the new season as the club has obtained funding and planning permission to build an eight-metre perimeter fence around a short boundary.

Scarborough Council granted permission for 80 metres of netting to be erected during the cricket season with permanent supporting posts, with the project being

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

VANDALS HIT CLUB GAME WITH SPATE OF SUSPECTED ARSON ATTACKS Olicanian CC were one of dozens of clubs to be hit by arsonists in 2019. Over the August bank holiday, their pavilion and the adjacent pre-school burned down.

The Ilkley-based side has seen Harry Brook and George Hill earn England Under-19 honours in recent years, but the extensive damage saw the club turn to an online crowdfunding campaign to kickstart £75,000 of fundraising efforts.

A set of charred bails found by fire crews will be transformed into the club’s own version of the Ashes trophy, and club trustee Mark Dexter told The Cricketer of the emphatic response from the cricketing community.

“The outpouring of emotional support from people, particularly locally, and offers of practical support has been humbling,” he said.

“We were an innocuous, humble little club 30 years ago, but now we have a situation where we are starting to have a hand in producing players who are making it through to the professional game, which makes it all the more galling that this should have happened at this time.”

Just one week prior, Stothert & Pitt CC in Bath found an old pavilion building reduced to rubble, with four local fire crews called to put out the “deliberate” blaze. A 14-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the fire, but was later released.

A quiet Sunday earlier in the summer had also seen Eastbourne club Jevington CC targeted, with an “organised break-in” seeing club property stolen before a newlyrefurbished pavilion building was set ablaze.

And in September, County Tyrone side Sion Mills CC – which played host to a famous victory for the Ireland national team over the West Indies in 1969 – found itself on the verge of folding after 155 years when vandals burned a host of groundskeeping equipment and covered club buildings in graffiti.

bankrolled by part of a £250,000 bursary for local amateur sports from the Sirius Minerals Foundation.

Whitby’s share of the fund will also cover the construction of a changing room for women’s teams, while nearby Scalby CC were also successful in their grant application for a clubhouse renovation and pavilion extension.

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fitness total-play

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

Pitch perfect

NPC (Natural Pitch Colour) non-turf pitch, one of six ECB approved pitches offered by total-play

total-play provide the solutions for every groundsman’s headache ricket clubs are often the hub of local activity during the summer months.

Players charge around the field as the opposition sit by the pavilion waiting to bat.

Meanwhile children, friends and partners mingle on the boundary.

But none of this can happen if not for the groundsmen.Their job is to battle the elements to ensure the match happens. And the importance of this role cannot be understated. total-play were established in 2007 and are headed up by David Bates, the former head groundsman at Northamptonshire for eight years who has gone on to dedicate himself to providing the best products in the industry.

Bates understands the needs of the groundsman as well as those of clubs, and has a product in mind that will protect wickets, get the game on, and also save the club a bit of cash in 2020.

“A lot of league clubs have mobile pitch covers which are raised,” Bates explained. “They do a good job but they can only cover one pitch at a time. A lot of grounds have a slope as well, so when then rain hits the water runs straight underneath the raised covers.” total-play have a solution.

“Our Climate Cover System was developed while I was at Northamptonshire and has been used at the majority of Test and first-class grounds around the country.

“It is a lightweight, breathable cover that protects four times the area of a mobile cover at a much lower cost. It can also be used by just one person without any health and safety risks.”

This affordable and efficient system is perfect for clubs who may only have one member

of groundstaff. And the fact it is the cover of choice for the top grounds in the country certainly gives it a mark of reliability and quality.

Bates also recognises how clubs can move forward via activities off the field.

“Clubs are all looking to improve their junior section, encouraging more youngsters to get involved with the game. And to accommodate a junior section, a club will need a good quality non-turf practice facility.”

It is essential that such a facility is safe.The last thing a club wants is a ball coming out of the nets and striking a passer-by. total-play have products that satisfy these requirements and can include a fully-enclosed run up area so the ball never escapes.

“Our net systems can be placed in different parts of the ground and use space that some wouldn’t think possible.We have built systems on old tennis courts, where garages used to be, and we even placed a net where there was once a concrete stand,” Bates said.

“Because of our techniques and understanding from a civil engineering point of view, we can provide solutions where others wouldn’t even think of.” total-play’s proven track record has received acclaim from the ECB. “We have six ECB approved systems and have developed different methods when installing the base for these systems that increase longevity,” said Bates. “We are constantly developing and moving our products forward to help groundsmen and to give clubs better facilities.

Our aim is to raise the quality of the game for all.”

Questions?

Got a question for our expert groundsman? Let us know at magazine@ thecricketer. com and David will be able to answer it in his next column in The Cricketer.

For more information visit www.total-play.co.uk

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CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

P I TC H

SY

TU

RF

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tp5T NPC

EM ST

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TU

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ST

EM ST

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N

SY

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TU

N

SY

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N

N

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tp365

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NO

TU

PROVED AP

EM

PROVED AP

PROVED AP

TU

RF

P I TC H

SY

tpB1 NPC

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Discover why 100’s of clubs from grass roots to first class choose the ‘TP’ range. Get in touch to discuss your club’s individual needs.

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Serious Cricket

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

Getting

Serious about

T20

Kit design limitations are now a problem of the past parsholt CC are what other clubs aspire to be.

The Hampshire outfit put out three Saturday XIs, a Sunday XI, a women’s XI and several junior sides. They also enter the National Village Cup as well as the Southern Premier League T20 competition.

Cricket is an integral part of life in this part of the world and, having been established more than 80 years ago, Sparsholt have a lot of history to look back upon fondly.

But all this does not mean the club are out of date with current trends.

For example, while coloured clothing for T20 matches has become the norm in club cricket (if the professionals use a white ball and multi-coloured shirts for the format then why shouldn’t clubs be able to join the fun?), Sparsholt have taken this a step further.

With the help of Serious Cricket they have become Hampshire’s most eye-catching club with their paint-splattered shirt design.

“Sparsholt were one of the first clubs to create a bespoke coloured kit with us,” Serious Cricket’s Tom Mahoney said. “They took the design into their own hands and wanted splatters or colour all over their shirt

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to match their sponsor’s logo. It’s turned out brilliantly and looks really cool.”

Sparsholt were able to create such a bold design because of Serious Cricket’s bespoke kit facility. Clubs can design their own shirts, either by using Serious Cricket’s templates or by creating their own, which is what Sparsholt did.

“We got an idea of what they wanted to achieve and we worked closely with them to get them exactly what they wanted. They said they just wanted colour everywhere and we delivered it for them.”

It is not just shirts that are bespoke, with trousers, jumpers, caps and hoodies all available, and the first order for a new club will only take three to four working weeks.

What’s more, through a process called sublimation, Serious Cricket can produce personalised kits of the highest quality.

“All of our bespoke kit is sublimated.You take a white piece of fabric and dye the design into it. This means there is no embellishment and nothing to peel off,” Mahoney said.

CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE

The new Evolve shirt for 2020 even enables clubs to bring a splash of colour to their traditional whites.

“With the Evolve shirt the shoulder and side panels are sublimated, so you can still celebrate your club colours if they aren’t traditional,” said Mahoney.

Serious Cricket are making the process to kit out a club significantly easier, and they even make life easier for individuals.

Once an initial order of bespoke kit is made (minimum 11) then any top up orders will arrive in five to seven working days, so if a new club member arrives mid-season, no problem.

Many players will also represent more than one side, and every team has different colours and logos. One helmet and a set of pads simply won’t do – and, as all cricketers know, helmets and pads are expensive.

However, Serious Cricket have come up with the solution.

“We have batting clads and helmet trims

which are bits of cloth that go over your equipment. We can easily personalise them to reflect your team’s colours and logo,” Mahoney said.

“You can have one for each side you play for and is a much more cost-effective alternative to buying three helmets.”

Serious Cricket’s impressive product portfolio is entirely produced in-house at their cricket centre near Basingstoke. With manufacturing machinery to go alongside three indoor nets, a playing arena and a video analysis suite, the Dummer Cricket Centre is a cricket haven.

The quality and breadth of products has caught the attention of representative sides, with Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire all kitted out by Serious Cricket. Notably, Serious also provide the kit for Southern Vipers and all Hampshire sides other than the 1st XI. But none of this draws their attention away from the clubs and the changing landscape of amateur cricket.

“Club T20 cricket is a growing market and our bespoke offering continues to go from strength-to-strength each year,” Mahoney said. #TeamSerious

For more information or to create your bespoke kit visit www.seriouscricket.co.uk WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

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club noticeboard

Club noticeboard

FIXTURE REQUESTS, FUNDRAISING DATES, PLAYER ADVERTS AND MORE...

Burghley Park’s cricket week and popular evening sixes take place July 6 -10.

Visit www.burghleypark.com for more details. Day games include MCC and Authors XI Oxfordshire-based Clifton Hampden CC are on the lookout for new players.To register interest, please contact benson@ certiseurope.com Reed Cricket Club, current holders of The Cricketer Village Cup, are looking for sponsors for the 2020 season and moving forward. If you would like to sponsor the Royston,

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Hertfordshire-based side, please contact Richard via email: rwharton15@gmail. com Pontblyddyn CC is one of, if not the oldest cricket club in Wales, with records dating back to the mid-1800s.

We are located in a beautiful setting on the Hartsheath Estate, with rivers flowing on three sides of the ground.

We always welcome new faces at Pont, of all abilities.

Our 1st XI & 2nd XI play in the North Wales Cricket League (1st & 3rd divisions respectively).

We are also looking for a new first-team scorer and umpire for the 2020 season

Please get in touch if you’re interested: ipc@ pontblyddyncc.org.uk Great Totham CC are celebrating their 150th anniversary in 2020 and we are looking to make our celebrations as big as possible! Anyone is welcome at any time to join our family.

The club is also looking forward to competing in the 2020 Village Cup! To get in touch, please contact: gttothamcricket@ gmail.com Frocester CC, one of Gloucestershire’s most successful family-orientated CLUB CRICKET GUIDE 2020

CLUB LIFE clubs, is keen to attract players at all levels in men’s and women’s cricket.With junior and senior coaching, All Stars and great family and social events, get in touch now: secretary@frocestercc. com South Wingfield CC in Derbyshire are looking for players of all ages and abilities, please contact us for more details.Website: https:// southwingfield.play-cricket. com/ Interested in joining a cricket club? Stoke Green CC (four Saturday teams & one Sunday) are looking for new players of all abilities.

Contact us via www. stokegreencc.co.uk Cricket played the right way at Water Orton, B46 1QX. Community atmosphere, opportunities for everyone and cracking teas. New members welcomed.

Albrighton CC (Shropshire Cricket League) are looking for new players for league/ social cricket.

Contact: info@albrightoncc. co.uk North Middlesex CC Middlesex Premier League champions - pride ourselves on having created a friendly, sociable atmosphere throughout the club, without cliques and where everyone knows everyone.With more than 200 colts, a thriving girls’ section and five senior teams (all in their highest leagues possible), there really is something for everyone.

Three juniors have signed professional deals with WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

Middlesex CCC in the last two years, thanks both to our junior coaching structure but also our desire to build from within in our senior setup. Pre-season training has already begun, while we run regular social events. Based in north London a short walk from two tube stations, new members are always welcome. Please contact nichfriend@gmail.com for more details.

and to strengthening the link between junior and senior cricket.

To apply, or for a further discussion, please email James Quinlan: enfieldcc@ yahoo.co.uk

Borstal CC, near historic Rochester, encourage players young and old to join our growing club.

For all enquiries email: bortstalcricket@gmail.com

With arguably one of the most picturesque grounds in Chelmsford, Great Waltham CC are on the lookout for players of all standards.

Even if cricket isn’t your thing, we love a social.Visit our website: gwcc.secureclub.com, get in touch on Twitter: @GtWalthamCC, or email: gtwalthamcc@ gmail.com

Riding Mill Cricket Club is going through a major overhaul and need your help. As well as the clubhouse, the ground is undergoing work, with an outdoor practice strip being put in, and the club is aiming to raise funds to purchase an electronic scoreboard Riding Mill was founded in 1880 and runs three adult teams.The club has produced a number of fine cricketers over the years.

The club would be extremely grateful for any help with our project.

Support us via www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/brian-watson Enfield CC is recruiting a coach ahead of the 2020 season.

We’re seeking an enthusiastic and ambitious individual to support our director of junior cricket as we embark on a redesign of our cricket offering.

This individual will be committed to delivering a high standard of coaching across our junior section,

Penistone Cricket Club (Queen St, Penistone, Sheffield, S36 6HD) are encouraging new players to get on board!

Brentwood CC are welcoming new players to the club.

Contact: admin@ brentwoodcricketclub.co.uk One of the world’s oldest cricket clubs, Dartford CC, is looking for new players.

Whether you’re new to the game or looking for a fresh challenge, join us at our winter training sessions at North Kent College, Oakfield Lane, DA1 2JT www.dartfordcc.co.uk Farningham CC in Kent are open to new players.

Please contact club captain Oliver Butler at: olliebgg@ hotmail.com or visit http:// farninghamcc.co.uk

Staff Editor Simon Hughes Managing editor Huw Turbervill Assistant editor James Coyne Art director Geoff Barton Subscriptions manager Chris Smith Commercial director Jim Hindson Digital editor Sam Morshead Digital and commercial art director Daniel Parker Digital journalists Nick Howson, Nick Friend Social media editor Owen Riley Commercial executive Ed Krarup Customer service executive Thomas Blow Digital intern Xavier Voigt-Hill Photographer Paul Carroll

TO SUBSCRIBE or for any subscription enquiries call 0203 198 1359 Online Our website www.thecricketer. com features daily breaking news, exclusive features, colourful opinion and the latest from across the world of cricket. Keep up to date with everything that’s going on via our Twitter and Facebook channels. www.nationalvillagecup.com is the home of The Cricketer Village Cup Where to find us Editorial, advertising and administration The Cricketer, Edinburgh House 170 Kennington Lane, London SE11 5DP Tel 020 3198 1359 email magazine@thecricketer.com To advertise in The Cricketer please contact: Jim Hindson tel 0203 198 1354 email jim.hindson@thecricketer.com Subscriptions The Cricketer, Room LG06, Edinburgh House, 170 Kennington Lane, London, SE11 5DP tel 020 3198 1359 email subscriptions@thecricketer. com Please note Views expressed are those of the writer and may not be shared by the editor. Unsolicited articles are welcome but cannot be returned.

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107

Cricket in your pocket

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STOCKISTS 3D Sports 3 Brakey Road, Weldon North, Industrial Estate, Corby, NN17 5LU www.3dsports.co.uk AJ Fordham Sports 81-85 Robin Hood Way, Kingston, Surrey, SW15 3PW 61 Broomwood Road, London, SW11 6HU www.ajfordham.com All Rounder Cricket 39 St Michaels Lane, Headingley, Leeds, LS6 3BR Units 2-5 , Penistone Road , Trading Estate, Hillsborough, Sheffield, S6 2FL www.allroundercricket.com Aswani Cricket www.aswanicricket.co.uk Baggies Cricket Caps 123 Woodville Road, Hartshorne, Swadlincote, Derbyshire DE11 7EX www.cricketcap.co.uk Barrington Sports www.barringtonsports.com B46 Clothing Solutions Rossington Business Park, West Carr Road, Retford DN22 7SW www.clothing.b46it.com Beckenham Cricket Specialists 181 High Street, Beckenham, BR3 1AH www.beckenhamcricketspec.com Boundary Sports 206 Station Road , Kings Heath, Birmingham , B14 7TE www.boundary sports.co.uk Broadwater Sports 37 Broadwater Street West, Worthing, BN14 9BY www.broadwatersports.co.uk Cicada Sports Unit 2 Pikehelve Street, West Bromwich, B70 0TU www.cicadasports.co.uk Cook & Matthews Sport 68A High Street, Chislehurst, BR7 5AQ www.cookandmatthewssport.co.uk Cricket-Hockey Unit 25 Parkers Close, Downton Business Centre, Salisbury, SP5 3RB www.cricket-hockey.com

WWW.THECRICKETER.COM

CricMall www.cricmall.com Discount Cricket Outlet www.discountcricketoutlet.com Fenton Sports Unit 7, Thomasin Road, Basildon, SS13 1LG www.fentonsportsonline.com

MB Malik 236 Farnham Road, Slough, SL1 4XE www.maliksports.co.uk Morrant Unit 5 Station Estate, Eastwood Close, South Woodford, London, E18 1BY www.morrant.com

Game Set & Match Unit 1 Beaver Trade Park, Quarry Lane, Chichester, PO19 8NY www.gsam.co.uk

Mr. Cricket The Old Blacksmiths Yard, Newnham Lane, Burwell, Cambridge, CB25 0EA www.mrcricketshop.com

Get Padded Up 11 Courtland Road, Wellington, TA21 8ND www.getpaddedup.co.uk

Owzat-Cricket 72 Mansfield Road, Derbyshire, DE55 2ER www.owzat-cricket.co.uk

Holt & Haskell Salisbury Road, Southampton, SO40 2RW www.holtandhaskell.com

PC Sports 67 High Street,Yeadon, Leeds, LS19 7SP www.pcsports.co.uk

Intersport – John Henry Sport 207 Wellingborough Road, Northampton, NN1 4ED www.johnhenry sports.co.uk

Pro-Direct Cricket www.prodirectcricket.com

Intersport – Gyles Brothers 188 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2XU www.gylesbros.co.uk It’s Just Cricket Unit 14, 289 Kennington Lane, Kennington, London, SE11 5QY www.itsjustcricket.co.uk Kent Cricket Direct 150 London Road, Southborough, Kent, TN4 0PJ kentcricketdirect.co.uk

QDOS Cricket 298 Torquay Road, Paignton, Devon TQ3 2ER www.qdoscricket.com Ram Cricket Unit D2, Send Business Centre, Tannery Lane, Send, Surrey GU23 7EF www.ramcricket.co.uk City Cricket Academy 8 Commercial Square, Freemens Common, Leicester, LE2 7SR www.citycricketacademy.co.uk/ rhino-cricket

Solly Sports 66 Savile Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF12 9PJ www.solly-sports.com Somerset County Sports The Cooper Associates County Ground, St James Street, Taunton, TA1 1JT www.somersetcountysports.com Sporting Billy Unit 10 Bumpers Farm Enterprise Centre,Vincients Road, Chippenham, SN14 6QA www.sportingbilly.com Talent Cricket Unit 2, 31 Bakewell Road, Loughborough, LE11 5QY www.talentcricket.co.uk The Cricket Company Cotley Barn, Woodhayes Lane, Whimple, Devon, EX5 2QR www.thecricketcompany.co.uk Total Cricket Oxford Street East, Ashton Under Lyne, OL7 0RE www.totalcricketcentre.co.uk Try Sports 26 Deans Court, Bicester, OX26 6RD www.trysportsonline.co.uk Uzi Sports Unit 109 Basepoint Business Centre, Rivermead Drive, Swindon, SN5 7EX www.uzisports.com V Sports Unit 4 Amphion, Business Park, Silverstone Drive, Coventry, CV6 6PD www.vsports.co.uk

Robert Pack Cricket 103 High Street, Irthlinborough, NN9 5PU www.robertpackcricket.co.uk

VKS 31 Bond Street, Ealing, London, W5 5AS www.vks.com Whitchurch Sports 11A Watergate Street, Whitchurch, Shropshire, SY13 1DP www.whitchurch-sports.co.uk

Lukeys Sports 75 Meadow Street, Preston, PR1 1TS www.lukeyssports.co.uk

Romida 11 Avebury Court, Mark Road, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 7TA 18 Shaw Rd, Newhey, Rochdale, OL16 4LT 70 Kingston Rd, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 7BW Lord’s Cricket Ground, St John’s Wood, London NW8 8QN Unit 7 Leeds Road Mini Park, Leeds Road, Huddersfield, HD1 6PA Unit A Marlborough Close, Haig Road, Knutsford, WA16 8XN www.romida.co.uk

Martin Berrill Sports Unit 9-10 Morelands Trading Estate, Bristol Road, Gloucester, GL1 5RZ www.martinberrillsports.com

Serious Cricket The Dummer Cricket Centre, Dummer, Basingstoke, RG25 2AR www.seriouscricket.co.uk

Lord’s International Bradford St, Caerphilly, CF83 1GA www.lordsinternational.co.uk Lord’s Online Store Lord’s Cricket Ground, St John’s Wood Road, London, NW8 8QN store.lords.org Lorimers4Cricket 22 Finkle Street, Bishop Auckland, County Durham DL14 7PL www.lorimers4cricket.co.uk

World Cricket Store www.worldcricketstore.com

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Club Cricket Guide 2020