Registration
The Early Bird Registration day (£10 discount on normal fees) will be held on the 1st April in parallel with NatWest Cricket force week end. Registration will be held in the White Post Road bar areas on the morning on the 1st April but a registration form will also be posted onto the website for anyone who can’t make this day
Nat West Cricket Force Weekend
This is a national, NatWest sponsored event where club volunteers set the nets up and complete general maintenance on the ground. If there are any volunteers (parents or children) available to complete a couple of hour’s work weeding, painting or just doing general maintenance this would be appreciated. You just need to turn up on the day and look for myself or Anna who will be able to direct you to where your help is required.
Managers
I have provisionally lined up coaches for the most of the age groups, but we are looking for a volunteer to assist with Managing the U11 age group as last year’s Manager has moved up to coach the U13s. We will be using our overseas player as the technical coach on Fridays but we will require a figure head during match days. Please contact Anna or myself if you are able to help.
I am currently registering teams for the Cherwell League – but this is always a challenge as this is dependent on the number of players registering and the availability of coaches. Currently I have entered teams into the following leagues:
- Under 11 (8 a side)
- Under 11 (11 a side)
- Under 13 (8 a side)
- Under 13 (11 a side)
- Under 15 (11 a side)
- Under 19 (11 a side)
(multi skills and U9 are omitted as they don’t play league games but we will have teams
Youth Volunteers
A number of last year’s U15 players took on coaching roles on the Friday night youth training sessions. As well as being fun this also supported their GSCE PE or A level practical requirements and is a route into formal coaching qualifications. If anybody is interested in assisting with the Friday session, then please contact Anna or myself.
Lessons learnt from last season
One of the things that we need to improve is giving our managers more support. Like everyone running the club they are volunteers and require assistance not only on match days but also in coordinating the teams.
On match days each side will need to provide a scorer and an umpire (of some sort) but there are also general administration duties such as team selection emails and liaising with the opposition manager to confirm the fixtures that will need to be completed.
Please remember that we operate entirely with volunteers and without parental support we may not be able to enter teams in every age group.
Umpiring, scoring and admin.
There were several comments around a general “lack of knowledge” preventing people volunteering to help on match days. For the youth games the umpiring just requires a basic understanding of the rules. For anyone who is happy to help but requires a basic understanding of the rules one of the senior players has offered to run 1 hour basic umpiring session at WPR. Please respond directly to Anna of myself and we can organize a convenient session.
There is no mandated requirement to use electronic scoring this season but the results will need to be uploaded to the Play Cricket website. There is reference to a free scoring app on the Play cricket website ( Http://www.play-cricket.com/updates) which may well be useful and worth exploring.
If anybody requires assistance with scoring – either with the App or with a scoring book then a separate session can be organized.
Training Nights
The outdoor training sessions will start shortly after the Cricket Force weekend so we are currently looking at start date of Friday the 21/4 for all age groups – up to the U13’s. Youth training will continue to be on Friday Evenings at the main ground at White Post Road.
The U15 age group will be training at the same time as the senior players on Monday Nights. The first senior indoor session started this week so any U15 Player please feel free to go along. A small fee will be payable to cover the cost of the hall hire. (approx. £2). The nets session is being held at the Dewey Centre (part of Bloxham School) which is accessed through the Jubilee Park car park in Bloxham. (outdoor training session to be confirmed and may be a different night)
Overseas Player
Our 1st Team overseas player this year is Petrus Jeftha – a 30 year old South African all-rounder who plays first class cricket for Boland, South Africa. As part of his contract we have managed to negotiate his availability to assist with the youth coaching on Fridays. This should be great experience for the players to have somebody who has played cricket at a senior level helping with their development.
Club Events and Sponsorship
Only about 10% of the clubs running costs are met by membership fees so there is a huge amount of work done by volunteers and there is a constant need to fund raise. The Social Committee organize a large number of social events at the club and external events, such as marshalling at the Wolf Run (over 18’s only) raise significant funds for the club. The youth section probably represents 50% of our membership and it would be great to see a similar ratio at these fundraising events.
Finally, if anybody is in a position to able to sponsor the club, or knows of a company/employer who is happy to be approached then there are a wide range of options available which can be personalised to meet your preference. Please contact Anna or myself initially and we can put you in contact with the finance committee.