Dear Parents
We hope this finds you all well, and withstanding the challenges of this tough winter. We're here with lots of exciting and positive news, and a brief outline of our plans for the coming season. The good news is that, after the experience of last year, the ECB is confident that outdoor cricket will be able to start more or less on time at the start of the summer, something which we're all looking forward to immensely!
SJCC wins Natwest/ECB OSCA Award!
After the success of our first full season of junior cricket in 2020, we were thrilled to be nominated by Oxfordshire Cricket as their winner in the 'Community Leadership' category. This is in no small part down to all of you and your children for all the energy you brought to the season, so THANK YOU!! You can read all about it on Page 31 of the Oxfordshire Cricket Handbook, which is available as a PDF here: https://tinyurl.com/1hfm7o3y
U11 / U13 / U15 cricket
We will again be running training and matches for these age groups, this year extending up to U15, as many of last years U13s squad graduate upwards. We will again have a mixture of softball and hardball cricket available, for boys and girls of all abilities and experience, with the emphasis on having fun, building team spirit and improving our cricket skills.
Allstars / Dynamos 2021
We will again be running the ECB's "All Stars" (for ages 5-8), and also plan to run their new "Dynamos" program (for ages 8-11), which is linked to the new Hundred tournament. Look out for the launch of that in a couple of weeks. If your child took part in All Stars last year and you're wondering what they should do this year, or if you're at all uncertain what group your child ought to be going into, please do feel free to email or call me to discuss.
Parent helping for 2021
As we increase the age groups we're running and competitions we're entering, we will need to ask a little bit more of parents this summer, in terms of pitching in to help set up and take down at matches, also to help with things like scoring and potentially even umpiring if you're feeling brave! The ECB have made their excellent stage 1 umpiring and scoring courses available for free this winter, so I'd encourage as many parents (or guardians, grandparents, big sisters etc!) as possible to sign up to do either or both online courses. They are short and very informative, I can confirm, having just completed the umpiring one as a refresher!
Here's the link for the free ECB umpiring course
Here's the link for the ECB scorers course
Pre-season training
For the U13 / U15 squads we are planning to run pre-season training outdoors in April (public health guidance-permitting) so please keep Sunday afternoons in April open for this if possible.
Steventon Junior Cricket club teamwear
We do have our own shop, via Serious Cricket, if anyone wants to get an SJCC jumper/hat/training clothes etc. You can find it here: https://seriouscricket.co.uk/teamwear/stores/steventon-cricket-club-juniors/
Activities for the kids in half-term
In case you're looking for some cricket-related physical indoor/outdoor activities in half-term, Chance To Shine have been producing an excellent series of 40 minute sessions, with a new one every Wednesday, adaptable to indoor or outdoor play, which you can find here. https://www.chancetoshine.org/live
Also, don't forget to tune in to the gripping India v England test series, with LIVE(!) coverage and highlights on channel 4.
That's it from me for now, I'll be back with more in a few weeks. As ever, please feel free to contact me with any queries or questions, and please do pass this on to anyone else locally who'd like to get involved in our wonderful village club.
Warmest regards
Joe Bennett