The Cricket Yorkshire Awards: Best Cricket Website (Club)

Best Cricket Website (Club)
WINNER – St Chad’s Broomfield Cricket Club

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I’ve split out the original category to reflect clubs and leagues. Given the number of entries and different remits, it felt like the right thing to do.

Congratulations to St Chad’s Broomfield Cricket Club who use Pitchero and have a comprehensive and professional website that is a worthy winner.

They caught the eye for a number of reasons. Firstly, St Chads have one of Pitchero’s paid-for packages and use all of the features to get the most benefit.

Collecting membership subs and match fees through the website has proved a major benefit. It’s easier for volunteers doing the chasing and it’s all tracked and easily reviewed.

As St Chad’s told me: ‘For match fees, the never-ending issues of lack of change, promises of paying later and the hassle for those collecting is a thing of the past, much to the relief of our captains!’

The website is user-friendly, updated across each week, has a clever variety of content and a consistent style in terms of photography. They seem to cover all areas of the club too, rather than a focus just on the first-team.

I like that they use a custom domain: stchadscc.com. Easy to write and remember and more professional. They also make use of Pitchero’s featured slots to ‘pin’ the Join Us membership message with info on how to join.

In this screenshot, you’ll see the England win the T20 World Cup article. Again, clever use of topical news – referencing big national success with a call-to-action to get involved with cricket.

I ought to also mention Barnsley Woolley Miners Cricket Club in dispatches, whose website is often in the Top 5 on Pitchero. Another strong example of volunteers clearly putting in time and effort to show all that their club does.

Of course, cricket clubs aren’t limited to Pitchero. They can also use Play-Cricket, popular options like WordPress or build their own using a web designer.

It’s a credit to everyone out there who updates their cricket websites. It takes a lot of time and effort to write, post consistently and share through social media, newsletters and other channels.

But in terms of content, functionality and features, St Chads Broomfield Cricket Club use their website very well to attract new members, sponsors and showcase their cricket and community endeavours.

The full list of Awards winners is below, you can click on each category to take you to separate articles, explaining how the nominees excelled and what they did.

Best Cricket Website (League)
WINNER – Bradford Mutual Sunday School Cricket League

Best Use of Social Media
WINNER – Cricket Arena

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Illingworth St Mary’s
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Bradford Mutual Sunday School Cricket League

Cricket Photo of the Year
WINNER – Mike Britland (Sowerby St Peters)

Best Use of Video Award
WINNER – Illingworth St Mary’s Cricket Club