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Yorkshire women and girls club cricket set for reboot

February 22, 2019 by John Fuller

Club cricket for women and girls in Yorkshire is set for a fresh approach this season.

It had reached a critical point in 2018 with teams dropping out and conceding games. That reduction in participation and the subsequent player feedback led to a re-think in what formats were best in future.

Bev Nicholson has been a central figure in the re-organisation to deliver impetus and enthusiasm to the club scene and I caught up with her to discuss the changes and the challenges for women’s and girls cricket in Yorkshire.

“The general consensus was that people wanted to play slightly shorter formats and women’s cricket comes with a considerable amount of travelling so to minimise that as much as we could.”

Last year saw Yorkshire Women’s Regional League Divisions 1 and 2 have just four teams in each and that has become three Divisions for 2019, each with tweaks in the amount of overs played.

There will also be a Super 8s competition, who will play pairs cricket, which Nicholson says is to broaden the offering of club cricket in Yorkshire, make it as accessible as possible but with a pathway to those more serious about progressing:

“It’s to try and get new teams potentially translating from softball into hardball or who are just venturing out into hardball cricket, perhaps joining the league the next year or two after.”

She adds: “We’ve tried to get teams in the right leagues so they’re playing good, competitive games and playing in the right format.”

Taking the Super 8s as an example, it will run like a typical cricket Festival so perhaps three teams and two games each so a day promises more than just a long trek in the car and minimal game-time.

In fact, pairs cricket ensures everyone is involved and not just left on the boundary out of the way.

From the outside, it appears that a potentially dicey crunch point has been turned around into more clubs involved for 2019 and more formats to cater for everyone from county players to those adults and girls who are just starting out.

My observation, allied with those in the women’s game I’ve talked to, is that the standards within squads and divisions fluctuate much more than in men’s cricket. That’s not a problem which will change overnight but over time, there is scope for it to level out.

For Bev, who grew up playing cricket at Doncaster Town before moving down South, her home team were just venturing into women’s league cricket. Now she is back in Yorkshire and has turned out for them ever since, despite living in North Yorkshire.

Actually, travel is a significant problem here in Yorkshire by virtue of the fact that teams are so spread out.

“I also play for Duncombe Park in the men’s league and we don’t go any further than 20 minutes from home! When I say I’m going to Doncaster to play a (women’s) home game, they look at me like I’ve grown two heads – but that’s the way it’s always been.”

However, after some soul-searching in women’s and girls cricket across Yorkshire, it’s a new dawn and one to be upbeat about.

The litmus test will be galvanising clubs and supporting them through inevitable availability challenges that crop up whatever level you play at.

It comes at a critical time when the ECB’s strategy for 2020-2024 sees the growth of women’s and girls cricket as a central plank in its wider plans and to that end, re-positioning and re-invigorating club cricket here in Yorkshire is to be applauded.

For an overview, here’s the cricket clubs across Yorkshire taking part in 2019:

Premier Division (40 overs)

Bradford Ladies, Saxton, Sessay, Wrenthorpe CC

Division 1 (30 overs)

Anston, Cottingham, Doncaster Town, Farsley

Division 2 (20 overs)

Alne, Holme Valley Ladies and Girls, Lightcliffe, St Chads, Yapham

T20 (20 overs 8 a-side)

Anston, Bradford Ladies, Doncaster Town, Farsley, Saxton, Sessay, Wrenthorpe

Super 8’s (16 overs pairs)

Alne, Cottingham, Holme Valley Ladies and Girls, Lightcliffe, Sheffield Transport, St Chads, Treeton, Whiston Parish, Yapham.

STAY IN TOUCH ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

If you want to follow the new Yorkshire Cricket Board (YCB)’s social media channels on women’s and girls cricket then connect with @WGCCYorkshire on Twitter, or @yorkshirecb_wg on Instagram.

In future, there will be a YCB Facebook account for all women and girls cricket but for now, why not ‘like’ the softball festivals page?

To find out more about women’s and girls cricket across Yorkshire, including all of the relevant contacts, visit the Yorkshire Cricket Board website.

**This is a sponsored article for Yorkshire Cricket Board (YCB) – if the mood takes you, click to read Cricket Yorkshire’s policy on sponsored content**

Low Moor Holy Trinity achieve ground ambitions

February 18, 2019 by John Fuller

Low Moor Holy Trinity Cricket Club is in the midst of a hugely exciting chapter in its history – and one that offers a path for clubs in a similar situation.

The Halifax Cricket League club was struggling in one of the hotspots across Yorkshire where cricket clubs are in close proximity – with Bradford Premier League’s Woodlands and Bankfoot down the road in this particular case.

Martin Jenkins, Secretary at Low Moor Holy Trinity, picks up the story: ‘We had two senior sides and are a club that doesn’t naturally attract players, as people don’t know where we are, so we had to do something about that ourselves – that’s when we launched our five-year development plan to really engage in junior cricket.”

Their junior provision had completely folded so they rebooted their efforts beginning with under-nines and progressed to older age groups. In 2018, they decided to run All Stars, the ECB’s entry-level programme for kids but that was in conjunction with a push to radically upgrade their facilities.

The Trinity Oval ground is on an old landfill site so is clay-capped and that means it has profound drainage problems. It is not unusual for the first few weeks of any cricket season to be wiped out at home because the ground is boggy.

Low Moor Holy Trinity’s vision included a safe, ECB-approved cricket practice facility as part of a larger project for internal and external improvements – with a new kitchen and a 420m perimeter fence (to keep the neighbouring wild horses out), a project costing £92,000.

Martin was impressed with the sports surface specialist they went with: “The only organisation that gave us anywhere near the levels of commitment and support we thought were necessary was total-play. From day one, they were truly outstanding.”

I have partnered with total-play before on Cricket Yorkshire to look at how cricket clubs improve their nets and covers, notably Driffield last year, but there’s a long-standing pedigree there with Oxenhope, Bolton Percy, Bradford Park Avenue among others just in Yorkshire.

Cricket clubs that have embarked on this path before will know that building outdoor non-turf nets requires patience, funding and the right expertise. The site visits flagged up the need to raise Low Moor Holy Trinity’s facility further off the ground, with a construction profile increased significantly to a total depth of 470mm.

This would safeguard against drainage headaches and ensure that whatever the cricket square was struggling to cope with, the cricket club and the wider community had a place to train.

Though no two projects are ever the same, Low Moor Holy Trinity opted for total-play’s ECB-approved ‘tp5t’ non-turf pitch system design. Plans for the new two-lane, 33m enclosed facility featured tp5 premium quality tufted carpet, HD netting panels and full ‘wrap’ batting curtains.

Part of the appeal for Martin, and the committee at Low Moor Holy Trinity, was that total-play were “very frank with us about timescales, cost, commitment and aftercare” because something on this scale needs skilful coordination with its inevitable moving parts.

Funding advice for cricket clubs

Led by Martin, the funding to pay for this ambition began to take shape. Inevitably, it came from a variety of sources, each with their own requirements and deadlines.

Sport England, Aviva Community Fund, National Lottery Awards for All and Yorkshire County Cricket Club Charitable Trust all contributed to the improvements at Low Moor Trinity Cricket Club.

Many cricket clubs feel as though they are destined never to achieve the facilities they need and deserve. It can feel as if smaller clubs don’t get the rub of the green compared with those clubs with more resources to throw at a grant bid.

There is no conspiracy here but all cricket clubs have to jump through the hoops, particularly for grants that use public money, and therefore ought to have development plans, appropriate Clubmark accreditation and use ECB-accredited suppliers to unlock funding streams.

The good news is that your cricket club, wherever it is in the country and whatever the personnel and footprint, can go big and get the kind of facility that will make a difference for decades to come. (The photo above is another total-play installation at Askern Welfare CC, North of Doncaster).

According to Martin: “I was always of the opinion that big clubs get funding but little clubs get left behind until we started to engage more.” He talks of the ‘dark art’ of bid applications but advises really studying the guidance notes and not making do, if time is short.

After all, competition is fierce and if a cricket club doesn’t follow exactly what they need to down to the letter, others will.

Much of the ethos of successful bid writing is proving who it will benefit and exactly how; it helps if a cricket club has a record of already doing activities related to the reason for funding.

In pursuing funds for new outdoor nets, the club was able to show how it has invested £2,235 in coaching courses over the last 3 seasons (to cater for the extra demand) and to further plug into the local community by offering free coaching in schools.

The synthetic cricket pitch system, built by total-play, was completed in June 2018 and is already reaping the benefits as Low Moor Holy Trinity expand its range of teams – with U13s starting in 2019. They are also the envy of some other local clubs from the Bradford Premier League who now use the nets for their practice.

Future plans

Low Moor Trinity Cricket Club are not standing still. They have an eye on establishing female and disability teams next, as Martin puts it, “We wanted to set up our club as a place where people can come and feel welcome and not have the pressures of high-value cricket, it’s just a case of come and have-a-go.”

They are buoyed by having had enormous interest in their junior teams and All Stars programme last year; success that led to Martin being awarded the Lawrence Walker Award for Club Development at the 2018 Yorkshire Cricket Board/ECB Outstanding Services to Cricket Awards.

Their new cricket practice facility has certainly caught the eye and other clubs can reasonably be thinking: why not us next?

Contact total-play to improve your club’s facilities

If you want to discuss anything you’ve read in this sponsored article and get advice for your club then you can contact Anthony Burton via email or call on 01604 864575.

To link up with total-play on social media, they are @TotalPlayLtd on Twitter, TotalPlayLtd on Facebook or Totalplayltd on Instagram.

**This is a sponsored article on behalf of Total Play – if the mood takes you, click to read Cricket Yorkshire’s policy on sponsored content.**

How Zwingo Sports can liven up your cricket training

December 13, 2018 by John Fuller

Zwingo Sports is set to make headlines in 2019 after the Zwingo cricket training tool that we featured before on Cricket Yorkshire, proved so popular.

As we’ll explore here, the company is scaling up its plans to revolutionise how we play cricket and help us to train smarter. For its Founder Brett Hillary, the next year is full of opportunity.

There has been a transition from Zwingo Balance to Zwingo Sports; reflecting a desire to compliment their cutting-edge training accessories with all-new sportswear (trainers and apparel).

Our vision is to become a brand that speaks to people. A brand that is powerful and strong. A brand that supports encourages people to find that little extra within. The “Go for it” slogan is exactly that and more. Nothing is impossible.”

Brett Hillary, Founder

Alongside the Zwingo®, it already has the Spintechs training mat in its range of innovative products, designed to replicate spin bowling to improve practice for both wicket keepers and batsmen.

A premium has always been placed on research & development so years of product testing has gone into a spin mat that offers durability in the sun and micron-level spin control. The Zwingo® provides patented silicon composit traction and aerospace-grade construction.

Master spin bowling with Spintechs®

At this time of year when cricketers across the land are going to be working on their game indoors, it’s the perfect time to freshen up nets and club cricket.

The Spintechs® spin mat, backed by South Africa’s wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton De Kock, brings unpredictability but in a good way.

English wickets don’t traditionally spin outrageously and you might not have Ravi Ashwin or Adil Rashid at your club to bamboozle team-mates during nets.

Spintechs® will test a batsman’s technique and a wicket-keeper’s reflexes. It’s not designed to be too difficult but will keep you on your toes.

Zwingo®

Our article on the role of balance for a batsman using the Zwingo created a real buzz. What this oblong orange box of tricks does is to challenge batsmen to improve their balance and unlock more areas to strike the ball.

With both of these products, Zwingo Sports is aiming to help cricketers of all ages and abilities get the most from cricket and do it in a fun way.

Thousands of cricket clubs across the UK will start back at cricket nets in January in cold sports halls with it still dark outside.

Often, it’s the same faces and the same practice without a clear purpose. Having a thrash is all well and good but we all know it won’t be like that when it comes to late April and the umpire calls ‘play’.

Why not have your club invest in a couple of affordable training tools that can be used by juniors and seniors to focus on becoming better players?

Fresh thinking in junior cricket

Given its Yorkshire headquarters, Zwingo Sports has been bringing some of that forward-thinking to junior cricket in West Yorkshire in the Halifax Junior Cricket League.

This year, it supported an U19 tournament that created four franchises with new identities; a point of difference and a talking point for teens who are a demographic that typically drop out of the game in high numbers.

Zwingo Sports has exciting plans for 2019 where it will be supporting Yorkshire cricket further, showcasing the Spintechs® and Zwingo® and being part of the pathway that young players tread to represent their county.

The sports brand is ready to launch its own range of clothing and footwear to add further momentum and will be a name you’ll be hearing plenty of in the coming year.

Contact Zwingo Sports

If you have any questions about the products or want to talk through an order for a cricket club or school, you can contact Brett Hillary directly. His email is [email protected] or call Zwingo Sports on 01422 378888.

You can follow Zwingo Sports on Twitter or ‘Like’ Zwingo Sports on Facebook to find out about new developments, offers and the latest training videos.

Check out the Zwingo Sports website to order training products and clothing online and learn more about their philosophy.

**This is a sponsored article for Beyond Balance Solutions Ltd – if the mood takes you, click to read Cricket Yorkshire’s policy on sponsored content**