DORSET CRICKET ASSOCIATION - NEWSLETTER
Issue 6
October 2003
SECRETARY'S NOTES
Chris Sexton
e-mail: sextons.home@tinyworld.co.uk.
This is the time of year when Secretaries come into their own. The paperwork needed to ensure the smooth running of the Association and League needs to be completed and returned to the various bodies as soon as possible. The following list is a reminder of deadlines to be met.
Annual General Meeting
The date of the Annual General meeting is 1 December 2003 at the Crown Hotel, Blandford, 7.30 p.m. All clubs are obliged to attend this meeting and failure to attend will result in a fine.
Club Data 2004
Enclosed is a data sheet form which needs to be completed and returned to me by 1st December, at the latest. Can
I remind clubs to PLEASE fill in the name of the club at the top of the form. It will save me many hours of searching to match names with clubs.
Entry forms and average sheets to be completed and returned to George Vincent. Reminder from John Wellman - the deadlines for copy for the handbook are:
October 24
All DCCC material except fixtures and members (and reports already discussed with Alan Jones) November 28
Dorset Board Officers and reports; DCCC fixtures; all DCA reports except Leagues (i.e. Officers, report from Chairman, Umpires and Scorers, Coaches, Cricket Centre, Development Officer,Coaches, Ladies, Over 50, Indoor 6s, Managers of Youth Age Group Teams, County and Regional Club Youth Competition Reports— U.16,15,14,13,12,11,10, Nationwide Sun Awnings League tables and Division winners club reports. Any other League reports. (Bournemouth, Wimborne, Ranston,
Dorchester,etc.)
December 12
DCCC members and any outstanding competitions, County and Regional Club Youth rules (PLEASE TRY TO COMBINE GROUPS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE), Nationwide Sun Awnings League Secretary’s report and Officers, Averages and Fixtures for 2004.
January 9
County and Regional Clubs, Youth Fixtures, DCA Club data.
Over 50s
All those associated with the Over 50s in recent years will appreciate the work done by Roger Bosher as Secretary. The poor old codger has suffered a stroke and is still being treated in Dorchester Hospital during the week but is allowed home for good behaviour at the weekends. He is responding well to the treatment and expectations are high that he will recover the use of both limbs. He has two very nice physiotherapists working on him—no doubt that is why it is taking so long for him to get better! All our best wishes go to him for a speedy recovery,
and to Medina, who has been a great support to him.
DORSET CRICKET BOARD YOUTH FORUM REPORT
U13 & U15 DORSET COMPETITIONS 2003
(Written by A Shearing)
Pride of place must go to Bournemouth CC who entered the U13 National Club competition and out of over 1,500 teams that entered came second in the National finals held at Rutland, in which the eight winning regional finalists took part. Bournemouth had arrived at the finals having beaten Shillingstone in the Dorset final played before a large enthusiastic crowd, they then went on to play in the regional finals of the South West held at Bournemouth after beating Devon in the semi-final they went on to win the final in a low scoring but exciting match which booked their place in the finals. Bournemouth became only the fourth Dorset team to reach the National finals.
In the U15 Portman National Club Championship it was Corfe Mullen who emerged as Dorset champions,
after seeing off Bridport at Dean Park, then in the County play off beat Devon in a very exciting match, off the last ball. Corfe Mullen then travelled to Bath for the regional finals and it was Bath who knocked them out to reach the National Finals held for the first time at Bournemouth CC.
May I thank all managers and their teams who entered the competitions this season. My thanks again to Shillingstone and Dean Park for staging the Dorset Finals. Special mention for Bournemouth CC who staged the U13 Regional final and the U15 National Finals so well.
DEVELOPMENT OFFICER'S REPORT
Keith Brewer
Cricket Clubs continue to be the focus of ECB attention and there are a number of new initiatives and developments to be aware of.
Rate Relief.
The Government has recently announced that Cricket Clubs will be eligible for 80% mandatory rate relief with a provision for 100% discretionary rate
relief. In order to register for this Clubs will need to contact the Inland Revenue either by phone or through the website at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk. The relevant forms CASC3 and CASC4 are there to download. They are then returned with a copy of the Club constitution and latest accounts. Once registered with the revenue the Club can then ask the local authority for rate relief.
CCDF
In my last newsletter I mentioned the Community Club Development Fund for Club facilities. Since then we have been notified that only Weymouth and Bournemouth have successfully got through to stage 2 with Dorchester on the waiting list. Although it is disappointing not to have more Clubs approved it is still a significant success for these 2 Clubs and will hopefully lead to greatly improved facilities.
E-mail address
Could Clubs please supply me with an up to date e- mail address for a key person or
persons in that Club. I have recently been sending information more via this method and it enables me to constantly update Clubs with regard to opportunities for funding and getting resources so it is in your interest. My ECB address is keith.brewer@ecb.co.uk
Resources
ECB have recently produced two more resources for Clubs to use, one is the CricketForce DVD and CD Rom which features our very own Cerne Valley Cricket Club and explains how to set u a Cricket Force day to renovate your Clubhouse or pavilion. Cerne Valley achieved a great deal through this and I recommend other Clubs to try it. There is also a Volunteers in Cricket resource which is to help Clubs find and recruit new volunteers. Both are available free of charge by registering on the play- cricket.com website and entering your details.
Play- Cricket
Play-Cricket.com is now the ECB Club website and I would urge all Clubs to claim their site and use
it fully . It can minimise the hassle in selecting teams and notifying players, will calculate averages and statistics and is a great way of keeping your members informed. The ECB resources are all available through this site and any Clubs not sure how to access it should contact me at the Cricket Centre on 01202 470852
Child welfare
Hopefully the County Board will soon have appointed a County Welfare Officer who will deal with all matters relating to Child Protection. This person will deal with all cases of child abuse and will co- ordinate the process of CRB checking of coaches, umpires, volunteers etc, as well as ensuring the ECB child welfare policy is adopted and used by the Board its Associations and the Clubs. It is important that all Clubs with junior sections identify the person who will act as Club Welfare Officer and let me know as soon as possible the contact details.
Accreditation
Club Mark accreditation is ongoing and to date nearly 30 Clubs have registered but only two, Blandford and Broadstone have successfully accredited. Would registered Clubs please try and complete their accreditation as soon as possible by contacting Owen Newton on 07974043328 and he will help you to complete the process and arrange for a visit to the Club if necessary. In the future Clubs with junior sections will need to achieve ClubMark before they are able to access any funding, and schools will not send children to those Clubs until they are accredited so it is vitally important to go through accreditation as soon as possible.
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DORSET CRICKET ASSOCIATION: NEWSLETTER
Issue 5
July 2003
Dear Secretary,
I hope your season is going well. There are one or two subjects which need to be brought to your notice and hence, this newsletter. I have asked
for reports from various people so that the news can come straight from “the horses mouth” (if they would pardon the expression). The first and most worrying report is from the Treasurer, John Ridout.
As ever, if there are any points anyone would like to raise, or comments to make, I would welcome some feedback. Steve Milton at Shaftesbury, for example, has asked for the newsletter to be sent to him online so that he can put it on the Shaftesbury Cricket Club website. (www.southwilts.com/site/shaftesburycc) This is a great idea as the information then becomes available to more club members and isn’t “sat on (Apologies to those Secretaries who do relay the information to their committees). Of course, it would be great to have a website of our own— something which is being looked into.
Treasurers Report
J Ridout
At the pre- season I indicated that there may be funding problems stemming from the
ECB’s poor financial position and changed funding priorities. I felt that this was likely to be evidenced by a cut in the administration grant from £9,000 to a figure nearer nil. The cut has been made but the level is still to be announced!
Somehow this amount has to be replaced. The ECB seem keen on sponsorship and so am I but presumably no one wants to stump up the shortfall, unless you know better? I could try to replace the funding by increasing subscriptions. Only £100 per club! I think that might have some impact on membership!
I will have to try to reduce expenditure but this will directly impact on the Cricket Centre and indirectly upon the levels of service that it can offer.
There is no simple solution and I will have to give the problem some thought during the summer. A combination of the three elements of sponsorship, increased fees and cuts is most likely. A re-instated grant from ECB would be most
preferable.
I suppose that I should be grateful that the money raised by subscriptions now remains in Dorset and does not have to be paid to Lords. Now that couldn’t happen again, could it?
VACANCIES
There are several posts vacant within Dorset cricket and this section is to bring these vacancies to your attention in the hope that they will all be filled. They are:
- Dorset League Secretary: George Vincent IS stepping down at the end of this season after 20 years. Serving that amount of time, however, is not a stipulation of the job so please don’t be put off by that!
- Youth Forum Secretary. Child Welfare Officer. This is a County Board position and duties will involve liaising with the Board and Clubs over child welfare matters, ensuring CRB checks are undertaken, and liaising with ECB when incidents are referred.
- Disabilities Cricket representative. This is a Board
position and involves facilitating the opportunities for disability cricket, liaising with special needs schools, supporting the CDO in developing disability cricket in the County and working with the ECB.
There are also other positions within the Districts and anyone interested should get in touch with Keith Brewer for more information and/or a job description. Indoor Leagues
Bill Carver, after many years, has decided that he will not be able to manage the Ferndown Centre for the indoor cricket this winter. Bill has been a great stalwart and we thank him for the many hours he has spent at the Centre on our behalf and it is quite understandable that he thinks he has done enough. If the competition is to continue at Ferndown, we will need to find someone else to manage the competition there. Any volunteers?
BBC Boost to Club Cricket
Get online and save your club hundreds of pounds. That is
the message following BBC Sport's newly- agreed support of Play-Cricket, the ECB Cricket Network found at www.play- cricket.com. Play-Cricket is an online system which provides all ECB affiliated clubs and leagues with free administration systems and web- sites, and it currently hosts sites for over 1500 clubs and 150 leagues. The benefits for users are substantial. As well as facilitating communication amongst club members, there is significant time-saving potential by offering online alternatives to existing processes (e.g. team e-mail, automated league tables, player availability etc). In addition, due to reduced telephone and post requirements, administrative costs can be reduced by between £400 and £1000 per year for the average club. Standard systems are free to clubs and leagues with upgrade features available starting from £25 per annum per club. For more information go to www.play- cricket.com.
CHAIRMAN’S
MOANS
Phil Drake
Many of us have concerns over the number of overseas players taking part in County and Club cricket. No-one knows the true number but it certainly runs into thousands each season. This year, the ECB gave in to the First Class Counties to allow two overseas players (in addition to all those playing on ‘obscure’ passport qualifications). This, of course, means fewer places for home-grown players. It also means they are using their ECB subsidy to pay for it.
How does this affect Dorset you are saying? Well, the ECB have cut our meagre administration grant by a half and elsewhere John Ridout explains the implications.
Playing Down
Locally, I believe a Premier Club can benefit from a good overseas player who coaches and contributes to Club affairs. However, we have had a number of instances where the overseas player (and also other Premier players) play in the Sunday League for teams in the lower
Divisions. As a consequence they often dominate the game and it cannot be much fun for either side. I don’t think it is a case for legislation, but commonsense should prevail.
*Editor’s note: Any comments or opinions on the above?
Women’s Cricket
Jackie Summers, the ECB Women’s County Cricket Development Officer SW, has asked that a questionnaire be circulated with the Newsletter. The women’s/girls cricket has developed tremendously over the last two seasons and it needs to be pushed forward even more. Club Secretaries are asked to spend a few minutes to complete the questionnaire and return it to Jackie. Parley are to be congratulated at taking the positive step of including a woman in their Premier side—and she is to be congratulated in being brave enough to accept the challenge! Success to both sides.
Minutes of General and Annual General Meetings
At the last General Meeting, the date of the
previous minutes was queried by one of the clubs and it was explained that the last meeting attended by all clubs was the Annual General Meeting and that the last General Meeting was a year ago and those were the minutes distributed. On reflection, it does make sense to issue the minutes of the last meeting (whether it be the General Meeting or the Annual General Meeting) and therefore, you will be receiving two sets of minutes prior to the AGM — one for last years AGM and the other for the last General Meeting. After that you will be receiving minutes of the last meeting attended. All clear?
Development Officer’s Report
Keith Brewer
ClubMark:
We now have over 30 Clubs going through the process of accreditation and Blandford have already achieved it. I would urge all Clubs to try for it and those Clubs already involved need to get in touch once they have done all the necessary paperwork and attended the relevant
courses. In future only accredited Clubs will be able to claim grants, and also young people wishing to join Clubs will be directed to Clubs with the Club mark accreditation.
Junior Sections:
Those Clubs currently without a junior section might be interested in applying for funding to set one up. I am currently putting together a package to pay for the costs of school visits to recruit children, hall hire and coaches as well as some money for kit. The whole package will enable a Club to set up a junior section with no cost to the Club although the Club will have to administer everything. Any Club interested should contact me straight away on 07785 722270 or write to me at the Cricket Centre, Hurn, Christchurch, BH23 6DY. The scheme will begin in January 2004.
20/20 Cricket:
Both Hampshire and Somerset are involved in the fast and exciting new 20/20 competition which is designed to attract new
audiences to the game. Both Clubs have incentive deals to encourage more youngsters to the games and if anyone is interested in further details please get in touch and I will explain how they work.
The Welfare of Young People in Cricket:
The England and Wales Cricket Board's Child Protection Policy is due to be renewed to include various developments since the production of its original policy in 1999. The policy and its procedures have been reviewed over the past eight months and a new policy will be in place later this year, including a new and comprehensive system for managing any referrals, disclosures or complaints. The policy will be disseminated to clubs by means of a training programme delivered to County Boards. Clubs will be asked to nominate a club welfare officer for invitation to training sessions, which will provide support on the Club Welfare Officer's role and responsibilities, how to adopt the policy within the
club and how to manage issues in partnership with the ECB Referral Management System. The training has a pre- requisite that those attending have already completed the sports coach UK 'Good Practice and Child Protection' course within the last two years. As the governing body for cricket the ECB has an obligation and commitment to ensure that it protects young people, and vulnerable adults, from harm. All adults working with young people - coaches, umpires, team managers, club volunteers etc - have a responsibility to ensure that their club provides an environment in which the welfare and safety of the young people is paramount. All young people participating in sport, and in particular cricket, have a right to do so in a safe and guarded environment.
Club details:
Please note the following amendments:
Pimperne CC:Saturday league captain: John Sullivan 01258 480729
Sunday league captain:
Chris Langdown 01258 455469
Christchurch CC:
Secretary’s address: 32 Brinsons Close
Youth Secretary: 01202 463151
Captain: 01425 614565
West Moors CC:
Secretary:
M Patient, 55 Westwood Avenue
Ferndown
BH22 9HL
Tel: 01202 875925