Dear Parents,

On behalf of Blunham Cricket Club I would like to welcome you and your children to the Club for the 2024 Season. At Blunham we pride ourselves on fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where children of all ages and abilities can come together to improve their cricketing skills and, most importantly, have fun whilst they do so. The aim of this letter is to provide information that may be helpful to you as members of the Club.

The Club is run by a large number of volunteers, meaning that people give up their own free time to coach, complete groundwork and complete club administration. We also receive support from the Blunham Sports and Social Club (BSSC) who organise cutting the outfield and run the Pavilion Bar. The Club is always looking for more volunteers to help in variety of roles, therefore, if you would be interested in getting involved in some way please get in touch!

As a Club, we hope our Youth Members will have a fun and enjoyable time at Blunham CC, which has a proud history of having one of the best Youth Sections in the county. We know that some of you may have questions about kit requirements, training times and pick up arrangements for the upcoming season; if you do, please not hesitate to speak to the appropriate coach or a club official who will be able to help you.

The Club is Clubmark Accredited, meaning we adhere to the ‘Safe Hands’ Policy for safeguarding children in cricket. All the adults at the Club who work with children and meet the necessary criteria are vetted by the England Cricket Board (ECB) and hold a valid DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) certificate. If you have any concerns about your child, another child, or the behaviour of any adult at the Club, please contact our Safeguarding Officer Clair Graham (07753192034 or clairgraham1976@gmail.com).

Finally, all members are reminded of the Club’s Codes of Conduct for members, guests and juniors, which is available on request, as are copies of other policies which we have adopted from the ECB. Reminders on the club code of conduct and the 8 key safeguarding policies can be found on these registration forms, these can also be found at our document library on the club play cricket page at https://blunham.play-cricket.com/docs

Yours faithfully,

Max Hurst
Chairperson

Blunham Youth Cricket Club:
As a club, we recognise the importance of Youth Cricket and investing in the future of the next generation of cricketers. To demonstrate our commitment to our youth members, this year the Club has formed a partnership with Evolution Cricket, an external coaching provider, who will:
• Create a coaching framework for ensuring we deliver an optimum experience.
• Support our coaches with session planning.
• Oversee our junior coaching sessions on Friday nights.
• Help our coaches to evaluate their sessions and their own performance to drive the continual improvement of the Club’s coaching team.

As per last year, we will be using an app this called Pitchero to register and pay membership/match fees, hopefully this should make some of the administration easier to manage for all. If anyone is unsure as to how to access or work Pitchero please speak to Matt Cottrell or another member of the coaching staff on a Friday night who will take you through this.

I am also very pleased to announce that the Club will continue to run Under 19 Academy training sessions on Thursday Evenings; these will take place weekly with the first sessions taking place on Thursday 11th April at 6pm. The aim of these academy sessions is to support youth players transitioning into adult cricket.

Please take some time to review the new coaching structure in the table below, we have some fantastic home-grown coaches as well some extra specialist coaching support from our overseas player Charl Van Den Heever. Charl has been coaching and playing cricket all over the world and we are very excited to have as part of our coaching team for the 2024 season.

We hope we can enjoy continued success and growth as we have in previous years, last season we had over half a dozen players of both genders from our youth section selected for the Bedfordshire County teams and we wish these players continued success. Hopefully we can get a few more into county selection this coming season.

Matt Cottrell
Youth Coordinator

Youth Section Set Up:

• Youth Co-Ordinator - Matt Cottrell
• Treasurer - Laura Steed
• Head Coach - Matt Cottrell
• Safeguarding Officer - Clair Graham

Other useful information:

Training times:

• Youth Training for under 9's, 11’s, 13's and 15's is every Friday starting 19th April.
• For U9’s and U11’s the timing is from 6:30pm to 7.30pm.
• For U13’s and U15’s the timing is from 6:30pm to 8pm.
• All Stars Training will start Friday 17th May.
• U16 to U19 age groups train at 6.30pm on Thursday Nights.

Match days and dates:

• Fixture cards will be available shortly, however for those of you who wish to see the planned fixtures for 2022 can visit the Blunham play cricket web site. http://blunham.play-cricket.com. Any changes will be conveyed through the youth club Facebook page.
• Your child will need to be at the ground at least 30 minutes in advance of any match start time.
• Home matches are played primarily at Roxton (except for U15 which are normally at Blunham) but please take care to note the correct venue. For away matches you can find directions to most opposition grounds on their play-cricket page, if you search for this on the internet.
• U9 and U11 matches are 10.00am on Sundays.
• U13 Matches are on Tuesday evenings at 6.00pm.
• U15 Matches are on Thursday evenings at 6.00pm.
• U15 Girl’s Games are on alternative Wednesdays at 6.00pm.

Key dates for your diary:

• April 19th - full training starts for all ages
• May 17th – All Stars start. Sign up here
• U9 first league game: 28th April – HOME to Langford
• U11 first league game: 5th May - HOME to Ickwell
• U13 first league game: 7th May – HOME to Sandy
• U15 first league game: 2nd May – AWAY at Ickwell
• Girls U13/15 first game: 8th May – HOME to Bedford
• Simon Ackroyd match: 19st July – at Blunham Playing Fields
• Youth presentation evening: 28th September (more info TBA)

Age ranges:

• Under 9: for those aged U9 at the start of the academic year. Minimum age 6
• Under 11: for those aged U11 at the start of the academic year (school years 5 & 6)
• Under 13: for those aged U13 at the start of the academic year (school years 7 & 8)
• Under 15: for those aged U15 at the start of the academic year (school years 9 & 10)
• Girls can play two years higher in the league.

Age groups often have more than one side, some teams play with a hard and some with a soft ball. The coaches will decide which is the most suitable team for each child and also if a child should be playing at a higher level than their age would suggest. If you have any concerns please talk to your coach

Pitchero:

• The Pitchero App will be at the heart of communication for availability, team selection and other notifications this year, if you prefer another contact method please talk to your coach or club official.
• Pitchero will also be used to register and pay membership/match fees. If any parent or guardian is having issues making these payments, they should talk to Max Hurst, Matthew Cottrell or Clair Graham at the earliest possible opportunity so we can offer as much assistance as possible.

Drop off/collection arrangements:
• Please register your child with staff at the start of the session prior to leaving. Take care in the car park as it can get quite busy. At the end U9, U11 and U13 children will need to be picked up from their respective coaches. Please note the club cannot accept responsibility for getting your child to away matches

Medication:
• If your child has an Epipen or inhaler please leave it with your coach prior to training.