CHESHIRE CLUBS CRICKET COMMITTEE
Minutes of the Planning Meeting of the Executive of the Cheshire Clubs Cricket Committee held
on Monday, 11th June, 2007 at Warrington C.C.
Present: D.Humpage (Chairman), R.Cunningham (Secretary), D.Bailey (Cheshire County C.C.), P.Davies (Cheshire Cricket League), D.Lawson (Cheshire Umpires & Scorers Association), R.Moss (Cheshire County League), J.Rafferty (Cheshire Cricket Alliance) and M.Woollard (Cricket Development Officer).
Apologies: Apologies for absence were received from D.Batty (Cheshire Youth Cricket), B.Davenport, M.Hasprey (East Region Representative), S.Douglas (Director of Cheshire Womens Cricket), N.James (Cheshire Association of Groundsmen) and R.Newton (Cheshire Development Manager).
1. CHAIRMAN’S REMARKS
D.Humpage recorded the best wishes of the Executive to R.Cunningham, who was shortly to have an operation.
2. MINUTES
The minutes of the Planning Meeting of the Executive, at Hale Barns C.C., on Monday, 15th January, 2007, as circulated prior to the meeting, were signed as a true record. There were no matters arising which were not covered by the agenda for this meeting.
3. REPORTS ON ACTION AREAS
Reports were made on progress with the actions on the Action List for 2006/7:
A. Public Image of Cricket (Actions 1-5).
(i) Club Websites & E-mail addresses The list of Cheshire clubs on the ECB website had not yet been modified because the secretary had not yet discussed the matter with M.Woollard. He was currently changing to contacting the Executive and the Clubs by e-mail having first asked for their permission.
(ii) Open Constitutions It was reported that thirty clubs in the CCCL had been accredited for Clubmark and therefore had suitable open constitutions. The other six were all working towards Clubmark accreditation and should have open constitutions in the near future. P.Davies reported that the CCL were currently circulating their clubs to ascertain the position and J.Rafferty would arrange for the CCA to do the same.
(iii) ClubMark M.Woollard reported that the number of Cheshire clubs now accredited under the ClubMark scheme had risen to 70, while a further CCB affiliated club, Urmston, had been accredited through Lancashire. Twenty clubs had now been accredited for at least three years and were due to seek re-accreditation meeting the new criteria. M.Woollard was in contact with these clubs over the process. Clubs would be given time to meet the new criteria and to attend the revised ‘Time to Listen’ course without having their accreditation withdrawn. Another forty clubs would need to seek re-accreditation in 2008.
The meeting agreed that the small grants of £50 made to clubs who achieved accreditation, to assist towards their expense, should be extended to clubs whose accreditation was renewed.
(iv) Recreational League Cricket
(a) Cheshire Integrated League Structure D.Humpage reported that Alsager C.C. had decided to resign from the CCCL and join the North Staffs & South Cheshire League in 2008. The League had not yet met to discuss how to fill the vacancy they would leave.
P.Davies told the meeting that following discussions with Stockport C.C., they would be joining the CCL for the 2008 Season. J.Rafferty reported that this move had caused dissatisfaction in some quarters of the CCA, with clubs feeling that Stockport were not sufficiently strong to merit their acceptance into the CCL, rather than the CCA whose clubs were therefore being disadvantaged. The meeting felt however that the CCL was the accepted level of entry into the CILS for clubs from the Derbyshire & Cheshire League Division 1, whereas Division 2 sides would be offered entry by the CCA. The CCA clubs had pointed out that Stockport were close to the bottom of Division 1 and might have been relegated to Division 2 for 2008 had they remained in that league. However it was felt that acceptance into the CILS had to be offered according to the status of a club at the time they applied to join. J.Rafferty suggested that the levels at which Cheshire clubs from different leagues should on application be offered entry into the CILS, should be written down, so that it could be discussed by the CCCC and the leagues and agreement reached. It was agreed that the secretary would produce a draft document for the next meeting.
J.Rafferty reported that despite reducing their representation in the CCA to a single team in 2007, Grange C.C. were now having difficulty in fulfilling their fixtures. The CCA were watching the situation closely.
(b) Womens’ Cricket League D.Humpage reported that the reorganisation of Cheshire Women’s cricket was going well. However the new clothing, ordered from Fearnleys, for the Cheshire side had been faulty and had not been accepted. The CWCL was now publishing its own Newsletter at regular intervals.
The secretary reported that he had published 250 copies of their 2007 Handbook for the CWCL on behalf of the CCCC. This had cost the CCCC some £210.
B. Development of Club Resources (Actions 6-11).
(i) Status of Premier League Clubs The Cheshire County League now had a constitutional requirement for any club to be accredited for Clubmark on September 30th in any year, for them to be eligible to play in the Cheshire County Premier League in the following season. Two clubs who had not yet attained Clubmark were amongst the contenders for promotion to that league from Division 1 at the end of the season.
(ii) District Development Forums M.Woollard reported that the large majority of the 11 Forums in Cheshire were now operating well, although one, or two, needed more involvement from the clubs. He asked the leagues to encourage their clubs to play a full part in their Forum and to stress the importance of their participation. Participation in the work of the Forums was one of the criteria required from clubs who wished to be considered as Cheshire Focus clubs and enjoy the benefits of this status such as the assistance of the Community Coaches with their club-school links and junior coaching.
(iii) Grants Booklet The secretary reported that all affiliated clubs had now received at least one copy of the 2007 CCCC Grants Booklet., updated on behalf of the CCCC by S.Wright (Oulton Park). The rest would be distributed shortly.
C. Development of Club Facilities (Actions 12-14).
(i) Playing facilities R.Cunningham reported that the IOG Level 1 and 2 courses organised by the CAG in the spring had gone well. Those attending had found the courses informative and had received certificates of attendance.
M.Woollard told the meeting that the CAG currently had some 75 members, however about a dozen focus clubs were not members. Both the leagues and the forums should once again inform their clubs of the benefits of membership and encourage them to become members.
It had been decided that the CCCC would finance the training of a second pitch adviser for Cheshire at a cost of some £2,000. The ECB had been informed of this decision and it was hoped that N.James would be trained as an advisor in the near future.
(ii) ECB Grants & Loans M.Woollard reported that to date ECB Grants had been approved for four Cheshire clubs: Davenham and Neston , for net installations and Glazebury and Widnes for rollers. However Glazebury had then decided to buy a cheaper roller and withdrawn their application. Kingsley had also been allocated a loan to buy an outfield mower and it was now intended that the finance allocated to Glazebury would be transferred to Kingsley as a grant for part of their purchase. The ECB had appointed case officers to consider a further seven grant applications from Cheshire clubs.
The ECB had requested that the CCB should prioritise Cheshire clubs with regards to grant, or loan, applications. The CCB were not keen to do this as they wished as wide a range of clubs as possible, who wish to develop their facilities, to be able to apply for grants on an equal footing.
(iii) Artificial Net Installations D.Humpage reported that several clubs were concerned about the standard of the installation of their artificial net facilities granted under the CCDF scheme. It was felt that the local contractors employed by the net providers to carry out the work on the bases were not suitable, that the work carried out was not being correctly supervised and that this was compromising the performance of the final installations. This had been reported to the ECB, who said that they had not previously received any adverse reports. M.Woollard had been asked to carry out a survey of the Cheshire clubs who had had nets installed to find out their views, which would then be passed to the ECB.
(iv) Ground Difficulties Bollington C.C. played on a ground owned by Macclesfield Council, who provided the groundsman to tend the ground and prepare wickets for the club. The club were therefore not in charge of the work carried out on their ground and their members could not carry any work such as cutting, or rolling, wickets. Neither was the club consulted of work to be carried out on the ground and this spring the square had been hollow tined in the spring, leading to damage to the performance of the wickets. The situation was hampering the development of the club, currently in Division 1 of the CCCL.
Bollington C.C. had tried to reach an agreement with the council on a compromise situation, where they would be able to do a limited amount of work on the square themselves and be consulted on work to be carried out on the ground. This had not been successful. D.Humpage told the meeting that the CCCC were to try and approach Macclesfield Council of behalf of the club.
D. Senior Recreational (Action 15).
(i) League Cricket Report 2006 The secretary told the meeting that this report had been completed in February and had included a section on the Women’s Cricket League for the first time. It had since been published in the Cheshire Cricket County Handbook 2007, copies of which had been circulated to affiliated clubs.
E. Disabled Cricket (Actions 16-17).
M.Woollard reported that the Cricket Development Office was considering forming a forum on cricket for the disabled in Cheshire, where participants could discuss matter of mutual interest.
F. Child Welfare Issues (Actions 18-19).
(i) Mid-Week Leagues D.Humpage reported that A.Margeson was still awaiting information from the Chester & District League about which clubs needed child welfare officers to be trained. Once the information was to hand training courses could be arranged.
The secretary had written again to the Ashton & Oldham Alliance to remind them of their responsibilities for child welfare.
(ii) Junior Players in Senior Cricket M.Woollard reported that since the ECB had published their criteria for the participation of junior players in senior cricket, several incidences had been reported of U13s playing in club 2nd or 3rd XIs. These had been investigated but it had been concluded that the criteria had been adhered to in these cases. It was however a sign that clubs should consider carefully the risk of playing juniors in senior matches, bearing in mind that the difference in physical size and that the criteria laid down that clubs should not cause their opponents to have to consider changing the way they played the game because of junior players in their sides.
D.Humpage reported that incidents of juniors in the lower sides of clubs in the CCCL occurred regularly, but these were not often as young as under U13s. The League was regularly reminding the clubs of their responsibilities in this area.
4. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
(a) D. & C.L. Representative The Derbyshire & Cheshire League had informed the secretary that T.Bellieu, the treasurer of the League, was to act as their new representative. He had been sent notice of this meeting and would hopefully be attending the next Executive meeting in July.
(b) Umpires’ & Scorers’ Association Report
(i) Courses D.Lawson reported that as well as the two ten week umpires courses held last winter, the Association was planning to arrange shorter courses for groups of juniors, or parents, for any club which would like to host such a course. There would be no charge for these courses which could be run in half a day, or an evening. The leagues were asked to publicise these courses to their member clubs. The Association now had four trained senior instructors to run future courses.
(ii) Umpiring Structure D.Lawson told the meeting that one new aim of the CU&SA was to try and create a system by which umpires could progress up through the leagues to gain experience of officiating at a higher level of cricket. Further discussions were needed before proposals for such a system could be formulated.
(c) Coaching Matters
(i) Courses M.Woollard reported that a large number of coaches had attended the UKCC2 courses organised in Cheshire last winter and that he and R.Newton were now trying to encourage clubs to plan a policy of succession in their coaching staff. UKCC3 courses were to be centrally organised by the ECB and not too many were planned for each year. Cheshire would therefore only be allocated one, or two, places on these courses annually and possible participants would need to be carefully chosen and should gain experience in assisting with running local UKCC2 courses. Several courses had also been held for assistant coaches and parents and more than 100 people had attended these. The participants had in general been impressed with the courses.
(ii) Coach Tutors The training of more coach tutors had begun and it was intended that some of the Community Coaches should be trained for this purpose. Experience was being gained in assessing participants on the UKCC2 courses.
(d) Officials & Volunteers Development Plan M.Woollard circulated copies of a draft development plan for the recruiting and training of officials and volunteers. The members of the committee were asked to study the plan and to let him have their comments on its contents.
(e) Liaison M.Woollard would be attending the CCCL Management meeting on June 28th, 2007, to address the clubs on the work of the Cricket Development Office and of the current issues on which he and R.Newton were available to assist the clubs. He had already addressed the CCL and CCA clubs.
5. DATES OF NEXT MEETINGS
The next Planning Meeting of the Executive would be held on Monday, 17th September, 2007, at Hale Barns C.C.
The next Executive Committee meeting would be held on Monday, 16th July, 2007, at Oulton Park C.C.
There being no further business the Chairman thanked Warrington C.C. for the use of their facilities and closed the meeting at 10.00 p.m.