We are looking forward to the new season with great anticipation. And we are again looking to expand our activities with new Junior teams in the Middlesex Junior Cricket Association (MJCA) and a restructured Inter Franchise League (IFL) competition, providing playing opportunities for more of our Junior members. More details of this are set out below.

There is a lot of information for us to communicate , so please excuse the length of this message and the attachment. We hope the information will be useful for children and parents. Please read it carefully and, if you have any queries, the Manager(s) of your child’s Age Group(s), will be able to assist you. Details of the Age Group Managers are also set in the attached document.

Junior Cricket management

Our Junior Cricket will again be overseen by Chad Barrett, the Club’s Director of Cricket, who has been a great leader for our Junior section in recent years. We have appointed Saloni Allot as our new Head of Women and Girls Cricket and Community Participation Manager.

Chad and Saloni will be supported by an outstanding team of coaches, including Ayzaz Hussain, Scott Conway, Ranjit Bhanbhai, Paul Plumbly, Vince Romeo, Lachlan Shaw, Nic Taylor and Holly Topp.

Coaching Schedule

The club has a long history of having a successful Junior system, producing many first class cricketers. Crucial to this success has been a regular attendance at Junior coaching sessions and approaching these with a positive and committed mindset and a real focus on development through making the sessions enjoyable.

In recent years, we have restructured the Junior coaching at the Club and this has seen a marked improvement in the quality of the coaching sessions that we provide for our young cricketers.

To do this, we have used our ground, Popesfield, as an additional training venue, where there are two all weather nets. We have also sought to have the higher ability Juniors train separately from other children who are not as strong so that we can ensure both groups receive high quality cricket coaching that meets their needs and assists their development.

We have set out in the attached document the training timetable for the 2023 season.

Use of the Nets

Many members will want to use the Club’s Nets Facilities.
The Nets at Corfton Road (CR Nets) may only be used by members when they are not being used by the Club for our training sessions and other organised activities, including our holiday courses.

We will be providing detailed guidance regarding the use of the Club’s Nets facilities outside of the club’s organised activities.

MJCA

The main competitions in which our Junior cricketers play matches are those organised by MJCA. We have a record number of teams entering MJCA competitions this season. Details of the MJCA Fixtures that have been arranged are or will be available on the Ealing CC Play Cricket website and these should feed through onto Pitchero and the Club’s website.
Details of the Managers of each of the Age Groups/teams are set out in the attached document.

IFL

The IFL was introduced three years ago to seek to ensure as many Juniors as possible, particularly at younger age groups, have the opportunity to play in matches. This season, we are looking at a simpler structure to last year. There will be 7 teams at the U9, age group and 5 teams at each of the U11 and U14 age groups. One of the teams at the U9 age group will be a Girls only team. In the Boys’ teams, U8s will also be playing in the U9s teams, U10s in the U11s teams and U12s and U13s will be in the U14s teams. For the Girls, we are also allowing U10s to play in the U9 Girls team, We don’t have separate Girls only teams in the U11 and U14 IFL competitions this summer as we have decided to enter Girls only teams in the U11 and U13 MJCA Boys leagues. However, all the Girls will all be able to play in the U11 and U14 IFL competitions

Details of the teams to which our Junior members have been allocated will be available on Pitchero and all the fixtures can, or will shortly be able to, be seen on the Club’s website. We will also be publishing details of the Managers of each of the IFL teams shortly. If you are not sure which IFL team your child is in, please look on Pitchero and/or ask the Manager for your child’s Age Group.

Pitchero

Most communications between the Age Group Managers and Junior parents will be via Pitchero, although some Age Groups/Teams may also set up What’s App groups to assist with communications.

Junior parents are encouraged to download the Pitchero Club App and to be registered on Pitchero. For those who are yet to do this, Age Group managers can point you in the right direction. If there is no Age Group Manager for your child’s age group, i.e. U5 - U7 Boys and U6 – U8 Girls and you need assistance, please contact Chad Barrett or Laura Fairbairn. Their contact details are set out in the Information document that is being sent out with this letter.

You should also be able to see the following on the Pitchero Club App:

• Details of all MJCA and IFL fixtures that have been arranged.
• Which training group your child is training in
• Which playing squad(s) your child is likely to be playing in
• Which IFL team your child has been allocated to

If these details are not there yet, please be patient as all the information will be available soon. If you are not sure what training session your child should attend, please look on Pitchero and/or contact the relevant Age Group Managers or Chad or Laura, as above.

Club Clothing

We continue to have an objective to have all ECC cricketers, both Senior and Junior, wear ECC branded clothing whenever they are playing for the Club.
ECC branded clothing can be purchased from the ECC online shop, newly designed with additional leisure wear and equipment – www.surridgesport.com/ealing-cc . ECC members benefit from a 20% discount on all cricket equipment. Please use the discount code EALING2023 at checkout.

Premier Cricket Coaching

The Club has its own coaching business, Premier Cricket Coaching, which has been running successfully since 2016. In 2023, we will again be running courses in Easter holidays, in May half term and throughout the summer holidays. And the popular Sunday Coaching Club will be starting in early May.

For details of all the activities that we are offering over the course of the season, please go to https://www.premiercricketcoaching.co.uk

Volunteers

We are an amateur sports club and only focused on cricket. Although we do employ a small number of full time employees (one of the few Clubs in Middlesex able to do so), we remain reliant on volunteers to help to run the Club.

Managing and coaching our Junior section is an obvious area and we have many parents involved in this activity, but we always need more people to help, particularly among the younger age groups. The involvement of volunteers is really important to the productivity of our training sessions.

And, even if you know nothing about cricket, there are many other ways you can assist the Club in its activities. So, if you are able to assist in any way, please do contact us. Our contact details are shown below.

The clubhouse bar is open every day of the week and you are more than welcome to use this facility while Junior matches and training are taking place.

If you have any questions, please feel free to approach James Grigg, Chair of Trustees james.grigg@ealingcc.co.uk or Chad Barrett, Director of Cricket chad.barrett@ealingcc.co.uk during the season.

Other useful information about:

• Information re Junior training, including timing and venues
• Contact details for age group/team managers and other key Club contacts
• Dates of the Holiday courses and Sunday Coaching Club

can be found at the following link - Junior Parents Information 2023.docx

One final thing, during the early part of the season, it can be quite cold in the evenings when matches and training are going on, so, although the sessions will be active, please make sure the children bring some warm clothes.