2014 Season

The new cricket season is upon us and all the hard work put into the Canon Frome Cricket ground has paid off; the new extended boundary and fence are in place, the pitch is looking good and the outfield freshly rolled. It looks beautiful. Thanks to all the volunteers who have worked so hard building fences, trimming hedges, seeding, cutting and rolling. Even our magnificent old oak tree has had some serious surgery.

The first Seniors game is 3rd May (away) and the first Junior game is U13s on Tuesday 6th May at home.

Just a warning, there are some nasty potholes in the lane leading to the cricket ground so please take care.

Junior Training

It must be the new cricket season …our first outdoor junior training session was cancelled due to rain on Friday! We’ll all be there next week; hopefully with glorious sunshine. The sessions will be every Friday 6 to 7pm for the Under 9s. The older children will carry on until 7.30pm. £2 per session, or why not pay £10 upfront for 5 sessions and save the trouble of digging behind the sofa for change every week.

Junior training provides an ideal opportunity to learn and practice new skills. It especially gives those moving from soft ball cricket to hard ball cricket a chance to gain confidence with a hard ball.

New players are always welcome, so invite friends and family.

Club Subscription

Annual Subscriptions to Canon Frome cricket club are now due. This year the Juniors subscription is £30. Andy Booth will have Registration Forms available at the ground on Friday evenings, for those who have not yet given us their details. We will also need to seek parental permission to enter some basic player details (name and age group) onto the official cricket registration site (Play-cricket)

Subscriptions are vital to the club as it pays for the ground maintenance, mower repairs, fuel, insurance, ground rent and courses such as coaching certification. And this year we have a new fence for our enlarged boundary. We have no paid employees. All maintenance and coaching is performed by volunteers. (The Seniors pay between £40-£75)

New players to the club can pay per training session for the first couple of weeks as a taster to decide if cricket and Canon Frome is for them.

Junior Teams in 2014

This year we will field U9, U11 and U13 teams. The age group is determined by the child’s age as of 1st September 2013. All teams can field both male and female players. There will be league games for all age groups and these could be at the home ground or away. There is a £1 match fee for each child playing.

We have a bumper calendar of fixtures this year with sixteen U9 games, ten U11 games and twelve U13 games. All the fixtures can be found on the Canon Frome Cricket Club website www.canonfromecricketclub.co.uk .

The team manager and coach will let parents know if their child has been selected prior to each match. It is the intention to rotate the squad to give as many youngsters as possible some match experience. As our unofficial motto says, ‘everyone gets a bat down the Frome’.

We usually have some ad hoc friendly matches between clubs. However, there is such a full calendar of league matches this year there may not be much time. But if any are arranged we’ll let you know.

Each age group has a named coach for training and matches. Further coaching support is provided by our other coaches when available: Alec, Stevie, Andy Rogers and Em. Willing parents are also welcome to help during the training sessions. This year the plan is to have a parent helper to work with each team coach to help organise the players for each match (team management), thus freeing up the coaches to concentrate on coaching. Parent volunteers are still needed to take on this role for the U11 & U13 and will involve determining player availability and ensuring the selected team know where to be and when.

U9 The coach will be Matt Richards with team management from Lee Richards. The U9s play pairs cricket with a soft cricket ball. Pairs cricket allows each pair of batters to keep playing for three overs (18 balls), losing runs when they are out instead of leaving the field as the older children do. Each child also bowls at least one over (6 balls). U9 league games will be on selected Sundays, with two games being played. The start times vary. Mornings are usually 10am and 12md, finishing early afternoon. Afternoon is usually 2pm and 4pm.

U11 The coach will be Paul Cresswell. Parent volunteer needed to support Paul. U11s play the first half of the season as for U9s with pairs cricket but using a hard ball. The second half of the season players bat as individuals. This means that when you’re out, you’re out and you leave the field. U11 league games are played on most Sunday mornings at 10am.

U13 Phil Avery will coach the U13 and a volunteer team manager is still needed. U13s is played with a hard ball and players bat as individuals, so when you’re out, you’re out. U13 league games are played on Tuesday evenings at 6pm.

Junior Parent Group

We need your help as parents to decide how things get organised this season and so we thought an informal gathering of parents is needed. We always have a readymade group of parents willing to help whilst watching their children. We just need to be organised to harness a little bit of every ones time; rotas for refreshments at training and match days, clearing and cleaning up, volunteers to umpire and score at junior matches. We know there is a lot of talent out there too, especially with your well-honed organisational skills! So if you are prepared to volunteer a little of your time or you have (or are willing to learn) a particular skill we really need every ones help to make it all run smoothly this season. Please give Matt Richards or Andy Booth the nod to say you can be involved in anyway. You can catch them at Friday training or send them a quick email [email protected] or [email protected] .

Cricket Kit

We have a new kit supplier this year. Club Sport in Ledbury will be selling Gray Nicolls branded cricket gear with the Canon Frome logo. By using Steve Onions at Club Sport, kit can be ordered by you directly and he will also hold some stock items. We hope to have samples to view at the training session on Friday 9th May including tracksuits, polo shirts, hoodies, cricket whites, jumpers and caps. Knowing how keen you all are, a quantity of caps, playing shirts and trousers with the Frome logo have already been ordered and will be available to buy on the same day.

The new kit is a very similar look to the previous Samurai clothing, so there is no obligation to buy new items. It is also not obligatory for the children to own their own club kit. They can wear their own gear and the club has some junior shirts and caps to lend out on match days. However, if you want to buy your own kit then Steve Onions is your man.

Canon Frome News

Congratulations to Paul Cresswell who completed his level 2 coaching training during the winter.

Mark Godsall has also been busy during the winter months, completing a cricket groundsman course.

Fiona Day and Paul Cresswell have been investigating options for grants and funding. There will be more to follow…

Again we have Malcolm Rogers developing and maintaining our fabulous Canon Frome Cricket Website. A big thank you to Malcolm, especially as he doesn’t even get to play cricket with the Frome any more, now he lives in Yorkshire!