I hope this newsletter finds everybody fit and well and easing themselves into the New Year!! First of all, apologies for not being in touch sooner. I meant to do an end of season newsletter but before I knew it, time had flown by and it was time instead for a spring update!!
I hope everyone enjoyed last summer. It was nice to have a little bit off success with two cup wins and two other sides reaching the final. It was even more enjoyable that so many kids committed to coming to training every week and got so much out of it. Winning the odd trophy here and there is nice but what we really strive for is to have as many kids as possible playing and enjoying cricket. This was highlighted on the last Friday of the summer when we had over 80 kids ranging from 9 to 17 years all playing together and having a great time.

Spring Training
Spring training will be held at Kibworth Mead Academy, making uses of both indoor and outdoor facilities. Due to Easter being so early the programme will be a little shorter at KMA but hopefully if the weather allows we will be holding outdoor sessions at the club during the second week of the school holidays. However, this does leave us with the best part of a month between Easter and start of the Summer season. Depending on the weather we will look to put on some ad hoc training sessions and for the older age groups look at playing some inter-club games.
One major change we are trialling this spring, is only having a one off session for Kwiks. This will be a longer session to welcome all the kids back from last summer and introduce it to new kids coming along for the first time. There will be no cost to this session and hopefully it will be a fun and relaxed way of getting the kids back into cricket before the start of the summer.
*U11s includes school years 5 and 6

Dates for Spring Training
Sunday 25th February – 3-5pm – Week One
*U11s – Indoor technical session.
U13s/u15s – Outdoors fielding, fitness, game based

Sunday 3rd March – 3-5pm – Week Two
U13s – Indoor technical session.
U11s/u15s – Outdoors fielding, fitness, game based

Sunday 17th March – 3-5pm – Week Three
U15s – Indoor technical session.
U11s/u13s – Outdoors fielding, fitness, game based

Sunday 24th March – 3-5pm – KWIKS ( U7s-U9s)
Kwiks Only Session - FREE

Once I have agreed a cost of hire with KMA for use of their facilities, I will let everyone know the cost of the programme. Hopefully it will be somewhere between £15-£20 for the 3 weeks.

Summer Training
Summer training will have a slightly different look this year. Due to the amazing numbers we have been getting on Friday nights with the U13s & U15s we have decided to partially split the sessions. What we thought was great about Friday nights was the energy and fun had by all (players and coaches) having the tape ball competition on the last session of each block. What was not so good was the lack of space and facilities to work on the slightly more technical side of the game. So with this in mind we have decided to move the U13s first three sessions of each block to a Tuesday night but then come back together with the U15s for the last session of the block on Friday night. It is not as complicated as it sounds!!
So as in the previous two summers we will be having 4 blocks of 4 sessions with a week’s break in between each block. In due course I’ll add all the sessions onto Pitchero but below are the dates for the first session of Block 1.
Block 1
U13s - Tuesday 30th April
U15s – Friday 3rd May
U11s / Kwiks – Sunday 5th May

Another slight change to the training this summer will be the Kwiks. We are looking at splitting the Kwiks in to two groups based on age, with the older group doing slightly more technical drills so they are better equipped to make the move up to the U11s. Again with numbers being so good for the Kwiks, we struggled to give the older kids the attention they required to prepare them for the step up to the next age group. Also learning from last year, we will only be using the older kids in the matches against other teams, hopefully giving the games a bit more focus. For the younger kids we will look at playing inter-club games and friendly’s against other local sides.

Important Dates for 2024
Season starts:
U15s – Wednesday 1st May
U11s – Friday 3rd May
U13s – Sunday 5th May
U17s – Monday 6th May
U19s – Monday 8th July

County Cup Final Dates
U13s - Sunday 9th June (Finals Day)
U15s – Sunday 16th June (Finals Day)
U11s – Sunday 23rd June (Finals Day)
U17s – Monday 1st July (Semi-Final 24th June)
U19s – Monday 26th August (Finals Day)

League Cup Semi-Finals / Finals
U11s – Friday 16th August / Sunday 1st September
U13s – Sunday 18th August / Sunday 1st September
U15s – Wednesday 21st August / Sunday 8th September
JUNIOR PRESENTATION – FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER

List of Managers

Kwiks – x2 - TBC
U11IB – TBC
U11 Green – TBC
U11 Gold – TBC
U13 Green – Paul Mullen
U13 Gold – Kam Patel
U15 A – Jamie Steed
U15 B – TBC
U15 C – Chris Long
U17 – Nick Pinnelli / Ed Wall

As you can see from the list above we are still in need of 5 or 6 managers for the forthcoming season, especially in the younger age groups. Without volunteers to run the teams we will struggle to be able to enter them into competitions, so if you can help out then please do not hesitate to get in touch. You will get lots of support from myself and the other coaches, so please don’t feel you’ll be dropped in at the deep end!!

Kit for 2024
2024 will see the start of the Juniors playing in coloured clothing. Within the next couple of weeks the supplier and manufacturer will be confirmed, so as soon as that happens I’ll be in touch to explain how to purchase your kit. All being well if we can start the process this month, then by the start of the season in May everybody should have had time to sort the new kit.

Summer Subs for 2024
We have not confirmed the subs for this summer yet, but we have a management meeting this week, so should be able to confirm the cost after that meeting. Hopefully, it will be very similar to last year’s price. However, as in previous years if anyone is struggling to make the payment, please come and see me in the strictest of confidence and we can have a chat and make sure the cost does not stop your child playing cricket.

Thanks for taking the time to read all the above and hope you have found it useful. There are other bits and bobs I need to communicate (especially dates for All-Stars!) but I’ll let you digest this information first before unloading anymore on you!!! To my older readers, I hope you made it to the end without nodding off!!

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch, and to the parents of the younger players, please have a think about volunteering to manage a team. The volunteers we have at the moment do an amazing job but as the Junior section grows, so does the number of volunteers we need to help run it and it would be a real shame if we have to reduce the amount of teams due to lack of help.

Cheers
Chris