News

Richard Gould – ECB CEO Visits Oxfordshire

01/03/2024 by Admin

On Monday 26th of February Oxfordshire Cricket welcomed Richard Gould – ECB CEO to Oxfordshire.

The day saw Richard attend meetings to hear about the progress and state of cricket in the county, before then heading to a ECB U13 Girls Indoor County Final at St Helen and Katherine School in Abingdon to see a closely contested competition with some great cricket on show. Recreational women and girls levels have grown at pace over the last three years in Oxfordshire with 2023 seeing a record number of women and girls playing cricket in the county.

Next up was a short journey to Abingdon and Witney College to see a Lord Taverners disability session which saw students from the college take part in a Table Cricket programme that is delivered by Oxfordshire Cricket every week. The students and teachers on show talked Richard through the rules and format of table cricket, including how one of the balls used can generate swing.

Cricket Comes Together – Development Evening Roundup

01/03/2024 by Admin

On Monday 26th of February Oxfordshire Cricket welcomed clubs, schools, volunteers, local authorities, councillors and associations to the Cricket Development Evening at St Edward’s School in Oxford.

The Cricket Development Evening is an annual event that aims to help support the development of cricket in the county. The event also provides a great opportunity to network and engage with members of the Oxfordshire Cricket workforce, the ECB and partners. Local authority officers and executive members with responsibility for sport and playing pitch strategies were also in attendance with the purpose of networking and developing better relationships with clubs.

There was a range of partners and suppliers in attendance which included Serious Cricket, the Officials Association, Flicx Pitches, Delivita Clubhouse project and others.

This year saw just over 120 people attend the evening, which saw Leshia Hawkins – ECB Managing Director for the Recreational Game give a keynote address where she discussed the health of cricket, the impact of Inspiring Generations and the changing landscape of cricket.

Attendees of the event had the option to select two workshops to attend out of five. The workshops consisted of:

Facilities, Grants and Funding – which was delivered by Neil Higginson (ECB) and Keith Cowley (Oxfordshire Cricket).
Play-Cricket – Chris Seal, Tom Parry and Zac Hay (ECB) – This workshop gave an overview of Play-Cricket. It provided an opportunity to get new people on board and set up to play cricket while then showing them how to access matches, add team sheets in advance up until opening up the matches to score.
Volunteer Recruitment – Esther Jones-Russell (ECB) This workshop looked at ways to engage and capture a new generation of volunteers through launching a Young Leaders Programme
Boundary Programme – Anti Discrimination Training – Steve Kirby and Liz Madra (ECB) – This workshop looked at the types of discrimination, how to manage complaints, how to report to the ECB and how the ECB can support.
Cricket in Secondary Schools – Ed Wilson and Nick Holroyd (Oxfordshire Cricket) This workshop explored how we can create a strategy for school cricket and in particular secondary schools in the County. This included exploring what a programme can look like, how we can work together to get children transitioning to clubs, as well as work with the Oxfordshire Schools Cricket Association

Nick Pinhol, Operations Director at Oxfordshire Cricket said:

The annual Cricket Development Evening is a fantastic event that brings together the cricket community with the purpose of supporting the development of cricket in the county. It was great to welcome over 120 people that ranged from clubs, schools, volunteers, local authorities, councillors, partners and associations.

It was inspiring to hear Leshia Hawkins’ Keynote address, which included the changing landscape of cricket and her vision and ambitions going forward as Managing Director of Recreational Cricket at the ECB. This year’s event differed slightly from previous years, as some workshops provided a key consultation point as we look to develop a Young Leaders Programme in order to inspire a new generation of volunteers, as well as work towards the development of a secondary schools strategy for the county.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the workshop facilitators for delivering engaging and impactful workshops, everyone that attended as well as all the partners, stakeholders and suppliers for attending. Finally, a special thank you must go to St Edward’s School for hosting the Cricket Development Evening, and supporting the development of cricket in the county.

Alan Cook Obituary

01/03/2024 by Admin

The former Oxfordshire cricketer Alan Cook died on 1 st February aged 80. A leg spinner he
played 7 matches for the county in 1976-77.

In total he took 17 wickets at an average of 35.18 with best figures of 3-74 against Bucks at Marlow. A long-standing member of Headington United CC, he later moved to the Midlands. A keen and enthusiastic player, he
continued to play club cricket into his seventies and represented both England Over 60s and Over 70s on tours to Australia.

His funeral is at Nuneaton Heart of England Crematorium at 11.45am on Monday 11 th
March.

Don Brooks Obituary

01/03/2024 by Admin

The well-known umpire Don Brooks passed away on 21st January aged 81. He was long standing member of Tiddington CC where over the years he had been player, captain, and latterly President. Since becoming an umpire, he held various positions in the Oxfordshire Association of Cricket Officials (OACO) and at the time of his death he was President. In recent years he would attend many matches around the county in his role as an umpire assessor, always striving to maintain a high standard of umpiring.

He organised the Bernard Tollett and Wilf Bennett Cup competitions for several years and implemented regional rounds to encourage club participation. A member of the OCB for 40 years, he would be a regular attender at AGMs and Members Meetings where he would invariably make helpful contributions to discussions.

He had a great passion and love for cricket in the county and was very proud of his son Jack’s progress from Tiddington to the first-class game.

His umpiring colleague Ian Royle has provided the following recollections:

“I can’t really remember when I first met Don, but he was the one who insisted I move from umpiring in the old OCA into the Cherwell League and then pushed me to move up the umpiring ladder into the Home Counties Premier League. I was obviously doing something right in his eyes even if the players may not have always agreed!

In the 200+ games I have done in the HCPCL since then there is not a season has gone by that I have not gone back to Tiddington after a game to seek Don’s advice on an incident from my game or just to chew over things in general. When we discussed things, we didn’t always agree but he was always happy to agree to disagree and there was never an argument, always a discussion – whenever I could get a word in edgeways!

Don will be sorely missed by many in the cricketing world as already evidenced by comments on other threads and I will certainly miss his friendship and wise counsel, both for myself and for those we train as umpires at Tiddington where he was a fixture on our courses, keeping the tutors on the straight and narrow from the back row.”

The Hon Secretary of the OACO, Anton Saverimuttu, has also commented:

“I would like to add that I first met Don during the Umpiring Course in Tiddington in early 2013. I kept on learning from him about Umpiring since that time and during the last few years we became friends. Don became President of his beloved Tiddington Cricket Club in 2022 and in 2023 he became President of the Oxfordshire Association of Cricket Officials.

I managed to see him at the JR Hospital on the 13th of January and we had a long chat. I shall miss him as a person as well as an Umpiring Legend.”

Oxfordshire Cricket said:

“Don’s contribution and value to Oxfordshire cricket was immense. He will be sadly missed by players, officials, volunteers, clubs and the whole game.”

The former Chairman of the OCB, Chris Clements, adds:

“Don was a highly principled man. He had strong family and social values to which he was extremely committed. His life revolved around his family, trade unionism, socialism, umpiring, cricket and gardening. Always strong in debate, Don was incredibly likeable and well respected.”

His funeral service is to be held at the North Oxfordshire Crematorium and Memorial Park, Tackley, OX5 3ER on Friday 8th March at 1pm. This will be followed by refreshments at the Tiddington Village Hall, Albury View, Tiddington, OX9 2 LY.

Banbury Indoor League – Division 1 – Table – 23/24 -Final

22/02/2024 by Nick Pinhol

Upcoming First Aid Courses

21/02/2024 by Nick Pinhol

Oxfordshire Cricket is pleased to announce that there will be a First Aid courses held on the following dates:

Thursday 4th April at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Cricket Club (6-9pm)

– CLICK HERE

The course will be held from 6-9pm and will be delivered by Sarah Humphries of Medi Training.

The course is £45 per person and is limited to 18 individuals.

If you have any questions please contact Ed Wilson – Cricket Development Manager at [email protected]

Banbury Indoor League – Division 1 – Table – 23/24 -W6

12/02/2024 by Nick Pinhol

2024 National Programmes Update

09/02/2024 by Nick Pinhol

Clubs can now put 2024 programmes onto Clubspark, the sooner these are on the sooner I can tick these off. Once I approve them, it means your club will show up on the postcode search for anyone booking onto a course.

Timelines:

– Priority window for bookers (or anyone that has registered an interest in National Programmes for 2024) will open on Wednesday 6th March 2024.

– General registrations open Wednesday 13th March 2024, alongside the ECB National advertising campaign for the programmes

– Programmes can start from Friday 10th May 2024

Activator Training:

This will take place during March and April and dates will follow this email. If any clubs can host the Activator face to face training then let me know, its usually 2.5 hours of an evening or weekend.

Twinkle visits:

We do have the Twinkle costume that we like to get around clubs, if you would like Twinkle to visit your club then please let me know once your programmes are loaded and we can sort out a schedule of which clubs can have the costume each week (I must add someone from your club must be willing to wear the costume!). We wont be able to meet all clubs requests and priority will be given to those clubs who have not had a visit before.

If you have any questions, I would encourage you to visit the helpdesk website HERE in the first instance, and if you have no luck from this then feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to help. I once again encourage you all to set up your 2024 programmes on Clubspark, upload the required documents, and reach out should you need any assistance before the registrations open on 6th March.

If you need any help please email [email protected]

Nat Fiennes (Lord Saye and Sele) Obituary

08/02/2024 by Admin

The oldest former Oxfordshire player, Nat Fiennes, better known as Lord Saye and Sele, died on 20th January aged 103. He was the last surviving cricketer to have played for Oxfordshire before the Second World War.

He played just one match for the county, against Cornwall at Christ Church, in 1938 when he was drafted in as wicket-keeper in the absence of the regular keeper Will Inge. Aged only 17, he was still a schoolboy at Eton College. Fiennes scored 26 in his only innings and took 3 catches in Cornwall’s first innings as Oxfordshire won by 10 wickets.

His obituary in ‘The Times’ described him as ‘a deft wicket-keeper and a classically elegant batsman who considered it close to a moral failing to hit the ball in the air’.

Fiennes inherited his title and the family home, Broughton Castle, in 1968 and gave great support to local groups and charities in later life.

Written by Julian Lawton Smith