South Hampstead Cricket Club

Age ranges for playing cricket align with school years. Players may play above their own age level but not below (so a U11 may play at U13, but not at U10)

• Under 8: School year 3 & younger
• Under 9: School year 4 & younger
• Under 10: School year 5 & younger
• Under 11: School year 6 & younger
• Under 13: School year 8 & younger
• Under 15: School year 10 & younger
• Under 17: School year 12 & younger

Especially at younger ages, we will ‘play up’ (put the child in a team older than their eligibility) where the Team Manager has space in the team and they and the coach feels that the child is ready for the next stage of their cricket development.

Girls are eligible play in teams up to 2 years ahead of boys (so a U11 girl can play in the U9 team). Our coaches and team managers will discuss with you the best team for them to join.

Registration for the 2019 season is now open! Be sure to sign-up soon as we may have to close registration if we have too many at a particular age range.

A lot of children will want to have their own bat and equipment. Please discuss with the coaches as we can advise you what’s most suitable. The team manager or coach will have a kit bag with spare equipment. We would advise that boys have their own abdominal protection when playing hardball. Many children will bring their own equipment and the first piece of equipment we would recommend is their own gloves but this is not required. All juniors playing hard ball cricket require their own helmet

Cricket whites aren’t necessary for the training sessions. Normal sports clothes and trainers are totally fine, although a number of our junior members like to wear our SHCC training shirt.

We ask children to wear whites for matches – Sports Direct or similar shops sell trousers in various sizes and the club shirt is available in the SHCC Web Shop. Please allow XX days for delivery.

The correct size obviously depends on the size of the child, but in general we would recommend:

U8s – XX

We follow official ECB Guidelines appropriate for the age range. Under 10 and below will use soft balls, U11 and above use hard balls.

Safety is very important to us -- helmets with a faceguard or grill must be worn when batting against a hard cricket ball in matches and in practice sessions. Young wicket keepers must wear a helmet with a faceguard when standing up to the stumps.

Young players should regard a helmet with a faceguard as a normal item of protective equipment when batting, together with pads, gloves and an abdominal protector (box).

The ECB recently changed the guidelines for helmets and the relevant British standard to a newly updated specification which reduces the risk of the ball passing between the protective grill and peak Too often we see children with poorly fitting or unsafe helmets. Your child only has one head, it's worth protecting properly. If in doubt about what kind of helmet to buy, please speak to one of the coaches for advice, we are here to help.

We take child welfare very seriously and are working towards becoming a Clubmark Club. We adhere to the ‘Safe Hands’ Policy for Safeguarding Children in Cricket. Please see our Club Policies page for more information.

All of the adults at the club who work with children are vetted by the Welfare Officer and the ECB. This includes enhanced DBS and ‘Barred List’ check (formerly known as CRB checks).

Whilst we hope your child will be happy and content at the club, we understand that sometimes questions, concerns or difficulties may arise. Please feel able to raise these as soon as possible, so we can rectify things at the earliest opportunity. If you have a question regarding coaching, please approach the coach in the first instance. However, please do not interrupt coaching sessions, especially nets practice, as this may distract the coach when he or she needs to be supervising the children. Our coaches will be happy to speak to you before or after training or at another convenient time.

Our welfare officer, Gail, is available at any time to discuss any concerns you or your children might have. All issues will be treated in the strictest confidence.

The club is run by volunteers and we greatly appreciate their support in whatever capacity they choose to help the club, be it team management, coaching, scoring, umpiring, helping with the admin, fundraising, or simply helping with lifts to and from the ground.

You don’t need any knowledge of cricket to help out. Please contact our Junior Manager, Daniel Seaman or one of our Junior Team Managers to find out more