Dear Club Members and Parents,
The news we have been waiting for finally arrived on Friday and recreational cricket can resume!
For those of you that have visited Chalkwell Park recently, you will have seen that there is a significant amount of cleaning up work to be done by the Council to get the pitches ready.
Hopefully, you will all have received notification through the relevant WhatsApp Group of the latest updates. If you are not able to use WhatsApp or are not on the LOSCC age group WhatsApp Group please text the relevant Manager on the numbers below.
Cricket is due to restart on Saturday 18th July and we have been hastily trying to confirm that pitches will be ready and arrange fixtures. Fixtures will be played both during weekdays and weekends to maximise game time and will be held at both the Ekco Sports Ground(Thornford Gardens, Southend-on-Sea. SS2 6PU) and Chalkwell Park for home matches.
At the moment, we are still awaiting guidance on the format of matches, including whether matches will be 8 or 10 aside and, as you can imagine, things are moving at a pace. We will ensure that everyone plays matches but clearly we will need to rotate players and therefore it is essential you notify your Manager of any times when you will be away and not able to play.
It is our intention to restart the weekly Youth Practice sessions but due to Social Distancing, these will need to be staggered and are as follows:
UNDER 9s - Thursdays 5.30pm to 6.30pm
UNDER 11s – Thursdays 6.30pm to 8pm
UNDER 13s – Fridays 5.00pm to 6.30pm
UNDER 15s – Fridays 6.30pm to 8pm.
THE FIRST SESSIONS ARE 23rd JULY AND 24th JULY AT EKCO GROUND AND PLEASE CAN YOU ENSURE THAT YOU ARRIVE AT LEAST 10 MINUTES BEFORE THE SESSION START TO ALLOW FOR REGISTRATION AND BRIEFINGS.
We will train at EKCO for the immediate future until Chalkwell Park is in a better state. Further details will be published via the individual WhatsApp groups but it is ESSENTIAL that you advise us of your child’s attendance prior to each training session. We need to arrange suitable numbers of coaches for each session as children will need to work in maximum groups of 6. If you have not advised us of your attendance and we don’t have enough coaches, unfortunately, you will not be able to stay.
For parents, we expect the Bar to be open at Ekco with social distancing in place! We would, however, ask that you to leave immediately after your child's Training Session has finished, wherever possible.
There will be a lot more information passed to you concerning training and match specific requirements due to the current Covid-19 situation and I would ask you to read these carefully. Where appropriate, a copy of the relevant information can also be found on the Club Website (www.leighcricket.com) and it will be updated accordingly.
On a practical note, a large proportion of the youth membership has paid part of or all their annual membership. Subscriptions are based on participation in winter and/or summer nets and, now more than ever in these difficult and uncertain times for everyone, the Club needs your financial support.
Given that we do not know yet just how much cricket will be played this year, our proposal would be to review subscriptions for next season and tailor them to take into account the fee paid this year and the number of winter next sessions attended, if any. We, of course, have records of fees paid to date and net attendance and at this stage have not finalised any proposals for next year. For those of you yet to pay a subscription, please can you see us at the first training session.
Please feel free to contact us directly if you need any further information but, in the meantime, stay safe and we hope to see you all soon!
The Youth Managers' contact details are:
UNDER 9s – Graham Fletcher 07730 954481
UNDER 11s – Stuart Elliott 07879 842383 & Richard Higgins 07887 441432
UNDER 13s – Simon Burch 07973 667975
UNDER 15s – Tim Daniels 07703 104609