Thank you all for your support in trying to reschedule the current competition fixtures which have been adversely impacted by dreadful May weather. Just to reiterate the conversations I’ve had with many of you, our key focus remains to offer playing opportunities and we are very happy that the date, day & time of postponed fixtures are rescheduled according to ground and player availability….which I do appreciate is not an easy task!
Earlier in the season you’ll recall we asked for Expressions of Interest for a new longer format competition. Thank you to all of you that responded saying you were interested in the competition and also all the great debates this proposal generated. After careful consideration and following agreement at our recent Board meeting we have decided to pilot the competition this summer at U13 and U15 age groups.
To recap, the competition follows the lead of successful competition introduced in Gloucestershire some years ago and which continues to go from strength to strength. We hope this will provide greater opportunities for young cricketers to experience the longer form of cricket (35 and 40 over innings), whilst enabling clubs to play against different teams to what they normally do within the local 20 over leagues. In summary, the aim of the league is to:
– Help prepare players for County & District Cricket
– Prepare players for adult weekend cricket
– Develop player’s skills so they are able to bat for longer and learn how to bowl longer / more spells (within ECB directives)
– Speaking to coaches and parents, there seems to be a good demand to extend the youth season beyond mid July to early September
– The start of the competition will not only align closely with the end of the traditional youth season but also the timing for the final selection of the county performance squads, thereby offering further competitive matches through the summer
We understand the comments of clubs who have reservations over this approach and therefore propose to Pilot the competitions at U13 & U15 this summer with a full review of the competition in the autumn to understand lessons learned and look at how / if we would like to adapt for Summer 2022.
Therefore, I would like to invite competition entries to the Pilot U13 League by completing details at the below link:
Given this season will be a Pilot to learn lessons for future years; the competition will be free to enter as I’m sure with anything new we’ll have the odd teething issues we will need to work through together.
Please note, there is a section on the entry form where clubs who may not be able to field an 11 a side team, may still have 5/6 keen players and ideally we’d like to include you by providing a local Hub where a couple of clubs pool their resources – to help me plan this just select the Hub option in the entry form if this applies to you.
I have attached the draft rules for your information – these will be refreshed to include competition format (i.e. 1 or 2 Leagues, Finals Day or PlayOffs, etc) when we know firm numbers.
Whilst we took the decision not to offer the extended format to U11s, I will be in touch shortly with ideas around additional summer festivals for both U11 and U9s.
Please note the closing date for entries is Sunday 6 June (fixtures to be released w/c 7 June) with a view to the first competition fixtures commencing Sunday 11 July (consideration will be taken that U13 Finals Day is 18 July).
Oxfordshire Youth Cricket League (OYCL)