League Management Committee
CHAIR: Peter Constable
VICE-CHAIR & DISCIPLINARY ADJUDICATOR: Phil Calcott
SECRETARY: Andy Kent
FIXTURES & RESULTS SECRETARY: Alan Graham
FINANCE OFFICER: Malcom Kiely
DISCIPLINARY OFFICER: Nigel Stannard
WOMENS SUB-COMMITTEE CPONTACT: Beccy Morgan-Doak
PREMIER DIVISION PLAYERS REPRESENTATIVE: Ben Bridgen
DIVISIONS 1, 2 & 3 PLAYERS REPRESENTATIVE: Marc Hayter and Lee Gostelow
DIVISIONS 4, 5, & 6 PLAYERS REPRESENTATIVE: Christo Naveen and Simon Joslin
PLAYER REGISTRATION OFFICER: Lee Gostelow
T20 COMPETITION ORGANISER: Stuart Platts
DACO REPRESENTATIVE: Paul Hill
For more details about the Dorset Cricket League, including all men's and women's leagues, please go to Dorset Cricket League Play-Cricket site.
Women’s and girls' cricket in Dorset is a sport which is growing fast, with more and more clubs offering a range of opportunities to get involved. Whether its softball or hardball based, you will be able to head down to your local club to make some new friends or take your friends along too!
As a sport it offers numerous fantastic opportunities for women and girls, not only as players but also as coaches, umpires and scorers to name just a few of the crucial roles in cricket.
For further information on how you or your club can get involved, contact our Community Officer for Women and Girls cricket.
Club Name
Softball
Hardball
Contact details
The Dorset Cricket League run a number of Women's competitions in the summer months and indoor opportunities are also provided across the county.
To find out more, go to the Dorset Cricket League Play-Cricket site.
There are competitions, both soft ball and hard ball established in the conurbation area of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch, covering a range of ages from under 9s to under 15s.
Details of these competitions can be found on the Dorset Junior Club Competitions Play-Cricket site.
Outside the conurbation, girls consistently play in junior club cricket and some clubs have established individual girls teams that compete in these regional competitions.
Festivals are a great way to introduce players who have never played cricket before and want to give a try.
REMEMBER – CRICKET IS A GAME FOR EVERYONE!
Mums, daughters, aunties, girlfriends, wives, friends, existing players, female sports team, mums of junior players, Dynamos and All Stars participants are some of the people to get involved.
The game is played with softball, so NO pads, NO helmet, NO hard cricket balls. It’s a game for absolutely everybody, no matter your skill level, fitness or age. The rules are very simple too. You just need 8 players in your team to enter any of our festivals. Everyone bats for two overs (12 balls) and if you lose your wicket, the bowling team gets 5 runs but you remain in. As everyone must bat, everyone also must bowl.
Festivals operate in a very friendly, non-competitive manner and are designed to make first experience of playing a game as welcoming as possible.
All festivals are administrated by a member of the Dorset Cricket Board Community team and are hosted by cricket clubs across the county, giving them freedom to create a spectacular event, including the possibility of a BBQ or proper cricket tea. For the clubs hosting a festival, you may want to use this as the first step in starting a Women’s or Girl’s section in your club.
Playing cricket is the perfect way to make friends and learn new skills. Cricket is open to all and many cricket clubs and schools offer opportunities for children aged five upwards to learn the game.
There are over 30 cricket clubs in Dorset that cater for players of all age, genders and abilities. Joining your local club gives you the chance to play at a level to suit your ability and lifestyle, take part in fun social activities and meet new people from your local community.
Most of our clubs run specific junior teams across different age groups, whilst certain juniors also end up playing in their team's adult side too.
To find a cricket club with a junior section close to you, go to the ECB's search tool HERE.
We run a number of junior competitions in the county including regional leagues and county-wide cup competitions.
To find out more about the junior club competitions, please go to the dedicated Play Cricket site for DORSET JUNIOR CLUB COMPETITIONS. This site lists all the competitions we run and can be another way of finding a local club to join.
All Stars Cricket provides a fantastic first experience for all children aged 5-8 years old where they’re guaranteed 8 weeks of jam-packed fun, activity and skills development. The programme is designed to introduce children to the sport, teaching them new skills, helping them make new friends and have a great time doing so.
Every child that registers will receive a backpack full of goodies. Your child’s pack will include:
⭐️Backpack
⭐️Cricket bat
⭐️Cricket ball
⭐️Personalised shirt with your child’s name
⭐️Cap
For further information on All Stars cricket, click on: https://www.ecb.co.uk/play/all-stars
Dynamos Cricket provides a fantastic next step for all those graduating from All Stars Cricket and the perfect introduction for all 8-11 year-olds new to the sport!
Complementing junior cricket, Dynamos provides children with a more social offer focused on developing fundamental movement skills and applying them in an exciting game of countdown cricket.
Check out the ECB website for further information on Dynamos Cricket.
Follow this link to discover the nearest club that runs the programme: https://ecb.clubspark.uk/Dynamos/SearchResults
Looking to become an Activator?
The Activator is a key volunteer helping create an inclusive and fun environment. An activator can be anyone who is over 18 wishing to inspire young children and offer an great all-round experience.
To become an activator, there are 2 phases.
Once signed up to ClubSpark. A virtual 1 hour session with the County Board's national programme lead will then be completed, this looks into safeguarding scenarios.
The second step includes a 2 hour practical sessions which gives all activators the opportunity to take a session, learn the programme and practice.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email us.
Benefits - overview
Below are a list of some of the benefits that can be gained from membership to the Dorset Cricket Board (DCB) and the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB):
The affiliation year runs from 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024.
All clubs receiving or wanting to receive support from Dorset MUST be affiliated to Dorset. This includes all adult clubs, clubs with a junior section, those clubs holding Clubmark status, clubs running ECB National Programmes (All Stars / Dynamos), clubs wanting to access courses, clubs wanting to access funding / grants / bursaries, clubs nominating volunteers / coaches for local and national awards.
Clubs that affiliate to another county (for league purposes) can also affiliate to Dorset (and should if they are receiving support directly from Dorset).
Financial support via the ECB is provided via the County that the club is based in so please ensure to affiliate to that County as well if you are based outside of Dorset.
There are 2 options available to select for Dorset Affiliation:
To complete the affiliation form please CLICK HERE
Clubs can also register for their Dorset Grounds Association Membership for 2024 during the affiliation process. Benefits of membership of the grounds association include access to pitch advisors, courses and cheaper ground maintenance products. For more details, please select DORSET GROUNDS ASSOCIATION in the menu on the left.
The ECB has gone through the process of creating a club development framework which incorporates ECB Clubmark within its design. The aim is to reduce bureaucracy and allow more clubs to access the most relevant support to enhance sustainability and improve provision for all involved.
The new Clubmark process involves being compliant on the ECB Safe Hands Management System (SHMS), as well as loading evidence for the extra Clubmark criteria onto the ECB Club Portal. Once both of the SHMS evidence and the ECB Club Portal evidence have been signed off as complete then the club are awarded Clubmark status.
For information on what the SHMS is and involves please CLICK HERE.
To gain ECB Clubmark status, a club would need to show compliance on SHMS and the ECB Club Portal by the 28th of June.
To maintain their Clubmark status, clubs that have achieved ECB Clubmark status will need to show compliance on SHMS and the ECB Club Portal by the 30th of April each year. Clubmark Accredited clubs please download the document below for details of maintaining your status.
The Clubmark Club User Guide is available to download below.
To view the Clubmark section on the ECB website please CLICK HERE.
If any Dorset affiliated cricket clubs are wanting to gain ECB Clubmark accreditation in the future than please contact Greg Parsons to register your interest, before then following the guidance in the attached document at the bottom of the page.
The ECB has a section of information relating to all aspects of facilities and investments, and club programmes in cricket.
You will find detailed technical specifications, guidance on obtaining funding for cricket clubs, individual pages relating to different ECB funding streams, publications to download, news, FAQs, and more besides. All of which available HERE.
What is the ECB County Grants Fund?
The County Grants Fund aims to support ECB affiliated Cricket Clubs across three themes:
Who can apply?
The scheme is open to all ECB affiliated cricket clubs in England and Wales
As you will see from the above, priority will be given to applications from Clubs that are actively engaged with ECB programmes.
Cricket Dorset will give priority to applications that Create Welcoming Environments from clubs with a girls' section, and club applications that Tackle Climate Change.
Examples of ECB County Grant Fund Usage in Dorset 2023
The items below are just examples and the County Grant Fund is not limited to these
Details of the 2024 County Grant Fund
Clubs are now invited to submit expressions of interest about your preferred projects (see below for details on how to do this)
Firstly though, we urge all clubs to read through the 2024 County Grants Fund Guidance Notes available for download at the bottom of the page.
From the Guidance Notes, we would like to highlight a few key points as follows:
NEW FOR 2024
Tackling Climate Change - Electric Machinery Grant Cap
Safeguarding
County Cricket Boards will check the named Club Safeguarding Officer (CSO) is fully compliant on the Safe Hands Management System (for DBS, Safe Hands & the Safeguarding & Protecting Cricketers (SPC) online course) before approving the Safe Hands Certificate on IMS.
How much can be applied for?
Clubs can apply for between £1,000 (minimum) and £10,000 (maximum) per application.
Extra Resources
Please also find attached at the bottom of this page:
If you are eligible, please discuss your potential project with us, before you visit the ECB Investment Management System to register and apply.
This page includes details of the courses available to anyone wanting to get involved in cricket.
Coaching is an enormously rewarding, challenging and crucial role in cricket.
For information on each Coach Education course offered on the new ECB Coaching Pathway. This compares each course's information in one document to help you make a decision on which course to book on, please download the document below.
Coaching is a challenging and enormously rewarding role within our game. Players need expertise, support and passion at every level of their development.
No matter whether you are putting something back into the game you love, progressing your career, helping out at your local club, or simply providing more support to your child, there is a reason for everyone to get involved in cricket coaching.
Bursaries are funded by the England and Wales Cricket Trust are intended to increase the diversity of learners taking their first step into coaching, gaining a qualification or taking the next step on their coach development journey.
Groups that have been identified to increase the diversity of learners accessing coach development programmes are:
A bursary can be awarded to learners that register on ECB Support Coach, ECB Foundation Coach or ECB Core Coach programmes between 1st February 2024 and 31st January 2025.
Anyone wanting to access coach development that is experiencing financial hardship can be awarded a bursary of up to 100% of the national price of the programme.
Once an applicant receives confirmation they will need complete their programme registration using a discount code to redeem their bursary.
Anyone wanting to access coach development that is female, from an ethnically diverse community, has a disability who is not experiencing financial hardship can be awarded a bursary of up to 50% of the national price of the programme.
Once an applicant receives confirmation, they will need to complete their programme registration and make full payment and upon attendance at face-to-face modules will receive a refund to redeem their bursary.
To complete a bursary application form please CLICK HERE.
This training is for volunteers aged 13 to 18 years old. It is bespoke training, rather than an official certificated course.
It is suited to those young volunteers assisting qualified coaches at a coaching session. It will develop the skills of:
The ECB Support Coach course is for individuals wishing to assist under the direct supervision of ECB qualified coaches.
More details can be found here.
ECB Support Coach Bursaries - For courses in 2023/24, all candidates that complete the course in Dorset will receive a £30 refund. This will only be paid on completion of a course (except in cases of financial hardship), so all requisites for certification need to have been met by the candidate to be awarded their bursary.
We run multiple ECB Support Coach education courses around the county during the calendar year.
ECB Foundation Coach is the first step into coaching cricket.
More details about the course can be found here.
We run multiple ECB Foundation Coach courses at venues around the county in the winter months, in preparation for the start of junior coaching each year.
ECB Core Coach programme is an entry level qualification for coaching cricket in England and Wales alongside ECB Foundation Coach
More details about the course can be found here.
We run a single ECB Core Coach coach each calendar year at Lytchett Minster School. Should demand be high, we will always try to add a further course where possible.
The ECB Advanced Coach course replaced the previous Level 3 Performance Coach course. Players need coaches with expertise, support and passion at every stage of their development. At all levels of the game coaches can make a difference to a player’s experience and help them enhance their performance.
More details and how to apply to join the next cohort can be found here.
It's also worth noting that applicants will be asked to provide details of any organisation which is willing to sponsor them, plus the opportunity to provide a testimonial from someone they have worked with in the talent pathway or performance sectors.
The ECB's flagship programme has been developed to provide coaches with an opportunity to explore areas that they have an interest in and passion for.
More details and how to apply to join the next cohort can be found here.
During the course of the year, the Coaches Association will offer continued professional development opportunities to it's members. Previous events have seen Lewis McManus (Northamptonshire Wicketkeeper), Darren Flint (Hampshire spin coach), Andrew Griffiths (Somerset seam bowling coach) and Paul Tweddle (Somerset fielding coach) deliver some really impressive coaching sessions, providing attendees with some new ideas to add top their coaching tool set
We always look to run a minimum of two events per year in the county.
Please keep an eye on our news feed and social media feeds for details of our events.
The Dorset Association of Cricket Officials (DACO) are responsible for delivering umpire and scoring courses. Details of the available courses can be found on their website at the below link.
Who’s It for?
Anyone aged between 13 and 18 who would like to learn more about Umpiring and Scoring and is keen to volunteer some of their time.
What will they Learn?
They will learn the basics of being an umpire, including the major laws, setting up the game, signals, game management and how to score using the Play Cricket Scorer App and Countdown Cricket App.
What will they be able to do?
With continued support they will be able to score any game using the Play cricket scorer app, from junior cricket through to adult cricket, they will be also able to help umpire younger junior games within the club, help with CCB festivals such as Kwick and schools’ competitions, and develop their umpiring skills to help them progress further with the help of their local ACO.
What other benefits will they get?
They will receive free training, Free membership of the ACO (including insurance), A free Young Official T-shirt to wear when they are officiating a game, a Free Umpire clicker, and further support from the ACO and CCB going forward.
For further information on why young people should consider officiating please see this short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTWLDhh7wCc
We run multiple Young Cricket Officials courses around the county each year.
The Grounds Management Association (GMA) offer numerous learning (training) courses.
For the courses currently available to cricket from the GMA, please see below (some courses are now online as displayed):
Details and costs can be found here.
Details and costs can be found here.
Details and costs can be found here.
For more information on all of the above courses, please visit; https://thegma.org.uk/learning/training
First Aid
It is the responsibility of the activity provider to ensure that there is someone first aid trained at all activities. Best practice would be that coaches have a first aid certificate in their qualification profile. However, the first aider can be someone external from the coaching team.
The Dorset Cricket Board will provide first aid workshops through the year for club staff to attend and the syllabus will include:
· Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation
· Care Of the Unconscious Casualty
· Wounds, Bleeding and Shock
· Minor Burns
· Sports Related Injuries to include Soft tissue injuries, Fractures, Head injury
· Any other relevant topics – time allowing
We run First Aid courses throughout the year and these will be announced in our News Feed.
Further First Aid Options
Please find details of external First Aid providers below that you can research to see if they are running workshops. There are other First Aider providers in Dorset so please feel free to search yourself as well.
1st Class First Aid Training - to visit their website please CLICK HERE
Southern First Aid Training - to visit their website please CLICK HERE
Wessex Coach Education - to visit their website please CLICK HERE
These courses are for all those who have a specialist role in cricket including Coaches, Activators, Officials, Committee Members, Captains, Team Managers and Club Safeguarding Officers.
If you perform a specialist role in cricket you need to complete the ‘Safeguarding for Specialist Roles’ and the the appropriate top up module related to your role. To book on this training please click via the appropriate role below.
The Safeguarding for Specialist Roles training should take around 1 hour to complete and the top up modules around 20 minutes. The courses are valid for 3 years.
If you perform more than one such role, we suggest you choose the element most aligned to your main role. Whilst there is only a need to complete one top-up module, you are welcome to complete as many as you wish.
Please note
This free course is available for everyone involved in cricket. This is just training rather an official certificated qualification like the Safeguarding for Specialist Roles courses detailed above.
Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility, so whatever your role in cricket, everyone should understand the importance of keeping children, young people and adults safe.
With this in mind, we invite you, and everybody at your club or organisation, to complete our online Introduction to Safeguarding.
The training provides basic knowledge and advice in creating a safe cricket environment for everyone, recognising signs of abuse, what to do if you have any concerns or if you are approached by anyone with concerns that they may have.
This training should take around 30 minutes to complete and is accessible on a laptop, tablet or mobile phone. You can access this training via the link below
Dorset Grounds Association Membership 2024
Dorset Cricket Board affiliated cricket clubs are able to be members of the Dorset Grounds Association for the annual fee of £30. Annual membership is applied for duruing the Dorset Cricket Board Affiliation process.
Benefits include:
- free attendance for the clubs staff at all DGA events
- access to the County Pitch Advisors
- access to discounted fertilizer, seed and soil conditioner
If a current affiliated club has not become members of the Dorset Grounds Association, but wants to become members to receive the benefits then please contact Greg Parsons to get this actioned
The role of an ECB Pitch Advisor and their responsibilities are as follows:
The Dorset County Pitch Advisors are able to conduct either informal pitch inspections or formal written reports.
Informal reports (inc. club visit) - cost: £50
Formal reports - cost: £250
The Pitch advisors will also be able to co-ordinate the availability of machinery to your club but you must be a fully paid up member of the Dorset Grounds Association.
Current County Pitch Advisors:
Stuart Antell
Colin Randall
You can contact our County Pitch Advisors by emailing cpa@dorsetcricketboard.co.uk.
The Dorset Grounds Association are able supply fertiliser as well as the grass seed which we have done for a number of years. A new product is also available in 2024 - TourTurf Tag Soil Conditioner
The aim is to offer fertiliser, seed and soil conditioner in small quantities (20kg/25kg packs) at reasonable prices to clubs.
Clubs or organisations must be members before they can take advantage of the product prices listed. Clubs can become a member of the Dorset Grounds Association annually during the annual Dorset Cricket Board Affiliation process. If a currently affiliated club wants to join the Dorset Grounds Association then please email Greg Parsons to get this actioned.
There are 4 products which we are able to supply from Wimborne Cricket Club:
1.The Autumn/Winter fertiliser(A/W) (6-5-10) product is £35 per 20kg bag - ideal for early spring application (now)
2.The Spring/Summer fertiliser(S/S) (12-0-9) product is £35 per 20kg bag - ideal for start of season and through the summer
To give a guide - at the recommended rates (35g per square metre) - one bag will do 8 pitches (approx. 525 sq metres)
3. Grass seed is high quality dwarf ryes for amenity use and is £95 for a 20 KG bag.
4. NEW in 2024 TourTurf Tag Soil Conditioner - £60 per 20kg bag
Please note that the above prices are for current stock. Prices may increase through the year depending on the suppliers prices at purchase. If they do increase then the prices will be provided on our here and also in the order form below
To order products through the Dorset Grounds Association please CLICK HERE to place your order
We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.
