Junior Cricket at Acton

Acton CC has built its success through its thriving juniors section, with more than 120 boys and girls ranging from the Under 9s to the Under 17s. The club’s Juniors’ Section, supervised and supported by qualified coaches and the club’s senior players, caters for all abilities and ages.

The juniors also get a taste for competitive cricket, with the Under 11s, Under 12s, Under 13s, Under 14s and Under 15s all playing in local area leagues (fixtures and dates are available ahead of the season on our Play-Cricket website). The club also has a close association with the West London Cricket Academy who offer additional training, high-quality coaches and school holiday courses all year round. 

Junior Cricket in 2024

Juniors winter nets will run from mid-January 2024. Please contact johnpreeve@hotmail.com to register your child’s interest in attending.

Outdoor Juniors’ cricket in 2024 is scheduled to begin on the 8th April 2024, at 6pm. This will also be the registration evening so please fill in (in advance) the 2024 membership form which can be downloaded from the link below.

Annual Junior membership fees for 2024 are £200. Any additional sibling memberships will be charged at £175. The junior membership fees cover all practice sessions and any matches as well as membership to Acton Sports Club for both the junior member and up to two parents/carers, otherwise charged at £25 per person.

Following the registration evening on 8th April, on Monday evenings (excluding Bank Holidays) coaching sessions for 5-11 years olds will run from 6pm to 7.30pm. On Tuesday evenings, starting on Tuesday 9th April, coaching will be held for 12-15 year olds.

If you are unable to make the registration evening, fear not! Please bring the form along with your child to a subsequent training session and speak to one of the coaching team (Monday evenings for 5-11 year olds, Tuesday evenings for 12-15 year olds).

Fixtures & availabilities

We ask parents to fill in their child’s availabilities for fixtures through the following doodle links by including your child’s name and their availability for particular dates. Please remember to change / update the doodle link if your child’s availability changes for whatever reason. Coaches will use the data contained at the following links to select their teams for fixtures. Teams will then be communicated to parents by whatsapp and/or email. At that point, should anything change with regard to your child’s availability to play, you must contact the relevant coach directly.

All fixtures can be viewed on our Play Cricket website - https://actoncc.play-cricket.com/home

A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS FOR 2024!

Junior cricket management & child welfare

The Juniors Management Group is responsible for the day to day management of the Junior section and has overall responsibility for the welfare and safeguarding of the Club’s junior members. It is represented on the Club’s Committee by the Colts Manager, Clubmark Manager and Director of Cricket (in charge of Cricket Development throughout the club).

Juniors Management Group 2023

• Juniors’ Manager - Anthony Hunt

• Clubmark Manager - Alex Manning

• Child Welfare Officer - Dan Waddell

Acton Cricket Club is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of all its junior members to ensure that all young cricketers have a safe and positive experience. As such, the ECB’s ‘Safe Hands – Cricket’s Policy for Safeguarding Children’ is embedded within the Club’s Code of Conduct for all members and guests to adhere to. A copy of ‘Safe Hands’ is available for inspection from the club’s Child Welfare Officer or, alternatively, available here:

‘Safe Hands – Cricket’s Policy for Safeguarding Children’

A membership form for each junior member must be completed by the parent, guardian or carer and signed by the junior member himself/herself. The form is available here at the top of this page.

Acton Cricket Club believes that it is imperative that junior and senior members, coaches, administrators and parents, carers and guardians associated with the Club should, at all times, show respect and understanding for the safety and welfare of others.The Club has developed a number of policy and guidance documents to support this and ensure that the risk of harm to its junior members is reduced:

Safeguarding policy statement
Equal opportunities policy statement
Code of conduct for juniors and parents
Transport policy
Club changing policy
E-safety policy
Anti-bullying policy

Guidelines for dealing with an Incident or Accident
Directions to hospital

Junior members and their parents should also beware of the ECB directives in relation to fielding, fast bowling, batting protection and participation in open age cricket, all of which form a part of Acton Cricket Club’s junior welfare policy:

ECB guidance on wearing helmets
ECB fielding regulations
ECB fast bowling directives
ECB guidelines for junior players in open age group cricket

Any concerns or complaints  should be addressed to the the Club’s Child Welfare Officer, Dan Waddell. Details of how to contact Dan can be found in the ‘Child Welfare Officer Contact Details’ document below. Additionally, a number of relevant safeguarding and child protection contacts are available below:

Child Welfare Officer contact
Useful Safeguarding Contacts

Acton CC is proud to be a diverse organisation open and enjoyed by all. Read more on our diversity and inclusion policy here: Acton Inclusion and Diversity Policy.

The ECB has a vision that “There should be no boundaries in cricket” and are committed to reaching, recruiting and retaining people from all communities.

One Game is the strategy the ECB has developed to achieve this, and covers everyone, everywhere in whatever role they want to play in cricket – watching, playing, following, volunteering and working.

To achieve this vision, the ECB has developed a set of principles, a foundation of our beliefs. and actions designed to achieve the vision. The One Game Strategy is available here.

Junior recommendations

The file below provides the ECB’s recommendations for junior players playing cricket in the various age groups, on:

weight or hard ball to use
pitch size
stump height
type of ball, stumps and pitch for the soft ball game

ECB Recommendations for Junior Cricket

Juniors playing in open age cricket

The ECB has issued the guidance below covering the participation of junior cricketers in open age cricket matches, and to help clubs decide when to select young players in open age competitive cricket and how best to help their cricketing development.

ECB Guidelines for Junior Players in Open Age Cricket

Fielding regulations

The following are ECB regulations covering the minimum fielding distances for young players in all matches where a hard ball is used:

ECB Fielding Regulations

Colts Management Toolkit:

ECB Guidance for Coaches working with Children - This guidance from the ECB has been designed to: promote good practice; reduce poor practice; provide practical coaching advice; and outline the ECB Coaches Association Code of Conduct.

ECB Guidleines on Supervising Children - Sufficient adults must be present to adequately supervise all juniors and manage any incident that may arise; this document provides ECB guidance on supervision ratios.

ECB Guidance for Staff and Volunteers Working with Children - Staff and volunteers who work with children at Acton Cricket Club would fall under Regulated Activity for the purposes of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. This document outlines the legal obligations placed on the club as a consequence of this.

ECB Guidelines on Girls playing in Boys Cricket - The ECB has issued these guidelines concerning the participation of girls in ‘boys’ cricket.

ECB Incident Reporting Form - This form is to be used to report concerns or details of an incident at Acton Cricket Club.

ECB Missing Children Guidelines - These guidelines have been devised to clarify the actions to take if a child goes missing.

Volunteer Reference Form - As an organisation committed to safeguarding children Acton Cricket Club may choose to gather references for any individual wishing to work with the junior section of the club using this form.

Guidelines for dealing with an Incident or Accident - This document contains important guidance on dealing with an accident at The Park Club as well details of local hospitals.

Acton Cricket Club Risk Assessment Form - All coaching and games must take place in a safe environment with safe and protective equipment (including the provision and use of helmets). This Risk Assessment Form is used to assess the playing environment and facilities.

Self-declaration Form - All coaches and volunteers are must have a valid DBS check (formerly known as a CRB). This form is used as a proxy for a DBS in the period while the check is being completed.