Stoolball news

The Sussex County Stoolball Association and Stoolball England will be helping to run the stoolball section of the 2013 Sussex School Games at the K2 Crawley on Wednesday 10 July 2013, and we’re looking for volunteers to help out.

Schools will be representing the nine regional areas in Sussex having won their local area qualifying tournaments at Year 9/10. Play will take place on four pitches starting at 10.30am. Playing squads will consist of 10 players with teams of 8 playing matches of four overs per innings.

This is a major undertaking and we would welcome any support you can give us in setting up the four pitches; as umpires and scorers during the playing programme and with the general running and organisation of games.

If you could spare an hour or two to make the most of this day on behalf of stoolball, please contact Kay Price on Horsham 01403 252419. Many thanks for any support you may be able to give to our game.

The Management Committee of Stoolball England met at 53 Kings Road, Horsham, on Monday 25 February 2013 at 7.45pm. Topics discussed include grounds suitable for England matches, trailer and generator for Stoolball England, coaching programme for 2013, courses by Stoolball England and Club Accreditation.

Minutes of Management Committee Meeting held at 53 Kings Road, Horsham, on Monday 25 February 2013 at 7.45pm.

1. Present

• Shirley Reed (President)
• John Price (Chairman)
• Becky Hull (Vice-Chairman)
• Kay Price (Secretary)
• Trevor Parsons (Treasurer)
• Rick Mason (Website Administrator)
• Richard Emsley (Membership)
• Kelvin Speirs (Rules
• Umpires)
• Anita Broad (Research
• Education)
• Ruth Arthur (Coaching Development)

2. Apologies for absence

• Michael Ledwich (Insurance)
• Sally Booker (Schools Academy Manager) The Chairman
• Secretary met with Michael Ledwich before the meeting to receive the latest information on Insurance
• Governance
• for them to update him with the meeting agenda

3. Minutes of the last Management meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were approved and signed as a true record.

4. Matters arising from the last Management meeting

(a) Grounds: Following suggestions made at the last meeting, several grounds have been visited to ascertain whether any of them would be suitable for use as a venue for the England U.21 and Veterans games to be held later in 2013. Additional suggestions were Alfold, Loxwood, Harting and Cowdray Park, these will be followed up.
(b) Trailer and generator: Two cars will be fitted with a tow bar to pull the new trailer. Insurance of the new equipment is being pursued.
(c) CRB checks: Members of the Management Committee need their CRB checks renewed. A new system is currently being introduced and new forms will be needed from The Media Group (TMG).

5. Treasurer’s report

Trevor Parsons reported that Stoolball England was in a good position financially with a surplus for the period of £367.89. Bats had been ordered to replenish our stocks for the season as well as cans of spray paint. It was agreed that the price of spray paint should be increased to £9.50.

6. Coaching programme for 2013 in Sussex and Surrey

Becky Hull and Ruth Arthur reported that they had offered stoolball coaching to five primary schools in the Dorking area and they would hope to run an end of term festival at the West Humble ground used by Dorking Stoolball Club. They are also contacting primary schools in the Horsham area and the Horsham Festival date this year would be Thursday 25 June.

Ruth Arthur is currently coaching at Leechpool School in Roffey and the coaching at this school will continue during the summer term.

7. Courses

Currently 11 candidates booked into the Level 1 coaching course being held at the Holbrook Club in Horsham. (This course is now fully booked and sadly no more candidates can be accommodated. A further Level 1 course is being planned).
Umpire’s and Scorer’s course at Plumpton on 14 April: Bookings are going well. Maximum numbers for the Umpires’ course are 14.

8. Club Accreditation

A meeting has been booked on Friday 8 March at 10am with Gemma Finlay from Active Sussex. John and Kay Price will attend and Trevor Parsons will check his diary for availability.

9. England ladies matches

Training days booked on 15th and 22 September and the match date will be 29 September at Horsham Cricket Club.

10. GCSE PE assessment at Forest Boys School, Horsham

Assessment of four groups of approximately 38 boys took place on 15 February with Becky Hull, Ruth Arthur, Kay Price and John Price carrying out the assessments.

11. Management Committee members reports

(a) Rick Mason, website: Rick stressed the importance of additional personnel to deal with the number of messages coming in via Twitter from potential volunteers. Contacts have also been made on the SPOGO website. Coaching Development officers were also needed in Kent, Surrey and Hampshire and Isle of Wight to do a similar role to Becky Hull and Ruth Arthur in Sussex.

(b) Richard Emsley, membership: He reported that all affiliation fees were now paid. He also put a proposal to the Management Committee that Stoolball England should introduce the payment method using PayPal and online banking. After further discussion, it was decided to leave things as they were at present, but Richard would have talks with Michael Ledwich on the subject to see how perhaps we could use PayPal.

(c) Anita Broad: On the subject of her Heritage Project, she spoke of the difficulty she was experiencing when making contact with the Head Teachers of the four Primary Schools who were involved in the Uckfield area. The first research workshop was due to take place on 28 February at Hadlow Down and the final celebration tournament will be on 1 July at Singleton in West Sussex, with Val and Errol Whitter filming the occasion. Anita is being interviewed on Uckfield FM on 23 March and the producer of “Inside Out”, James Alexander, would like an interview on oral history.

12. Any other business

(i) Becky Hull – bats for Forest School
(ii) Kelvin Speirs – Nick Wisdom from Haywards Heath would like to sell stoolballs in his shop
(iii) Shirley Reed – emailed list of her group’s details and the tournaments they will be taking part in. She will add them to the website.
(iv) Richard Emsley – Discovered that Stoolball England was not listed as an NGB on the National Sports Partnership website, this has now been rectified.
(v) Rick Mason – request from Melanie Childs on whether we would like to make the Coaching Manual available as an e-book. Discussion on the subject needed with Melissa Mantle.
(vi) John Price said he would be setting up a meeting with the mixed stoolball leagues to start the planning process for possible England matches in 2014.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 10.30pm.

Next meeting: Monday 25 March 2013, 7.45pm at 53 Kings Road, Horsham.

At the inaugural meeting of the re-formed Border Mixed Stoolball League held at 53 Kings Road, Horsham on the evening of Tuesday 16 April, it was decided NOT to have a formal league programme for 2013. Instead, for the forthcoming season, there will be an “association of clubs” playing friendly matches. This could be 1 or 2 games for a team or 10 plus games depending on how much mixed stoolball each team wishes play.

The three clubs present agreed to use the standard “Stoolball England” rules but with a few local playing rules to keep games more friendly and more players involved.

They are listed below.
The matches to be 12 overs per innings.
Bowlers to bowl a maximum of 2 overs.
Batsmen to retire when they have scored 25 runs but can resume their innings once all their other batsmen are out (of the same sex).
No 6′s to be scored, a ball crossing the boundary without touching the ground will be scored as a “dot” ball.
Results to be published on the Stoolball England website.
Matches to start either at 6.30pm or 7pm at the convenience of the teams involved.
Matches can be arranged in Sundays by mutual consent between teams.
Bowlers to take due consideration of the batsmen’s age, sex and experience.

Stoolball England affiliation fee for each league is £10 + £1 per team in the league, so each club will be asked to contribute £3 to cover initial set-up costs.

Any clubs wishing wishing to participate in the league on this basis, are asked to provide a postal address, an email address and a phone number, and also a home ground address (if possible) and preferred home match night.

Richard Emsley,
Acting League Secretary,
r.emsley@…

13 Nymans Court,
Furnace Green,
Crawley,
West Sussex,
RH10 6PP

Tel:- 01293 512528

We’ve sent insurance renewal letters to all clubs and associations that have had our insurance before. If you didn’t get your letter, or if you’d like details for the first time, please contact our Insurance Officer, Michael Ledwich, at michael@…. To find out more read our page on insurance.

Despite some encouraging sunshine with the temperature nearing 20 degrees overhead, prospects were not so good underfoot due to heavy rain on Saturday which continued overnight leaving the Plumpton playing field under water in a number of areas. Consequently, with no prospect of practical experience under match conditions outside, tutors Kelvin Speirs (umpiring) and Kevin Hilliard (scoring) did an excellent job in teaching the skills for both aspects of managing match play under classroom conditions.

Kelvin stressed the importance of adjusting one’s position on the field as an umpire so that each official stands in the best possible place to view the activities of the bowler and batsman. It was also impressed upon both sets of candidates the importance of teamwork between umpires and scorers during the game. How to deal with “no balls” and “wides” and how runs should be recorded in the scorebook were clearly explained by Kevin as were other skills in recording a batsman’s innings and the analysis for bowlers.

Despite the limitations of having to run both courses exclusively in the Plumpton clubhouse, it was clearly a very useful learning process for all those attending. Dates for further courses this year will be announced when venues have been confirmed.

The following candidates were in attendance:-
Umpires’ course: Nicky Shute, Gill Stoner, Sue Targett (Horsham); Natasha Reekie, Karen Grey (Phoenix); Diane Tidey, Amanda Brown (Clayton); Manuela Milbourn, Frances Palmer (Yapton); Emma Haley, Leah Head (Broadbridge Heath); Katrina Bruce-Smythe (Ashurst & Blackham) and Leanne Nullmeyers, Hayley Pearce (Worthing).

Scorers’ course: Jo Mills, Michelle Hole (Phoenix); Meg James, Debbie James (Chiddingstone Causeway); Erin Greenstreet, Lindsey Greenstreet (Ashurst & Blackham); Jacky Haig-Kneeshaw (Broadbridge Heath) and Sarah Rixon, Liz Haywood (Worthing).

For the first time Stoolball England held their annual Level One coaching course at the Holbrook Club in North Heath Lane, Horsham on Sunday 7 April 2013. Course leader, Helen Murdock, as well as all those attending, were pleased that the low temperatures of the previous weeks had eventually given way to sunshine and a little warmth as they got to grips with learning how to teach the game of stoolball to all ages but particularly those of school age.

With 16 players from both mixed and ladies friendly and league stoolball, it was encouraging to see members from clubs in Hampshire, West Kent, Surrey and Sussex on the course which ran from 10am to 5pm.

Stoolball England will continue to run similar courses so that more and more players can gain qualifications which will benefit their clubs and local schools. Those attending were Amanda Irwin and Jess Collier (Slindon); Rachel Gorvin and Daisy Langford (Steep); Paula Baker and Leah Head (Broadbridge Heath); Lindsey Greenstreet (Ashurst & Blackham) and Debbie James (Chiddingstone Causeway); Sally Smith and Jackie Elliott (Horsham); Josie Tidbury (Wonersh); Erin Fuller (Pett); Zoe Parsons (Adastra); Richard Emsley (Cowfold); Anita Broad (Newick) and Sylvia James (East Grinstead and Oakwood School, Horley).

Our Membership Secretary, Richard Emsley, is trying to bring back the Border Mixed League which used to play in the Horsham and Crawley area. He’s looking for teams to join and teams will want new players so, if you want to be a part of it, read his forum post for more.

i54newmedia filmed the England Ladies’ training day and match in 2012, and will soon be releasing a DVD of the event. As a teaser, you can watch the players talking about how proud they feel to be selected for their country and what the match means for the future of stoolball.

The next England Ladies stoolball match will be on 29 September 2013 at Horsham Cricket Club. Put it in your diary now! Last year was a brilliant day, with a big crowd there to watch. We’ve also booked the ground for two squad training days on 15 and 22 September.

We’re running our popular three hour umpiring and scoring courses at Plumpton on Sunday 14 April starting at 10am. The tutors are Kelvin Speirs (umpiring) and Kevin Hilliard (scoring) and the course is divided into three hour-long sessions. It costs just £5 each.

In the first indoor session, trainee umpires and scorers are separated to learn all about their particular role. The second session takes place outside where a game is played with each umpire officiating at the bowler’s end and at square leg. Finally there is a combined questions and answers indoor session.

We welcome anyone who would like to improve either of these two aspects of their game. If you’d like to come please give your details (club, name, address and telephone number or email address) to Kay Price on 01403 252419 or kay@….