Please see the most  update  to all club contacts from WDCU.

The WDCU EGM will be held by Zoom at 6.30pm next Wednesday, the 5th of May.  If you haven’t notified me who is attending from your club please do so as soon as possible.  Joining details will be sent out prior to the meeting.

All the league and cup competitions have been prepared and fixtures can be found in the document centre on the website.  Most have also been uploaded to Cricket Stats and they will all be once a few anomalies are dealt with.

The 2021 League Administration Regulations have been sent to you and as small changes continue to be made please check in the website document centre for the most up to date copy.

Please note most recent update was a small change to Regulation 15 Scoring relating to the provision of a scorer for an away team.

Also as we get nearer the start of the competitive season can I just re-emphasise a part of the CMC Chair Duncan Patersons earlier message to clubs regarding the temporary amendments to our regulations:

“The CMC will penalise clubs where it feels they have fallen short of the spirit of these changes.”

All competition Playing Conditions have been updated, and can be found on the  website. Significant changes were made in the Premier Division, Division 1, Division 2, and Premier Reserve League conditions in preparation for the 2020 season, and these are highlighted in blue.  Again minor changes may occur so please keep checking the website for the most up to date copy.

We are receiving and forwarding to all clubs regular COVID-19 updates from Cricket Scotland. They can also be found on our social media platforms.

https://wdcu.co.uk/

https://www.cricketscotland.com/

Iain Kennedy
WDCU Administrator

Please see the most recent update from CS regarding a safe return to cricket:

Afternoon Clubs

Please note we have updated the guidance for Level 3 as summarised below – the full document can be found HERE.

• The guidance around the sharing of cars for Level 2 has been extended to Level 3:

4.1 From 26^th April (level 3), players travelling to and from the venue should avoid car sharing with people outside their extended household unless necessary

• Removal of the requirement for batters to run in distinct lines

4.5 Batters should try to run in distinct running lines to ensure they are not within 2m of the bowler or other batter. Lines to be marked on the square either side of the wicket

• Additional sentence for umpires regards COVID risks during play

4.7 Umpires may remind players of COVID regulations if deemed appropriate

• Additional sentence on spectators

4.9 Members attending a licensed outdoor bar at the club are not classified as spectators

N.B. There is a suggestion that the Scottish Government may relax the rules on no spectators for Level 2 areas – this will be confirmed in early May.

Please find attached below a summary of key factors to remember for players and officials prior to playing fixtures versus other clubs – please share with your members as appropriate.

CLUB CRICKET CHECKLIST LEVEL 3 (1)

Please see most recent COVID-19 guidance provided by Cricket Scotland:

Dear Clubs

Following today’s Scottish Government announcement, updated guidance has been published for entering into Level 3 on Monday 26th April – these can be found on the Cricket Scotland COVID-19 page, here.

Additionally, a route map for changes within the various Scottish Government protection levels has been attached.

Key changes from Monday 26th are:

• Adult and junior club fixtures can now take place between two clubs (maximum bubble of 30).
• Travel is permitted between all Level 3 areas. In Level 3, players travelling to and from the venue must not mix household, i.e. no car sharing (please note this restriction changes in Level 2).

A few other points to remind club officials and members are:

• Clubs should appoint a COVID Officer and ensure that a nominated COVID Monitor is present at the club when there is cricket activity – this can be a coach, team captain or parent. We would recommend that all COVID Monitors complete the sportscotland online module which is available here.
• During club fixtures, a register of all attendees including umpires and scorers should be maintained and administered by the home COVID Monitor.
• No spectators are permitted except for parents or guardians of vulnerable adults – this may be relaxed as we enter into Level 2.  Any parents or guardians attending must adhere to physical distancing.
• Off the field, teams must not congregate together at any time.
• Changing rooms must remain closed. Toilets can be open.

As always, the above is subject to any changes in guidance from the Scottish Government and your club, facility and members must be made aware of, and able to adapt to, changes in guidance at short notice; for example, a local lockdown.

All of us at Cricket Scotland are looking forward to the start of the season – thanks for your continuing patience and adherence to restrictions. Enjoy your cricket and stay safe.

Return to cricket, route map, 2021

The notice for the WDCU pre-season General Meeting has just been sent to clubs:

Good evening,

This is notification that the pre-season General Meeting of The WDCU will be held on Wednesday 5th May, 2021, online (via Zoom), at 6.30pm.  The meeting notice and agenda are attached.

All clubs are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting – although, to aid the smooth running of the online meeting, attendance will be limited to a maximum of two attendees per member club.  Please confirm your club’s attendance by emailing the names (and email addresses) of your club’s representatives to the Administrator (admin@wdcu.co.uk) by 9pm on Sunday 2nd May, 2021.

An email containing the meeting link will be sent out to those who have registered prior to the meeting.

Iain Kennedy
WDCU Administrator

Please see most recent communication from WDCU to clubs regarding pre season friendlies.

As the Scottish Government has confirmed that the whole of Scotland will be returning to Level 3 from Monday 26th April, clubs can arrange pre-season friendlies on a local basis after this date on the same basis as games were completed in late August and September last year. As a reminder, please ensure travel is kept to a minimum and clubs should follow Scottish Government guidance and Cricket Scotland guidance when it is published in the near future.

Iain Kennedy
WDCU Administrator

Please see note sent to club contacts this morning from CMC Chairman Duncan Paterson:

Hi everyone,

Please find attached the Saturday League fixtures for season 2021.

League and cup fixtures – Western District Cricket Union (wdcu.co.uk)

The season will run from Saturday 22 May to Saturday 18 September dependent on Scottish Government and Cricket Scotland  COVID-19 regulations.  Should there be changes to regulations that impede the completion of the scheduled fixtures, the CMC may have to alter, suspend or cancel the league season.  This may also, as per the amended regulations for 2021 previously sent, lead to the suspension of promotion and relegation.

Compiling the fixtures for 2021 season has been a difficult task due, not only to the delay to the season and the challenges posed by the current COVID-19 pandemic, but also to an unprecedented amount of ground availability issues, coupled with the late withdrawal of three teams from the Saturday League structure.

In order to give every team the most amount of meaningful cricket possible, the CMC has merged Divisions 3 and 4 into one division of fourteen teams.  Despite the challenges, we have prepared a season comprising of fifteen fixtures for all clubs in that division over the eighteen-week season.

All other divisions will compete in a ten-team, eighteen-week, league season.

Due to the many ground availability issues, it has been unavoidable that some fixtures are scheduled on a Sunday and, although this is not ideal, we have had no choice this year.  We have kept it to the minimum possible amount and, at present, it only affects certain second elevens.

The CMC would like to thank David Sturgeon for his assistance in drawing up the fixtures. Should any club have any further issues with ground availability or their ability to complete their scheduled fixtures, they are asked to get in touch with the Administrator as soon as possible.

Kind regards.

Duncan Paterson
WDCU CMC Chairman

Please see note that went to all club contacts this morning:

Good morning,

This is a note to inform you that the above fixtures are now available in the Document Centre on the WDCU website.

League and cup fixtures – Western District Cricket Union (wdcu.co.uk)

The Saturday League fixtures will be uploaded shortly along with the updated Saturday League Regulations document for 2021, and two messages from the CMC Chairman Duncan Paterson.

Please let me know as soon as possible if there are any scheduling errors with the fixtures

Iain Kennedy
WDCU Administrator

Please see note from Cricket Scotland introducing a number of new development posts:

We are delighted to announce that this week, three new staff have started in their roles to provide support to clubs and development groups in the coming six months:

Caitlin Ormiston, Development Coordinator (caitlinormiston@cricketscotland.com, 07889-596859).  Caitlin will be providing administrative support for all development programmes.

Please note that all support for domestic/adult club cricket has moved to the Operations Team lead by Paul Macari.

Blair Carnegie, Regional Development Officer, Central (covering Dundee and Angus, Fife and Forth Valley) (blaircarnegie@cricketscotland.com, 07889-596861).

Nathan Allison, Regional Development Officer, West (nathanallison@cricketscotland.com, 07889-596858).

Blair and Nathan are the local point of contact for Cricket Scotland support for all junior cricket programmes and formats, women and girls’ cricket (with Rosy Ryan), workforce development (with David Bordes), community engagement (with Ammar Ashraf), and disability cricket (with Barry McGeachy).  Both Blair and Nathan have large geographical areas to cover, so they will not be in a position to deliver regular (taster) sessions at schools, but they will be able to support any club/community coaches that are doing school delivery and provide that important link between clubs, communities and governing body.

Support for clubs in the North and North-East remains in place with:

Alex Green, Regional Development Officer, Highlands (including Moray) (alexgreen@cricketscotland.com, 07889-594242).
Tony McKenna, Regional Development Officer, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire (anthonymckenna@cricketscotland.com, 07889-594232).

Support for clubs in the Perth and Kinross area remains in place in partnership with LiveActive:

Richard Rennie, Development Officer Perth & Kinross (rrennie@liveactive.co.uk, 07703-023905).

We hope to appoint a Regional Development Officer for the East region in the coming weeks.

Please see most recent communication from Cricket Scotland

1. Duke of Edinburgh funeral

Following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, the national mourning guidance sets out that it is for individual organisations to decide on the most appropriate response. The guidance from Scottish Government can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-duke-of-edinburgh-mourning-guidance/

In line with the UK Government, Scottish Government ask that sports avoid activity between 2pm and 5pm on Saturday, April 17, when the funeral is scheduled to take place, however there is some uncertainty about how long the funeral will last.

2. Travel guidance from Friday 16 April

From Friday, some travel restrictions will be relaxed to allow travel across Scotland for the purposes of meeting outdoors with friends and family.  This will allow travel for informal physical activity, but not for organised sport.  Travel restrictions for wider purposes – including organised sport, leisure, shopping, visiting hospitality premises or staying in tourist accommodation – will remain until 26 April, as originally planned, when all travel restrictions within Scotland will be lifted.

Please see below a letter from the club to raise support for this venture. Please get involved and help if you can.