MCC SPIRIT OF CRICKET 2008 

To: Club U13 Organisers

Date: 28th April 2008

Dear Organiser

Re: MCC ‘Spirit of Cricket’ U13 National Club Championship
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this prestigious competition. I am the Competitions Manager here at the ECB and if you have any queries regarding this competition that cannot be dealt with by your County Organiser then my contact details are at the bottom of this letter.

Enclosed within this mailing you will find the Competition Rules and the details of the latter stages of the competition. A supply of team sheet cards is also enclosed for your use in matches in this competition – these must be fully completed and handed to the umpires prior to the start of the match. Please note that all players MUST wear helmets when batting or keeping wicket – parental consent not to wear helmets is no longer accepted.
Competition Rules

There are various rules that I feel must be highlighted after certain clubs failed to comply with these requirements last year.

• Qualification of Players see Competition Rule 6 All players must be bona-fide Junior Members of the club they represent and play for the club in the Junior League or Leagues that the club enters. A player may play for only one club in the Competition in any one season. (NB If your club enters two teams they must be treated as separate clubs.)

• Batsmen retire at 30 see Playing Condition 1.7 When a batsman reaches or passes the personal total of 30 runs they must ‘retire’ and will not be allowed to return. A batsman can continue their innings beyond 30 if their retirement would end the innings before the agreed number of overs have been bowled.

National Knock-out stages and Regional Finals

Please note that if your team is successful at your County Final you will then enter the National Stages of the competition. This may include a preliminary round prior to the Regional Final. All the Regional Finals will consist of 4 teams with semi-finals followed by a Regional Final and a third place play-off – so each club will have two matches on the day. The dates for the various Regional Finals (details of two of these Regional Finals are still to be finalised) are enclosed on a separate sheet along with details of any qualifying matches needed by the various County Champions prior to these dates (details of two of these Regional Finals are still to be finalised).

National Finals Week

The National Finals involve the eight Regional Winners and are played over a RESIDENTIAL WEEK at Oakham School. Teams will assemble at Oakham on the afternoon of Monday 5th August and the all teams play in a round-robin with two matches on each day from Tuesday to Thursday and the final set of matches on the Friday morning. If your club is lucky enough to progress to the latter stages please keep this week in mind.

I hope that you all have a successful and enjoyable season and that the youth section of your club continues to flourish.

Yours sincerely
Patrick Mahony Competitions Manager 020 7432 1229 (direct line) 07917 521522

Patrick.Mahony@ecb.co.uk