Cambridgeshire Cricket is committed to developing strong links with schools to achieve our aim of educating young people through cricket, giving them the chance to play it, learn from it and enjoy it and providing opportunities for those wishing to progress into the club environment. This is achieved through supporting the development of school-club links and providing opportunities for children to compete in school competition at primary and secondary school level.

As well as offering high-quality coaching, Cambridgeshire Cricket also runs schools competitions, provides cricket leadership courses for students and professional development opportunities for staff.

The schools’ programme is driven through the Chance to Shine programme, which enables children throughout the Cambridgeshire to access quality coaching, competition and club-based opportunities.

Further information and pages on our schools programmes will be added to this site in the coming weeks 

For further information, please contact:

Matthew Morley
Cricket Development Manager
Email: matt.morley@cambscricket.org.uk

Chance to Shine works in schools to provide children with a brilliant first experience of cricket, working with the 39 County Cricket Boards across England and Wales and Cricket Scotland to send specialist coaches into schools, once a week for a half term, to support cricket coaching.

As well as the physical benefits of regular activity, we use cricket to teach children important key life skills that will help them beyond the playground. Through the values of cricket, we teach children about respect and fair play.

Cricket is also an effective way to develop skills like communication, leadership and perseverance that will benefit them throughout their life.

We believe that cricket is an inclusive sport, where girls and boys can play and learn together. We think that normalising female participation in cricket is a hugely important and valuable part of the work that we do. In 2020, Chance to Shine reached as many girls as boys for the first time and this continues to be the case, in 2022 they reached their six millionth participant

To find out more about Chance to Shine please visit https://www.chancetoshine.org/

Primary Schools Programme

The Chance to Shine Primary school programme inspires children to be excited about the sport.

Pupils are taught how to play cricket and ensure that they learn academic and life skills whilst they take part. Staff are supported to teach the sport, so that they develop a culture of cricket within their school. Schools are encouraged to compete, internally or taking part in a local tournament, and help children to take the next steps to progress on their cricketing journey

The Whole School programme is made up of 5 components

Inspire- cricketing assemblies to help introduce the sport and the spirit of the game

Play- weekly coaching sessions with a class for a full half term that develop the all-round skills of the children, whilst improving the confidence of school staff to deliver sessions independently.

The sessions are specifically designed for the different ages and abilities of the children and make sure that, whether it’s the very first time a child has picked up a bat and a ball or if they play regularly at their local club, everyone learns and improves during the lesson.

The sessions ensure that children are achieving the skills they need, as set out in the national curriculum, like throwing, catching and ball-striking; and are enjoying themselves at the same time.Lead- CPD sessions for teachers that focus on providing the knowledge and confidence to deliver cricket independently. We also have an offer for playground leaders which aims to give older pupils the confidence and skills to support younger pupils playing cricket at breaktimes

Compete- We encourage schools to enter the local out of school competition offers. While also providing intra school competitions focusing on achieving personal bests

Pathway- We use the programme to help support transition from schools to local clubs including into

All Stars and Dynamos Cricket

We also offer engagement days to schools which consist of the Inspire, Play and Pathway components above

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzbYaf9N6Xg

Across Cambridgeshire we work with around 35 schools each academic year in these programmes to get your schools involved please contact matt.morley@cambscricket.org.uk

Secondary Leadership Programme

The Secondary Leadership Programme has been designed to provide opportunities for play as well as

developing leadership skills. Initially a girls’ only programme, the programme is now girls’ focussed

but can also include boys as part of the group

The programme consists of:

• A 6-hour leadership course

• An extracurricular club run by the leaders

• Coach led taster sessions for girls’ classes in years 7/8/9

There are 3 different leadership course options for schools all with a different focus:

KS3 Primary Spark: 6-week course aimed at 12-14 year olds, giving them the skills to become young leaders and inspirational role models for primary school students.

KS3 Transition Titans: 6 sessions for 11-13 year old participants, training them to promote active lifestyles in primary children, especially those moving to secondary school.

KS4 Run Your Club: a 6-week course for 13-15 year olds to help them develop as young leaders, learning how to increase the participation and competition opportunities for participants aged 11-14.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhtdOAexZoE

For more information and to get your school involved in the Secondary Leadership Programme

please contact hannah.warren@cambscricket.org.uk

Chance to Shine Teacher Portal

Chance to shine have created a powerful bank of free resources for Primary and Secondary schools so that teachers can confidently lead their cricket sessions. Chance to Shine has introduced the game and its educational benefits to over six million boys and girls in over 16,000 state schools since 2005.Chance to Shine have created a powerful bank of free resources for teachers. These include lesson plans for cricket coaching sessions, instructional videos for all the skills and drills and top tips from the professionals.

To access the portal please visit https://chancetoshine.my.site.com/s/sign-up?language=en_GB

For support on the portal locally please email matt.morley@cambscricket.org.uk

Dynamos Schools

Dynamos Schools is the new format for primary schools competition replacing Kwik Cricket

The aims of Dynamos Schools are:

• To build on the success of Kwik Cricket
• To give children the same experience in club and school
• To deliver an exciting new brand of competition linked to the elite via The Hundred
• Introduce Countdown Cricket format
• Ensure a fully inclusive competitive experience for children aged 8-11

More details on the rules, format and equipment can be found via the document at the bottom of this page

Cambridgeshire Cricket organises local festivals around the county for Year 5 & 6 with local School Sports Partnerships running competitions with Year 3 & 4

Our Competition dates for 2024 are…

Yr 5 & 6 Dynamos Schools Festivals 2024

Wednesday 22nd May– March Town CC

Thursday 23rd May– Bottisham VC

Tuesday 4th June– Caldecote CC

Wednesday 12th June– Foxton CC

All competitions start at 10AM

Yr 5 & 6 Girls Dynamos Schools Festivals 2024

Monday 17th June– Fenners

Wednesday 19th June– March Town CC

Both competitions start at 10AM

To book a place, please click here

Please note the deadline for entries is 3rd May 2024

Years 3 & 4

Dynamos Schools Competitions for Year 3 & 4 are run by local Schools Sports Partnerships and supported by us

For more information or to get your school involved in the Dynamos Schools Festivals, please contact matt.morley@cambscricket.org.uk

DOCUMENT: Dynamos Schools Festival Entry Info 2024

DOCUMENT: Dynamos Schools Competitions Pack

Rapid Fire

Rapid Fire is excellent for teaching Year 3 & 4 aged children and below the basics of cricket in a safe and easy manner.

To view the resource card for this game, please download the Chance to Shine Coaching Cards available below. A copy of the scorecard and rules are also available to download below

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RNFsN23GDs

DOCUMENT: Rapid Fire Layout

DOCUMENT: Rapid Fire Scorecard

DOCUMENT: Chance to Shine Coaching Cards

ECB Girls Secondary School Indoor Competitions

Cambridgeshire Cricket runs the ECB Indoor Girls school’s competition programme for Under 13 and Under 15 girls which culminates in the County Finals. We run a number of qualifying rounds based on the number of initial entries we receive. Schools are then split by state and independent, and geographically to form the qualifying stage. The winners from these stages go through to the county finals

The winners of the county Under 13 and Under 15 competitions progress to the regional finals with the winner of the regional finals qualifying for the national finals held in the indoor centre at Lords in May

ECB Girls U13 & U15 Indoor Schools – County Final Date: Thursday 21st March 2024 Time: 10.00am – 3.30pm Venue: University of Cambridge Sports Centre

For more information or to get your school involved in this competition, please contact hannah.warren@cambscricket.org.uk

Chance to Compete

Chance to Compete is Chance to Shines national secondary school competition aimed at giving secondary state school children an opportunity to play competitive cricket. Matches are played in under an hour and all participants play a significant part in the game.

The format and rules are adapted so to remove many of the traditional barriers to schools being unable to play competitive cricket, albeit without veering too far from the fundamentals of a game of cricket.

We will be running competitions for U13s and U15s in 2024, the dates for which are yet to be confirmed

For further info on these competitions please contact hannah.warren@cambscricket.org.uk

DOCUMENT: U13 rules & format

DOCUMENT: U15 rules & format

ESCA Competitions

The English Schools Cricket Association (ESCA) competitions for 2024 include the ESCA T20, ESCA Girls under 13 hardball, Saracens Cup under 11 hardball, David English/Bunbury Cup under 12/13 and the Inspiresport under 15 one day cup competitions.

The rules and regulations for all of the competitions can be found via the ESCA website here https://www.escaonline.co.uk/2019-competition-rules-regs/ or contact stuart.dockerill@cambscricket.org.uk for more info