Kwik Cricket News from Ambleside Primary School

How often do you hear the comment that if more cricket was played in schools, English cricket would be in a far healthier state than it currently is? Well certainly in Cumbria, there's lots of cricket happening in primary schools. In this year's Wrigleys National Kwik Cricket Tournament which was held earlier in the summer, 120 of Cumbria's primary schools participated. Much of the incredible enthusiasm throughout the county must be due in part to the hard work and dedication of our County Development Officer, Dave Fallows who has worked tirelessly over the past year to bring cricket to all corners of the county.

Here at Ambleside, we take our cricket seriously whilst also enjoying ourselves! We started a cricket club for all Key Stage 2 children in February. 8 children attended. By the summer, 30 children were attending on a regular basis. Such was the enthusiasm that we were offered sponsorship by the local estate agents Matthews Benjamin, who kindly provided a full kit of cricket whites for a kwik cricket team of 10 players.

Smartly dressed our team of 8 boys and 2 girls prepared to play in the national tournament. Our team did the school proud, reaching the semi finals of the county group, narrowly missing the final by just one run! We were particularly pleased with the way the children played as a team, supporting and enouraging each other in a really positive manner. The rest of the season was equally positive for our bunch of enthusiasts. We were also delighted to receive county development coaching from Graham Dodds - alias Dodsy.

The games we have played were variants of the Kwik Cricket game - the version of which is described below for those of you who have requested such info......

KWIK CRICKET RULES

Aims: Enjoyment and fair play by all

Equipment: Kwik Cricket equipment (if you want a contact, e-mail us at school)

Pitch: 2 sets of wickets 16 yards apart

Teams: Each team consists of 10 players, 8 of whom may play at any one time, of which at least 2 playing members must be girls.

Substitutes: These are permitted game to game, but not during the game, except in the event of an injury when a substitute is allowed to field but unable to bowl. The substitute is allowed to bat if the injury is deemed sufficiently bad.

The Start: The 2 teams toss a coin to decide who has the choice of batting or fielding.

Batting and Scoring:

• The batting side starts with 200 runs and bats in 4 pairs
• Each pair receives 2 overs and has unlimited lives
• Each time a batter is out, 5 runs are deducted and the other batter faces the next ball
• At the end of the over the batsmen change ends
• A batter can be out from being bowled, caught, run out, stumped or hit wicket.
• There is no LBW rule unless the umpire decides that the batter has deliberately blocked the ball from hitting the wickets using their legs.
• Runs are scored in the normal manner, as are byes.
• NO balls occur if a ball bounces more than twice in reaching the batsmen, or if the ball reaches the batter above shoulder height.
• 2 runs are awarded to the batting team for each wide delivery or no ball, with no extra ball being bowled except in the final over of the innings, when the batting side receives an extra ball and 2 extra runs.
• A batsmen may hit a no ball, but if the resulting no-ball shot achieves more than 3 runs, the 2 runs for the no ball are ignored.
• At the end of the first 2 overs the batters retire and are replaced by the second pair until all 4 pairs have received 2 overs.

 Bowling and Fielding:

• Each player bowls one over of 6 balls.
• Bowling takes place from one end only.
• Fielders rotate clockwise after each over. Thus all players get a turn in each fielding position, including wicket keeping.
• Overarm bowling is encouraged, however underarm bowling is allowed.
• No fielder is allowed within 10 yards of the striking batsman.

The Result: The team with the highest total wins! In the event of a tie, the team taking the most wickets wins.

Lords: The home of cricket and with a website that includes pages for children.

Blowers: For those who are mad about cricket. There are also lots of links to other sports from this site!