Junior & Youth Cricket Information
How to get involved?
Junior and Youth cricket involves boys and girls from school years Y1 to Y13. Registrations for a season are done on-line and registrations usually open near the beginning of September with competition games starting mid-October. Players are however welcome to register at any time throughout the season.
Team selection & format
As a guideline, players are entered into teams based on their school year at the start of the season. The following grades exist; Super Smash Hub (Y1-4), Super Smash Play B Grade (Y5-6), Super Smash A Grade (Y7-8) and Division One (Y8-13). There are factors that can be taken into account to allow a player to play in a different grade, these are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Below is a summary of the playing conditions for each grade, for all of the 2024-2025 playing conditions please refer to: Junior & Youth General Rules & Playing Conditions (please note that the Collegiate grades no longer exist)
Super Smash Hub (Y1-4)
Supersmash Hub is for new entrants, siblings or players building confidence. These players can attend practice sessions only to learn a range of basic skills. The sessions are run by City Cricket Club with every third session hosted by Northland Cricket, where modified cricket format games are played using a softer ball
Super Smash Play B Grade (Y5-6)
Super Smash Play is a fast-paced T20 competition aimed to have fun, maximise participation and allow players to safely transition their skills from soft ball to hard ball. This is a modified cricket format with 8 players per team played on a 16m pitch. Players bat in pairs for 5 overs with the bowling team bowling from one end only. Batters may be dismissed but any dismissal sees an addition to the fielding team’s score of 3 runs and the batters change ends. The batting pair continues to bat until the allotted number of overs have been bowled to the pair. Everyone is encouraged to bowl, no bowler is permitted to bowl more than 3 overs in an innings and overs are to be 6 balls in duration. Wides and no balls are to be re bowled to a maximum of 8 balls in an over.
Super Smash A Grade (Y7-8)
Super Smash is a fast-paced T20 competition aimed to have fun, maximise player participation, while Junior players look to further develop their hard ball skills. This is a modified cricket format with 9 players per team and played on a 18m pitch. Batters must face a minimum of 6 balls. If a batter gets out within the six balls, the batters change ends, and the fielding team will receive 3 runs to their total, when they bat (or to their total if they have batted first). After facing six balls, a batter can be dismissed. Batters must retire after 20 balls. They can take the crease again if all other batters are dismissed or have retired. Everyone is encouraged to bowl, no bowler is permitted to bowl more than 3 overs in an innings and overs are to be 6 balls in duration. Wides and no balls are to be re bowled to a maximum of 8 balls in an over.
Division One (Y8-13)
Division One is designed for those youth players wanting to transition to senior cricket or those players not wanting to play highly competitive cricket but want to continue to play the game they love. This is a modified cricket format with 9 players per team and played on a full length pitch. There are 30 overs per innings. Overs are to be 6 balls in duration. wides and no balls are to be re bowled to a maximum of 8 balls per over except in the last over of each innings where 6 legitimate must be bowled.
When do we play?
Super Smash Hub (Y1-4) is a program that is run with 6 pre and 6 post Christmas sessions. The session are held on Monday afternoons from 4pm to 5pm at Cobham Oval. Every third session will be run by Northland Cricket and may be a different day of the week, the venue will change for these joint sessions.
Super Smash Play B Grade (Y5-6), Super Smash A Grade (Y7-8) and Division One (Y8-13) take part in the Northland Junior & Youth competitions which start mid-October. Junior and Youth cricket takes a break over the Christmas and summer holiday period, beginning again in Term 1 and running through to the end of March and prize giving. Games are played on Saturday mornings starting at 9am. The draw for all grades is available here: Fixtures & Ladders
Playing gear
The club provides a team gear bag for all teams for trainings and matches, though many A, B and Division One Grade players prefer to use their own gear. Note: Northland Cricket Association rules require that all players playing or training with a hard ball must wear a helmet when batting.
Playing Uniform
City Cricket Club provides all registered A and B Grade players with a club playing shirt. A and B Grade players are expected to provide their own white shorts or pants. City Cricket Club provides all registered Division One players with a club playing shirt and pants. All players are expected to represent their club in the correct uniform on game days. All players should also wear acceptable footwear i.e. sports shoes
Team managers & coaches
Each team has assigned a team coach and assigned a team manager, a roles that can be shared if necessary. The coach and manager will be involved in coaching, encouraging, organising, umpiring and running the team on game days. We are lucky to have a group of dedicated, hard-working parents involved in every team! If you wish to get involved please don’t hesitate to contact our junior coordinator – we can never have too many helpers!
Training
City Cricket Club provides high quality junior coaching at all levels, with senior club players assisting in this role. Training is scheduled once a week for each grade at Cobham Oval, Whangarei. Parents are encouraged to get involved with their kids at training to offer support, running drills or helping supervise.
Health, safety & sportsmanship
Both parents and players need to be aware of health and safety at practice and at a game. We encourage players to be sun-safe – slip, slop slap & wrap. A hat should always be worn. A drink bottle and snack are also must-haves at training and especially on game day.
Players of all ages need to use appropriate behaviour and show respect towards their team-mates, the opposition, parents, coaches, managers, umpires and so on. They also need to look after their team gear, and be considerate of the environment.
Player goals & rewards
It’s a good idea for players in all grades to set goals for themselves at the start of the season – it may be scoring runs or taking wickets or some other measurable outcome that will make them feel like they have achieved something. Parents could offer their own incentives to encourage high performance! There are also other rewards at our end-of-season prize giving to work towards. Those who show consistency with playing well, or show good potential, may also be considered for primary representative cricket or training over the next 12 months. Selectors are monitoring juniors and youth throughout the season so try to play your best cricket if you are looking for higher honours!
Cancellations
For Saturday cancellation information, Northland Cricket Association will post on their facebook page before 8:15am. Team managers should also receive a message from the junior coordinator and they can then let their respective team know whether or not play is cancelled.
For training cancellations, keep in touch with your team manager if you think rain will affect your training. Ideally cancellation notices will get through to parents as early as possible.
Senior Cricket Information
City Cricket Club’s Premier and Premier Reserve teams compete in Northland Cricket’s one and two day competitions that commence in early October and go through to the end of March. The players from these teams are the club’s elite with some of them progressing to higher honours Northland and sometimes further afield.
Reserve Grade is a serious and competitive grade, playing one and two day matches like the Premier sides. Many of the players in this grade progress into the Premier Grade as their standard improves and to cover absent players when required.
Coaching
Karl Treiber has been re-appointed as the club’s resident coach for his third season. Former First Class Player/coach and level 3 coach along with being a life member of the Northland Cricket Association, Karl brings a wealth of experience and skills and has loads of enthusiasm to this demanding role.
Karl is ably assisted by Richard Pooley, a long time City Cricket Club junior coordinator who continues to lead junior development in the club.
The senior team is captained by Ian Page and managed by Don Nelson City’s club captain. The Reserves are captained by Ravi Maan. Please contact Don on 021 057 5579 for further information.
Pre Season training dates for the 2015-16 season
Pre-season training for the Senior and Reserve grade squads are held at the Johnson and Crawford Indoor Centre, Port Road, Whangarei.
Normal training during the season will be held at the City Cricket Club artificial nets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5:30pm, or at other times as requested by the coach.
Pre Season training dates
Pre-season training for the Senior and Reserve grade squads are held at the Johnson and Crawford Indoor Centre, Port Road, Whangarei.
This starts in September from 5.30pm – 7.30pm.
Normal training during the season will be held at the City Cricket Club artificial nets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5:30pm, or at other times as requested by the coach.
Selection Policy
Senior players are required to accept the Selection Policy For Premier and Reserve Grade Teams to be eligible for selection. The objective of this policy is to increase each team’s opportunity for success through the selection of balanced teams based on the upcoming round format, opposition, and venue, while ensuring that individual players meeting the selection criteria are rewarded with promotion to a higher grade.