Junior Cricket at HHTCC
Introduction
Welcome to the HHTCC Junior Cricket web page. In this area you will find details on our activities, winter and summer. You will also find information on our fixtures, our coaches, and our contact details.
Our ethos is quite simple: we want our juniors to have fun, progress and ultimately play cricket at the highest level they can. HHTCC is one of the largest clubs within Hertfordshire and we follow all the guidelines on best practice within the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) directives. We have Clubmark accreditation which is renewed every three years and reviewed each year.
We also aim to be a family-friendly club, so that parents/carers can enjoy watching their children play cricket and also feel part of the club community. We hold a range of social events for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Coaching
We have a high calibre coaching team, with a ratio of qualified coaches to junior players which vastly exceeds ECB requirements. The coaching team contains a mix of: ECB-qualified coaches; current and former players of club cricket of a high standard; people who have represented the MCC and/or minor counties as players; and people who have taught PE in schools.
Our team coaches/managers all give their time unpaid and as volunteers, and we are always interested to hear from parents who might wish to support a team in which they have a child playing. The club can support such volunteers by funding training of coaches and support workers.
Starting to play cricket: All Stars and Dynamos
For the youngest players, we are part of the ECB’s ‘All Stars’ programme (which covers 5-8 year old boys and girls – school Years 0-3) with sessions in May and June. For 2024, sessions for boys are now fully booked but there are some remaining spaces for girls here.
Boys who are in school Year 4 and above play in our age group squads detailed below, while in 2024, Girls in Years 4-6 have the option of ‘Dynamos’ in June and July, bookable from 15th February here.
Please note that All Stars and Dynamos are run nationally by the ECB, even though sessions are delivered by HHTCC, and the bulk of the money goes to the ECB rather than HHTCC. This means that fees for All Stars and Dynamos are separate from fees paid to HHTCC.
Age group teams for boys and girls in school Year 4 and above in 2025
For Under 9 (school Year 4) and above, we have teams for boys and girls in the Hertfordshire Junior Leagues (HJL). The boys/mixed teams start with the Under 9 league and the girls only league starts with the U11s. We welcome girls from Year 5 and Year 6 for this age category. Year 4 girls have the option to sign up to girls only Dynamos or play in the U9s mixed team.
Aside from matches in the HJL, we also play friendlies across all age groups. In 2024, we are fielding sides as listed below.
- Under 9 Boys (led by Dave Jenkins)
- Under 10A Boys (led by Matt Judd)
- Under 10B Boys (led by Phil Costard)
- Under 11 Boys (led by Owen McGinty)
- Under 11 Girls (led by Rebecca Kelly jointly with Boxmoor CC playing as ‘Grand Union’)
- Under 12 Boys (led by Dan Moriarty)
- Under 13 Girls (led by Boxmoor CC playing as ‘Grand Union’ with Rebecca Kelly as Hemel’s lead)
- Under 15 & Under 17 Boys (led by Martin Botha)
- Under 15 Girls (led by Boxmoor CC playing as ‘Grand Union’ with Rebecca Kelly as Hemel’s lead)
Our U14 and older boys also have the opportunity to play adult cricket.
Note: we follow school years where Under 9 is the same as Year 4, Under 10 is Year 5 and so on. In working out the age group for your child for 2025, it is their age on 31st August 2024 which determines the age group. For example, a player who is 9 years old at that point would be an Under 10 in the season to come. Whether they have their 10th birthday on 1st September or later in the school year, they would still be an Under 10.
Successes in recent years include county championships for three years running (2021-23) for the team who will play at U15 level in 2025, and many playoff qualifications for several other teams, including county final appearances. In the past, one age group of boys won the Snowden Trophy in four of the five years from 2014 to 2018 in which the Trophy was organised as part of the First World War centenary commeorations (and HHTCC has now kept the Trophy in perpetuity).
Although many girls choose only to play cricket with other girls, we are delighted if they wish to train with the boys and indeed they will often be selected to play in the boys’ teams. Several have done so very successfully in our teams and will continue to do so. They are allowed to play two years down to compensate with the differences in ‘strengths’.
Subscriptions
Our basic junior subscription is £80 per year (or £40 with a Dacorum Card). Since 2015, this fee has included free membership for any subsequent siblings who join.
Visit our online subscription portal here.
The subscription covers all costs associated with training, ground maintenance, match fees, league registration, and so on. The only activity it doesn’t cover is the indoor cricket winter league which takes place in September-December each year and in which we do sometimes enter teams. That does have a fee for each match charged by the venue.
All our coaches are volunteers who are involved because they love the game of cricket. As with most clubs, nobody at HHTCC is paid to coach, and fees reflect the costs of maintaining the club and its facilities, rather than paying people.
All Stars is bookable through the England and Wales Cricket Board (see link above) who do not give any discounts.
Winter training
We run indoor winter training from January through to March. We use a variety of gymnasiums and specialist indoor cricket venues in or near to Hemel Hempstead. Please contact us for information.
Summer training
Summer training usually begins soon after Easter each year and is held at the club on varied days according to team. Please contact us for further information.
Summer fixtures
In usual years most teams play eight to ten league games from late April to the early July, followed by playoffs in the first half of July if they qualify. Games are usually once a week, any day Monday to Friday, starting at 6.00 pm (except for the first two weeks of the season which have a 5.30pm start) and normally finishing around 8.30 pm. Occasionally, league matches are played on a Sunday. For some age groups there is then a ‘summer league’ with about three games played in July and August, and also friendly matches. We also occasionally play games on Sunday mornings. Parents should expect to take their child(ren) to away fixtures, staying throughout the game. Our fixtures are avaialble from coaches.
Travel to matches
It is the responsibility of parents/carers to arrange transport to/from cricket activities. As part of signing up for membership, parents/carers agree to the following:
- In line with ECB guidelines, all travel to matches is the sole responsibility of the parent/guardian of under 18s. If you make any personal arrangement for your children to travel with another person, please ensure that they are a responsible adult, and juniors should not travel alone. Ensure there is always more than one junior or an additional adult present during travel. Encourage group travel whenever possible to ensure multiple adults are present. By consenting you agree that any transportation of Juniors is your responsibility and not that of HHTCC.
Where parents/carers arrange lifts with others, the club’s Transporting Juniors to Cricket Activities Policy applies.
Signing up
To make an enquiry about one of our U9+ squads, please contact:
- Boys: Neil Morgan, by email to nmorgs@gmail.com.
- Girls: Rebecca Kelly, by email to r.e.kelly82@gmail.com.
Buy Club Kit from Romida
Club kit is available from: http://www.romida.co.uk/hemel-hempstead-town-cc.html Romida might be known to some people by its previous name of Extra Cover Cricket and is the cricket shop on the industrial estate in Hemel Hempstead, so you can also visit them by finding their location at http://www.romida.co.uk/contacts
Player recognition
The contribution of players to junior cricket at HHTCC is recognised with the award of caps for 25, 50 and 100 appearances for hardball games played by boys and all matches played by girls. In addition, an annual award made by the club in conjunction with the Box Moor Trust (who donate a Ton cricket bat made from willow grown on Trust land) recognises junior contributions to senior cricket. Past winners are:
- 2017: Matthew Scears
- 2018: William Hodgins
- 2019: Edward Grayson
- 2020: Tayyab Sadiq
- 2021: Thomas Willetts
- 2022: Freddie Lowe
- 2023: Jacob Hodgins
- 2024: Maxwell Clark
Since 2018, we have awarded the Chairperson’s Cup to juniors to recognise overall performance, covering both junior and senior cricket. Past winners are:
- 2018: William Hodgins
- 2019: Edward Grayson
- 2020: Tayyab Sadiq
- 2021: Freddie Lowe
- 2022: Jacob Hodgins
- 2023: Maxwell Clark
- 2024: Callum Humphrey
Hemel Hempstead Town CC: Hertfordshire County Champions / National Competition Representatives
1979
U15 Boys – County Champions
2002
U15 Boys – County Champions
2006
U13 Boys – County Champions & National Competition Representatives
2008
U11 Boys 11-a-side – joint County Champions with Shenley
U15 Boys – County Champions & National Competition Representatives
2009
U12 Boys – County Champions
2010
U13A Boys – County Champions & National Competition Representatives
2012
U11 Girls – County Champions
U15 Boys – National Competition Representatives
U17 Boys – County Champions
2021
U11 Boys 8-a-side – County Champions
2022
U12 Boys – County Champions
2023
U13 Boys – County Champions
