Upminster Cricket Club is pleased to announce that the ECB have given the green light for recreational cricket matches to restart from Saturday 11th July, and with this in mind the Club’s Senior sides will return to action this weekend with three fixtures against our good friends from Orsett and Thurrock on Saturday, and a home friendly fixture on Sunday at Upminster Park. As well as this, our colts coaching programme, which has taken place via Zoom so far this season, will restart at the Club on Monday 13th July.

For senior members, the SNEL will be organizing a Saturday programme of some description for the rest of the season, and we await further details on this and dates as to when it will commence. We also expect to be able to put on a full Sunday programme including Windmill Whack V and the new Womens Whack. Your captains should be in contact soon with further details on all of these events.

For our juniors, each age group has been allocated a specific evening for their weekly coaching sessions and your Team Manager should have contacted you with these days. Putting together a detailed coaching plan under current regulations is a big challenge so please be patient while full details are finalized. We are also working with the organisers of the various competitions our junior teams enter to ensure we can play as many fixtures as possible within the current restrictions.

We are awaiting further guidance and details from ECB, the County and competition organisers around best practice and formats, and the club will also be preparing a COVID playing and training policy which will be circulated before games commence this weekend. Currently changing rooms at all of our home grounds remain closed at all times, and the pavilion and bar at Upminster Park will not be operating, although toilets will be available. We hope to provide an outdoor service for drinks at some stage, although this will likely be a couple of weeks after cricket has restarted. With this in mind, we urge all members, parents/guardians, Vice Presidents and associates of the Club to read the Club's COVID policy before attending any matches or training sessions

The tennis court nets remain open for hire free of charge to both seniors and juniors, and these can be booked using the existing on-line tool. Rules governing the use of these nets remains the same at this time but is being kept under constant review, and we will update these as and when we can.

For those wishing to participate in matches and/or training, and those members who are Vice Presidents, we encourage you to pay your 2020 subscriptions as soon as possible. The link to pay should already be with you on your website account. For anyone having difficulty paying these subscriptions, please speak to your Team Manager or Captain, or to the Treasurer/Assistant Treasurer or Chairman to discuss this situation. We are very keen that all of our cricketers who wish to return to action are able to do so this season. The Committee would also like to thank all of those members who have so generously supported the Club by paying their subscriptions in advance.

Finally, the Committee would also like to offer a heartfelt thanks to all of our members, Vice Presidents, and junior parents for all of their remarkable support over the past few months. This has without doubt been the biggest challenge the Club has dealt with for many years and the level of support and volunteering from club members has been fantastic. We are delighted to be returning to action and hope to see you all soon.