ALL schools are invited to send results of their Senior team (ie Under 18 or similar). This includes Girls’ teams, state schools and academies. This column and results will resume on Tuesday April 30th. In the meantime, you may need reminding of the massive revision of the Laws in 2018. To read about this, please go to
The odd thought as the season begins. The thing which is killing cricket in schools is the remorseless pressure of exams. Actually not so much the exams themselves – Maths A level does not clash with a Saturday fixture – as the fairly recent mania of going into purdah for weeks before the exams actually start in order to do nothing but “revise”.
Doing nothing but revise is very bad practice and is actually counter-productive. To take just one paragraph from my pamphlet, based on the eminent authority Professor C. A. Mace in “The Psychology of Study”:
“Our brains cannot cope with doing nothing but revise. It is actually counter-productive because they sort of go on strike, which may be called brain-fatigue. To quote Mace: “In normal work there should be regular steady spells of activity at a reasonable level of effort separated by equally regular spells of rest and recreation. A rough general rule for the avoidance of undue fatigue may be stated in the following terms. Some form of relaxation should be taken for a few consecutive minutes in every hour; work should cease for two or three consecutive hours in every day; one complete day of rest and recreation should be reserved in every week.”
Perhaps I should add that rest and recreation preferably means a bit of fresh air and exercise, not twiddling buttons on a screen.
To read the whole pamphlet (15 pages) on how to revise effectively, please read The Psychology of Revision.
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You can also consult various documents here:
ECB recommended formats for junior teams
Regulations 2019 with highlighting
Has 50-over cricket gone too far?
Minutes of the cricket committee of HMC school March 2019
Minutes March 2019 summary of recommendations
Two innings matches for junior teams
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Guidelines for sending results