Juniors in senior cricket

How old do juniors need to be to play senior cricket?

We have a slightly different policy on this for boys and girls, as different restrictions apply to Men's and Women's league cricket.

These rules do not mean that all players who are old enough are expected to train and play in senior cricket, by any means. It is an option for players to try when they feel it's something they want to do. For most players, this tends to be at around Under 15s (school year 10) or older, but some younger players enjoy playing in senior games of a suitable level. 

Girls in senior cricket

If Under 15 (school year 10) or older, players can attend senior training and make themselves available for senior matches without restrictions. U14s (school year 9) in a county pathway may also join without restrictions. 

U14s who are not in a county pathway will be on an invitation basis. We need to see them in junior training first before we consider whether they are at a suitable level to attend women's training.

U13s (school year 8) can only join if in a county pathway, and then on an invitation basis. 

U12s (school year 7) cannot join senior training, even if in a county pathway, due to league restrictions preventing juniors of this age playing alongside / against the Women's 1st XI players (due to the relatively high division that that team plays in). Our Women's 1st XI and 2nd XI players train as a mixed group. 

For junior players of any age, the SMCC coaches & captains have right to say no to a player joining training or matches if deemed unsafe for that player to do so, though we would expect that to be very rare, as we welcome adults who are complete beginners into these sessions.

Boys in senior cricket

Boys can train and play in senior cricket from Under 13 (school year 8), or Under 12 (school year 7) if in a county performance pathway. 

The club's senior selection panel and captains also have the right to refuse to have a junior play if they feel the junior lacks sufficient skills for them to safely do so. In practice, many of our juniors enjoy taking part in senior cricket.

At SMCC, we are luck to have probably the largest senior section in the country. We typically field 8 men's teams on most Saturdays, and 2 women's teams on Sundays. This which means we have an exceptionally wide range of standards of senior cricket in which juniors can take part. 

Many other local clubs also have juniors of the same ages playing for them.

Men's cricket

Please note that men's training sessions are not always coached or supervised sessions and players will be mixing with adults, so we cannot make any promises regarding safeguarding, first aiders, etc.  That said, most of the players attending are long-term club members, many of whom our players will already know, and they are normally always made to feel very welcome.

Please see the Men' cricket page on the main SMCC website for full details.

You can also sign up to the SMCC senior cricket newsletter, so that you are kept in the loop with open-age cricket news.

Women's cricket

Women's training sessions are normally always coached, but the Women do also sometimes have un-coached and unsupervised sessions.

Please see our page on Girls cricket and the Women's cricket page on the main SMCC website for the latest details.

You can also sign up to the SMCC senior cricket newsletter, so that you are kept in the loop with open-age cricket news.