Summer term - how to book

Ability to pay is not a barrier to play

As ever, SMCC is proud of our 'ability to pay is not a barrier to play' policy. If the fees are not affordable for your family, please contact us at smcccolts@gmail.com explaining your circumstances. We are normally happy to agree a more affordable fee. Please get these requests in to us at the beginning of your booking Phase, as they require some manual processing.

How many spaces are available? 

Squads generally have an initial limit of 18-25 players per squad, depending on the age-group. 

Please book as soon as possible. Once age-groups get close to full, the last few spaces tend to be snapped up very quickly.

On 6th April 2025, we had the following spaces available:

Girls:

• Girls Under 5s (school year Reception) - 2 places

• Girls Under 6s (school year 1) - 5 spaces

• Girls Under 7s (school year 2) - 6 spaces

• Girls Under 8s (school year 3) - 4 spaces

• Girls Under 9s (school year 4) - FULL

• Girls Under 10s (school year 5) - FULL

• Girls Under 11s (school year 6) - 3 spaces

• Girls Under 12s (school year 7) - 2 spaces

• Girls Under 13s (school year 8) - FULL

• Girls Under 14s (school year 9) - FULL

• Girls Under 15s (school year 10) - FULL

• Girls Under 16s (school year 11) - 8 spaces

• Girls Under 17-18s (school year 12-13) - 5 spaces

Boys:

• Boys Under 5s (school year Reception) - FULL

• Boys Under 6s (school year 1) - FULL

• Boys Under 7s (school year 2) - 1 space

• Boys Under 8s (school year 3) - FULL

• Boys Under 9s (school year 4) - FULL

• Boys Under 10s (school year 5) - FULL

• Boys Under 11s (school year 6) - FULL

• Boys Under 12s (school year 7) - FULL

• Boys Under 13s (school year 8) - FULL

• Boys Under 14s (school year 9) - 3 spaces

• Boys Under 15s (school year 10) - 7 spaces

• Boys Under 16s (school year 11) - 8 spaces

• Boys Under 17-18s (school year 12-13) - 7 spaces

If a squad is full, you can add a player to the waiting list for a 2025 squad; just follow the same process as booking the course. We do normally have one or two spaces open up due to (usually non-cricketing) player injuries.

Why a maximum of ~25 players per age-group?

We aim to get our squad sizes just right so that we can put a team out every week of the season and not have to cancel any games. Some weeks, squads will probably have 15+ players to pick from, while other weekends such as the bank holiday weekend at half-term, the end of the summer term and through the summer holidays, we expect to have only just enough kids to get all teams out. 

We have found that around 25 is the optimum size for most squads. We tend to have smaller squads for younger age-groups whose league matches are played with 6 or 8 players per team.

In the U5-U9 age-groups (soft-ball) it is possible to play more than one match on a pitch at the same time, so when we have enough players available we tend to run a second or even third game alongside the first. 

For more information on this, see Teams, match times and formats, and  How we pick teams.

There's space for one of my children but not the other

If you want to book more than one child, but some age-groups are full, please contact us as in this circumstance, we are sometimes willing to create an extra space so that both children can join, up to a hard limit of 3-5 extra players per squad (depending on the squad's initial size).

Can my child play for SMCC and another club at the same time?

We do not normally permit this and nor do other clubs. We and other clubs in our area tend to have more players wishing to join than we have spaces for. A player playing for two clubs at the same time would mostly likely be preventing another child from playing at all. It is also against league rules, and given we play in both Surrey and Kent leagues across nearly all age-groups, the league rules would prevent players playing both with us and any other nearby club. 

Exceptions can made, by agreement with the other clubs and the Surrey league, in particular circumstances. For example, we have a teenager who was playing at a club that had no senior team to move into and she wanted to continue playing junior cricket at her original club while playing women's cricket at SMCC. We also have a teenager in the Surrey performance programme, who wanted to play junior cricket at another club in order to play in Tier 1, while continuing to play in senior cricket at SMCC.

What if you have no spaces left? Can you suggest anywhere else?

We would love to be able to provide space for more players than the limits shown above, but we limit numbers so that players get to play a reasonable number of games per summer. We are not able to consider running multiple boys’ teams per age-group as the volume of the administration (already hundreds of hours per year) would become impossible for us as a volunteer-run club, and there are not being enough pitches in the nearby area for that many extra matches. 

We will be very sorry if some players who booked into the indoor training are not able to book in for the summer term, but we do need to have these limits in place.

If you are unable to book in, what alternatives are there?

SMCC/360 Cricket summer camp & other holiday camps by 360 Cricket

Our summer camp is open to anyone. You don’t have to be a member in the summer term to book into the summer camp. 360 Cricket also sometimes run camps at other school holiday times. If you're on our mailing list, we'll let you know about these, or you can check the 360 Cricket website and ask to be on their mailing list.

Clubs nearby that run cricket for juniors:

In the Surrey Junior Championship league (tend to train on weeknights and have matches on weekends), listed very roughly in terms of distance / travel time from SMCC:

• Dulwich Cricket Club

• Alleyn Cricket Club

• Spencer

• Wimbledon

• Old Rutlishians

• Old Wimbledonians

• Beddington

• Old Whitgiftians

• Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian

• Purley

• Roehampton

• Southwark Park (relatively new, small but growing club that would love to have new members)

In the North Kent Junior League league (tend to train on weekends and play matches on weeknights):

• Catford & Cypher

• Beckenham

• Bromley

• Bromley Town

• Bromley Common

• Bickley Park

• Greenwich Junior Academy

• Southwark Park

• OD Cuaco

• New Beckenham

• Old Elthamians

All Stars Cricket and Dynamos Cricket

These are part of a national programme initiated by the England & Wales Cricket Board. The ECB provides the advertising, online systems and apps, delivery of kit and training of the 'Activators'. Clubs and other such organisation deliver the sessions face-to-face with the kids.

In the summer, there are normally several of these running in the local area. 

All Stars is for kids aged 5-8. 

Dynamos Cricket is for aged 8-11. They are a well designed and fun introduction to cricket. 

Platform Cricket 

Platform Cricket runs numerous low cost cricket hubs for kids aged 8-11. It has a particular focus on aiming to increase the number of low income and BAME players playing cricket, and about 30% of their players are girls. Platform has Kent player Daniel Bell-Drummond as its figurehead. The day to day operations are led by the very experienced Chris Willetts, who we have met with several times to talk about junior cricket in our area. He’s very passionate about what Platform are doing and we expect his hubs are well run. We and other local clubs are looking to partner with Platform to provide a fast-track route for their 11 year olds into club cricket (subject to space).