Most casual visitors to the Cricket Leinster website will be content to read the latest news and have a quick look at the fixtures and results and perhaps, if they check in at a weekend, the Match Centre.
But for those who actively involved in Leinster cricket, as a player, volunteer or supporter, there is much more.
Fixtures are of course important. At this point many clubs have dispensed with printed fixtures cards and players rely on their own or the Leinster website. All official matches, Open, Womens and Youth / Schools, including any changes to fixtures, are displayed. And if you want to print out out a list of the fixtures for a particular team, club, time period, competition or venue you can do so directly from the website.
Monday tends to be a busy day as a lot of players and supporters check to check out the weekend results. This year we are asking all clubs to make a special effort to send in a notice of the result [the official scorecard is required by the following Wednesday] at the end of the match.
The Live Scores Match Centre is of course popular at weekends [and for evening T20 competitions]. Some clubs and teams are very good at keeping the scores up to date. Others have a way to go. We are currently operating at above 80% of results sent in on the day on average. The aim is to ensure that we have Live Scores for D1 and D2 and at least end-innings and end match scores for all other matches. Of course it is great when we get more detail about who is performing well and how the game is progressing.
Players [and others] should familiarise themselves with starting times, competition regulations and the relevant codes of practice. If you click Documents on the Home Page you will be brought to a page that contains all the current regulations, a number of guidance documents and a Frequently Asked Questions section. Do you know how points are awarded for the different league competitions, which matches need to be refixed, how starring works and much more.
In the Clubs section there are details about who to contact in every club in Leinster [can club administrators make sure that the information is up to date – some clubs have details that are a couple of years old. It means that if there is a match called off due to bad weather the home club may have no one to call if accurate contact details aren’t available on the website] as well as up to date Starring Lists. Many clubs have also put up short histories, directions to the ground and information on how to join the club.
The Archives section contains information about club competitions in Leinster going back to 1919. There is a Competitions database where are the league and cup winners and [most of] the runners up for all official competitions can be found. You can select for Competition, Club and for a date range. There is an ongoing project [for which more help is required] to add scorecards [for finals of cup competitions], league tables and reports where these are available. The scorecards for all Senior Cup Competitions from the start in 1935 to 1962 have been uploaded. Lack of time [and help] is the only thing preventing us uploading the remaining years. Again anyone interested in assisting please get in touch.
The Archives also contains information on leading players, trophy winners, career records for representative cricket, senior league tables going back to 1919 articles and reports. It is the intention to put as much of the physical records and archives of Leinster Cricket online as possible.
This year we have added a new section specially for coaches and over the next few months we expect to see more material added as resoruces for coaches.
Finally, if you want to find out who to contact in the various committees, sections and associations involved in Leinster Cricket go to About Us.
The Cricket Leisnter website is run entirely on a voluntary basis. If you think you have something to contribute as a contributor, administrator, editor, archivist / historian or match reporter please let us know. There is plenty of work to go around.