Message Board - Cricket: Wicket Size

We are trying to squeeze another strip out of our square.I was wondering, the colts wickets are shorter in length, is there any reason why the width could not be reduced?

Why not reduce the width of your other strips? I mean the cut width down to say 9th 6 inches. Over 14 strips, it will give you another 7 ft

My point is if I reduced the width of the under 11s,10s and 9s would anyone know.Surely a wide in the under 11s must be closer to the stumps so the strip can be less than an adult strip.Mind you with the 50/50 league rules we can make there strips narrower

The width of the crease is 8ft 8inches which is law, and believe it or not a sticky beak somewhere along the line will measure it either by tape or pacing it out. We entertain county colts cricket annually and somebody every yeat has to eith er pace out the width or length of the pitch.

We have a 12 wicket square at 10ft per strip, last year we marked them all at 9ft centres so we still had 12 wkts and 12ft left for 2 practice strips, this year going back to 10ft centres because the wicket edges look scruffy IMO with the overlap.

Never had a problem cutting 9ft width for pitches. 8ft 8" markings fit neatly inside of cut. Did this for many minor county games and nobody said a thing. I doubt they ever noticed. Just make sure that your presentation is spot on.

I'm going for 9foot 6inches again but it can look scruffy on edges Paul I agree, especially if it's been a bit wet. The batsmen have that bit less room to run on.

Gordon are you saying you cut at 9ft, mine were 9ft centres but still cut all the wickets at 10ft.

cut at 9ft Paul, most squares that i manage are cut and marked this way.

I do one square which is tight and do the juniors pitches at 9ft and the seniors at 9ft 8(between centres) to enable two practice wickets to be on the square . I always cut each pitch at 10 ft width and this seems to work well . My theory is the juniors need less run off than seniors

That's a bit confusing Rob.
You do juniors at 9ft, Seniors @9ft 8
BUT, you cut each pitch at 10ft

What are you actually doing at 9ft & 9ft 8 if you're cutting at 10ft ?

JL he's just trying to nick a bit off each wicket to enable him to gain a bit more for a practice area, did mine at 9ft centres last year but cut at 10ft, but going back to 10ft as if you give 1sts priority you can come back to bordering wickets with in 4 wks and the edges look a bit scruffy.

A pitch must always be cut as 10' wide, its the law.

You can overlap pitches, but I have found that to be a false economy - it brings together the areas of highest wear, and increases the chance of a bowler following through into the protected area of the adjacent strip.

Nice problem to have of course, people wanting so much cricket that the facilities are under pressure.

Yes Charles
Still have to cut the pitches to 10 feet and the overlap can be a problem but I have found that needs must. All very well having loads of cricket but most club squares were not designed to have so much cricket on them.

Just to make it perfectly clear, it is not law that a pitch has to be cut 10ft wide,

Law 7.1 The Pitch is 22yds in length and 10 ft wide. Doesn't say anything about height of cut though. The problem comes with fielders encroaching whereby it becomes a no ball. Hence the clear demarcation with cut height.

1. Area of pitch
The pitch is a rectangular area of the ground 22 yards/20.12 m in length and 10 ft/3.05 m in width. It is bounded at either end by the bowling creases and on either side by imaginary lines, one each side of the imaginary line joining the centres of the two middle stumps, each parallel to it and 5 ft/1.52 m from it. See Laws 8.1 (Width and pitching) and 9.2 (The bowling crease)

it doesn't say it has to be cut at all

Ha ha no, I fully agree Peter.

I was only pointing out that the umpire has to be certain that a fielder isn't standing on The Pitch or has any part of his body leaning over it. That would make it a no ball until the batsman hits the ball or it passes the stumps. In theory you could paint a rectagular box or put up corner flags I suppose, but the umpire has to know where that 10 foot width is.

For the last two seasons I narrowed the PITCHES to get an extra two on the square to facilitate the juniors and also extra Practice and Midweek cricket.
This season I have reverted to 10 ft and have 12 for Ist and 2 nd teams with 3 more for juniors, Mid week, and practice. I can also cut the edges of the square for tots cricket.

last year I found that a couple of pitches hadn't been used so widening them will (As Charles suggests) help to keep the players off the middle 2 ft danger areas.

"The Law" in my view, is a guide and we should manage the square for the benefit of the club and players.
Chris

PS Lots of input from North Lancs on this one , eh?
Maybe it's the Siberian weather at the mo'. I'm staying at home until the thermometer creeps up to a reasonable 9 degrees, if ever!!!