The New Scoreboard

The design for the new scoreboard is well advanced with the next stage sheduled for Monday 25th May
when the old fascia will be removed and a new one built.

The Old Scoreboard

During the planning for CricketForce 2008 the club decided to invest in a new scoreboard using the existing building. As a temporary measure the existing mechanical numbers were rebuilt to provide the minimum requirement for the 2008 season. Investigating the cost of new numbers revealed that replacement would be expensive with the cost at about £155 per digit. Discussions one Saturday afternoon while the team were winning a match resulted in the decision to ask John Varley to design an electronic scoreboard. Funding would be from sponsorship from Marstons, fundraising by the cricketers and support from the club committee.

John's company, M-Jay Electronics Limited agreed to design and manufacture the system at the cost of the materials providing the new scoreboard could be used as a demonstration unit so they could sell scoreboards to other clubs. The design was to be modular to achieve the best flexibility for potential customers and also allow them to expand as funds permitted.

The provision of power to the scoreboard was one of the first problems to be overcome as laying an armoured cable would have been expensive. the options were to lay a low voltage cable (the system operates from 12v dc) or use a large rechargeable battery. Being the lowest cost the battery option was chosen.

The committee meeting in February saw the first prototype demonstrated, a portable unit with 4" red digits and two 12" digits with high brightness LED displays. Testing outside was problematic due to the poor weather as we required a fine sunny day. Eventually one arrived but to our disappointment the 4" digits could not be seen outside and although the high brightness LEDs could be seen from the clubhouse across the field the angle of vision was much too narrow. Investigation of possible LED supplies on the internet revealed that hi luminous intensity LEDs with a wide angle were made by an American company in China. Samples were purchased and a new display was made. The trial of this new display on a bright March day revealed that we had found the correct LEDs, they could be clearly seen all round the ground.

M-Jay Electronics then made a small number of digits to try a display showing the total and the wickets fallen. Again success.

The first field trial was on May 2nd when Drighlington played Rodley (Drighlington won) and although there were no titles for the numbers all thought it was a great success.

The New Scoreboard 7th June

A second field trial was held on 16th May when Drighlington played the Old Mods (and won). The day was overcast with showers of rain forecast for the afternoon. We decided to risk the rain and the display was erected in the front of the old scoreboard. The rain held off until after the first 15 minutes when a short shower arrived. Unfortunately the control panel got wet so we had about 15 minutes of random numbers until it dried out. The tea interval brought with it a hail storm and although we managed to keep the control panel dry the displays got wet. More random numbers but they did start to dry out and most had returned to record the defeat of the Old Mods.

The next date for development is 25th May when the old scoreboard fascia will be taken down and a new one will be started. We hope to have the new display operating for the friendly match on Sunday 31st May against Bedford’s Transport.

During the first week of June polycarbonate glazing was erected to protect the displays and make the scorebox weatherproof. On Friday 5th June work started on the permenant installation of the displays. Saturday saw four of the displays in place for the match between Whitehall and Baildon. Al the players, the umpire and the spectators thought it was fantastic, a great improvement on the old scoreboard. The scoreboard was in use again on Sunday when Whitehall played Meanwood. Again much admired by the players from both sides as well as the umpires and spectators.

The next stage is to finish the installation of the last display panel and then complete the control panel.

Have you seen our new scoreboard?