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Wiltshire Cricket - Coach Education Programme 2010/11
The new coach education programme has been released to all clubs within the county. This years programme sees UKCC1 courses being held in Swindon and Salisbury as well at the traditional Lavington venues of Dauntsey and Lavington Schools. We are also running the UKCC2 course in October and November at Dauntsey School.
To book your place on the programme, please download the Coach Education Programme 2010/11 brochure.
England Cricketers visit Chippenham to show the “Spirit of Cricket”
This August sees Chippenham cricket club host two England Women cricketers as the MCC moves into town to hold a Spirit of Cricket Summer Camp. With the camp running on the 2nd and 3rd August, up to 100 children are predicted to take part in two days of fun and competition.
England Women’s Test and One Day captain, Charlotte Edwards, returns to Chippenham to lead the coaching at this very prestigious event. As hosts of this flagship event for the West of England, Chippenham cricket club are delighted to have Charlotte coaching at the camp along with her Test and One Day team mate Lydia Greenway.
With children likely to travel from the surrounding counties to take part in this two day event, demand it anticipated to be high. Charlotte Edwards was last in the county during the Easter holidays, running a two day coaching course for the Wiltshire Cricket Board at the Chippenham Sports Dome. However this time, it is hoped that the sun will shine as the children use the outfield of the cricket club to practice their skills.
Costing only £20, wannabe Kevin Pietersens and Charlotte Edwards will be able to develop their skills in the areas of batting, bowling and fielding. Day two of the camp sees the children taking part in a “Champions Trophy” kwik cricket competition, with prizes for first and last in the event.
Children must be between the ages of 8 and 12 and need not have any cricketing experience, but must be keen to have fun and enjoying playing the game of cricket. Flyers for the event have been sent to every primary school in the county, as well as to every club with a youth section.
Copies of the application form can be downloaded here!
For further details, please contact Ali Goddard at the Wiltshire Cricket Board Office on 07786 361222 or by e-mail on ali.goddard@wiltshirecricket.co.uk
Womens Cricket Opportunities in Wiltshire!
Biddestone Cricket Club and Potterne Cricket Club are to play host to a scheme called 'Return to Cricket' through which they will be running introductory coaching sessions for women interested in getting started within Cricket. You do not have to have any cricketing experience to sign up to the scheme and the sessions will be very much fun based and led by Lisa Keightley, Wiltshire's Head of Girls Development.
The sessions at Potterne Cricket Club will be running on Monday evenings on 12 July, 19 July, 9 August, 16 August, 23 August, 6 September and 13 September and will be from 6pm to 7pm at a cost of £25 for the 7 sessions.
The Biddestone programme will run on Tuesday evenings on 10 August, 24 August, 31 August, 7 September, 14 September and 21 September from 6-7pm and at £25 for the entire programme.
If you would be interested in this opportunity and would like more information please contact Pete Sykes
Chalke Valley CC Open New Ground!
Ashes Hero Simon Jones, batting legend Graeme Hick and Aussie Pace Man Jeff Thomson To Star in Grand Opening of New Cricket Ground in Bowerchalke
On Sunday 27th June, Chalke Valley Cricket Club will be playing a match against the Bunbury Cricket Club, the UK’s premier celebrity cricket team founded by impresario David English CBE.
Amongst those playing for the Bunbury XI are 2005 Ashes bowling hero, Simon Jones, batting legend Graeme Hick, former Aussie pace men Jeff Thomson and Rodney Hogg, former England pace man Alan Mulally, as well as New Zealand test and one-day star, Lou Vincent, and current Somerset stars, Peter Trego, Joss Butler and James Hildreth, and Alex Wakely, Liam Dawson and Ben Howgego from Northants. Also playing for the Bunburies are Chairman of Hampshire Cricket, Rod Bransgrove, former world welter-weight boxing champion Lloyd Honeyghan, and Harry Judd, drummer from the rock band, McFly. Also appearing for the Bunburies is English premiership football referee Steve Bennett, and former Arsenal (and Saints) winger, Perry Groves. All these stars will be mingling and happy to sign autographs.
The match is being played to celebrate the Grand Opening of Chalke Valley’s brand-new purpose built cricket ground at Butts Field, Bowerchalke. As well as the cricket match (with professional commentary broadcast around the ground) there will be a country fair with demonstrations by local artisans, family entertainment, the Anonymous Travelling Market, classic cars and motorbikes, steam engines and much more. One of the day’s highlights will be an aerial display over the ground by a Spitfire, flown by top wardbird display pilot, Clive Denney. ‘I defy anyone not to be moved by the sight of a Spitfire in full flight,’ says James Holland, the Club Secretary, ‘and in this 70thAnniversary year of the Battle of Britain, it should be a special moment.’
The decision to make a move to the new 7.5 acre site was taken two years ago to enable the Club to grow. ‘We realized we needed more space to allow us to develop the senior team but especially the Junior section,’ says James Holland. ‘There is little state school cricket played these days and we felt the move was the only way we could ensure that cricket continues to be played in the Valley for generations to come.’ In three years the Junior section has grown from a standing start to more than fifty children, six qualified coaches, and with three teams playing competitive cricket in the Salisbury District Junior Cricket League, and including both boys and girls. ‘The Wiltshire Cricket Board, the SDJCL, and Wiltshire Council have been incredibly supportive,’ says James Holland. ‘The help and organization is there for those wanting to take their Club forward.’
So far, the Club has raised more than £60,000, and already cricket is being played on the ground. ‘We have won a few grants,’ says Chairman, Peter Walker, ‘but most has come through public subscription – it’s an incredible sum especially in what has been a tough couple of years. Frankly, we’ve been overwhelmed by the huge levels of support we’ve been given.’
Various other celebrities and cricketers have also given their full endorsement of Chalke Valley CC’s plans. Earlier in the year, David Gower and Rod Bransgrove, in an event chaired by Lord Marland, gave a ‘Question Time’ style debate at Sandroyd School as a fund-raiser for the Club. Many others, from Kevin Pietersen to Sir John Major, have also given written words of support.
‘We’ve been very fortunate,’ says Peter Bell, the Club Treasurer, ‘although it’s been a lot of hard work to make it happen. But to see fifty kids playing cricket on what must be one of the most beautiful grounds in England makes it all worth while.’
On the day, the money raised will be going partly to the New Ground Appeal but also to Help for Heroes and to the English Schools Cricket Association. Helping on the day will be men of the King’s Royal Hussars, and Captain Edmund Addington, who was blown up in Helmand last September, but now, after twenty operations is making an incredible recovery.
‘Getting more kids playing and loving cricket is the key to the game’s future. I wish Chalke Valley Cricket Club all the best luck in fulfilling their dream of building a new ground.’ KEVIN PIETERSEN, England Cricket Hero
‘What a joy to hear of a new cricket ground opening. It sounds as though the clock has been turned back with no traffic noise, rolling countryside - and plenty of rain! It reminds me of my first visits to England all those years ago. I wish Chalke Valley Cricket Club so much success that others follow in your footsteps.’
SIR GARFIELD SOBERS, West Indian Cricket Legend
‘It is wonderful that Chalke Valley is planning a new Ground. I wish the project every success in providing tomorrow’s hectic fun for players, and mellow entertainment for spectators.’
SIR JOHN MAJOR, former Prime Minister
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT james@jholland.co.uk or telephone 01722 781111, or see the website www.chalkevalleycricketclub.com
www.chalkevalleycricketclub.com
Warminster CC Kick Off NatWest CricketForce 2010
It didn’t seem very long from the initial meeting with the ECB and Wiltshire CB planning our NatWest CricketForce event to the actual day itself! Three months to be precise but we certainly maximised from it. Suddenly NatWest CricketForce has arrived and we were prepared for it!! Well, we were but the man upstairs had other ideas!
All the supplies were delivered on Friday and suddenly the event was real! Build Center, one of ECB’s NatWest CricketForce official supporters arrived with goods on a huge lorry. The donations from local companies, equally important were dropped off. All the products were set out in the cricket academy, taking a step back and reflecting “wow” – we are going to be very busy tomorrow.
Friday evening saw a dozen of us erect three large tents kindly donated by the army for our event. These tents were invaluable and were used for the registration of all volunteers, the refreshments area and most importantly to keep the volunteers dry and happy when not grafting hard. The rain and wind was blowing a gale and we all were thinking cricket season seems a long way off in terms of the weather! We were wet in places we didn’t know we could get wet.
The tents were finally up and we retreated to the club house to celebrate with a beer and wine in the warm, praying for the rain to clear overnight.
Saturday morning arrived and unfortunately the rain was still here but it certainly didn’t damped our sprits. The volunteers in the kitchen started early preparing the bacon and sausage butties which greeted all the volunteers on arrival. Once the volunteers were all fed we started to carry out the purpose of today’s event – sprucing up the facilities of Warminster CC.
The roles for the volunteers had been planned but with the weather we had to redistribute the volunteers to inside jobs – so we set about cleaning and painting the two lane cricket academy. We did have a group of volunteers that were more than happy to carry out outside activities so without further a do tools were given to them and on their way they went.
The project managers led the volunteer workforce in their area detailing what needed to be carried out and ensuring Health & Safety requirements were adhered to.
It was out of this world to see over 65 volunteers on Saturday ranging from club members, members from the local community and businesses. We also had a number of NatWest staff painting and getting their hands dirty.
ECB chairman Giles Clarke and England’s women’s captain Charlotte Edwards also attended the event to support NatWest CricketForce. We even had two world cups at the ground, the 50 over world cup and the ICC T20 world cup which was won at Lords in June.
It was a real community effort as the hockey club have agreed to paint the changing rooms and replace the wooden benches in the two changing rooms.
Despite the weather we managed to carry out a number of jobs including washing down of outside furniture and pitch covers; repairing wooden furniture and a LOT of painting – indoor school, changing rooms, sight screens, score box, officials’ changing shed;
We had to put on hold laying a new patio to house our new brick built BBQ; erecting a new smoking shelter; replacing of ball-stop fencing; sight screens. We had offers from parents who have agreed to come up on another date to finish the sight screens and also to start laying the patio.
It was a fantastic day for Warminster Cricket Club and we have gained so much more than updating our facilities. Through good planning and engaging in NatWest CricketForce, we have new volunteers secured through local business / community and we have gained additional sponsorship for the club – all on the back of NatWest CricketForce.
Warminster CC Cricketforce
Warminster Cricket Club is preparing to take part in NatWest CricketForce on 19th, 20th and 21st March 2010 – an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) initiative aimed at rejuvenating local cricket clubs and giving volunteers an opportunity to get involved.
Warminster Cricket Club is expecting around 50 volunteers, including all senior players, club members and even the Cricket Development Manager for Wiltshire and a representative from the ECB to help with the various painting and grounds maintenance projects. The volunteer work would have cost an estimated £10,000 to complete, meaning a huge injection of funds for cricket clubs across the country.
NatWest CricketForce is the biggest annual volunteering event in sport and is set to attract enough volunteers to fill Lord’s Cricket Ground three times over (85,000).
Martyn Hutton (Warminster Cricket Club’s NatWest CricketForce Coordinator) said:
“NatWestCricketForce will enable much needed work to take place at clubs across the county ensuring the 2010 season gets off to the best possible start.
All players start their cricket careers at local clubs and it is crucial that we support the game’s development. Good facilities and a fun environment can be the difference between youngsters staying with cricket or not and NatWest CricketForce helps make clubs a real focus for community sports activities and volunteering opportunities”.
Other local organisations have also signed up to support the project with our main supplier being the Build Center in Frome who are donating the vast majority of materials required for Warminster’s projects.
Pete Sykes, Wiltshire’s Cricket Development Manager, said: “We saw clubs do more for themselves in two days last year than they had for years before. It made a real difference to clubs including increased revenue, improved facilities, increased participation and a great sense of community spirit”.
Anyone belonging to a cricket club who would like to take part in the initiative should visit www.ecb.co.uk/natwestcricketforcefor details of how to sign up. Or, if you could spare a few hours on 19th, 20th and 21st March 2010 to help your local club please leave your details with natwestcricketforce@ecb.co.uk.
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Notes to editors:
· In 2009 1,514 clubs and 85,000 volunteers took part in Cricket Force. In 2002, Lingfield CC (Surrey) was the very first CricketForce pilot club.
Wiltshire One Year Action Plan
Following a Board meeting on 16th December 2009 the WCB One Year Action Plan for 2010 has been approved and submitted to ECB. This document details the priority actions that the WCB will be working towards during 2010. These are Improvement Actions on top of the normal service that the Board provides in terms of workforce education, performance and schools activity.
Club Questionnaire Results
The WCB has recently completed its self assessment process for 2009. The self assessment process helps the WCB identify its priorities for its annual Action Plan that is submitted to ECB. The WCB is currently in the process of writing its 2010 Action Plan and this will be posted on the website shortly. However, in the meantime please find attached the resultsof our club questionnaires that were completed recently. These questionnaires have helped the Board identify the areas in which it is performing well and the areas in which it needs to improve.
Many thanks to those clubs that took the time to complete these.
Wiltshire County Youth Presentation Evening
The Wiltshire Cricket Board held its inaugural county youth presentation evening on Friday night at Devizes Town Hall. This was to recognise some of the excellent performances across the county girls and boys squads and to celebrate the fantastic success of Wiltshire’s age group teams in 2009.
The highlight of this success was the achievement of the county under 13, 14 and 15 squads in all qualifying for the quarter finals of the ECB National Knockout cup. The under 15’s actually went on to the national finals, the only non first class county to do so, where they competed with Essex, Lancashire and Yorkshire.
These fantastic achievements have followed on from the sponsorship agreement that was signed between the Board and hotel and holiday resort company Seasons Holidays earlier in the year. For this reason Friday night was made even more special by the fact that Seasons Holidays Chairman Barry Hurley was in attendance to present some of the awards.
Also, in attendance was speaker Richard Scott who is an ex professional cricketer and the current Middlesex CCC 1stXI coach. Richard gave an excellent speech and ran a question and answer session on aspects of the professional game today.
The format of the evening saw performance awards given out to players who made noticeable contributions to games throughout the season. There were then separate player of the year awards given out to one player per age group.
The evening culminated in Alan Crouch, the WCB Head of Performance, presenting two special achievement awards and an overall player of the year award for all age groups. The first recipient of a special achievement award was wicketkeeper and batsman Harry Hawkins who has recently been offered an academy contract with Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and has also been selected for the South West England tour to West Indies in the new year. The second special achievement award was given to Craig Miles. Fast bowler Craig was influential in the success of the under 15 county team in 2009 but also developed his batting enormously to bat at number 4 and make several big contributions to the team’s success. The year culminated in Craig being selected for England Under 15’s.
The overall player of the year award for 2009 was given to Tom Alsop. Tom enjoyed an exceptional season for the county under 13’s for whom he made contributions of 114* against Gloucestershire, 96 against Oxfordshire and 55 against Middlesex.
The presentation evening was a great success and did great justice to the fantastic efforts of not only the players but also the managers and coaches that have worked with the county squads during the past year. The success of the age group teams and individual players is also great representation of the difference that Seasons Holidays’ sponsorship has made to Wiltshire Cricket.
Full List of award winners below:
Performance Awards
FRASER GORDON – Wiltshire Under 11’s v Guernsey, 5-34
EWEN KENNY – Wiltshire Under 12’s v Berkshire, 95
WILL PASCALL – Wiltshire Under 12’s v Oxfordshire, 51
JOSH LANGLEY – Wiltshire Under 12’s v Berkshire, 5-15
KYLE GEORGE – Wiltshire Under 12’s v KENT, 4-11
JAMES GILLESPIE – Wiltshire Under 13’s v IOW, 67
TOM ALSOP – Wiltshire Under 13’s v Gloucestershire, 114*,
v Oxfordshire, 96, v Middlesex, 55
LUKE HANSFORD – Wiltshire Under 13’s v Oxfordshire, 62*
JACK HURLEY – Wiltshire Under 13’s v Middlesex, 58
BRAD DAWSON – Wiltshire Under 15’s v Gloucestershire, 5-27
STEVE BULLEN – Wiltshire Under 17’s v Oxfordshire, 124
OWEN ALSOP – Wiltshire Under 17’s v Cornwall, 115
Player of the Year Awards
UNDER 10’s – WILL WADE
UNDER 11’s – BEN DRAPER
UNDER 12’s – WILL PASCALL
UNDER 13’s – TOM ALSOP
UNDER 14’s – HARRY HAWKINS
UNDER 15’s – CRAIG MILES
UNDER 17’s – OWEN ALSOP
GIRLS UNDER 13’s – LAUREN PITTMAN
GIRLS UNDER 15’s – EMILY RAE
Special Awards
HARRY HAWKINS – Special Achievement Award
CRAIG MILES – Special Achievement Award
TOM ALSOP – Wiltshire Cricketer of the Year
