April 8th 2011                          

Dear All,

The 2011 Season is nearly upon us and there are many items to let you know about ! The tough ,harsh winter, only made bearable by the warm glow from Down Under ( sorry Ted ) seemed to go on for ever.

• Nat West Cricket Force : You will see a lot of press and media activity this weekend – we are going to do it but not just yet ! Our weekend of work will be on April 15th,16th &17th A list of jobs are attached ! ! If you can help out then or before please let me know.
• We will be commissioning a new Clock for the outside of the Clubhouse, kindly donated by Joe Callighans family.
• Sportsmans Dinner ; April 1st – Many thanks to Alan, Rim & Pail for once again organising this event. Over 140 people enjoyed the night and we had a fantastic final sum. One of our U13s, James Stevenson organised a signed print from Forest which help boost the evenings total when it was auctioned.
• Sponsors Raffle : Scotty has done a wonderful job in raising over a grand for the club. We welcome all of the entrants as sponsors and a special mention to the Admiral Rodney as the winners.
•  THE DONKEY DUMP : Will return Watch this space !
• Many thanks go to Andy Ashworth for organising a £150 donation from Capital One, which will be used for buying Junior equipment.
• Premier Club, is still a vital way of raising money and a great chance to win some cash. For £2 a month you get 2 tickets in the monthly draw and  we have an annual big prize draw in November. If you already have a ticket consider having one more – its easy by Direct Debit. Let me know if you want to increase your chance to win.
• Subs – yours are due now ! – this is a big season for us , and the more cash we get in early the better !

• Cricket Matters

• The 1st XI, playing for new Captain Tim Green, will play under slightly new rules this year with fielding restrictions and a tight line on leg side wides continuing and they will now play 50 Over cricket and start at 1PM These rules will not effect the 2nd XI.  Our Saturday 2nd XI, with John Richardson taking the helm, in  Division D have lost all of the  juicy local derbies with Fixtures against Hoveringham, Newark, Fiskerton and Thurgarton 1st XIs disappearing – Thurgo and Hoveringham getting promoted and Newark and Fiskerton  getting relegated.

• The Club are in the Chris Trafford 20/20 competition, which leads into the National 20/20 competition .

• The Sunday Development XI will be led by a few different people this year including Ted Behl and myself.

• Winter Nets continue at Trent Bridge on Tuesday nights until April 19th.

• Fixtures – are on the website.. We have additionally have a Touring Team Northwood CC, from Hertfordshire returning visit us on June 16th for a 45 over game starting at 1pm.

• Overseas : After  several phone calls, emails, failed attempts, and heartache, I think ( never believe it until he arrives at Heathrow- oh Gatwick this year ! ) the services of James Johnston from Cape Town in South Africa. James has played for the Western Province Academy and currently plays for Pinelands Cricket Club. He won the MOM in the Cape 20/20 Final last week. I am sure you will all make every effort to welcome him to Southwell and help him settle in. As we did for Patrick , 2 years ago I would welcome any club members who would like to offer him a home cooked meal during the season.

• We would like to wish Richard Beaumont & Will Powell all the best as they move back to Caythorpe, although Will will still play for us on Sundays.  Alex Rainbow will not be available until late on the season due to him working in Birmingham, where he will play for Knowle and Dorridge CC. James Wookey has moved to Newcastle and will play up there and Sam Grimley has moved to London and will play for Battersea Ironsides CC.

• The sick room has been busy this year with Ali Haynes and Devon McCarthy undergoing shoulder operations last week, & George Bowie smashing his hand. Mark Bowie has had Kidney Stones ! We wish them all a speedy recovery.

• A special mention goes to Trice Bowie who is making a steady recovery after a very tough winter. I know we all look forward to seeing her at Top Ground soon.

• Nathan Burton returns for the early season following his knee operation last year. Nathan is flying off to NZ in July to play Rugby. Elliot Checkley also returns this year following a year off with an Achilles Heel injury. A player with a slightly older age profile but a welcome returnee is Mark Gratton.

• We will also be welcoming to the Club Freddie Sail who joins us from Thurgarton, and hope to welcome Ranjith, Abhishek, Sandeep, Preadeep, Vartul, Ujjwal & Tanij from Experian via Dell ! We of course are still hoping to that we will attract more people to the club over the coming weeks.

• Umpires & Scorers – All of our Saturday games have now got a Umpire – thanks to Gary Edgington from the SNCL and Jerry Butler and Roger Greenfield from the club. We will still be looking for Sunday assistance if anyone can help !  Our Scorers , Greg Behl & Ollie Stanley will be looking for some new helpers as they strive to play senior cricket themselves.

• Juniors – we are running Kwik, U11s, U12s, U13s, U15s and U17 this year – that’s a lot of cricket, and lot of work for our excellent Ground Team of John, Tim and John. We need your help to help run these teams, coach the stars of the future and feed their parents .The first Junior Friday night of the season is May 6th.

• A big note of thanks go to, Tim Willson, Ruth Sprawson, Nadeem Jan, Sam Johnson, Alex Milton, Johhny Butler, Chris Steele and Mick Rainbow, Garth McCarthy, Chris Miller et al  for running our Winter Junior programmes at TB and Southwell Leisure Centre.

• Fixture Cards –  Chris Miller and I  are working on them as we speak.

• Web site : www.southwellcc.co.uk  Has been refreshed, the Twitter feed is a fantastic way to update scores. All articles, pictures comments  reports will make it a great place to visit !

• We hope to host Notts U11s this season on a couple of occasions.

• Can you please confirm to me your contact details, phone/ mobile / email/ address so I can ensure we have the right details for our records and the league registration documents.

Enough from me ! Not long now !

Cheers

Stuart Grimley

Chairman