Cirencester Cricket Club > News > February 2004 > Senior cricket pre-season plans
Senior cricket
pre-season plans
Sunday 22 February 2004
The 2004 season is rapidly approaching and the Club is geared up for a busy, and hopefully very successful, programme. We are delighted to let you know that Bridges Renault are sponsoring the Club in 2004 - we are extremely grateful to Bridges for their support.
The close season has seen an enormous amount of hard work by the committee. In particular tribute must be paid to Brian Woodcock and Nick Price for their work on the clubhouse (which has also been supported by the Estate) and the ground, Brian's work on club kit and John Putney's complete re-vamp of the friendly fixture list. Currently, Dan Robbins is rapidly ramping up his work on the squares.
The senior cricket sub-committee has also been very busy and the first thing is that the senior team captains for this season are:
| 1st XI captain: | Andy Reynolds |
| 2nd XI captain: | Phil Carter |
| 3rd XI captain: | Brian Woodcock |
All the Saturday teams will have vice-captains in 2004 (Firsts - Dominic Jeffcott, Seconds - John Putney/David Shackleton, Thirds - Steve Harris/Tim Cambray). Rich Hudson will skipper the Evening League team and, as happened successfully in 2003, the Sunday captain will be selected from the team with the objective of providing captaincy experience for emerging players. Contact details for all captains and other club officials are in the Contact section of the club web-site.
As last year, we will be using outside coaches to help players improve their performances and we are hopeful of engaging a club coach to provide continuity. We are also very aware that we want to really get serious about the way that Cirencester plays cricket and to help do this we have booked one-off sessions with two of the most highly regarded figures in Gloucestershire cricket:
· On Thursday
March 4, Andy Stovold (Gloucestershire CCC Director of Development and Operations)
will be running a session to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the
club and then propose improvements to the way that we practice, prepare for
and play cricket. Andy is an engaging, motivating personality and it should
be a very stimulating evening. We want all players to attend
· On Saturday April 3 Tony Wright, who has just moved on from the post of
Gloucestershire Academy Director and Second XI captain, will run an afternoon
both inside (developing match winning strategies) and outside working on technique
and fitness.
There are number
of changes to the way that we will run senior cricket in 2004, all of which
we believe will bring improvement:
· Subscriptions and match fees have been increased but, in return, all senior
and student members will receive a high quality club cricket shirt
· Under 15 and Under 16 players will be treated as "Student" members. Many
of this age group are key members of our senior teams and we believe that
they will gain great benefit from attending the senior pre-season and Thursday
evening practice sessions rather than on Sunday mornings. (NB1 We will be
running Under 15 and Under 16 teams as usual in 2004. NB2 We will inviting
some of these young players to help both the club and their own development
by helping on Sunday mornings)
· We will use the club web-site as the sole method of communicating team selection.
This will enable the selectors a little more time to confirm players' availability
and fitness than the current Wilts and Gloucs Standard deadlines but still
get teams into the public domain much earlier in the week. We will ask players
to sign up to this when they sign on and will provide alternative arrangements
by telephone for those without internet access. This will mean captains/managers/selectors
telephoning the player
· In 2003, there were a number of occasions when players were struck on the
head by the ball. As well as the danger to the player, an injury could also
have had a bearing on the result of the match. In parallel, we played against
teams containing ex-professionals and Minor County players. It was quite illuminating
that these players always batted in a helmet. Therefore, the club has considered
the matter. We expect players to wear the full range of protective equipment
including helmets. In particular, we believe that it is essential that young
players brought up wearing a helmet continue to use one once they pass 18
· In 2004, we are not prepared to accept players not paying match fees on
the day. Chasing up debtors consumes too much time for the club's limited
administrative resources
The club has arranged a full roster of pre-season events, practice sessions and matches as follows:
Date
|
Venue
|
Activity |
Owner |
|
Sunday 22 Feb, 1:30 and 5:30pm |
Swindon |
Indoor League |
Andy Cooper |
|
Sunday 29 Feb, 1:30pm |
Swindon |
Indoor League |
Andy Cooper |
|
Thursday March 4, 7:30 pm |
The Park |
Seminar for players and committee |
Andy Stovold |
|
Sunday March 7, 3 pm |
Fairford |
Net session |
To be booked |
|
Sunday March 7, 7:30pm |
Swindon |
Indoor League |
Andy Cooper |
|
Sunday March 14, 3 pm |
Fairford |
Net session |
To be booked |
|
Sunday March 21, 3 pm |
Fairford |
Net session |
To be booked |
|
Sunday March 28, 3 pm |
Fairford |
Net session |
To be booked |
|
Saturday April 3, 2:30 - 5 pm |
The Park |
Fielding and Training Drills Match-winning strategies |
Tony Wright |
|
Sunday April 11, 2 pm |
Fairford |
Match |
Andy Reynolds |
|
Thursday April 15, 6:30 - 8pm |
The Park |
Net session/Fielding Drills |
To be booked |
|
Saturday/Sunday April 17/18 |
Home/Away |
Matches |
Andy Reynolds |
|
Thursday April 22, 6:30 - 8pm |
The Park |
Net session/Fielding Drills |
To be booked |
|
Saturday/Sunday April 24/25 |
Away |
Matches |
Andy Reynolds |
|
Thursday April 29, 6:30 - 8:30pm |
The Park |
Net session/Fielding Drills |
To be booked |
|
Saturday May 1 |
|
First League Matches! |
Andy Reynolds/Phil Carter/Brian Woodcock |