Whitt CC November 2011 Newsletter

WHITTINGTON CRICKET CLUB

Newsletter – November 2011

Address: Vicarage Road, Whittington, Staffs, WS14 9LJ
Email: whittcc@hotmail.com
Website : www.whittington.play-cricket.co.uk
Blog: www.whittcc.blogspot.com

Keeping everyone up to date with club news and events!

Captains 2012 / Senior Format

We will be unleashing 4 brand new captains for the 2012 season and a brand new team. We are delighted to announce a Saturday 3rd Team competing in Staffs League Division 5. We will also be competing in a T20 League in the months of July and August featuring teams such as Tamworth, Milford, Hammerwich.

Back to the captains, Please welcome;

Sat 1s Captain – Danny Hackett
Sat 2s Captain(s) – Dan Boden / Dan Kirk
Sat 3s Captains – Hugh Smith (moving from a successful stint as Sunday skipper)
Sunday XI – Gra Martin

We thank outgoing captains Jim Howarth and Rog Coles for their efforts, and wish the new captains good luck in what promises to be an exciting year.

Pavilion – Update

Whilst everyone is aware that there is a global financial crisis we as a club are desperate to be positive and move forward with the building of the pavilion, We believe it’s in the clubs interests to move the development on to a point where it can function and generate revenue as soon as possible, our aim, some may say our foolishly ambitious aim, is to reach this stage by the start of next season. Burton College plan still to be involved but if we are to achieve our aim then superstructure works need to start very soon. It’s the clubs intention to hold another Nat West Cricket Force event at the end of March or early April, hopefully it will be as successful as the event earlier this year, it’s also to be hoped that it will take the form of one big push to reach our target, time will tell. If anyone feels that they’d like to help or get involved in some way then please drop Richard Abell a line at abell@laurelplace.freeserve.co.uk

New Cricket Shirts and More 2012
To celebrate the rise of the pavilion, Whitt will also be looking to kit out the whole club in brand new club shirts, hoodies, shorts and much more. We are replacing the tired looking Cicada shirt with a more comfortable and fitted model made by Canterbury! We plan to place an order Xmas time to ensure arrival for start of season, or possibly nets. Please can you speak to your relevant coach, or email whittcc@hotmail.com to enquire about ordering a shirt and the other items in our range for 2012

Watch out for Upcoming Social Events

Saturday 26th November – Santa’s Ball – SOLD OUT. Another fantastically supported event organised by Kerry and Yvonne with 160 tickets sold.
Gents Evening – Friday March 23rd 2012 at Whittington Golf Club, with Guest Speaker and 2005 Ashes winner Matthew Hoggard, MC Phil Mepham and comedian Matt Walker, YES the Matt Walker!!! Tickets cost £30, please speak to Bob Tanner for further details.

Sponsorship 2012

Running a voluntary organisation has untold benefits for individuals and community alike. Inevitably, there are financial overheads associated just to keep a club like ours running day to day. This is why the support of local bodies, people and businesses is essential for both our survival and ambitions.

We feel that businesses can gain targeted market awareness by positive association with the club. There is a constant stream of press releases in around our games, fundraising events and the new ground/pavilion project where work has now begun.

Please check out the attached Sponsor form if you are looking to Sponsor, or know someone who might be willing or contact Justin Meynell.

EasyFundraising
Shop Online and Raise Money!
Have you heard about easyfundraising yet? It’s the easiest way to help raise money for Whittington Cricket Club! If you already shop online with retailers such as Amazon, M&S, Argos, John Lewis, Comet, Vodafone, eBay, Boden and Play.com, then we need you to sign up for free to raise money while you shop!

So how does it work?
You shop directly with the retailer as you would normally, but if you sign up to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/whittingtoncc for free and use the links on the easyfundraising site to take you to the retailer, then a percentage of whatever you spend comes directly to us at no extra cost to yourself.
How much can you raise?
Spend £100 with M&S online or Amazon and you raise £2.50 for us. £100 with WH Smith puts £2.00 in our pocket and so on. There's over 2,000 retailers on their site, and some of the donations can be as much as 15% of your purchase.

Save money too!
easyfundraising is FREE to use plus you'll get access to hundreds of exclusive discounts and voucher codes, so not only will you be helping us, you’ll be saving money yourself.
We've raised over £500 with easyfundraising so far but we need your help to keep donations coming in. Sign up at http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/whittingtoncc and start making a difference...simply by shopping.

Thanks for reading!

Natwest Cricketforce Success!!

Whittington Cricket Club having been awarded Staffordshire Cricket's Showcase Club 2011, played host to special guests Dennis Amiss, ECB Deputy Chairman and England Women's and Staffordshire all-rounder Danielle Wyatt at the weekend as the club's exciting NatWest CricketForce plans got underway. Swapping bats and balls for paintbrushes and spades, the pair were joined by around 200 volunteers, which included players, members of the local community and 15 members of staff from NatWest. Michael Fabricant, M.P. for Lichfield, also came along to give his support for the event.

Having recently moved to a brand new site on Vicarage Lane, a huge amount of work needed to be completed at Whittington Cricket Club, including the development of a brand new pavilion. Bringing the community together students from Burton College are soon to start work on building work which is set to be completed in 2012.

Club Vice Chairman and Project Leader, Richard Abell, stressed just how an important event for the club this was. He said: “It's a massive challenge for a club to move to a new ground and start from scratch but with the help of NatWest CricketForce and the ECB the project is becoming a reality. I am amazed at the number of people who care about their local club and would like to thank everybody involved for their fantastic efforts. For those who missed out on the weekend, there is still plenty of work ahead of us so we welcome the continued support of the local community and businesses who would like to get involved.”

A generous team from Evans Paving Services joined in the hard work at Whittington CC by laying paviors donated by Brett Landscaping products for a new car park, along with a team from Wickes who joined an army of volunteers setting about the essential work of assembling sight screens and erecting picket fencing and nets.

As part of the event Stuart Canvas Ltd donated a flat sheet cover for the square and Andy Grice, on behalf of Staffordshire Cricket, handed over a T.V. for use in the pavilion when completed.

Dennis Amiss, Whittington Cricket Club Patron and ECB Vice Chairman said: “The ECB is excited about NatWest CricketForce. To see a community come together as much as it did at Whittington is a very positive thing for cricket as a whole and I hope that people take their efforts further and continue to help out.”

Whittington CC NatWest Cricket Force Showcase weekend 2011, March 19th and 20th

We are now just 2 days away from the Natwest Cricket-force weekend, having been selected as the Showcase club for Staffordshire. Volunteers have been coming forward, and we now expect to see over 100 Whitt CC players, supporters, family and friends over the course of the 2 days. ECB representatives will also be present, as will current female England International cricketer Danielle Wyatt, and our patron Dennis Amiss. We would love to see more even if you drop by for an hour or so show support. Activities taking place over the weekend include :

Building of picket-fence around ground (2000 pickets also need painting!!)

Stone collecting off the new outfield

Net and Sightscreen maintenance

Benches built and put around ground

If you can help or simply wish to provide materials for the weekend the following would be greatly recieved :

Paint brushes/kettles

buckets

small pointed trowel/implement for stone picking

Wheelbarrows

Hammers

Spades/Shovels

Whether arriving on foot or by car (if so please park in The Hospice car park next to the new pitch) please register in The Marquee where you'll be supplied with your CricketForce tee shirt (first come first served), registered and then pointed in the right direction!

We look forward to seeing you!

Rugby Club Tour Success

3 members of Whittington Cricket Club successfully completed a trip around the 25 UK based Rugby league and Union clubs as a fundraiser for the club at the weekend, successfully raising nearly £500.

Starting Friday morning at 5.30am, they finished at 5pm Sunday evening, visiting places from everywhere from Wakefield, Exeter, Newcastle and Twickenham. The hospitality shown from many of the clubs was first class, allowing alot of pictures to be taken on the pitch. Some outside of working hours were missed out on, but snaps still taken.

Anyone who hasnt sponsorsed the cause can still do so by speaking to AC, TT or The Talker. We will also have a "Guess the Mileage" Game running next weekend at the Showcase weekend, with the nearest guess winning a cash prize!!

Well done to the 3 lads involved.

25 Rugby Clubs in 3 days

Whilst we continue to build towards our Showcase weekend, the weekend before will see 3 of our hardy souls going on a Fundraising mission.

Having already tackled 92 football clubs in 7 days and 18 cricket counties in 3 days, the next obvious sport was Rugby. So Andy 'Horn' Collett, Tris 'Toad' Tanner and Matt 'Walker the Talker' will set off in the early hours - 5am rumoured start - of Friday 11th March, arriving back on Sunday evening of 13th March, hoping to have visited 25 Rugby League and Union clubs in that timescale.

The schedule is as follows:

FRIDAY - Huddesfield (RL) - Bradford Bulls (RL) - Leeds Carnegie (RU) - Leeds Rhinos (RL) - Wakefield (RL) - Castleford (RL) - Hull FC (RL) - Hull KR (RL) - Newcastle Falcons (RU)

SATURDAY - Salford Reds (RL) - Sale Sharks (RU) - Wigan Warriors (RL) - Warrington (RL) - St Helens (RL) - Crusanders (Wrexham) (RL) - Gloucester (RU) - Bath (RU) - Exeter (RU)

SUNDAY - London Irish (RU) - Harlequins (RL & RU) - Wasps - (RU) - Saracens (RU) - Northampton (RU) - Leicester Tigers (RU) - return to Whitt!!!!

Please help to support the travellers and sponsor their efforts, weather that be a small donation, a go on the guess the total mileage game or by contributing to the petrol that will be used. The car surprisingly has been donated by Spot of Chasetown, but looks likely to be a Fiat - go figure!!!!

Contact AC, TT, or the Talker if interested in sponsorship

Natwest Cricketforce - Update/Info!!

The NatWest Cricket Force weekend (19th & 20th March) is fast approaching and we are trying to get organised so we can make as much progress on the new ground as possible.

Work will be happening on both the Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to about 5:00 p.m. and we are hoping to get as many people as possible to come along and lend a hand at some point. Most of the tasks do not require high levels of specific skills, so please do not worry that your bricklaying is not up to scratch. In addition, we will be nominating task leaders to guide all of our volunteers on the specific task they are allocated to. (Note, there will be tasks that everybody can do, whether you be 7 or 70 years old....)

At this stage, we are trying to plan the activities for the weekend, so we need to know numbers of people, andwhen during the weekend you might be able to help, and any preference you might have as to the possible activities.

In addition to people, we also need to get certain materials/supplies and we have listed the items that we need for this weekend further down this note. If anybody has ideas as to how we might be able to source these materials (legally!), then please reply with suggestions.

People

In order to start you thinking, here are some ofthe tasks that we are currently planning for the weekend:

1. Catering Saturday and Sunday ………………Providing cups tea/coffee/soft drinks and snacks to keep the troops fed and watered

2. Stone pick (main pitch 8 zones, top field 6 zones, top right 1 zone)……requires a bucket and small trowel or similar

3. Picket Fencing (possible post erection)

3a. Painting of posts/rails/pickets (please indicate if you can bring suitable tools)

3b. Fixing of rails (please indicate if you can bring suitable tools)

3c. Fixing of pickets (please indicate if you can bring suitable tools)

4. Installation of bench posts/frames

4a. fixing of bench slats

4b. staining/painting of above

5. Erection of new nets to existing frame on Bit End Field (Large Step Ladders Required)

5a. Rolling of nets on Bit End Field with roller

6. Assemble new site screen (1)

6. Assemble new site screen (2)

7. Possible BBQ construction (suitable location and design)to be established

8. Sign to ground entrance (supply?)

8a. Installation of above sign

9. Sockets to small section posts around square

9a. Post and rope to square surround

10. Install rabbit fencing (possible….awaiting advice)

11. Fix chicken wire to existing three rail fence and bury same (to prevent ball egress from field)

12. Clean out underside of hedge (Vicarage Lane Boundary)

Materials(for Showcase Weekend)

Food, drinks, cutlery etc

Metalwork/Fabrications

Picket fencing

Paint

Benches

BBQ (brick)

Sight screens

Covers

New Nets

Sand, aggregates

Block paving

Signs

Plants

Fencing

Chicken wire fencing

Tool hire

Tools

Plant Hire

Skips

Posts and rope to go round square/boundary

What we need to know as soon as possible is:

People

How many of you there are(Adults/children),

Which day could you help & approximately when/how long,

Any preference as to tasks

Materials

Please make suggestions as to how we might secure any of the materials on the list, certain materials are in the process being sourced by the club. We will send further correspondence out nearer the time to confirm more definite arrangements. The list of tasks may well change during the course of the next month or so, however the above list is our starting point.

Other Information

During the course of the weekend some other works that will be taking place will be ;

Brickwork to Pavilion/store/Retaining wall (Burton College/Fairfield Construction)

Block Paving to car park (Evans Paving Services Ltd)

Fencing Repairs (Sheepwash Farm….possible, could be done another time)

Rolling of square (Groundsman)

If you can't make the weekend of the 19th and 20th March but would like to help in some other way, then please don't hesitate in contacting me to discuss how we may best be able to make this happen. The Showcase weekend will give the project a big push but there will be a lot still to do afterwards!

Thank you all once again.

Regards

Richard Abell

Pavilion progress ..... floor beams going down

Progress continues to be made, as we build towards Cricketforce weekend 19th-20th March.

Anyone interested in helping on the weekend or donating please contact us.