Who needs Andy Saltzman when we’ve got Chris O’Reilly!!
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Who needs Andy Saltzman when we’ve got Chris O’Reilly!!
Anticipation is building in preparation for the end of 2024 season dinner and awards on Saturday 9th November at the Warwick Arms Hotel.
Whilst batsman and bowler of the year will also be presented the BIG one everyone is waiting to find out about is the Duck Award award…
The 2024 season closed with a traditional autumnal whimper i.e. final game rained off, but winter nets start on January 19th at Warwick School, 10-12am. Its a bargain £3 per session and we have kit if needed, though I’d avoid borrowing the skippers box. No need to tell us in advance, just turn up on the day.
Following summer’s hugely successful tour of Portsmouth (P3, L3), we’re eyeing up a return at the end of June 2025. Tour Sec Lish is already on the case and squad selection is progressing at pace. For anyone wanting to join us, this is a great weekend away – we play a T20 on Friday night, a 6 a-side competition in the depths of Hampshire on the Saturday and a 40 over match on the Sunday. We have couple of beers after each game and generally retire to bed at 9……
This year’s quiz will take place on Saturday 15th March in Barford Village Hall, starting at 7:00pm. It’s our main fund raiser and we welcome teams from within the club as well as the wider community, so if you fancy coming along you will be very welcome. We are ideally looking for teams of four or five, although we also offer a match making service if you can’t muster a full team.
The cost of entry is £10.00 per person which includes a superb two course, home cooked meal. If you have any special dietary requirements please let us know in advance. There is also a licensed bar with beer, wine and probably something dodgy from the Skipper’s drinks cabinet.
If you would like to take part, please message the club secretary on 07730 869857
In a bid to overcome some of the confusion regarding who does what and when regarding the availability and the selection of teams, the committee has drawn up the following roles and responsibilities for members, match secretaries and match captains. A downloadable version is available here.
This should help new members in particular by highlighting the dark arts of team selection, and ensure that it operates in a consistent manner throughout the year.
Of particular concern is the lack of response to emails, and it would make everyone’s life easier if replies were more forthcoming this year.
Roles & Responsibilities
for
Players, Match Secretaries & Match Captains
Players
Match Secretaries
Match Captains
Bowling (U13 – 5 overs per spell, U15 – 6 overs per spell, U19 – 7 overs per spell)
Fielding (no close fielding allowed within 10 yards of the bat)
Batting – helmets with a faceguard must be worn at all times
Chief statistician and occasional vice-captain Chris O’Reilly has finally got his finger out and released not only the 2016 statistics but also the long-delayed 2013 numbers (unfortunately missing a few results). These have now gone through the mincing machine and the Cumulative statistics are now up to date.
Notable cumulative milestones for this year are:
In conjunction with Barford Sports Club, we are now the proud co-owners of a shiny new Paceman Pro bowling machine. It will be based at the King George’s Playing Field in Barford and once the electricity has been connected will be available for practice use on the MUGA as well as at winter nets.
As it is capable of propelling cricket balls at both 70mph and more or less in the same place as the previous one, it already outperforms the majority of our attack. It’s just a shame it’s even less mobile in the field than Pete Romyn, otherwise I think we’d be picking it every week.
Vice-chairman Simon Morgan and occasional club stalwart Mark Griffin put it through it’s paces(!) today and save for the missing feeder assembly all seemed to be working well.
The following clip shows how fearsome this machine is to face in real life…
The annual extravaganza of the Annual Dinner saw a good range of old and new members in attendance once again at Merchants in Warwick. It was also great to see Richard and Lee from Snitterfield there, although they had to endure a fair amount of good-natured ribbing!
The delicious meal was interspersed with the usual selection of weird and wonderful prizes, the Chairman’s Speech, a video-link to the Vice-chairman and a reconstruction of the Champagne moments of the year (thanks to Ben and Layla for the production skills), which hopefully these can be made available at a later date!
Many thanks to everyone involved in organising such a fantastic event, and especially to Simon International for his unique hosting. The prize-winners on the night were as follows:
| Award | Recipient |
| Clubman of the Year | Chris O’Reilly |
| Batsman of the Year | Ben Linfield |
| Bowler of the Year | Simon Hawkins |
| Fielder of the Year | Jake Farquhar |
| Catch of the Season | Ken Gill |
| Champagne Moment | Sandy Peirson |
| Midweek MOM | James Beaven |
| Midweek TFC | Ben Griffin |
| Most Ducks | Paul Robbins |
| Best Tea | John Lambdon |
| Best Scorer | Layla Staveley |
It’s that time of year again where we all get together and pretend we had a much better season that we actually did and hand out baubles to a few deserving (and undeserving) causes in the name of team spirit. Current Social Secretary and bon viveur, Simon International, has once again done a sterling negotiating job with Merchants in Warwick, and the dinner is scheduled for Saturday 29th October at 7pm for the ridiculous(ly small) sum of £25.
Further details can be found here here but get your confirmations back to Simon asap…