Shenley Village Cricket Club

Honours for Shenley Village duo

Wendell Roberts has been recognised for his impressive exploits during the 2009 season. His 72-wicket haul set a Division Three record; with only a small handful of players ever having taken more wickets in a single Hertfordshire League season. His efforts were rewarded by the Saracens Hertfordshire League at last week’s AGM and Awards Presentations evening at the Metropolitan Police Sports Club in Bushey, where he was named winner of the Division Three bowling award.

Meanwhile, junior member Charlie Thurston, captain of our victorious Under 13s from 2009 and also, of course, a team-mate of Wendell, was similarly recently honoured. Charlie, who in addition to his junior cricket commitments also opened the batting for the 1st XI last summer, was presented with two trophies by the Hertfordshire County Cricket Association. Charlie was winner of both the junior batting and bowling awards for the Under 14s age group at the HCCA AGM at Knebworth.

There was yet more good news for Charlie, already a member of Middlesex County Cricket Club’s Junior Emerging Player programme, when he was taken on by Middlesex on a full-time basis for the coming season. He will be a member of both their Under 14s and Under 15s squads.

Congratulations must also go to Simon Harley – father of our junior members William and Isobel – who won the Saracens Herts League batting trophy for Division Eleven….albeit representing Hertingfordbury 2s! ……Perhaps he fancies a transfer?!

By any standard 2009 was a very successful year for the club, both on the field and off it. However like anywhere else there are still many areas where we have room for improvement, and more needs to be done.

Let me start by congratulating Jemile and all concerned with our first eleven, for winning the division 3 title, and doing it with such a strong finish. In relative comparison to the other teams we have measured ourselves against over the last 5-6 years like Cavendish, Rickmansworth, and London Colney we continue to grow stronger, and deeper in our cricketing resources.

We were perhaps a little timid early in the season and lacking in conviction by wanting to bat first as a standard practice, but confidence grew much stronger as the season went on, and with the addition of Rob Laney and Rifkin to the side, and later Charlie Thurston, still only 12 years old, the side finished powerfully sweeping all aside. The overpowering strike force of Wendell Roberts was however the most telling factor in our winning the division, setting a div 3 record with 72 wickets, and scoring 250 runs. As a club we identified the need for a strike bowler after finishing 7th in 2008, and that objective was fully achieved this year. To put Wendell’s performance into context, only 8 persons have ever taken more in a Herts league season, the record being 81.


However,our other senior Saturday teams all need to do much better, and that is the real challenge for the club as a whole, over the coming year. The need for strong Captains and vice captains in all the teams is another area we must address in 2010, both to improve on the field and to assist with the selection and admin processes, which were challenging in all 4 Sat teams.

The Sunday side continued to be a reservoir of our best young talent, with strong individual displays regularly seen. My personal congratulations to Richard Evans for his management of that team, which I would label the best run side in the club, both on and off the field.

Div 2 cricket will be the biggest step taken by the club since I have been playing, with the luxury of panel umpires comes a lot more responsibility which I would urge all concerned to read carefully in the league handbook. For the first time we will be marked on behaviour and hospitality. Facilities marks are needing to be 6.5 minimum average, instead of 6, and it will, in my opinion, require a small management group to get our first eleven machine well tuned and running at our most efficient.

We have moved from being a top 50 club to a top 30 club in Hertfordshire. To continue that status we need to see our second eleven promoted up 2 divisions in the next 2-3 years.

We have identified a need to find more adult players for our 3+4th teams to be stronger, and will put a strategy into place following the ideas generated at last months open meeting discussing the problems for those teams.

Our Junior section targeted 4 teams reaching their semi finals and we achieved just that with the u13’s county champions, the u9’s 2nd, and the 12’s and 11’s both third in the county tables.

I would like to congratulate our junior sub committee, as being the best junior committee in the county in my observation. We have a really great team of volunteers, several of whom will move onto the executive committee in the coming years. We will have 5 level 2 coaches this year, and hope to send up to 3 of them onto a club coach course when the next one is set up. We also have 7 level 1 coaches, with another 2 about to do the course. We anticipate Jemile recruiting enough new players this spring to put out 2 under 9 sides, and a potentially winning team in every age group right up to u14’s, in 2010. Those from 15 upwards will be pushed towards playing senior cricket in our 3rd and 4th teams.

In 2009 we have 2 county players at every age group from 11,12,13,and 14 year old teams, and many sub county players.


Congratulations to James D. for his selection onto the county coaching set up, where he will start as the area assistant coach with the carrot of being the area head coach in the future. He also coached the county u11 girls champions as part of the Herts youth games in May.

To summarise the club’s development plan for 2010 I will highlight the following;

* The club will continue to use the Hatfield indoor school for it’s winter training programe for both the Junior (Sept-March) and senior players.(Jan-March)
* The club will use the Shenley nursery ground for all 1st and 2nd team games, Thurs training, and Junior training on Tues evening and Sunday morning. Junior games will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays.
* The club will use the Napsbury cricket ground for 3rd and 4th team senior games, and Junior games on Tues, Thurs, and Friday evenings.
* The club has 26 volunteers to draw on for all it’s activities, but will be looking for more volunteers for umpiring, scoring and a communications sub committee to develop the website, newsletters and club information dissemination.
* The club will put out 5 senior teams and 7 junior teams in 2010.
* Talented Junior players will be encouraged to take trials for area and county representation.
* The club will promote coaching in schools in 2010, for both public and private schools. We hope to work with 6 primary and 4 secondary schools in 2010.
*Further recruitment will be hoped for by drawing in friends, leafleting Napsbury, and newspaper articles preseason.


Ray McLennan,
Chairman.
18.11.09

The AGM took place at the cricket centre on Wednesday 18th November with the best turn out in recent years. Full minutes will be available in due course. However for the sake of speed three key points are published here for the membership.

1. We will be entering four teams into the Saracens League in 2010
2. Captains for all five senior sides will be appointed by the committee early in 2010. If you would like to be considered to lead one of the teams please make yourself known to one of the Executive Committee by 31st December this year. All contact details are on this site.
3. Memberships, donations and match fees have been set for 2010 and are held at last year's rates. Full details on the page on this site.

UPDATE: JAN 2010.
Full minutes of the AGM are now available to all paid members for 2009, please contact the Club Secretary, Paul Copping for your copy. Contact details on the Officials page.

We have been lucky enough to receive funding from two bodies promoting sports clubs regionally and nationally. We have received £1000 from Hertsmere Borough Council and £500 from Mars refuel.

Shenley Village Cricket Club expects all its players to abide by the England and Wales Cricket Board Code of Conduct, principally to:

abide by the spirit, as well as the letter, of the Laws of cricket

accept the umpire’s decision at all times and not to show any dissent

play cricket in a competitive manner but maintain the highest standard of sportsmanship
accept victory or defeat with dignity and grace
avoid the use foul or abusive language on or off the field
set a good example to younger players
treat all players, both team mates and opponents, as you would like to be treated yourself

REMEMBER PLAYING CRICKET IS FUN

Members should update their player information and contact details wherever required [contact email, phone numbers, and if a change of address] on the website. Your login will be your first initial and surname you should register http://shenleycc.hitscricket.com/register at the link, then await a reply for your password.

Colts in addition need to advise the SVCC colts teams (U9, U10 etc) you are playing for so you can be set up correctly and assign the team(s) you would like to make yourselves available for - You require to send an to the club web email address svcc0@yahoo.co.uk.

Did you know that you can help your captain or team manager by updating your AVAILABILTY on this web site?

Doing so cuts down the administration and phone calls.

Many thanks for your assistance.

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