Otago Country Cricket Association Inc.
NEWSLETTER No4 13th September 2015

Welcome to the fourth of our newsletters. I hope they help keep all stakeholders in the Otago Country network up to date with some of the happenings within our organisation. The cricket season is approaching fast so things are moving on a bit.

Our Cricket Development Officer, Willie Miller, has settled well into his role and has started his school visits with Poolburn School being the first stop on what we hope is a really successful career for Willie within cricket in the Otago Country area. Willie has had a look at a couple of flatting options in Alexandra and is close to finalising one. Some really exciting news for us is that Willie will be based in an office out at Trail Journeys at the Clyde turn-off. The OCCA is extremely grateful to Shayne O’Connor for offering us the opportunity to work out of Trail Journeys’ headquarters. Willie can be contacted on 0212790979 or email [email protected]

The Summer Coaching role is a whisker away from being finalised with Emma Campbell being named, and we are just working through some minor details before nailing it. Emma is due to start at the beginning of October and is excited at the opportunity. It will be great to have someone with Emma’s skills back on board with us and working with our young cricketers throughout the Lakes area of Otago Country. Emma is going through the final stages of our successful Winter Training Program. She was responsible for getting this up and running and has almost completed this important and valuable role for us for this winter.

We have completed and signed our Service Level Agreement with Otago Cricket. Each District has their own specific SLA with Otago Cricket and by signing allows us to receive our funding from NZC via the OCA. Part of the SLA has a ‘metric component’ which means we have ‘tagged funding’ with targets to achieve before we receive the monies. We are already working hard to achieve these targets.

Outstanding news in the last couple of weeks with Molyneux Park being awarded a Ford Trophy double-header on the 27th and 30th December with the Otago Volts playing the Auckland Aces and Canterbury at this great venue. The back to back games are a throw back to the halicon days at Molyneux and wouldn’t it be sensational to see a return to those crowds of the past, on the banks there. A ‘Womens Round’ of games will follow the Volts games, between the Otago Sparks and the Central District Hinds on 2-3-4 January. It will be great to welcome back Coach, Warren Lees and the Sparks to MP. It will be interesting to watch our own Caitlin Blakely playing alongside Whiteferns players, Suzie Bates, Morna Nielsen and Leigh Kasperek while they try to copy last years achievements. 
Although disappointed not to be awarded an ODI this season, the Queenstown Events Centre will host Sri Lanka, when they play their three day warmup game against the NZC Presidents X1 on 3-5th December. They will also host a four-day Plunket Shield game between the Volts and Wellington 5-8th February.

Our Hawke Cup Team schedule has been finalised. It starts with a 2-day warmup at the Events Centre against the ‘old foe’, Southland, and very pleasing to see the Stewart McKnight Trophy game back on the schedule at Oturehua.
The schedule is;
21-22 November. Warmup v Southland @ Queenstown Events Centre.
28-29 November. v North Otago @ Molyneux Park.
6th December. v Dunedin Metro, Stewart McKnight Trophy @ Oturehua.
12-13 December. v Southland @ Queens Park, Invercargill.
16-17 January. v South Canterbury @ Aorangi Park, Timaru
30-31 January. v Mid Canterbury @ Molyneux Park. 
It has been agreed by NZC that all Zone 4 Hawke Cup Elimination games this season will be ‘Live Scored’, ball by ball, using the same program, Feedback Cricket-Live Scoring Edition, that provides ‘Live Scoring’ of all International and Domestic cricket on the BLACKCAPS website. This is an exciting development and we thank NZC for agreeing to this. The link to these games will be on our website. Further information on this closer to the time.

Early last week we had the excellent news we had again received funding from KiwiSport to continue with our in school program. It is so important we continue to work hard in this area to introduce new players into our sport and this funding from KiwiSport is ensuring our valuable work will continue.

We are waiting on the arrival of our gear from Kookaburra for the season ahead, and we thank them for their continued support of Otago Country. Should you have any need for gear/balls etc for the season contact Blair Franklin at Kookaburra on 021961715 and you’ll find him very obliging.

Our new website is almost due to be released. The domain name iswww.otagocountrycricket.co.nz. It will be far more user friendly as we strive to get our message and information to all our stakeholders. Our sincere thanks to Mark Wilson of Queenstown for designing the new website. Also keep an eye on the Otago Country Cricket Association Facebook page for news updates.

With the arrival of Spring things have ramped up a bit with the finalising of Playing Programs and Funding applications, grounds booked, gear sorted, Service Level Agreements signed, Annual Reports organised and AGM’s planned.

Our AGM will be held at 6pm on the 24th September 2015 at the Breen Construction Board Room, Russell Street, Alexandra. All welcome.

When these newsletters appear in your inbox please forward them to anyone involved in OCCA in any way if you think they have been left out. If you have anything you want included or have any questions or ideas please don’t hesitate to contact me on 0275226300 or email [email protected] 
Also, please use those contact details for any inquiries about the Otago Country organisation.


Cheers,
Malcolm Jones,