Welcome to the seventh 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. We have almost finished the first half of our cricket season and the Christmas break is only just over a week away.
As I write this the Otago Country U15 Boys are almost finished their tournament at Molyneux Park and the Otago Volts and Sparks games at the same venue are not far away. Just a reminder that the Volts games are on the 27th v Auckland Aces and on the 30th v Canterbury. The Volts were in some pretty good form in the GPSS T20 tournament and the Aces won, while Canterbury were the other team in the ‘Finals’ series so these shape as two really good contests so get along if you can. On Jan 2-3-4 we get to see the Sparks take on the Central District Hinds in a T20 (2nd) and consecutive 50 over games on the 3rd and 4th. The best Womens player in the World, Suzie Bates, is captaining the Sparks again and is joined by Whiteferns, Leigh Kasperek and Morna Nielsen. Local Clyde legend, Warren Lees is their coach and mentor. These girls play a great brand of cricket so get along and watch. If any of you are able to help with the sightscreens for the two Volts games can you please contact me and I’ll pass your details on to Lindsay Breen. Below is the request that Breeny sent out this morning, “I am looking for some help to look after the site screens. It’s not big job. You need to sit on a deck chair and watch the cricket and stop people from walking behind the bowlers arm at the wrong time.” We recently received funding grants from both the Pub Charity and Lion Foundation funding agencies. These grants are vital to the running of our organisation and supplement our own fundraising efforts. We are truly grateful for the funds provided by both organisations. The Pub Charity grant is for the purchase of cricket balls and Representative Teams clothing while the Lion Foundation grant is for assisting with the running of our representative programme. Our two Cricket Development Officers, Willie Miller and Emma Campbell are both still busy in their roles. School visits have just come to a halt for the holidays but work with our Rep teams and planning for Term One is full on. Just a reminder that Willie can be contacted on 0212790979 or email Willie @ otagocricket.co.nz and Emma can be reached on 0211242266 or email emma@coaching-solutions.co.nz If you have any questions please contact these two or myself. The Otago Country Primary Schoolboys Team has been named for their tournament in Dunedin. As usual the selectors had some tough calls to make but have come up with the following team. William Casey Jordan Gibbons Om Shetty Doug Smith Blake Cormack Damian Carson Ryan Jones Kobe Thomson Ollie Alderson Jack Dent Kelan Smith Sam Hadley Good luck for the tournament boys. Enjoy the experience. Likewise the Otago Country Primary Schoolgirls Team has been named for their tournament in Christchurch. Just like the boys the selectors had an unenviable task in finalising this side. It is Kloe Vermeir MacKenzie Galbraith Anna Scott Georgie Jessop Rebecca King Lucy Viggors Paige McIvor Lilly Patterson Ava Gilbert Claudia Watts Harriet Neilson There is still one to be added. Good luck for the tournament girls and likewise, enjoy the experience. A huge thanks to all those parents who transport and support their children while they compete in the Junior Rep programme. Whether you are coaches/managers or just supporters our association relies heavily on your support. Thanks again. While on the subject of Junior Rep Cricket can I congratulate all the players selected in their teams and a special shout out for having a clean sweep of the Dunedin Metro Teams a few weeks back in Dunedin. There’s a school of thought out there that this hasn’t happened too often in the past. As mentioned above the U15’s are coming to the end of their tournament at Molyneux Park and have performed well so far. In the T20 segment on Tuesday they won one/lost one and yesterday in the longer format version had a comfortable 72 run win over Dunedin Blue. In today’s game they will be chasing 255 after lunch against the other Dunedin team. The Country team playing in the tournament is, Caleb Carson (C) Charlie Marsh (VC) Gabe White (WK) Reece Collin Charlie Davies Lachie Weir Gregor Findlay Beau Meehan Angus Herron Tom Johnston Quinn McDonald Conrad Hancock Sadly, due to an unfortunate set of circumstances the proposed Crosby Morris programme has had to be re-scheduled. The new draw is as follows, January 24th Lakes v Maniototo. February 14th. Holders v South Otago. February 28th. Holders v Vincent Our Hawke Cup Elimination programme has started rather disappointingly with an outright loss first up against North Otago at Molyneux Park then a rain-enforced draw versus Southland in Invercargill last weekend. The boys are keen to make amends for the slow start when they take on both South (16-17) and Mid (30-31) Canterbury in January. The whole Zone 4 Hawke Cup Elimination series this season is being ‘Live Scored’ and a link to the games will be available on our website. If you can’t make it to the games keep up to date with how the lads are going on your computer/laptop/tablet/phone just as you do with the BLACKCAPS/Volts etc. If you require any help to get onto this link contact me. The annual Stewart McKnight Trophy game was held recently in Oturehua. The Dunedin Metro team proved too strong and had a comfortable win over our boys. The team at Oturehua led by Al McKnight served up a great day on a good pitch with the usual excellent lunch and the association thanks all those involved. It was also a nice touch that we could host Stewart for the day, and for all concerned to get a chance to meet and chat with someone who has contributed so much to Otago Country and Otago Cricket. He is a Life Member of both organisations and is of course our Patron. I’ve mention Al McKnight and the team that make the whole Oturehua experience such a pleasure and the same thing happens all over our region. Our teams get treated so well whether at the Events Centre in Queenstown under the guidance of Regan Sinclair and at Molyneux Park with Andrew Douglas in charge of the great grounds there, and don’t forget the superb meals provide by Jacqui Rutherford. Our thanks to all those mentioned and also to those that work hard at each ground throughout the whole of Otago Country each week, to make the cricket experience an enjoyable one. We all appreciate it. I had an email from Russell Mawhinney from Queenstown letting me in on a trip that himself and Ian Collin have going in January. I’ve attached an excerpt from the email, “We have organised a tour to Australia for a group of Under-16 players from Wakatipu High School. We are picking up old connections with Western NSW who used to have a longstanding relationship with Otago Cricket until it seemed to fall over about 10 years or so ago. We fly to Sydney on 7 January 2016 and return here on 19 January. We play 40 over games at Blue Mountains then Bathurst, then we will be the first ever overseas team to take part in the NSW Country Cricket Carnival for 4 days at Orange along with about 30 other teams from all around NSW. One night they are putting the Big Bash on a big screen at the ground so everyone can have a BBQ and watch that. Then we finish with a 20:20 match under lights at Mudgee before heading back to Sydney where we'll watch the Sydney Sixers play the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash at the SCG before coming home. It is a fantastic opportunity for these young guys which I really hope will boost cricket here, and provide a real carrot for these kids to stay with the game and in fact stay here instead of heading off to boarding school. We've got some good kids going over - Daniel Lewis, Reece Collin, Quin McDonald, Jaxon Collins, Olly Price, my boy Seth, Angus Herron and Gabe White have all played for Otago Country teams, plus a few other good keen kids. Ian Collin and myself are taking the team. I gather from the guys over that side of the ditch that they'll be playing against some very good kids - real quickies, spinners who actually turn the ball, and some very promising batters - so it could be a bit of an eye opener.” Sounds like a great trip for these young lads and I wish them luck. Don’t forget our new website is up and running. The domain name is www.otagocountrycricket.co.nz. It is a working site so there will be additions ongoing some keep checking to catch the latest info. Also keep an eye on the Otago Country Cricket Association Facebook page for news updates. You will notice the latest FB posts go on the ‘home page’ of the website as well. When these newsletters appear in your inbox please forward them to anyone involved in the 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 thesnowdons@clear.net.nz Also, please use those contact details for any inquiries about the Otago Country organisation. Finally I want to wish everyone that is involved with the Otago Country Cricket Association in any way, all the very best for Christmas and the New Year. I trust your festive period is a safe and enjoyable one and filled with plenty of cricket.
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Welcome to the sixth 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 here with the Boys U17 Tournament completed, the Buttar Trophy finished, Year 7-8 Trial held and club cricket finished their second rounds in both the Vincent and South Otago competitions.
Funding takes a huge amount of time and effort and is vital to the running of any sporting organisation. Cricket is very fortunate to have a parent body, NZC, which provides some serious funding to the Major and District Associations. We also require out-sourced funding through applications to funding agencies. We recently receive a funding grant from the Bendigo Valley Sports and Charity Foundation to assist with the U17 team that travelled to Oamaru, and to them we are extremely grateful. Our two Cricket Development Officers, Willie Miller and Emma Campbell are both busy in their roles with school and club visits, rep trainings and general admin etc. Just a reminder that Willie can be contacted on 0212790979 or email Willie @ otagocricket.co.nz and Emma can be reached on 0211242266 or email emma@coaching-solutions.co.nz (note different email from the last newsletter. Editors mistake sorry) If you have any questions please contact these two or myself. My contact details are below. I’ve had a request from Rhys Chamberlain at the Otago Daily Times looking for any “Backyard Cricket Pitches” in the Otago Country region. He’s doing a feature piece on the best cricket backyards in Otago and is keen to hear of any around. If you have one and are keen to be included, contact me. The U17’s travelled to Oamaru at Labour Weekend and competed in the Otago District Tournament and after a couple of first up losses to Southland and Dunedin Metro, beat North Otago on the last day to finish 3rd. The management team was happy enough with the performance from what was a reasonably young team and reckoned the boys all learnt some valuable lessons. Probably the top performers were batting wise, Issac Steentjes while Daniel Lewis showed some good form with both bat and ball and all-rounder Marc Cormack should be proud of his efforts finishing with the standout performance of the weekend getting 6 wickets against North Otago to seal the win. Caleb Carson showed a fair bit of promise before heading to U15 tournament. The Buttar Trophy was held in Alexandra on the 7th November and both Year 5/6 and Year 7/8 grades were won by the Vincent/Maniototo combined teams. Winning coaches of these teams were Shayne O’Connor (Y5/6) and Steve Cormack (Y7/8). This is an annual competition for the Buttar Trophy which was first presented about eight years ago by the Buttar family who have been huge contributors to all forms of cricket in South Otago, Cromwell, and the wider Otago Country Cricket region. Graeme Buttar is one of the major driving forces behind junior cricket in our association and sits on our OCCA Board. The T20 format is a suitable mix for this popular early season tournament, which is played on two grounds at Molyneux Park and two at Dunstan High School. The Otago Country U15 Girls team named for the District Tournament in Gore this weekend is; Eden Carson (Captain) Ella Rose Lawerence Georgie Jessop Eden Jones Lilly Patterson Paige Loggenberg Kloe Vermeir Paige McIvor Sandra Horrell Rebecca King McKenzie Galbraith Coach: Craig Lawerence Assist Coach: Glen Paterson This group travelled to Gore for a warmup game last Sunday and convincingly beat the Southland side in what was supposed to be a 35 over per side game, but reduced to 20 overs per side. Our girls rolled Southland for 68 then chased down the runs only losing 2 wickets in the process. A great dress rehearsal and good luck for this weekend girls. One of our many volunteers is leaving the district to head back up north to be a bit closer to his extended family. Maurice Fordham is sadly leaving Glenorchy and with that his association with the Queenstown CC and the Otago Country Umpires Assn. Maurice has been fully involved in cricket and cricket umpiring/scoring since arriving in Queenstown 6/7 years ago and he will be missed. We wish him the best for the future. Sadly the proposed Crosby Morris fixture planned for this Sunday between holders Lakes, and the Maniototo team has been cancelled. Maniototo are unable to field a team. The next fixture is Lakes v South Otago on the 20th December at a Lakes venue. The Hawke Cup Squad is due to be named any day now so keep a lookout for it on our Facebook page. They play a two-day warmup versus Southland next weekend 21-22 November at the Events Centre and then get into their keenly awaited Hawke Cup Elimination program against North Otago at Molyneux Park on the 28-29th November. Get out and support these guys if you can. The whole Zone 4 Hawke Cup Elimination series this season is being ‘Live Scored’ and a link to the games will be available on our website. If you can’t make it to the games keep up to date with how the lads are going on your computer/laptop/tablet/phone just as you do with the BLACKCAPS/Volts etc. If you require any help to get onto this link contact me. Don’t forget our new website is up and running. The domain name is www.otagocountrycricket.co.nz. It is a working site so there will be additions ongoing some keep checking to catch the latest info. Also keep an eye on the Otago Country Cricket Association Facebook page for news updates. You will notice the latest FB posts go on the ‘home page’ of the website as well. When these newsletters appear in your inbox please forward them to anyone involved in the 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 thesnowdons@clear.net.nz Also, please use those contact details for any inquiries about the Otago Country organisation. |
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