The latest CricketForce 2008 newsletter, dated May 2008, is now available.

The latest newsletter contains information on the following:

• Evaluations
• Go Green Club Fund
• Official Supporters
• NatWest CricketForce 2009
• 2008 NatWest OSCAs
• NatWest CricketForce website

An urgent reminder:  Evaluation deadline is 16th May 2008 – please go
to the ECB website and follow the link to complete yours.

Bobbing Court combined the re-launch of the club with CricketForce so these photos show both some work (painting and weeding) going on at their Rook Lane ground and the unveiling of the new club badge by the Deputy Mayor of Swale, Cllr Alan Willacombe.  Cllr Willacombe also bowled a few deliveries at one of the junior members.

The other project the club worked on on Saturday was the reclaimation of a concrete base to be used in conjunction with a Flixpitch for a net at Rook Lane.

Stockbury CC never actually registered for CricketForce but nevertheless that didn’t stop them taking part and they spent the weekend recovering a cricket square for junior cricket in the area.

They used the KCB GA tractor mounted Graden to get tonnes of thatch out and even got Andy Nutting to pick up a rake - didn’t know he could push a rake as well as a pen!!!!

This Old Wilsonians’ CricketForce Report 2008 was written by Caroline Maxwell - it reflects such a tremendous effort by all at the Club we thought we should share it with you, in its entirity.  It’s a wonderful example of what CricketForce is really all about.

Friday, April 4th 2008
“3 days of brilliant sunshine is what Old Wilsonians’ were hoping for during Cricketforce weekend – well we got one day! Friday morning dawned with a clear blue sky and the promise of a fantastic warm day / weekend ahead.

The small working party arrived with the day’s main task of camouflaging the huge container in the car park. The men raced through this task finishing by lunchtime.

Poor Jane (Kempthorn) was left inside with the horrible task of cleaning tiles around the ladies toilets, but wow she did a great job and now they’re sparkling. She’d make a great scrubber for the right price!

After lunch it was time to tackle those little jobs – clearing the scorebox garden and as usual Steph Hartley had her gardening hat on, assembling the new chairs for the scorebox, and preparing the club for the next day’s main workforce.”

Saturday, April 5th 2008
“Saturday was not quite so warm, the weather going down hill gradually.

The cricket nets and the roll on covers were erected by a joint working party from the cricket and football clubs, much to the delight of the cricket colts. Summer is on its way when they can start to bowl those balls.

Meanwhile, others were painting slats and the broken slats near the pavilion clock were replaced – a slight shame since they marked some fantastic 6’s
by our cricketers.

I arrived shortly after lunch, having been at indoor nets all morning – no I’m not taking up cricket and I won’t be dressing up in whites and pads! To my horror, I was dragged into the men’s toilets by an excitable Ian Forbes who proudly showed me his gleaming new urinal. I tried to appear equally thrilled by the new arrival but politely made my excuses and left before he showed me how it worked.

Outside the footballers were scraping the wall – well a couple of them were. I’m really not sure what Kirk and Pikey were up to or even the rest of the team but it obviously was highly interesting and spectators were gathering to encourage and view their handiwork.

Inside the bar area was being measured up for new carpets which are being donated by Terry Scott, a colt’s cricket parent, so no spilling your beer in the future guys.

Paul Cudmore was clearing out the back store room to the bar which was due to have new vinyl tiles laid.

Pauline Bier meanwhile was slaving over a hot stove preparing a gourmet lunch for all the helpers. Slightly different to her usual 1st class cricket teas but equally as tasty.

Paul and Helen Ellison (aka Floral and Hardy), our Colts Cricket Club sponsors, were doing a spot of gardening, ably assisted by Andy Steel and the club is now the proud owner of approx. a dozen pavilion boxes full of brightly coloured flowers and shrubs.

4.15pm arrived and people were now gathered in the club house with a choice of 4 new TV screens to view the Grand National (huge thanks to Boom Boom for his hard work and time installing these). The sweepstake was won by Ben Cook and 2nd place went deservedly to Steph Hartley. By now I was almost as excited as Ian Forbes had been with his new urinal, since son Doug (not mine – Ian’s) had managed to link up “my” laptop and I can now have a rolling slide show of all my club photos and music showing on all 4 screens at once!

By this time the footballers were starting to ramble back into the club from their respective games and it was time to start clearing up for the day. It had been a good day and now it was time to relax over a drink or two or three or four …”

Sunday, April 6th 2008
“The Maxwell’s sprang out of bed Sunday morning in the knowledge that Paul Jenkins would be knocking on their front door at 9am to ensure that Max didn’t have a lie in! The curtains were drawn and we were greeted by the sight of thick snow everywhere.

The snow of course meant that the youngsters who turned up to help spent 2 hours running round the ground having a snowball fight and building a rather strange creature – the new club mascot.

Graham Watts and I were now snug in the new scorebox having a lesson on how to use the new electronic scoreboard. I think I’ll stick to pen and paper.

What fun you’re going to have Pikey. I wish you lots of luck!

(I feel you may need a few practice matches if Graham’s session was anything to go by).

J & J services spent hours cleaning the windows to the club. Jane sure is a girl of many talents.

Alex Forbes and Rob Bryan did a splendid job on cleaning out / repairing guttering in the freezing cold.

Max was getting annoyed at the number of times people stood on his painted steps.

And don’t mention the dishwasher!

Barnes was leading his “team “ of Malcolm Boxall, Malcolm Smart, Brian Morley in the showers so you guys have a lovely colour scheme of green, blue, grey and tile red (yuk) to lather up in. Remember no boots in there or you’ll be in BIG trouble.

Denise and I set to work in the kitchen scrubbing clean the greased walls and cupboards until Jenks appeared and informed us that we were to down tools for another day.

IP by this stage was happily behind the bar!

All in all, despite the weather a huge amount of work had been accomplished. So many other jobs had been done – too numerous too mention. I believe we had approx 80 helpers at the club during the weekend.”

HUGE THANKS must go to PAUL JENKINS who as usual works far and beyond the call of duty and to IAN FORBES who not only managed the admin side of Cricketforce but cooked a fantastic Sunday lunch for us before going off to eat his lunch in a local restaurant (hmm).

There are of course so many people I could have mentioned in the report if only I had the space but I thank all of you below and apologise if I’ve left anyone off the list (if I have please advise me since we do have to do an evaluation form for the ECB including numbers helping).

Helpers:

Arthur Ashdown, Bakare Ayo, Kirk Benjamin, Nick Bier, Pauline Bier, Malcolm Boxall, Tony Brighton, Rob Bryan, Jamie Butler, Barnes Clanachan, Ben Cook, Max Coutts, Chris Cowell, Jamie & Val Cox, Joe & Tom Cox, Paul Cudmore, Steve Donnelly, Bec Dove, Eddie Dove, Gladys Edmonds, Nick Ellicott, Helen & Paul Ellison, Claire Farrow, Alex Forbes, Doug Forbes, Eleanor Forbes, Gwen Forbes, Ian Forbes, Andy Fox, Jasper Gundry-White, Bill Hartley, Steph Hartley, Dan Hickey, Paul Jenkins, Stephanie Jenkins, Del Jones, Nigel Jordan, Laki Kasturiratne, Chetan Kemat, Annie Kempthorn, Jane Kempthorn, Mike Kendrick, Colin Lake, John Martin, Caroline Maxwell, Kenny Maxwell, Paul Maxwell, Henry McGeever, Hugh McGeever, Steve Millward, Michael Mitchell, Ben Mole, Nick Mole, Brian Morley, Sean Murphy, Grahame Nelson, Jon Quinton, Jamie Parkinson, Robert & Rory Phillips, Mike Pike, Denise Pilgrim, Ian Pilgrim, Mike Pilgrim, Joe Pullen, Chris Scott, Harry Skola, Doug Smart, Andy Spedding, Neville Spencer, Andy Steel, Aaron Steel, Chelsie Steel, Tom Sullivan, Peter Taylor, Peter Wakeford, Rod Warboys, Glen wheeler, Nancy Whittaker, Roger Williams, Jay Yewale.

Well done Association members and great to see us working as one team again – here’s to next year when it would be wonderful to top the 100 mark for helpers.

p.s There are still jobs to be done and Jenks who can’t sit still has already roped in Max & IP to help him later this week with sanding the clubhouse floor. I’m sure any more hands would be welcome – let me know if you are available!”

Caroline Maxwell 6.04.08

A truly wonderful effort by all concerned at Old Wilsonians and an event that clearly illustrates the massive benefits of CricketForce, both tangible and intangible.  The pride everyone has in their Club is clearly evident.  And that’s priceless.

Macknade CC members were praised by ECB Club Programmes Manager David  Leighton on Sunday having heard of their efforts during NatWest CricketForce 2008.

David said “Brilliant! Well done Macknade”

Macknade’s CricketForce co-ordinator Trevor Martin said “To receive such a  message from the ECB prior to starting work Sunday on what I know is a hectic weekend for David, lifted the spirits of those members braving the snow to  keep improving  the facilities at Macknade CC. Already the club are looking forward to the event in 2009.  Anyone want to donate some corrugated roofing materials or lengths of two by four?”

Macknade CC continued with the NatWest CricketForce 2008 work despite heavy sleet and snow all day on Sunday 6th April 2008.

The day started with an evaluation given the weather conditions as to what was likely to be achievable as a lot of work outside had been scheduled.

NatWest CricketForce co-ordinator  Trevor  Martin said “Not for the first time  in the four years Macknade have taken part adaptation was the key to our plans.  Any jobs left over will be completed over the  next couple of weekends.”

So touching up exterior paint work was limited: instead we braved the  blizzards, cut the undergrowth outside the boundary and removed a redundant chimney.

Other team members took on the indoor jobs of painting the kitchen, ladies toilets and touching up the paintwork in the clubhouse. Installing speakers for the TV also kept the team busy.  Everyone pitched in to remove the rubble from the old chimney.

More photos from Macknade taken Sunday 6th April 2008

Clockwise from top left:
Social Secretary Mark Cook busy clearing undergrowth!
Hannah Oxbury touching up the clubhouse paintwork
Good job the sightscreens were sorted Saturday!
Even in the snow, rubble from the chimney gets cleared!