The season is on

its way…….

A warm welcome to the pre-

season newsletter to all

players and friends of

Shenley Village C.C.

Although no cricket has been

played outside for the last

seven months the club doesn't

hibernate and with junior

nets having been in full swing

since October and the senior

section squeezing into their

whites for the first net session

in the first week in January,

the players are getting ready

for the season ahead. The

committee also work

throughout the winter to

ensure that the club is well

prepared and has the behind

the scenes organisation in

place to ensure that the 2010

season can be our most

successful yet. As I write this

I am looking out at a very

sunny view over Shenley so

thoughts naturally turn to

the outdoor game. This

season will see the

inauguration of a new

ground at Napsbury Park, a

much better, local option

than the season we spent at

Old Camdenians' ground

last year, more of that later in

the newsletter.

The senior sides have three

new captains in place and all

teams will be aiming for

promotion and with the First

XI now in Division 2 of the

Saracens Herts League we

are scaling heights never

seen before by Shenley. Let's

hope we don't get vertigo!

The junior section will be

fielding more teams than

2010 Promises Big Things

Registration Evening

The next big date is

Thursday 15th April for all

members to register and

pay their annual

membership donation to

the club and make sure we

have every- ones correct e-

mail, mobile and address.

We will also be registering

some volunteers with the

CRB requirements, and it

will be a good chance to

meet up with fellow

players, coaches, and team

managers for the junior

teams.

If you are interested in

joining as a social member

you will be able to register

here also.

1

Back Row From Left to Right: James Davenall, Steve Scott, Lloyd Willingham, Wendell Roberts, Nauman

Saqeb, Rahul Gajjar, Rifkhan Hameed, Gill Sheldon (Scorer).

Front Row From Left to Right: Anooj Vadgama, Craig Rawlings, Jemile Al-Darraji, Rob Laney, James

Williams, Charlie Thurston. Absent: Dan Bowles, Liam Willingham, Morgan Stanley

ever and look forward to

further developing under

our great team of coaches.

With more players, new

skippers and new grounds

there's a lot to be excited

about.

The season starts on April

17th for the Interclub match

and we look forward to

seeing you there.

Enjoy reading the newsletter

and good luck for the

coming season.

SVCC Committee

The 2010 captains have been

confirmed and are as follows:

1st XI – Jemile Al-Darraji

2nd XI – Richard Evans

3rd XI – Chris Andrews

4th XI – Tony Munting

Sunday – Richard Evans

Congratulations and good

luck to the captains for the

coming season.

Captains and Junior Team Managers

The Junior Team Managers

for 2010 have also been

confirmed and are as follows:

U9 Tigers - Jemile Al-Darraji

U9 Lions - Jemile Al-Darraji

(until assistance is found)

U10 - Ian and Katy Thomson

U11 - Danny Manzi and Gill

Sheldon

U12 - Mike Woolley

U13 - Ray McLennan and

James Davenall

U14 – Dakshesh Patel

Good luck to all of the junior

teams for the coming season.

Fingers crossed for another

successful one!

The biggest change taking

place this year is the use of

the new cricket ground at

Napsbury Park, London

Colney.

One of our senior 3rd and 4th

teams will play there every

Saturday and we have the

use of it for junior games on

Tuesday and Thursday

evenings.

This will reduce the amount

of wear and tear on the

Ground Report

Shenley wicket, and

particularly mean a lot less

travel time compared to

playing in Mill Hill as we did

last year.

It also gives us extra facility

for friendlies, so everyone

should get lots of cricket this

year.

For weekend senior games,

members will be pleased to

hear a cricketers bar has been

built upstairs at the cricket

centre for our use, and we

will have a large club notice

board in there at last, to

spread club info and other

essential communications.

Several of you may have senior club

shirts with a very faded Blue Light

logo across the front of them. Our

shirt supplier, Duncan Fearnley,

have now acknowledged there was a

fault with the original printing of

this logo. They have offered to have

the Blue Light chest advert newly

applied, at no cost, and to get the

shirts back to us in time for the start

of the League season on 1st May.

Club Clothing

So for anybody wishing to do this, in

order to give their shirt a new lease of

life, Ray will collect your shirt from

you at senior nets/registration

evening on April 15th. Or for the

very well organised, you can bring

your shirt round to Ray’s office at a

time of your convenience, up to the

15th April.

Please remember to write your name

into the shirt collar, so that we will be

able to return them to their rightful

owners.

Alternatively you can just buy a new

shirt. We have 25 new shirts, (£15 each)

and a good supply of caps (£5) and shirts

(£10) for juniors as well.

“a cricketers bar has

been built upstairs

at the cricket centre

for our use”

2

We have entered a team into

the prestigious Hertfordshire

County Cup knockout

competition for the first ever

time this season, following

on from our promotion to

Division Two. The

tournament is played on

Herts County Cup

Sunday afternoons with a 50

overs per side format. The 1st

Round takes place on 30th

May with Shenley Village

drawn away against fellow

Division Two side

Northwood. The final of the

competition will be played

on the main ground at

Shenley - the Denis Compton

Oval - on 5th September.

As you may have seen and is

noted elsewhere in this

newsletter, the Shenley

Village Cricket Club website

has undergone some

wholesale changes.

One of the major changes

that will be made to the

website over the coming

weeks is the update of the

player records on the site.

This will include an updated

photograph and profile.

Website Amendments

One suggestion for the future

is to have a Shenley Village

blog, where members could

provide input or an update

on their team’s progress or a

particularly special

achievement.

If you have any ideas or wish

to make any contributions to

the website then please email

chris_kelly103@yahoo.co.uk

•During the winter Mike

Woolley and Mark Harris

qualified as ECB Level 1

coaches.

•James Davenall and Danny

Manzi attended 3 ECB

workshops, with another 3 to

be attended in August which

improves on their current

Level 2 qualifications.

•Mamta Lakhani did an 8-

week scoring course.

•Alex Houghton from

Shenley Cricket Centre has

attended the Inst. of

Groundsman’s spring course

in April. Dave Shelley and

Ray have also attended.

Special Mentions

•Paul Copping passed his

second level umpires course

and is now a Herts panel

umpire.

•James and Paul attended

the ECB coaches’ association

conference, which placed

emphasis on captaincy and

motivation techniques

•SVCC junior members

involved in the County

training and selection

process this winter were:

•U15 - Charlie Thurston

(Middlesex)

•U14 - Ishaan Patel and

Mayowa Balogun

•U13 - Ollie Marshall and

Ashley Smith

•U12 - Ian Harris

•U11 - Jordan Urban

•Area (nth, sth e+w Herts)

team trials from SVCC were:

U10 - Tom Gerrard and

William Thomson.

U12 - Daniel Copping,

Reuben Woolley, Albie

Cohen and Lathan

Mahalingam

U13 - Nikhil Amin, Paddy

Sidwell, Charlie Cooke and

William Harley

U14 - William Holland, Niraj

Shah and Milind Chohan

3

•James Davenall is now the

assistant head coach for the

County Southern Area, working

with all age groups, and is the

head coach of the St. Albans

District U13 girls’ team, with

which he won that competition

against 10 other Herts. districts in

2009. The girls’ U13 team will

practice at Napsbury every Sat.

morning, 10-11.30am. James is

also head coach for the Herts Sth

Area U12 girls’ team.

•Wendell Roberts smashed the

Div 3 wickets record in 2009 with

72 victims, and was the highest

wicket taker in all divisions in

Herts. , with the second highest

taking 56 wkts. The Div 2 all time

record is 76 wickets, Wendell!

we get through, the last two

weeks in July will have one

game each, and the finals

are then played on the 11th,

12th and 13th August,

somewhere in the Midlands.

Please don't book your

holidays during those

weeks!

OVER 49s….

Mike Dexter, at the

Hertfordshire County

Cricket Association, says

they would welcome more

A special note to all eligible

to play U13 cricket this year,

please get to training as

often as possible on Sundays

and Tuesdays. We will be

putting extra emphasis on

not only winning all our

league games, but also

beating Hemel in the semi-

final replay, and final in

June to be the first SVCC

junior team to qualify for the

National U13 club knockout

competition. Jemile, James

and Ray all think we can go

far with the fantastic squad

of U13s we have. When/if

players who would be

interested in playing and

strengthening their teams at

the 50+, 60+ and 70+ age

groups. They have a total of

5 teams playing

Championship matches and

they have a lot of fun. There is no membership fee

involved – just a £10 match

fee to cover expenses.

Anybody who is interested

can contact our own club

secretary Paul Copping in

the first instance.

Under 13s and Over 49s

For the past 2-3 years we have been looking for a replacement for Dave Stubbs’ web site maintenance, which he stepped down

from after around 10 years of solid effort. Thanks once again Dave.

At the AGM we appointed Chris Kelly as the clubs new communication manager, working alongside Ray, Gill, Paul and Matt, and

once the season kicks off, he will be working closely with the captains and junior managers to bring you the playing news week by

week.

Chris has been polishing up the web site, and getting all the details up to date. Please log on and check it out. Get your details and

your availabilities on there so the selectors know who to choose from for each match. If we have more than 11 wanting to play in

any age group on a regular basis we will then know to arrange more matches. Team managers will be adding the results details for

every game, so you can keep up with your averages, catches etc. as the season progresses. This is the time to set personal targets,

and let the captains and managers know when you can play. We cannot expect managers and captains to chase each individual,

every week.

Part of that club communications development also involves:

• Posters inviting all the kids in Hertsmere to play cricket will be put in all 40 schools and 8 recreation centres in the district

during April.

• We are currently printing 2500 leaflets from the club, to be distributed to all the homes in Shenley and the Napsbury

estate. Volunteer postmen/women are needed now. Please contact any committee person to volunteer your services.

• You may have noticed the two articles that have appeared in local newspapers recently, and of course this newsletter will

4

Communications

Message from the Chairman

Dear Members and Friends,

We are on the edge of a new

cricket season and the nets

for both seniors and juniors

are starting this week! Get

that kit bag out of the

cupboard and get back into

that perfect physical shape

you never were!!

During the dark snowy

months much work has

been going on to prepare us

for the season:

Junior nets have been running

every Saturday since October

and the senior nets every Wed

Since Jan. with average

attendances of 28 and 14

respectively.

Geoff Evans has again put

together a full fixtures list for 7

junior sides and 5 senior sides,

and for the first time we have

entered the County Cup

competition which is played on

Sundays, with an away fixture

against Northwood to start

with.

In order to do justice to our entry we must play a strong team in these

matches.

Several meetings have been held to

prepare the 1st XI for their first year

in the 2nd division, and yes, we are

aiming for promotion again.

Even though we won the 3rd

division in 2009, all concerned feel

that we have not played to our full

potential yet for the talent we have

in the squad.

Parents and juniors not playing

are warmly invited to come along

and support our clubs top team.

And finally may I extend a warm

Shenley greeting to all new

players and their families for the

2010 season. You are very

welcome.

Ray McLennan,

Chairman

Shenley Village Cricket Club