February 2012

Active Surrey has discontinued their accreditation scheme and have encompassed Clubmark. We will therefore have to remove the Active Surrey logo from all documents.

The club prides itself as being open to all and has followed an equity policy for a number of years. The ECB has now re-examined this and we now have to follow what is called the ECB Club Inclusion and Diversity Policy. Please take time to read and digest this under Club Information.

The winter nets at the Dorking Leisure Centre are being pretty well attended and we understand that the batsman are having to be on their toes against some pretty good bowling and the leg spinning, top spinning twirlyman has not been there yet!

Following our acceptance to the Fullers League we sent a formal letter of resignation to the Surrey Downs League. We have received a reply and I think that as a club we can feel justifiably proud of the following paragraph. 'Newdigate has made a substatial contribution to the success of the league both through their performance and conduct on the field and their hospitality off the field. It is very disappointing for the league to be losing such a club but I understand your reasons and wish you every success in the future.' Our request for our 3rd XI to remain in the Surrey Downs League will be determined at the league AGM.

The Community Foundation for Surrey is dedicated to assisting organisations run by volunteers and as part of their 'A Celebration of Giving' ran a photographic competition. We entered a picture of our girl cricketers and it received a commendation and the picture along with details of the cricket club have been displayed at Guildford Cathedral for the past month. We attended a reception on the 9th February and explained to visitors all about the activities of the cricket club. Amongst our visitors were Councillor Bridget Lewis-Carr who is the Chairman of Mole Valley District Council and Mr Gordon Lee Steere of Jayes Park in Ockley who explained that his family used to own Newdigate's former cricket ground at Parkgate. Unfortunately our application to the Foundation for funding for our net improvement scheme has been rejected due to there being so many pressures on the limited amount of money they have available and seeing the number of worthy causes at the reception it is easy to see why.

January 2012

Went to a fascinating session at the Surrey Cricket Centre on the 31st January to see the Surrey elite u14s and 15s go through their paces. The ECBCA coaches present were allowed to ask questions throughout. We saw fitness and conditioning exercises designed especially for cricket and this was followed by a psychology session from Rebecca Symes. This was fascinating and the interaction from the boys and coaches was excellent - it was all about handling pressure. Matthew Syed's book 'Bounce' was mentioned many times and I can certainly recommend it although you would not necessarily agree with everything he writes. The last hour was spent on bowling and batting. One batter faced short pitched tennis balls with the machine set at 83 mph. Another used hard balls but set at 70mph. An off-break bowler was taught the use of the crease. Three pace bowlers had to bowl through a restricted area to maintain correct alignment at the point of delivery and another batter was using his feet to a Merlin machine set for spin. These boys have come through the system and now the full weight of Surrey's coaching staff is behind them as they atttempt to get selected for the Academy.

There is a nice article in the winter issue of the Association of Cricket Officials (ACO) newsletter about our own Pierre Tartari. Pierre is retiring from the Executive Team at Lords where he became the pioneering editor of the newsletter turning it from a four sided broadsheet into a much anticipated magazine. He was also the 'eyes and ears' for the team of what he called 'real' cricket as an active umpire with the Surrey ACO officiating in all forms of cricket. I can do no better than quote the magazine - 'Pierre's independent spirit and robust views were sometimes more bruising than soothing to those who may have been the targets, but the motives were sound, and I suspect that his questioning of processes and people will continue.' Now that sounds like our Pierre.

Our leaf clearing request pretty well fell on deaf ears as only about ten people turned up on the suggested day. Saturday, 28th January. Those who did come worked very hard and cleared all the leaves on the west side of the ground towards the woods which will give the grass there a chance to grow. There are still leaves around the square and in the nets to be cleared and acorns under the trees on the east side. This job is really case of 'many hands make light work' so an even bigger thanks are due to those who volunteered.

At the AGM of the Fuller's League our application to join was agreed unanimously.

Congratulations to Annette Jordan, Stephen Kehl and Barry Jordan who have all achieved their UKCC1 coaching award on the 22nd January.

The AGM was held on the 15th January 2012 courtesy of the Newdigate Bowls Club. Considering that two key issues were to be discussed, namely the new pavilion development and our entry into the Fuller's County League, it was disappointing that only just over thirty people attended. All the committee had agreed to stand so they were duly voted in. The following captains were appointed Richard Callcut (Sat 1st XI), Bill Turner (Sat 2nd XI), Will Bowley (Sat 3rd XI), Craig Jones (Sun 1st XI), Matt Dilger (Sun 2nd XI), Stephen Kehl (Surrey Trust Development League) and Graham Capel will co-ordinate the Midweek XI. There was a lengthy discussion with regards to our entering the Fuller's League. There were some abstentions but everyone else voted in favour. Nobody voted against. Our entry will be subject to ratification at the Fuller's AGM but it has their committee approval. The situation regarding our 3rd XI was left in abeyance as the general feeling was that it should stay in the Surrey Downs League but that will need their approval. A presentation was given outlining the current position with regards to the pavilion development and once the tree survey is finished a formal planning application will be presented to Mole Valley.