Outdoor Nets for Juniors

Colchester and East Essex Cricket Club will begin outdoor junior cricket practice at Castle Park on Sunday mornings, 10am to 12 noon, starting from April 18 (weather permitting).

This will be for all age groups up to Under 14 (normally Year Nine).

The club has a number of qualified coaches who will organise cricket sessions for players of varying age groups and abilities.

We normally start younger players in Kwik Cricket sessions. These involve using plastic bats and tennis balls so there is no need to worry about protective equipment and the emphasis is on fun.

There is a one-off membership fee of £35 for each player, payable at the start of the year. This covers all practice, group coaching sessions and match fees, where applicable.

For further information, contact youth cricket organiser Neil Thomas on 07745 377811 e-mail neil@thomasneil26.wanadoo.co.uk
or turn up at Castle Park on a Sunday morning.

Cricket Force 2010

Calling all members, family and friends!

In conjunction with the NatWest Cricket Force initiative we will be carrying out pre-season preparations at Castle Park on the 27th / 28th March. Essential maintenance to the club house as well as erecting the nets and generally getting ready for the first games.

If anyone can help with materials, especially any leads on a new carpet for the club house would be gratefully received.

Academy Session with Alan Butcher

The Academy was fortunate enough to secure the services of Alan Butcher (Ex Surrey First Team Coach). Alan spent time with the spin bowlers of the academy and was able to build on their current knowledge of the art, we are extremely grateful that Alan gave up his time. Alan has just been appointed as the Zimbabwe National Team Head Coach, he will be taking up his role in the next few weeks and all Academy Coaches and Players wish him the best in his new role.

Academy in Action

Some pictures from the latest session of the Elite Academy. Click on the picture to see the full set on Flickr.

AGM and Awards Night

Presentation Evening

Annual awards for 2009 were presented after the AGM on Friday 22 January 2010.

• 1st XI Batting - Joe Austin - 510 runs at 72.86
• 1st XI Bowling - Ben Stephens - 29 wickets at 27.76
• 2nd XI Batting - Dhruva Bhaskar - 217 runs at 36.17
• 2nd XI Bowling - Malcolm Edwards - 27 wickets at 13.93
• 3rd XI Batting - Arthur Cairns - 182 runs at 20.22
• 3rd XI Bowling - Amos Chiwora - 19 wickets at 16.42
• Young Player - Dominic Thomas - 35 matches - 417 runs at 18.95 and 23 wickets at 36.04
• Most Improved Player - Omar Ahmed - 1160 runs at 42.96
• Most Dismissals - Nathan O'Brien - 38 catches / 7 stumpings

Management & Cricket Committees

Click here for the committee members for 2010.

Further Net Sessions

We have arranged a couple of indoor practice sessions aimed principally for Sunday second and third XI players and those unable to make the senior club sessions currently running at Chelmsford.

These will take place at the University of Essex Sports Centre, Wivenhoe Park, from 9am to 11am on Sunday March 7 and Sunday March 21.

This will be a great opportunity to shake off the cobwebs and get in some practice before the season starts. No chance of a lie-in, however, if you want to take part.

We have booked two lanes for each session, so I would hope we can accommodate up to eight players per lane. We will have to share the cost of the nets between those taking part, so the more who attend, the cheaper it will be.

Please let me know by e-mail whether or not you are able to attend. If we are overwhelmed by demand I will draw up a rota.

February 200 Club Winners

The winners of this month's 200 Club draw are;

£100 - B. Prior
£50 - D. Spelling
£25 - M. Mehan
£25 - D. Last

Full details of previous winners and the 200 Club subscription form can be found on the website at http://www.colchestercricket.org/200club.html

Pre-season Training

Seniors pre-season training has kicked off with a very encouraging attendance at the first session held at Castle Park on Saturday. Group fitness and training sessions will run every Saturday at 11.00am, with additional take home exercises and skills sessions scheduled between now and the start of the season. See here for details: (CEECC pre-season outline.docx)

We are lucky enough to have the input of Alasdair Jones from Colchester Physiotherapy, who has put together a specific exercise program for the club and will be on hand to lead and instruct these activities. The first set of exercises are accompanied by an injury checklist to be filled in - this is to help target specific areas for strengthening and rehabilitation during the program: (Exercises + Injury checklist.pdf)

All players are welcome and we look forward to seeing you down at the park in the coming weeks.

Academy - Skill Sets Week!

After Week 2 was cancelled due to the snow, the academy resumed for Week 3 of the schedule which was ‘skill sets week’.

The players were grouped into their relative skill, spin bowling, seam / fast bowling and wicket keeping; and worked on specific drills and skill that provided them with a better understanding of their technique.

The academy players were fortunate to have the services of Dave Lucy, a wicket keeping specialist who worked with the keepers on drills that can improve their all round technique, the group saw great improvement and we would once again like to thank Dave for a great session.

Terry Charrington, an Essex Academy Elite Coach worked with our spinners this week. He specifically worked on alignment and wrist positions to enhance turn and bounce. The spinners found this interesting and the coaching point that Terry imparted will be worked on for the remainder of the academy and beyond.

The fast bowling skill set was run by Gareth Fisher Academy Head Coach. He worked with two separate groups of seamers / fast bowlers on specific technical drills that they themselves can take away from the session and work on to improve speed and accuracy.

The academy hopes that the ideas / expertise and drills the skills sets offered the players this week will be worked on throughout their time and the academy and when practicing elsewhere.

A few pictures can be found on the club photo gallery.

Awards Evening Pictures

A few pictures from the AGM / Awards evening on Friday 22nd January have been added to the club photo gallery, click on Photo to view them.

Youth Fixtures 2010

The Youth fixtures for 2010 have just been released. Click here to view them.

200 Club Winners - January 2010

The winners of this months 200 Club draw were: P. Vidovic,T. Rothery, D. Slater and M. Bashall.

Further details of the 200 Club, including application form can be found on the 200 Club page.

Academy Report

The Colchester & East Essex CC Academy held its inaugural trials on November 14th 2009.

We received around 60 candidate applications across all three age bands for the first intake, which was promising.

The trials where conducted by Gareth Fisher (Academy Director / Head Coach), Colin Perkins (Academy Elite Coach) and Julian Russell (C&EE 1st XI Captain for 2010 / Elite Coach).

We were impressed with the commitment of all candidates and the standard of cricket played was extremely high. However, we had to make some tough decisions and our intake for the Winter Training 2010 settled at 32. Congratulations therefore goes to the following:

Junior Academy	Intermediate Academy	Senior Academy
Ben Arulampalam	James Hingley	Kiri Samaranayake
Ronan Gallagher	Ankush Jagota	Hugo Douglas
Ben Allison	Joe Chester	Miguel Nydam
Charlie Fernandes	Tom Avery-Hickmott	Harry Theron
Simon Fernandes	Connor Gallagher	Monty Douglas
James Bealey	Ollie Bocking	Jack Gardner
Adam Mayes	Michael Wrathall	Matt Godbold
Ashvin Prabaker	Dominic Manthorpe	Kieran Dale
Sam Chapman	Francis Hunt	Nick Scott
David Austin	Nick Harrington	William Kearse
Harrison Staines
Matthew Watling

The training program will commence on 2nd January 2010 every Saturday for 12 weeks. Now the hard work begins!

We wish the very best to all.

Thanks go to Piri Piri Cricket and a number of private individuals for their support of the program.

Colts Nets CANCELED

Youth Nets have been canceled for this Sunday (10th Jan) due to forecast for further bad weather over the weekend.

First Session for Junior Elite Academy

Good luck to all those involved in the new Elite Junior Academy, the first session being this weekend.

Presentation Awards Evening

The Presentation Awards evening unfortunately fell victim to the pre-Christmas snow. The presentations will now take place at the AGM on the 22nd January.

The annual Presentation Awards Evening will take place at Castle Park on Friday 18th December from 8pm to celebrate individual and team achievements in 2009 and get members together for a pre-Christmas drink.

Please e-mail Spesh (andrew_2_kennedy@yahoo.co.uk) if you are planning to come as hot food will be laid on.

Senior Indoor Nets

Starting Tuesday Jan 26th and every Tuesday for 10 weeks, 8-9pm at Chelmsford County Ground - reply to the weekly email if you wish to come as space is limited each week to 6-8 people.

Winter Coaching Schedule 2010

The winter coaching schedule has been finalised. Coaching will take place Sunday afternoons between 1pm and 3pm. Sessions are arranged by age groups so please check the schedule for the relevant sessions. Contact Neil Thomas on 07745 377 811 or neil@thomasneil26.wanadoo.co.uk for further information.

Launch of Youth Academy

The new Colchester & East Essex Youth Academy will be launched in January 2010. The academy aim is to take our most talented young cricketers and make them even better to ensure there is a seemless path to our adult sides. Applications are sought at three age groups 7-11, 12-15 and 16-18.

For full details please see the Academy page.

Forms in various file formats have now been uploaded.

The Future of Colchester & East Essex Cricket Club

Wednesday 30th September will be an incredibly important date in the history of Colchester and East Essex Cricket Club.

It is the date that we take over the full responsibility for the running of the clubhouse from the previous Sports club, which comprised both the hockey and cricket clubs. This transition will bring with it many changes, with extra responsibilities along the way and with extra opportunities for us to improve the facilities as we would want them.

This is a really exciting time for the cricket club and one which all members need to be aware of.

In celebration of this fact we will hold an ' Opening Night Presentation' on Friday October 2nd at 8pm in the pavilion.

This will include a FREE drink and a few nibbles for all club members, a short SGM where we have to agree a couple of changes to the constitution (10 minutes) and a short presentation on the future of the cricket club and how the changes will affect you.

Please make every effort to attend - it's not often you get a free drink!

Cheers

Andrew Kennedy

End of Season Bash

The Summer Bash was held on Saturday 29th at the Clubhouse and it was a great evening organised by Lorraine George and her bevy of ladies Carole, Lizzie, and Janet. The marquee in front of the pavilion was adorned in Club Colours and a welcoming site, then champers made the evening start well. The food was very good all homemade and prepared by Jean, Lorraine George, Nikki Spelling, Lizzie McQueen and Carole Warren and plenty of it.

Thanks to the helpers Charlotte and Laura Warren and the legend Keith the Hat to Spesh for the music