N E W C L O S E N E W S July 2020 photo © Dave Reynolds NEWCLOSE REOPENING!!! Editor: At long last the omens are good that we may get some ‘front-of-house’ activity at Newclose after Hugh Griffiths its enforced closure during the height of the coronavirus crisis. email: editor@ newclose.org As a first step towards a return to ‘normal’ the bar will be open from 12:00 noon to 6:00pm on mobile: Saturday 4th July. Needless to say strict ‘social distancing’ measures will be in place. 07768 552682 We would be thrilled to see scores of you and your friends (it will be open to non-members) pop in for half-an-hour or so – if only to show off your lockdown hairstyle! We hope that the camaraderie that we have missed will be in evidence and that a community spirit will re-emerge. CONTENTS Please do your very best to remind us what you look like! Page 1 AUSTRALIAN TEST STARS AT NEWCLOSE IN 2015 Newclose Reopening!!! The background to 2015 2015 Australian Test Our patron and benefactor, Stars at Newclose Brian Gardener died in the January. Recognising Newclose members’ Without his unquenchable special contributions drive and enthusiasm there to 11 years of cricket would be no Newclose. So, following Newclose’s Page 2 subdued start to the season, England Test Match the clouds lifted with news cricketers who have that the Elite International played at Newclose Cricket Academy would be bringing, amongst others, four Page 3 Ashes Test stars to Newclose Overseas Test to play a match against Match cricketers Hampshire 2nd XI. who have played at Newclose RECOGNISING NEWCLOSE MEMBERS SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR 11 YEARS OF CRICKET Page 4 Mike Blackman (above - nearly obscured by the appealing fielder Mitchell Marsh) and Roy Cooper (with Ryan Harris the bowler) are well known local Association of Cricket Officials (ACO) members Hampshire News who umpired the Elite International Cricket Academy match on 18/19th June 2015. Tania Price’s Hula- Graham Cooper and Fiona Newnham have also contributed as Newclose Cricket Club and ACO Hoop marathon members and we are pleased to be so close to people like these - without whom top cricket would not be played on the Island. Disability squad’s net practice On pages 2 and 3 there is more about the 2015 Australians where we recognise the photographic contribution of another Newclose member, Dave Reynolds. Dave’s iconic photo of Newclose in May Newclose member 2019 (at the top of this page) featured in a two-page spread in The Cricketer magazine last July. Adrian Brewer’s charitable efforts in Newclose Cricket Club prospers thanks to contributions like this – and we’ll feature more of our the Ivory Coast unsung heroes in the coming months. 1 Who would have thought that, by 2020, no less than 31 Test Match cricketers would have played at Newclose County Cricket Ground? Stars such as Stuart Broad, Fidel Edwards, Ryan Harris, Ajinkya Rahane and Mohammed Yousef - to choose five from different parts of the cricketing world. Our benefactor, the late Brian Gardener, would have dearly loved to see all these in action. All 31 are listed on these two pages and, in the coming months, we’ll add the International Ladies, the ODI and T20 players who have appeared on our magnificent ground. The England Test Match players (17 of them) are: Tim Ambrose Jake Ball Stuart Broad Mason Crane Liam Dawson James Vince James Foster Phillip DeFreitas Ben Duckett John Emburey James Foster Jason Gallian Stuart Broad Ed Giddens Ben Duckett Graeme Hick Devon Malcolm Matthew Maynard Boyd Rankin Shaun Udal James Vince Jake Ball More details are at: www.newclose.org/cricket John Emburey Liam Dawson Devon Malcolm 2 Not surprisingly the England Test Match cricketers outnumber the ‘Overseas’ players – but not by very much: 17 to 14. Of the countries represented by these 14, Australia heads the list – including these four members of the 2015 Ashes squad. © IW County Press Mitchell Peter Chris Ryan Marsh Nevill Rogers Harris Travis Head Ajinkya Rahane Excluding the photograph at the top of this page (of the four Australians), all the others are the work of Newclose Cricket Club member, Dave Reynolds, and his copyright to them is hereby acknowledged. Dave is a keen amateur photographer with a history steeped in Isle of Wight cricket; a former captain of Northwood and Ventnor 1st XIs he is also a former coach of the Isle of Wight Cricket Board’s Under 15, Under 16 and Under 17 representative teams and has been an ECB Level 3 Coach and ECB Coach Developer/Educator/Tutor since 1985. 3 HAMPSHIRE NEWS It’s still unclear what form of cricket we’ll see this season apart from Test Matches behind- closed-doors. Wednesday 8th July sees the First Test between England and the West Indies at The Ageas Bowl, Southampton. No news yet on our 9th August fixture – but it is not looking good. As far as all other organised cricket is concerned, amateur or professional, we await the outcome of discussions between the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Government. SINCE THE JUNE NEWSLETTER WAS PUBLISHED, A NUMBER OF PEOPLE WITH NEWCLOSE CONNECTIONS HAVE BEEN ACTIVELY SUPPORTING GOOD CAUSES - AT HOME AND ABROAD Tania Price has been a terrific support to Newclose in recent years. Before lockdown she helped her mother Nikki Price, Newclose’s General Manager, with hospitality events as well as advertising the ground as a venue for functions. In more recent times she has been an important volunteer, updating the Newclose website and adding the details of Newclose News to the site each month. TANIA RECENTLY SPENT 12 HOURS IN THE NEWCLOSE PAVILION HULA-HOOPING TO RAISE FUNDS FOR LOCAL CHARITIES “I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU for all the support everyone has given me for my 12-hour hula-hoop challenge! I'm pleased to say I completed it and recovered quickly! It raised a total of £1,720 which was donated to the Isle of Wight NHS and the Mountbatten Hospice which is amazing and much more than my original target! There is still time to donate at: https://givepenny.com/taniaprice_challenge100_100_target But thank you once again to everyone for your generous donations and support; I couldn't have done it without you all”. In late May Andy Butler set up a net on the Newclose square and Jayden Frankling has been organising group nets for members of the Isle of Wight Cricket Board’s Disability squad every Saturday. The photo (below, left) shows Jayden practising with one of the squad’s coaches, Neil Westhorpe. Everyone at Newclose hopes that, come August, the Disability squad will be able to play a competitive match at the ground. This is very important given the Newclose Charity’s objectives include the words: “provision for the playing of cricket by disabled persons”. Adrian Brewer is a Newclose Cricket Club member who runs an Island-based charity dedicated to helping parts of the world affected by poverty, famine and the lack of clean water. As we go to press, he has a loaded container about to be shipped to the Ivory Coast in West Africa with a range of goods to make people’s lives better. Those items include a considerable amount of cricket equipment which was stored in the Newclose pavilion and which was surplus to the needs of the Isle of Wight Cricket Board. Along with hockey and badminton kit, it will mean that the youngsters in Bouaflé in the Ivory Coast will have the chance to play sports other than soccer, which is their dominant sporting activity. IWCB Disability cricketer This link tells the story in more detail: Jayden Frankling batting, Neil Westhorpe coaching https://youtu.be/f_6iDiVdSU0 FINALLY, DO COME AND JOIN US AT NEWCLOSE ON SATURDAY 4TH JULY FOR FOOD, DRINK AND THE CAMARADERIE THAT WE HAVE MISSED DURING LOCKDOWN – AND MEETING ‘FRIENDS IN CRICKET’. 4 .