BEYOND THE BOUNDARY Sydenham Cricket Club December 2017 issue Established in 1896 PRESIDENT’S Currently we know the grounds will be fully grassed by Xmas and we expect to have them REPORT handed back to us by mid-February. Then it's fingers crossed to see if we can get at least a Graham Harris, President couple of games on the blocks and then host a week of Golden oldies matches at the end of Christmas greetings to you March. Here's hoping … all, and best wishes for the festive season ahead. May I take this opportunity to wish you all and your families a Merry Xmas and look forward to Again with Christchurch’s fantastic facilities at catching you all again we start back into the Hagley oval we will indeed enjoy more world second half of the season on Jan 13th. class cricket in our city and I trust you will be able to get down and watch the matches against Best wishes, Graham Harris President the West Indies and our old foes from England- and don't forget the various ICC series under 19 matches which will also be held at Hagley Oval. CLUB Our season is approaching the half way mark and CAPTAIN’S it is fair to say all of our teams are having mixed results. Our morning grade Men's and Women's REPORT teams are very competitive units but somehow Andrew Chisnall, we are not putting together consistent Club Captain performances. Hopefully after Xmas our fortunes will change. Similarly our afternoon grades have It’s starting to become a bit of a habit missing really struggled at times although I must say it is the start of the season due to rain, and yet again pleasing to see our Hospital boys getting back this season we lost the first two playing into winning again after a lean couple of years. Saturdays. But many will say that by the time Christmas break arrived we had played in some From a club management point of view this has of the hottest days we have had in a December, been a frustrating season. We can see our so it hasn’t been all bad. grounds coming back to life and we know the end result will give us the best playing and grass During mid November the number of teams in the practice facilities in Christchurch, but the delays senior club swelled by one with a new T20 side have been very frustrating. joining the club after playing in the Metro ethnic competition during October. The new team is known as the Sydenham Tamil XI with many of the players having never played any form of cricket before or even used a hard ball, so this is a new experience for them. They are improving with every game and enjoying the opportunity to play cricket against other teams. It was great to see many of them at the Christmas Party. If you see any of them around please say hello and make them feel welcome at the club. Most of the teams are having mixed results heading to the half way mark of the season. Highlights so far include Hospital winning their Beyond the Boundary December 2017 first game for several seasons. They have now and which starts when we get back on January 13 won a second one, plus a friendly earlier in the at Heathcote. season, and are proving to be a more competitive team and earning respect from other teams. The 3D Cardinals are continuing on their good form from last season and are leading their grade at the break. With the ground renovations making slow progress the bar hasn't been open much this season. The quiz and Christmas party had reasonable turnouts and were both great nights. It would be nice to be able to get more club members down to these functions. The girls seem to be getting well into the "cider pong" at the party and are making a habit of being one of the last groups to leave. If we can get onto the park With the Sydenham Park renovation going on, not for a few matches before seasons-end, we will having access to our own practice facilities hasn’t undoubtedly be holding something special for the helped but it is the price we have to pay to have club to celebrate the changes when that day what will arguably be the best facilities in arrives. Christchurch outside of Hagley Oval from next season. The medium pace bowlers have again So hopefully as we head into the next half of the been our strength with the Gardner brothers season we will see the return of cricket to the park amongst the wickets with 48 between them at the and everyone back to use the clubrooms. Thanks break. Carl Hooper too has been relishing his first to everyone who has helped to get us to this stage proper run in the side and impressing until so far. Remember to stay up to date with the club suffering an injury just before the break. Slow scene by following the club’s website and Face bowling options have been an issue but assisted book page. more lately with Jamie Hunt showing some promise after returning from Uni. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all and see you all back in January. PREMIER MEN’S SQUAD REPORT Mike Dolden, Manager As we look at the Premiers Men's performance at the mid- point of the season the word that comes to mind Ryan Wallace has had an outstanding first half of the is inconsistent. The season started badly with season injuries, operations and visa problems, and at the The batting at times has looked very good but it Christmas break we find ourselves for the second has been mainly confined to the top order. The season in a row having finished 5th in the one day top four in Matt McCall, Dylan Goldstone, Tom competition, frustratingly one place short of Hewison and Ryan Wallace have all shown signs of making the semis. In the 2-Dayers we’ve had the class at times, especially the latter two who are full gambit of a win, a loss and a draw, but we’re averaging 34 and 45 respectively. However, where certainly still in the competition if we can lift we have really really struggled is in the middle performance in a couple of areas in the new year. order where we have all too often folded after Furthermore we’re still in with royal chance of good starts, or not had a recovery orchestrated by defending the T20 trophy that we won last season the middle order when we haven’t. If we can get Beyond the Boundary December 2017 that right after Christmas, and the tail starts to at Rosie, Harriet, Jaimee, Alana, Kate Cameron and least hold its end up in support, we will get Meg Inwood umpired in the CJCA tournaments, results. with Rosie also umpiring in the primary schools' national tournament out at Lincoln. Players are The fielding has generally been of a high standard also assisting the Sydenham Junior Cricket Club's and a vast improvement on more recent years. It coaching program. Thanks to coach/manager has been a testing time for Tom Agnew in his first Linda Pettigrew. season as captain, and trying to do the difficult all-rounder role at the same time – he will need the maximum support from his senior players in the second half of the season to drive some successes. So at best we can claim an average first half of the season, although at times showing some real promise. Our 2-day ambitions are still well alive, and we look forward to the opportunity to defend our T20 title. As they say “the parties not over til the fat lady sings” so let's have a good Xmas and show what we can do when we get back….we know that we are a much better side than the mid- table side at best that we’ve shown so far this season. PREMIER WOMEN’S REPORT Our Women's T20 team start at 2 pm with an 8 Andrew McKenzie aside format facing up against a combination Coach /Manager supporting Women’s Cricket grade of teams from div 1, where most clubs filter players into the Women's Premier grade. Some Sydenham CC has been supporting and working stunning performances with both bat and ball hard to grow our women’s cricket. We help this by have been made are well illustrated by their developing our own pathway. It starts with having regularly high position on the table. It will be good numbers of girls from the junior club who interesting to see whether the girls can hold on to play in both softball and hardball grades, year 5/6 the T20 cup for the second season in a row and and year 7/8. This year, for the 1st time, we have maybe push for a place in the Div1 honours. an almost complete youth team transfer up directly from the SJCC. This has allowed the senior club to field 3 female teams. Although, there's Our Premier Women continue to make progress as some weekly-shuffling of players between the more junior players are introduced to Prem teams, and some use of our "super-subs", cricket. Although the ladies have had a slow start generally female player numbers are growing. to the season, recording 2 wins from 8 games played thus far, they've enjoyed a good Our new Youth women's team are sitting in the combination of senior and junior players within middle of their grade with four wins and three the group.