Danny Thomas Cudham Wyse crest Cudham Wyse Cricket Club Cudham Wyse crest

Ryan Brooks
A village cricket club in Kent     Est.1965

Cudham Wyse CC: Brockett's Blog

 

7/3/10: Committee reminder

A quick reminder for members of the committee, our first committee meeting of the year will be Monday in two weeks time (Mar 22nd) at the Change of Horses as usual, 8pm. For those who've seen Eric's letter you will note we have some weighty matters to discuss to do with the new lease for the ground and an application for a new net. I'll send out a reminder on e-mail later.

By the way, my comeback to nets might have to be delayed after all - got a stinking cold. Maybe next week...

1/3/10: No luck with the gee-gees

I'm back from my winter break (thanks to those who pointed out that I've not updated the site for a while!)

A good turnout for the race night on Saturday - well done to Leon for organising and Dave Rippingale for manning the Tote. I didn't have a single winner all night, but I heard the cheering of a few people that did, and a good time was had by all.

A small update about Tour 2010 - I've had confirmation that our transatlantic players Keith Catchpole and Kit Jillings will both be joining us. Keith will no doubt keen to rekindle his success of 2008 (both on the pitch and in number of CCTV appearances).

Finally, I will be finally making it down nets next week... see you then.

22/12/09: Christmas fun

Merry Christmas everyone. As you know I like to include occasional pictures of club members on the blog just for fun, and I think this one merits a wider audience:

Dane

HONORIS DANUS HARRINGTONIUS, CRICKETER COMPLETIS...

Also, check out this link to see a club member seeking glory on the front page of his organisation's newsletter...

http://www.gre.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/392515/Autumn-2009.pdf

 21/12/09: Tour fixtures sorted + interest from Kit

Looks like the fixtures are sorted for CWCC's tour in 2010 - we've got a new game for the Sunday (Trysull & Seisdon) which is closer to Shrewsbury than the Stockton game was last year. Then the other three games will be the established fixtures against Bishop's Castle, Knockin & Kinnerley and Warwick University Staff. I'll be sending out more info in the new year.

I've already had one expression of interest in the tour from an overseas member - Canada's own Kit Jillings! Kit says he is dead keen on touring and is booking his flights soon.

19/11/09: New skipper (and social sec) at AGM

A good turnout at our AGM earlier in the week. The big news is that we have a new 1st team captain - Shuaib Rabbani - elected unopposed after Danny Thomas decided to stand down. We've also got a new social secretary, Leon Du Platel, who replaces Chris Barnes, and a new chairman (Russell Brockett) after John Wood decided to call it a day. Good luck to all in your new posts and thanks for all the hard work of those stepping down.

While writing I should confirm the award winners for this year - seeing as I failed to blog after the club dinner:

29/9/09: End of Season

So that's it - well played everybody this year. It was a successful year for our league teams and although neither side gained promotion, I think we can be proud that we not only fielded two sides in every game but were competitive and finished well placed in the table. The Sunday team also had a good year with a winning record and the colts are improving all the time. Congratulations to Dave Rippingale and Anand Venkataraman who finished top of the run scorers and wicket takers respectively. See you all at the club dinner November 7th!

3/9/09: Tour of Shropshire - wet and wild

Back from tour - thanks to everyone who came and made it an entertaining occasion. The weather was not ideal to say the least but we still managed to complete three games out of four - with a win against Bishops Castle and losses against Stockton and Warwick University Staff. The last game was finished in dreadful conditions - real heavy rain - but we stuck it out! Top performances came from Ryan Brooks who scored two fifties and Russell Brockett who scooped seven wickets. Off the field, the Tuesday saw a trip to a ten pin bowling alley and later a pub crawl through Shrewsbury which will be memorable to everyone who attended - although a few players might not be able to remember the whole thing... Well done lads

22/8/09: Web back up and running

Sorry for the lack of results entered in the last few weeks - my PC decided to die, but I now have a new laptop powered up for the web. With just a couple of weeks to go in the league, it looks like (barring upsets) the 1sts are going to fall just short of promotion while the 2nds finish mid table. Well played all. And we have the tour next week.

20/7/09: Tour party finalised

Great news, we now have a full tour party for our tour of Shropshire. Squad is D.Thomas, Brooks, Rippingale, J.Wood, Godden, Barnes, Mills, Richards, Ingrey, J.Brockett, R.Brockett, Kelson, Inwood, Kirby (scorer).

Unfortunately we are split 9 in one hotel and 5 in a second one, at least for the first night. But there were barely any hotel beds left in central Shrewsbury for the Sunday so count yourselves lucky.

Btw well done to the 1sts for moving into second place in their division and reigniting their promotion chances... bad luck to the seconds who lost in an agonising last-ball finish on Saturday.

22/6/09: Back in winning mood

A great weekend for the club with 3 wins... including the 1sts and 2nds doing the double over Halstead to put everyone in a good mood for our drink-up. Cheers!

A little reminder to the Committee - we have a meeting on Monday in the Change of Horses, 8pm. Be there to discuss how the season is unfolding...

16/6/09: Social event at the Blacksmiths on Saturday

Just to say the plan is to have a club knees-up down at the Blacksmith's Arms on Saturday night (20th June) after the 1sts and 2nds both take on Halstead. Everyone is invited, there may be food involved but there will definitely be drink, so leave your car at home if you can and have a few pints!

3/6/09: Even more injuries

Oh dear - a terrible weekend for the Wysemen with all three teams losing, plus even more injuries. Chris Barnes tore his calf muscle on Sunday, Mark Aston has a broken thumb while Graham Mills smashed up his face on Saturday by top-edging one. Eric was unable to bowl on Sat because his foot problem flared up again and Brockett Snr is nursing his achilles. Whatever next? 

26/5/09: Injury list update

There were some interesting additions to the treatment table at the weekend - Paul Inwood pulling out of next week's game after injuring himself 'breakdancing' while Stuart Gardner declined to bat high up the order because of a leg injury caused by 'being stepped on by a stilletto'. Rumour has it that the two are related and that Inwood was wearing the stilletto... now there's an image!

18/5/09: Rippingale bats all weekend

Not much doubt about who the player of the weekend was - Dave Rippingale who batted through the innings on both Saturday and Sunday, carrying his bat for 94* against Otford and 43* against Selsdon. It couldn't stop the 2nds losing on Saturday but at least he now has the consolation of leading the run scorers chart (see homepage) with 190 runs so far.

Another good win for the 1sts as we saw off Sissinghurst - get in!

17/5/09: Parking issues

I've been asked to pass on a short notice - would members please avoid parking in the service road next to the pavilion unless you have a really good reason (such as heavy things to carry). And if you do drive down there, please do it very slowly. Our neighbours have been complaining, so let's sort it out.

11/5/09: Mike Kelson - cricket nutter

An excellent weekend for the Wysemen, with 1sts and 2nds winning, 3rds drawing and the Sunday team winning. I've got to share this text I've received from Mike, when I attempted to chase him about loading the 3rds and Sunday results on to the website:

"Will do, but been somewhat busy of late - colts cup game Fri, then gig, 3rds Sat, then gig, Sun game, 11hr job today, then colts game, 6am start tomorrow, then colts game, then poss selection meet - what a life eh?"

I certainly can't fault his commitment!

While writing I will share the news that John Rayfield scored another ton yesterday as the Sundays beat Bard Hill. Congrats John - but when are you going to be available for the league that's what I want to know!?

6/5/09: CWCC in third team shocker

Just heard the unbelievable news that there are so many people available for Saturday we've organised a third XI match, with the thirds playing away to Lloyds Bank. We certainly are a club on the up. Let's just hope the whole thing isn't rained off!

4/5/09: New boy Ollis does the business!

Blimey - I've just seen the scorecard from yesterday's Sunday match, and I see that debutant Marc Ollis got six wickets to take the team to victory by just 5 runs. What a performance - check out the details here

3/5/09: Blame the Fixture Secretary

Our last round of Saturday friendlies were a mixed bag, with two one-sided results - the 1sts winning by 202 runs and the 2nds losing by 134. Do you think we got the fixtures the wrong way round? I blame the fixture secretary - sorry Dad!

25/4/09: Winning start!

Two good wins for the first weekend of the 2009 season... the firsts beating Edenbridge by 19 runs and the seconds overcoming Locksbottom by 49.

Read the reports for the firsts here and the seconds here

23/4/09: Tour hotel problem

Just booked the hotel for tour. Unfortunately they could only offer me 10 places on the Sunday night (30th) because that leaves them full up. The Monday and Tuesday nights were not a problem but I have only booked 10 places for them too, because I only hold nine cheques and I'm not allowed to put club money at risk.

So if you want to stay in the same hotel as everybody else, there's only one place left - give me a cheque. For latecomers, we'll have to find you a room elsewhere for the first night I'm afraid. The only other solution I can think of is if Ryan is prepared to stay with his parents for the Sunday night, but that's up to him. Bugger! This is what happens when you don't give me your money guys.

15/4/09: Pre-season meeting a success

Sixteen people showed up at the pre-season meeting last night - good to see so many of you and it was all very positive stuff. A particular welcome to two of our new members who popped along, Julian Dobbs and Mark Ollis. There would probably have been more if I had sent out proper invitations - sorry if you didn't hear about it, but check the website next time!

In the elections for officers, ex-Cudham CC man Dave Rippingale was voted 2nd team captain, closely defeating Dave Godden (bad luck Mr G!) while in an even more pleasing result, Chris Barnes was duly returned as Social Secretary (that's one more club dinner I don't have to organise).

Even more marvellously from my point of view, there are now nine people who are confirmed and paid up for tour (see Tour tab for a list). So that means five places left if you are still thinking about coming.

A final note - we have a working party going up to the ground on Saturday to help clear up the pavilion. 10am and Eric is organising (020 8460 1338).

13/4/09: Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all. Went down to the countryside for a pub lunch and a walk yesterday, but the other half was not too impressed when she found out that the particular place I'd chosen (Limpsfield Chart) just happened to have a cricket ground in our league which I wanted to check out.

If anyone's interested here's my scouting report.. it's a lovely part of the world, smallish tree-lined ground, rustic pavilion, outfield a bit bumpy - pitch looked like it could favour the bowlers but then seeing as it wasn't cut that's not surprising!

In other news, I've been ringing round giving people the hurry-up about signing up for tour, and numbers are looking up. Ryan is now confirmed while Kelson, Godden and Inwood have promised cheques. No response from Ingrey, Harding or Burnham but believe they are still up for it. I've also had an e-mail from Kit Jillings who is looking into airline prices so he can come. Will let you know as things develop...

10/4/09: Fence help needed

As those at the recent committee meeting will know, Dan has bought a low strip of fencing to insert under the hedge on the far side of the ground, to stop the ball being lost when it goes for a boundary. He really needs someone to volunteer a couple of hours of their time to help put it up (potentially on Tuesday next week). Anyone willing to help? If so call him on 07863-168524.

6/4/09: More new players + marshals

More new players down at nets last night - welcome to Mark, Tom and Andy. Promising debuts all - there should be plenty of competition for places this year.

Another notice to pass on from captain Dan. He is going to implement a system of two marshals for each league game this year (1st and 2nds) who have to turn up early and help with preparations - e.g. putting up sightscreens, putting out boundary markers, setting out scoreboard and chairs etc. He'll be saying more at the pre season meeting.

26/3/09: Get your cheques in for tour!

Hey guys - I know I've spoken to quite a few people who are up for going on tour in August, but I still only have three people paid up with deposits. I can't book the hotel until I get cheques off you so stop being so tight! Bring your chequebooks to the pre-season meeting: April 14.

Speaking of meetings, at our committee meeting on Monday it was raised that we need to appoint a vice-captain for the 2nd XI. If you've got a lust for power and fancy standing, we'll be voting on this at the pre-season meet as well - so put your hat in the ring. We also have a vacancy for social secretary (don't all rush at once).

16/3/09: Record turnout & new players

A fantastic showing at nets yesterday - By my reckoning we had 19 players which must be some kind of record (incidentally check out the Club Records page I've just added to the Hall of Fame).

As well as Messrs Thomas, Barnes, Runham, Ingrey, Inwood, Brooks, D.Godden, E.Godden, J.Brockett, R.Brockett, Richards, Rabbani, Burnham, Archer and Kelson, we had four new players showing off their skills: Dave Rippingale, Julian Dobbs, Anand Venkat and Mark Aston. Welcome to all!

It's worth mentioning that as Pete Ingrey has the key and gets down early, he has said that he is going to start unlocking the hall at 6.30pm if anybody wants to squeeze a bit of extra batting time in. Could be helpful as it's so crowded!

14/3/09: Message from former member

The older members of the club might be interested to see this message from former CWCC man Mike Stanger who got in touch via our Facebook group. I said I would pass on his regards and asked whether he fancied a comeback!

Mike Stanger wrote
Yesterday, at 12:17
Hello to all older members of a great cricket team.
I see I'm still in the top 10 wicket takers then. hahaha
Report - Delete

27/2/09: Close Encounters of the absurd kind

As promised to those of you who enjoyed the picture of Kit, there's more where that came from - click here to read a bizarre article in which Pete Wallder talks about UFO sightings in Merton: Pete UFO article

What were you thinking Pete??

Also just to mention that we had 16 people again at nets on Sunday - excellent turnout - let's keep it going until the season!

21/2/09: Letters out to all members

Have now posted a letter to all members (or at least the 38 I have on the mailing list) giving a general rallying call for the new season, appeal for help with recruiting new players, dates for the diary, tour details etc. Of course regular users of the website will know all this already, but there are always a few computer-haters who need it on paper!

With ref to the previous posting on 18th, Len has now got the posters done and it is indeed a motherload - 220 to be precise. Any ideas for where to put them appreciated (phone boxes and traffic junctions have already been suggested, cheeeeers!)

21/2/09: Good picture to scare young children

Was looking on the web to try and find an e-mail address for ex-CWCC paceman Kit Jillings so I could invite him on tour, and found this terrifying picture of the man himself doing some sort of card trick. What the hell is going on, and is he available for kids parties? Find out at  http://www.cdha.nshealth.ca/default.aspx?page=DocumentRender&doc.Id=1013

Kit Jillings

But Kit is not the only CWCC man with an unwelcome web presence, as members of our Facebook group will know. I'm still reeling from the discovery that there's an Eric Rayfield Appreciation Society on Facebook... it was started by a couple of Plaxtol batsmen who scored fifties against his bowling last season. It only has four members - however, you know we appreciate you Eric...

18/2/09: Letters sent to Cudham CC

I've just sent out letters to eight members of Cudham CC (thanks to Dave Rippingdale for the addresses) inviting them to join the club this season. It would be great if we get some new signings so fingers crossed!

Also the poster advertising campaign is proceeding at last - I've done a limited print run with a borrowed laminator and distributed them at nets, and I'll be down there again this week with some more. Len is getting the motherload of them done separately at his work, so when that happens we'll be having a meeting to discuss how best to distribute.

16/2/09: Honours board causes controversy + dinner date

Thanks for all the comments about the honours board (even if they are all complaining about missed entries!). Our records of five-wicket hauls in particular are obviously not quite as complete as the centuries, but I hope to be able to track down all the ones taken since 1990 at least. In the meantime if you are a 'stato' and have a reliable record of one of your performances I've missed then don't hesitate to let me know...

In other news we now have a date for the club dinner this year (November 7) so put it in your diaries. The venue will be Cherry Lodge Golf Club again.

9/2/09: All fixtures sorted

Big hand to my Dad who has completed the whole fixture list for the year - see the fixtures tab for the full list. One notable Sunday friendly is against Belnor, who are the team that Gareth Messenger now plays for.

On a personal note I'm looking forward to organising the tour again. So far I have had expressions of interest from Dave Godden, Paul Inwood, Mike Kelson, Chris Barnes, Pete Ingrey, Danny & Joe Thomas and Andy Burnham, as well as Ryan and me obviously. Not bad considering I haven't even sent out the letter yet.

By the way check out the new 'Hall of Fame' and 'Honours Board' tabs...while I am disappointed to be kept out of the top ten by some bloke I've never heard of, at least I have the pleasure of being 50 wickets ahead of Big Al. Sweet.

7/2/09: Ground looking good

Dan has sent me this pic of the ground covered in snow. Take a good look - it's the smoothest you'll see the outfield this year...

Snow at Cudham

2/2/09: Ingrey and Brockett - snow friends

The heavy snow at the weekend meant that only two people turned up at nets - Pete Ingrey and Russell Brockett. They had half an hour's batting each. Bless 'em. The rest of us were just being flakey!

1/2/09: Tour fixtures confirmed

Good news - fixtures are sorted for our tour in Aug/Sep. They are:

Sun Aug 30 - Stockton

Mon Aug 31 - Bishop's Castle

Tue Sep 1 - Knockin & Kinnerley

Wed Sep 2 - Warwick University Staff

The first and last games are in Warwickshire while the middle two are in Shropshire, so I haven't yet decided whether we should stay in the same hotel throughout or have a different ones. Once I know who's interested I'll be asking for your opinions.

26/1/09: Sam is the new Alex

Another good turnout down nets last night (thirteen people) with Mr Merron putting in his first appearance of the winter. With Big Al strangely missing, Sam looked like he was trying to fill the Harding shoes... phoning up lost on the way there... turning in a nonchalant batting performance and blatantly chucking off spinners... then leaving without paying! It's official... Sam is the new Alex! 

13/1/09: Ron to appear on Krypton Factor

Fans of cheesy TV may be interested to hear that former CWCC member Aaron Bell is making an appearance as a contestant on Krypton Factor (I think he said that the episode is coming out on February 12). He won't tell me how he fares for fear of ruining the suspense. I'm taking that to mean that he comes off the zip line on the assault course and falls face down in the mud to be laughed at by Gordon Burns...!!

4/1/09: Blimey! What a turnout

Sixteen people made it to our first net session - a good effort particularly as it is so freezing. It just shows how keen everybody is in the club at the moment. On a personal note I'm now less enthusiastic having picked up my first injury of the season (thigh strain), bowled like a drain and got dismissed about ten times by Alex and Shuaib!! Still, well done everybody for braving the winter conditions. If you didn't make it, then come along soon, they are every Sunday from now on.

3/1/09: New year, new nets

Happy new year to all. Just a reminder that our first net session of the year takes place tomorrow (Sunday) and sessions will run every Sunday after that until the season starts. Please come along and get up and running for the new season! We start at 7pm each Sunday and they last an hour - if you are unsure of how to get there then check the "About" tab. See you down there...

18/12/08: Help us to get up Google!

Having created this site, I'm currently trying to get Google to recognise how lovely it is. I'm told the key to this is getting other sites to link to your site (this obviously also helps the public find it). So have e-mailed a few well known sites to ask if we can have a listing, and some of them have already agreed! Check out how I'm getting on 'Affiliated links' on the Contacts and Links tab.

So if you're reading this and you/your organisation has your own website that would be happy to include a link to us, let me know as I can put in a reciprocal link that website and it helps both of us. Cheers!

6/12/08: League fixtures revealed for 2009

The league fixtures for next year are out. The firsts are starting off away to Chevening Amblers on May 9th while the seconds will host Shoreham II in their inaugural game on the same day. Check out the list here

5/12/08: Tour planning for 2009

Just to mention that plans are afoot to repeat our tour of Shropshire in 2009 - Ryan and I will be organising again. The dates for this will be August 30-Sept 2 with four games: unfortunately we can't have five this time because we'll have league games on the Sat. Four of the clubs who played us this year (Knockin, Bishop's Castle, Willey and Warwick Uni) have provisionally said they will play us again, fixtures to be confirmed after Christmas. Once that's done I'll be sending out a letter in the new year.

28/11/08: Amusing comment on CWCC showers

I was surfing around and Googling the club's name and found this amusing page written by one of our visitors last year (Crusaders CC). Love it - our showers got a fairly good write up!  http://crusaderscc.com/page7.htm

27/11/08: Publicity campaign to get underway

I was part of a working party which met this week (with Paul Inwood, Mike Kelson and Danny Thomas) to discuss publicity for getting new members in 2009. Obviously with the new second team, the more players we can on the books the better... anyway I'm designing a little poster which we're going to get printed and laminated, and a smaller flyer and card version. Then we're going to be roping in volunteers to post the things in every pub, sports club, church, library and town hall we can think of!

As proof of the power of advertising, it was commented that two of the esteemed members present (Inwood and Kelson) came to the club via adverts. We decided to press ahead regardless - hopefully we'll recruit some better quality this time (only joking lads).

22/11/08: Beames to lead second team in 2009

Exciting news from the AGM earlier this week (and that's one of the few occasions you'll hear the words exciting and AGM in the same sentence). Our Saturday second team has been approved by the league and is all set to launch for 2009. John Beames was voted in as captain. Having acted as vice-captain for the Silver Fox on Sundays in the past, I can testify that he is an uncompromising skipper in the Nasser Hussain/Steve Waugh mould and will rule the 2nds with a rod of iron.

The other change to the committee was that Andy Burnham has stepped down as secretary after many years of devoted service... and I've taken on the role. This leaves social secretary vacant if anyone wants a new job!

There were no surprises with the other positions on the committee, which were the same as 2008: Danny Thomas (Captain/League Sec), Chris Barnes (Vice-Captain), Mike Kelson (Sunday Captain), John Wood (Chairman), Russell Brockett (Fixture Secretary), Eric Rayfield (Team Secretary/CSA), John Beames (Treasurer), Paul Messenger (Youth Coach).

17/11/08: Welcome to the Blogosphere!

Welcome to the first entry of my blog in which I will attempt to keep you updated with the latest news from the club. I don't expect there's anyone else reading this yet except my Mum and Dad (cheers guys!) but I know the idea will eventually catch on. After all there are a few web literate players in the club, even if our honourable captain doesn't know one end of a computer from the other...

I thought I would start with news of the awards presented at our club dinner, which was held on Nov 1st at Cherry Lodge Golf Club. The award winners were:

Congratulations are due to all, except Dan H. He might have been mystified to receive the green finger of doom from Kelson, but we all know why he got it!

It's also worth mentioning that Alex Harding was also given the batting and bowling awards from the league for getting the most runs and wickets in our division in 2008. This led to allegations at the league dinner that we are a one-man team... I think not.