After all the excitement of our opening season at the new ground, and the fanfare of the Grand Opening Day, 2011 has been an altogether more sober year for the Club.  The biggest blow was the tragic loss of our President and benefactor, Carole Rawle.  She had been our greatest supporter and her death was a shock for everyone.  Already in our first season at Butt’s Field she had become a welcome a regular watcher of our home matches; her absence this summer has been felt keenly.

Plenty of cricket has been played this summer – by the senior side at weekends, by the Twenty20 League side on Tuesday evenings, and by the Juniors, who have enjoyed both weekly coaching and a number of competitive matches.  The Club played twenty-seven senior matches in all, winning fourteen and losing thirteen, and yet a number of others were cancelled or interrupted due to poor weather; it was amazing how often a week would be largely dry then the rain would tip down on the Sunday.  Still, no club can expect the kind of glorious endless summer weather we experienced in May and June last year. Read the rest of this entry »

The time has finally come for the club to dish out trophies to members of the club and what better way to do this than a night at the Horseshoes!

We have booked out the pub for Sunday 27th November at 7pm.
The cost is £15 per head and will include a 2 course meal and a couple of drinks.

Please let me know ASAP if you can make it, as the pub need to know our numbers.

Hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Browner.

davidmbrown@hotmail.co.uk

Good news!  The Foundation for the Sports & Arts have awarded the Club a grant of £25,000 as part our Phase 3 of the New Ground Development – the new pavilion.  We learned our application had been successful on the opening day of the History Festival but have now received written confirmation.  Our sincere thanks to the Board of the FSA for awarding us such a generous sum – all those hours spent filling in grant application forms have finally been proved worth it!

Those of you at the History Festival will have seen the plans and model of the proposed new pavilion, as designed by Alun Jones of Dow Jones Architects, London.  Dow Jones were awarded Architects of the Year last year in the refurbishment category, and Alun has certainly come up with a wonderful design.  As mentioned before, it is estimated that the entire project will cost no more than £100,00.  With just under £30,000 now in the bank we have a wonderful platform from which to push on with our fundraising.

A word of caution, however.  Although support has already been expressed by the Chairman of Bowerchalke Parish Council, Roderick Fisher, we do still need to reapply for planning; the reality is that we are still some way from seeing this wonderful new design emerge at Butts Field.  Nonetheless, we have already all achieved so much, and I have no doubt that we will be able to complete this Third Phase of the New Ground Development in the not too distant future.

I am glad to report that more than 3,500 people flocked to Butts Field on 7-9th July to enjoy the inaugural Chalke Valley History Festival.  Both Thursday and Friday were sell-out nights, while many of the eight Saturday events were met with capacity or near full crowds too. From TV historian, Michael Wood, to the trio of Amanda Vickery, Juliet Gardiner and Juliet Nicolson, to children’s author Michelle Paver and Horrible Histories, through to Tom Holland, Richard Miles, and John Julius Norwich, it was a programme that covered the passage of time from the ancient world to modern conflict in Afghanistan and crossed battlefields to the English home.

A huge thank you to Festival Committee and to all the Club members and friends who contributed in such a big way to what was a great success.  Despite the enormous outgoings this first year – a necessity to make sure we hit the ground running – we still made a profit of around £4,500, a much-needed sum that has exceeded expectation.

The plan is to continue with the Festival next year – provisional dates are 27th June – 1st July – with some even bigger names than took part in this first Festival.

So thank you, again, to everyone who made this possible – your help has been enormously appreciated.  James Heneage and James Holland.

Sunday, 3rd July 2011, was one of the historic days in our Club’s history, for beneath the bright sunshine of a glorious early July morning, Chalke Valley Under 11s recorded their first ever win.  And what a win: these eight boys and one girl absolutely crushed Steeple Langford.  It was a day of records: the least amount of wickets ever lost in this format (just two); the first time we had reached 205, but on they batted until 275 was passed, then 300, until the final tally was a staggering 328-2, beating the highest score ever taken off our own bowling both last season and this.

As the players arrived at Butts Field, there was little to suggest such a momentous game was about to be played.  Three of the regular team players were away at a football tournament and another at cub camp.  And they were one short.

Yet it says much of the enormous depth of talent and of the great strides the entire squad has made this season that stand-in captain Tom Mayhew could call upon a solid bowling attack, keen fielders and a batting line-up that had both the guts and determination not only to score runs but crucially in this format, to not easily give away their wicket.

Put into bat, Tom Mayhew and Harry Warman showed both defiance and flair, and although they were undone by smart fielding and a decent bit of bowling, they led from the front; and theirs were the last wickets of the innings.  The innings was accelerated by some clean hitting from both Ned Holland and Harry Heneage, while Felix Woodroffe and Linus Bates also added to the mounting tally.  Sam Wharmby then demonstrated how much his batting has improved this summer, while Maisie Grant and Will Hodgson not only continued to play shots, but ensured their wickets were never given away.

The opening bowling spell by Ned Holland and Harry Heneage set the tone for the Langford innings as wickets began to tumble.  Following spells by Felix Woodroffe, Harry Warman and Will Hodgson, and return spells from Holland and Heneage saw wickets continue clatter.  Both Holland and Heneage had opportunities for hat-tricks.  In all, twelve Langford wickets fell, three to superb pieces of fielding. 

But perhaps what was most striking was that this side played and worked together as a team.  There were no weak links.  Tom Mayhew encouraged his team continually; each boundary hit was greeted with cheers and shouts of delight; each wicket celebrated with rounds of high-fives.  The side were worthy victors and showed that within our Under 11 squad there is both talent and a resolve that will stand them all in great stead in the future.

It was a concerted team effort that saw Chalke Valley comfortably win against Steeple Langford at home last night.  On a sunny but blustery night, Dingle won the toss and chose to bat, our side hitting 141 in our twenty overs.  Most of the senior batsmen contributed, with a number of lusty blows – there were seven sixes in all, not least one huge clearance of the boundary by Joe Brewer and three alone from Chimp Jeffery.

In contrast, Langford never cleared the ropes once.  Tight opening bowling from Hugo Marland and Joe Brewer, followed by similarly controlled overs from Milky Johnson and Chimp Jeffery – and some very tidy keeping by Will Fortescue – ensured that Langford were always behind the pace.  With four overs to go and still forty short, the opposition were unable to overcome the guile of the old-timers, Stuart Verdin and the Hon. Secretary, who cleaned up with three and two wickets apiece.

When the Valley concentrate and work together, we can be a very hard side to beat indeed.

It’s been a funny old season so far: cloudless skies and temperatures rising in April and May and then cloud and rain since the beginning of June.  Matches have been on one week, cancelled the next, either because of the weather or because of an opposing side calling off.

As usual with Chalke Valley, performances have been inconsistent: a superb performance against Shrewton in the T20 League followed by 85 for the innings against Fovant.  Nonetheless, in the League, we have won five, lost three, and our weekend fixtures have included a thumping ten wicket victory over Steeple Langford.

Another encouraging sign has been the emergence of new players, not least Tom Ceyzer and Harry Bennett, both from the Valley, and who have both became mainstays of the side.  Leading from the front, as ever, has been our skipper, Dingle, with his usual glut of runs, including four half centuries (and two eighties).

Junior cricket has also been continuing apace.  The Under 15s have forged a strong squad and the Under 11s, under the captaincy of Kieron Hayes, have shown considerable improvement on last year.  However, it has been a great disappointment that the Under 13s, despite having three superb coaches, have not been strong enough in numbers to field a full eleven.

Another disappointment has been the lack of children practicing up at the ground in between coaching sessions and matches.  The facilities up there are to be used and enjoyed.  Ian Newman continues to do an amazing job maintaining the ground – it looks incredible.  As ever, we like to see as many people up at the ground as possible.  There are always drinks to be drunk, and at weekends, tea and cake etc.

Finally, a big thank you to Bowerchalke residents for providing two beautiful new benches for the ground, one in memory of our beloved President, Carole Rawle, and the other to one of the Club’s great supporters, Dick Low.  They are fine additions to the ground.

It was good to see Adam Rouse in the field at the Rosebowl yesterday.  Adam was one of two Hampshire CCC cricketers who joined us at our Natwest Cricketforce Day back in April, where he not only played a soft-ball game with the Juniors but also gave a batting masterclass in the nets.  Yesterday, however, he was on fielding duty for England and caught out the Sri Lankan captain and world No.3 ranked batsman, Kumar Sangakkara.

Congratulations to Liam Perry and Ned Holland who have been selected for the Under 11s and Under 10s District sides this season.  These two are the first boys to play for the next level.