April 2009 Cricket Shanghai Newsletter

Welcome to the 2009 Season

As discussed at last month’s AGM, the Council will be sending out a monthly Communique to all members going forward. As there is a lot to get you all up to speed on this first edition will be slightly longer than normal. We hope you find these monthly communications useful and please feel free to let us know where we can develop further to keep everyone up to date. The new 2009 Season is well under way and the Council’s plan to schedule double headers between all club’s Div 1 & Div 2 teams has been well received and good for inter-club rivalry.

Centaurs Tour to Shanghai

Centaurs CC: Great team & new friends of Cricket Shanghai

On April 4th, the Inaugural Centaurs CC v SCC Dragons clash for the Opium Bowl got underway. As is our long standing tradition for the Bokhara Cup v HKCC and the Breezer Trophy against Lamma CC, The Opium Bowl marks a new chapter in the SCC’s Representative clashes.

The weather on the Saturday was rather inclement but 2 determined teams still managed to play a full 50-overfixture through the constant drizzle. The Centaurs won the toss and elected to bat first. After some fiery bowling upfront by the Dragons bowlers the Centaurs clawed their way back from 90/5 in 25 overs and posted a competitive 216 for 9 from their 50 overs. The Centaurs resurgence was sparked by a quick-fire 30 from Rakesh Kumar and the innings was ultimately held together by a fantastic 83 not out by Ben Dickinson, guiding the Centaurs tail with authority past the 200 mark in very difficult and wet conditions. Sameer Jolly was the pick of the Dragons bowlers with 4 wickets for under 4 runs per over from his 10.

Victorious SCC Dragons after the 50-over Opium Bowl

The Dragons got off to a flying start with Hadleigh Churchill and Oliver Austin putting on 91 for the first wicket in 11 overs. The Centaurs however showed true grit in coming back and after breaking what was an exceptional opening stand Dragons wickets began to fall at regular intervals. The opening stand laid the foundation for what should have been a comfortable victory but when Yabba Saajid walked in to partner Sameer for the last wicket, 21 runs were still required for victory. Some tense moments were experienced by all but both the batsmen held their nerve and when Sameer clipped the wining boundary through mid-wicket the excitement and relief was tangible in the Dragons camp. All in all a great game and brilliant performance by Sameer Jolly with the ball and crucial knock down the lower order won him Man-of-the-Match award. Hadleigh Churchill also needs to be singled-out for his gritty 50 on debut for the Dragons.

Sunday the 5th, saw the Centaurs CC take on the SCC Pirates in The T20 Silk Road Cup. The Pirates led by Denzyl Allwright batted first and posted 135. Phil Mildenhaal top scored with 36for the Pirates while another Centaurs recruit Desmond da Silva bowled phenomenally well picking up 3 for 9 in his 4 over spell. The Centaurs struggled initially with the opening bowling of skipper Allwright and Mildenhaal. A few quick wickets brought Stephen Lowe to the wicket with the Centaurs under pressure. Some missed chances in the field by the Pirates effectively signed their fate, as Lowe dispatched the bowling to all areas of the field. Upon his arrival to the crease the Centaurs required 9 runs per over to seal the victory and the fact that Lowe took them home with still nearly 2 overs to spare is testament to how freely he scored.

Centaurs Captain, Keith Hemshall Presents the Opium Bowl

In conclusion, it was a great weekend of close competitive cricket for all involved and a new friendship with the Centaurs CC has been forged with this exciting new annual fixture. Lastly many thanks to Keith Hemshall, the Centaurs captain, for working so hard to make this tour a reality. It’s always a challenge organizing an overseas tour and the fact the Centaurs arrived with a very competitive squad is indicative of how well this trip was organized. The Dragons look forward to defending the Opium Bowl in Hong Kong!!

Special Thanks To:
Santa Fe Relocation Services, SCC League Sponsor, were exceptionally helpful in allowing us use of their shuttle bus for the Centaurs during their stay. They were picked up at the airport, taken to games and evening functions by Santa Fe’s driver. Santa Fe also provided and erected tents at the grounds for both Saturday and Sunday fixtures which made the contrasting weather for both days more bearable for all. As an organization with very limited financial resources we are very grateful for the help that sponsors like Santa Fe give the Council in organizing such events. The Centaurs commented many times on how well they were received and looked after and a lot of this credit should go to James Gooding and Santa Fe for their willingness to add value to our visitors stay here. Again, many thanks from everyone!

Upcoming Tours

SCC vs Japan National XI: April 30thto May 4th/5th (Tokyo to Mt. Fuji, Japan)
The sport’s governing body in Japan, the JCA, wasso impressed at how we all hosted the Japanese Women’s team last year at the Shanghai Sixes that they are returning the favour. It is not often that our members would get the opportunity to play against National XI but JCA has invited us to play at their national academy grounds at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Credit must go to Ainsley Mann for organizing this tour. A few notices have already been sent out about this tour and a full squad of Shanghai tourists will be on their way this weekend. Best of luck on another ground breaking tour to our Cricket Shanghai members.

China Cup – SCC Dragons vs Beijing CC Lions, May 17th
We will be hosting the Beijing CC Lions on the weekend of May 16/17. The Dragons will be playing the 50-over China Cup fixture on Sunday 17th. We are the defending champions for this fixture so please contact me on your availability for this fixture. The China Cup has become one of our annual highlights and let’s get a strong team together for that weekend with lots of supporters coming to the ground. Please let me know your availability to play in this fixture by May 10th at president@cricketshanghai.com

Council Developments

Firstly, a sad farewell to Denzyl Allwright who for various work commitments has had to step down as Council Secretary. Denzyl has been involved with administering activities since 2007 and his efforts and energy will be sorely missed by the Council. Denzyl’s organization of the ground breaking North Korea tour, recruitment and co-ordination of official umpires for the Santa Fe Premier League and his streamlining of communications with club representatives were his major contributions to what is now a successful and fast-growing organization. A big thank you to Denzyl from all Cricket Shanghai Members and the Council for your service to the game we all love so much. Please note that for now all previous official communications should now be directed to me and all playing issues still to Mike Tsesmelis. As part of the formalizing and re-structuring of our organization, the Council members have all been given official email addresses in order to streamline communications and to entrench the new brands that come with such a changes. The

Shanghai Cricket Councils new contact details are as follows:
President: Jon Newton president@cricketshanghai.com
Vice-President: Mike Tsesmelis operations@cricketshanghai.com
Treasurer: George Kapitelli finance@cricketshanghai.com
PR & Media: Hannah Carter media@cricketshanghai.com
Events & IT: Deepak Nautiyal events@cricketshanghai.com

Our new website is under construction and the design thereof has nearly been finalized. Please make use of shanghaicricket.sportzvault.com which is now up and running and a very useful tool. All schedules for the league have already been uploaded an all players are now required to be registered prior to playing, and results and individual scores to be inputted within 72 hours of game completion.

As voted in at the AGM, the previous committee has now become a Council as due to phenomenal
growth there are now as many as 16 odd teams with various club committees. The Shanghai Cricket Club with its 150 plus years of history still exists in the form of the SCC Dragons and Pirates and its status as a representative team for players from any club remains unchanged. The Council is now tasked with organizing all activities related to Cricket Shanghai. For the sake of simplification, Cricket Shanghai as a term will replace what we all used to refer to as the Club as we have now grown way beyond this definition. Cricket Shanghai encompasses the Council, member Clubs and teams, all individual playing members, all 3 Leagues, all events and the Shanghai Cricket Club representative teams. We are facing very exciting times this year and while the above issues are all very exciting, possibly the organizational structures that have been put in place in the individual clubs so far heralds a year of greater professionalism and cooperation with Cricket Shanghai. Let’s all keep improving as we take our beloved sport to new heights in Shanghai.

Jon Newton
President, Cricket Shanghai