ISSUE 7 | DECEMBER 2023 | PAGE 1
ELLERSLIE CRICKET NEWSLETTER PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY: ELLERSLIE CRICKET CLUB'S OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 7 PAGE 1 Centenary Dinner PAGE 2 Upcoming Events PAGE 3 Club News
PAGE 4 Ray White Ellerslie PAGE 5 Junior & Senior Club PAGE 6 The Names Behind our Teams
PAGE 7 Photos & Sponsors
CENETENARY DINNER
Ellerslie Cricket Club is proud of our rich history and look forward to hosting our long awaited Centenary Dinner in February 2024. Decorated Kiwi cricketer John Wright will be attending as our Guest Speaker, and we will be hosting a Q&A session with past and present Premier Players. Along with this, there will be an auction for some awesome items. This is going to be the celebration of the century so make sure you secure your tickets now!
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021 873 150 Published: 12/23
ISSUE 7 | DECEMBER 2023 | PAGE 2
UPCOMING EVENTS HOLIDAY PROGRAMME We are excited to announce we will be bringing back our Holiday Programme for a week in January, which will be run by our Director of Junior Cricket Alex Cormack alongside some awesome coaches. We will be confirming the dates and times as soon as possible so keep an eye out on our communication channels for more information.
GOLF DAY Our annual Golf Day is back for another year and this time we are delighted to be partnering with Howick Golf Club to bring you this fun day out! Make sure to book your spot in now at manager@ellersliecricket.co.nz
CRICSTARS PROGRAMME We are pleased to announce our CricStars Programme will be back for 2024 and bigger than ever! CricStars was started in 2022 at the Ellerslie Cricket Club. We have since delivered the program to many participants across two years. Our programme is well supported and endorsed by our partners Aktive, Sport Auckland, Auckland Cricket, Disability Sport Auckland and the wider cricket community. We would love as many 5-21 year olds to be CricStars this summer!Thanks to the support of many organisations, we are expanding CricStars across Auckland to make CricStars more accessible. Our locations are: Ellerslie Cricket Club Howick-Pakuranga Cricket Club Suburbs New Lynn Cricket Club Birkenhead City Cricket Club
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021 873 150 Published: 12/23
ISSUE 7 | DECEMBER 2023 | PAGE 3
CLUB NEWS CHAIRMAN’S NOTE
It has been a great start to the 2023/24 season and I’d like to congratulate all the players, coaches and managers for their dedication and effort so far. In particular, the junior club has seen some terrific results from the Friday and Saturday teams, as well as our new JT Sparling teams which have been put together by Junior Director of Cricket Alex Cormack. As a club we remain in good shape. We are in a strong position financially thanks to all those who have paid subs on time (a big thanks to you all) as well as the generous support of our sponsors and grant funders this season. This has enabled us to introduce new initiatives including supporting our junior touring team to Napier in January, as well as our super new Ray White Ellerslie junior shirts. Please support Ray White Ellerslie if you are looking to put your house on the market;
VALE ROBYN WOOLFORD On behalf of Ellerslie Cricket we would like to send our heartfelt condolences to ex-Board member David Woolford for the loss of his beloved wife Robyn after a short illness. Today and always, may loving memories bring you peace, comfort, and strength.
MICHAES AVE COMMUNITY CENTRE Our new Michaels Ave Community has been humming over the cricket season! It’s currently open on Thursday evenings and Saturdays for food and beverages - it’s a great place to enjoy a drink and watch some cricket. Please note that over the Christmas period, the MACC will be closed from Sunday 17 December - Friday 12 January.
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Arthur and his team will do a fantastic job for you. There are many things to look forward to in the second half of the season including, the most important off-field is our Golf Day and Centenary Dinner on 16th and 17th February. We encourage all our members and the wider ECC community to support these events. Please also support our clubrooms facility (Michaels Avenue Community Centre). The venue is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturdays and is becoming very popular with our members and the community alike. On behalf of the ECC Board, we wish our cricket community a safe and happy festive season, and we look forward to seeing you back at Michaels Avenue early next year.
ROB HARMAN, CLUB CHAIRPERSON
KEY DATES Sat 6 Jan: Sat 13 Jan: Fri 9 Feb: Sat 10 Feb: Fri 16 Feb: Sat 17 Feb: Sun 18 Feb: Mon 19 Feb: Sat 23 Mar:
Premier/Reserve Cricket returns All Senior cricket returns Friday Skills returns All Junior cricket returns Golf Day Centenary Dinner CricStars begins Sunset Smash begins Season ends
Shop all the latest ECC apparel via Cricket Express! Items include, hoodies, training tops and a range of hats! Buy now at cricketexpress.co.nz
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021 873 150 Published: 12/23
ISSUE 7 | DECEMBER 2023 | PAGE 5
JUNIOR CLUB
The start to the 2023/24 season has been a successful one for our Junior Programmes, despite some unfavourable weather conditions at times. We have seen our playing numbers rise to 180 kids, with 128 of them playing weekly matches against other clubs, and the remaining 52 partaking in the Friday Night Skills Programme. Our matchplay programme has also kicked off in good fashion, despite losing a few weekends due to the rain and some matches being forfeited by opposition teams, with our 9 hardball teams competing in 52 hardball games so far. The Friday Night Skills Programme has also got off to a successful start under the watchful eye of Coach Akshay, with numbers rising from mid 20’s at the start of the season to 52 pre-Christmas. Overall it has been a great start to the season and I look forward to what 2024 will bring! On behalf of the Junior Club staff, I hope you all have a safe Christmas and New Year break. See you back at The Ave soon!
ALEX CORMACK, DIRECTOR OF JUNIOR CRICKET
SENIOR CLUB
JT SPARLING SUPER SERIES
We have been lucky enough to enter a team in the JT Sparling Super Series for the first time! Matches are played against the best of Cornwall, Parnell, Grafton, and Howick Pakuranga. The boys have have additional training sessions every Friday from 4pm 6:20pm and kicked off the series with a dominant 100 run win over Parnell! They have enjoyed the extra cricket and have found the competition beneficial to the development of their skills and game understanding. The Senior Club started with a roar in October, with big wins across the board in the first few rounds. Our Grade Cricket sides all tasted success, with the Premiers getting wins against Hibiscus Coast and Kumeu, and the Reserves went 3 from 3 to start the Two Day competition. Our Presidents team have had some good victories, courtesy of some big runs at the top of the order from Ollie Nation and Nyle Major. As we've rolled into the back half of November and early December, injuries and absences have slowed our winning ways down a touch, but I'm looking forward to a strong preChristmas finish from the Senior sides, as we look to solidify our table positions before the break.
COREY PARR-THOMSON, SENIOR CLUB CHAIRPERSON
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021 873 150 Published: 12/23
ISSUE 7 | DECEMBER 2023 | PAGE 6
THE NAMES BEHIND OUR TEAMS We have a range of new teams this season and a number of teams named after key people at our Club so it only makes sense to match the name to the face! Our Junior Softball teams are all named after ECC life members. To name a few:
Alex Cormack (U10)
Frank Lancaster (Y4)
Joe Wilkinson (U10)
Mark Benefield (Y3)
Warren Chapman (Y4) ... Can you spot some of our current board members?
Sam Edkins (U10) “After coaching at the Club since 2013, it was a really special moment for me and my family to find out that an ECC junior side was going to be named after me. It's been really cool seeing the Juniors hanging around to watch the Seniors play and was awesome to hear them cheer me on when I took a wicket!”
ECC prides ourselves on our rich and deep history, and we think it’s important to commemorate the number of people who have helped build Ellerslie into what it is today. This is also applied to a number of key current people who are paving the way in our Senior space. Our hardball teams are named after: Joe Ganner (U11)
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Corey Parr Thomson (U15)
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021 873 150 Published: 12/23
ISSUE 7 | DECEMBER 2023 | PAGE 7
OUR SUPPORTERS We are grateful for our sponsors for this season and thank them for their support of our Club this Summer!
THE SEASON SO FAR IN PHOTOS
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021 873 150 Published: 12/23