By Graeme Broker
Executive Officer

The 2007/08 season was an interesting and enjoyable one for South Canterbury Cricket.

Representative teams had mixed success with some notable performances.

GRAEME BLANCHARD INDOOR TRAINING CENTRE
This centre was officially opened in March 2005 and contains three lanes and a bowling machine.

Representative sides, club sides, schools and individuals use the centre.

REPRESENTATIVE
The Speights senior mens side participated in the Hawke Cup zone elimination matches and enjoyed wins over West Coast and Mid-Canterbury. The team was coached by Chris Leonard and there were some notable performances the most significant being the innings of 225 by Craig Davies against Mid-Canterbury.

The Senior Women were coached by Richard Davidson and generally performed well. The team won three out of six games.

The following age group teams participated in the respective tournaments:
Year 5 – 6
Development
Primary A
Under 15
Under 17
Under 19
Under 15 girls
Under 17 girls

CLUB CRICKET
The numbers participating in the various Club competitions increased from the previous season in both afternoon grades and at junior level.

The senior two-day competition was closely contested with five of the six sides having the opportunity of qualifying for the final going into the last game. Temuka who were actually in 5th position going into the last game won the round robin contest.

Timaru won the two-day final in an interesting game that was unfortunately affected by rain.

Celtic who defeated Timaru won the senior one-day competition.

Winners of other grades were:
Senior Reserve Celtic
Second Grade Waimate
Presidents “ Pirates
Fourth “ Roncalli Blue
Womens Roncalli
J.A.B. A Celtic
J.A.B. B Celtic White

The fourth grade competition this season had eleven teams including two from Mid-Canterbury. A team from Ashburton College participated in the Womens grade.

ADMINISTRATION
The offices of South Canterbury Cricket and the Boardroom are located within the Graeme Blanchard Centre.

Harvey King chairs the Board. Other Board members are Graham Ward, George Harper, Alan Annett and Peter Scott.

The offices of South Canterbury Cricket are the bases for Community Development Officer, Richard Davidson and part time Executive Officer, Graeme Broker.

The year ended 30 June 2008 resulted in a reasonable financial position for the Board.

GROUNDS
The Aorangi Oval wicket produced playing pitches of a high calibre during the season. The Board gave all Senior Clubs the opportunity to play on the ground during the season.

The Board is fortunate to have the services of Groundsman, Brian Hyslop. In addition to having the responsibility for the Aorangi Oval Brian is available to advise other groundsman from various clubs in South Canterbury.

CONCLUSION
The end of season function was held at the Speights Ale House on 9 April 2008. We were fortunate to have N.Z. Cricket Chief Executive, Justin Vaughan as guest speaker.

There were over a 100 present, a larger crowd than had attended for a number of years. The evening was well arranged by staff of the Speights Ale House and we are extremely grateful to them.

Planning is well under way for the coming season and winter training is now in full swing.

Thanks to all players and administrators for contributing to a busy and successful season.

Harvey King
Chairman
South Canterbury Cricket

It is my pleasure to present the Chairman’s report for the 2007/08 season

With a solid foundation the association continues to administer cricket in South Canterbury in a positive fashion. It was a pleasure to chair such a positive solid all round board and my thanks go to all of them.

George Harper and Allan Annett are resigning this year. Their common sense and sharp business minds have been a real asset to us and I wish them well for the future.

Graham Broker has continued to run the day to day affairs in his calm and efficient manner and the sound financial position we are in is a credit to him. Having continuity in the Executive officer role for two years is certainly a benefit for us.

To our loyal supporters in the business community and gaming industry thank you for your continued support. It is very important that we acknowledge your help and continue to administer South Canterbury Cricket in an efficient way to warrant your continued support.

I would like to thank all the clubs for their contribution to a very successful season. It goes to show when the communication goes both ways issues are readily solved and we can all get on with playing and enjoying the game.

The club assist programme proved successful and we hope to build on the programme this year by using the Canterbury Cricket club development officer to implement more benefits to clubs by way of coaching and running practices. If we all continue to raise the bar then our game will grow stronger and continue to be attractive to new players.

Our senior rep team continues to perform adequately but has not reached their full potential. Chris Leonard has been the coach for the past two seasons and has done a tireless job. The same old issues keep raising their head. Player availability at crucial times and the lack of a regular manager affect the performance of the team. The board is determined to try and address some of these issues raised by Chris and the players so that we may once again challenge for the Hawke Cup.

On a positive note, two highlights of the season were Todd Elliotte’s performance in taking the highest number of senior representative wickets which is testimony to his outstanding career for South Canterbury, and Craig Davies double century against Mid Canterbury.

Our junior rep teams continue to perform with distinction and this is a credit to these players and the volunteer coaches and managers that look after them.

Richard Davidson’s development program continues to blossom and the number of contacts Richard has with schools is a testament to his enthusiasm and commitment. Richard’s coaching skills are there to be used and we encourage anyone who wants one on one or group coaching to talk to Richard. He is a level two coach and right up to date with all the new techniques.

The recent 25 year plan of Aorangi Park drawn up by the SGL Group highlighted the need for an upgrade of the Aorangi Park pavilion. This building has served its purpose and is in need of some major renovations to bring it up to modern day standards but these have been included in the 8 to 10 year stage of the development. Cricket will have to decide if we want to wait that long or find some money to bring the renovations forward. It also shows that we need to use the Aorangi cricket bowl more than we do and with better planning it is our intention to get as much cricket as possible on the oval.

To our Umpires and scorers who continue to give of their time thank you. It is always better to have umpires standing than players doing the job so if you are looking for something to do on a Saturday contact the local umpires through the South Canterbury office.

To all our grounds men who put in many hours around the district preparing pitches, your time and effort is greatly appreciated and we are very fortunate to have quality pitches for club and Representative Fixtures.

Congratulations to John Ward who has recently been awarded the honour of a Pillar of Pride at the AMI Stadium in Christchurch. This is a fabulous recognition of a wonderful career for New Zealand, Canterbury and South Canterbury and we all wish John, Shirley and the family all the best for the unveiling on the 18th September.

Despite Richard Reid shifting camps to the Highlanders and Otago rugby, the close relationship he helped to build up with the districts has continued and our thanks go to all the staff at Canterbury cricket. I am sure that Lee Germon’s close ties with South Canterbury will help continue this relationship.

In closing I would like to wish everybody involved with cricket all the very best for the upcoming season and look forward to catching up during the season.

By Richard Davidson
South Canterbury Community Cricket Officer

HAG Centres

• Fairlie, Craighead (y7), Craighead (y8),  St Joes,  Holiday
  (20)

Kiwi Centre

• Craighead, Grantlea, Temuka, Bluestone, Timaru Christian, St Andrews,
  Highfield.

Milo Cup and Shield

• 20 Cup sides

• 10 Shield sides

• Again, running the Kiwi and HAG programmes through the school system
  was very successful as well as putting the teachers through coach
  education courses.

Holiday Programmes

• 4 holiday programmes were held through July, September, December
  and April attracting 80 children

Coach Education

• HAG Courses x 3 with 40 participants

• Kiwi Courses x 1 with 6 participants

• Getting Started  x 1 with 3 participants (1 course to be
  run in April Holidays)

• Level 2 Refresher with 3 participants

Other School Competitions

Primary:

• Year 5-6, 12 teams in Temuka, Geraldine and Timaru

• Summer tournament , run over 1 day with 14 year 5-6 teams and 18
  year 7-8 teams

• Quick Hit, 4 teams

• Primary sides knocked out in first round played extra games under
  shortened format

Secondary

• NZCT Girls, 5 teams

• Gillette Cup, 5 teams

• NZCT Year 6, 7 teams

• Super 8,s 8 teams

Interfirm

• Timaru, 13 teams

• Geraldine, 6 teams

• Waimate, 8 teams

Leadership Courses

• 2 in 2007 and 2 booked in for 2008

Representative Season

• Year 5-6 – 3rd

• Development – 3rd

• Primary A – 6th

• U15 – 3rd

• U17 – 3rd

• U19 – 5th

• Senior – 3nd

• U15 Girls – 4th

• U17 Girls – 3rd

• Senior Woman – 2nd equal

Milo Initiatives

All schools in the South Canterbury region have been visited throughout the 2004-2005 season and welcomed the Milo and Kiwi awareness lessons of which many wanted to repeat them during the latter part of the season.

With the help of the Hospital Board, South Canterbury Cricket set up a pilot project called WAVE, which stands for ‘Welfare and Vitality in Education.
Initially we engaged 5 primary schools to take part in a coaching project which linked young people with local community cricket clubs, with the ultimate goal being more people playing cricket.

In the short term, more children were physically active through cricket in schools, and the long term being physically active in their leisure time through cricket with clubs. Although numbers of cricketers never increased dramatically, cricket alternatives (eg modified games) played a big part in their development. With Cricket Clubs now firmly affiliated with school sides, they realize that there is a Club/School identity.

Community Cricket Initiatives

As an integral part of the Community Cricket Initiatives, South Canterbury Cricket looked at ways to improve the standard of club cricket, and believed this could be achieved through better organised, more purposeful practice sessions.

We offered the clubs the opportunity to improve their practice procedures through funding, guidance and assistance on how to set up a quality practice programme with well structured weekly sessions.

For the funding to become available , each club had to meet certain criteria including appointing a coaching co-ordinator, attend a coaching workshop and then return a brief review of the outcomes at the end of the season. Providing each club met its obligations a grant of $300 was made to be used at the discretion of the club. The South Canterbury Cricket Association also provided resources to the value of $300 to help the practice procedures including cones, stumps, balls, baseball mitt etc. The six Senior sides in South Canterbury took up this opportunity which was widely acclaimed as being a success.

Club Cricket

Club Cricket in South Canterbury has increased it playing numbers slightly in the past season with an increase at JAB level of 4 teams and in the year 9-10 age group of an extra 3 teams. This has come about of the good work done at Timaru Boys High where their numbers have increases from 75 boys in 2006 to over 135 in 2007-08. Much of this increase is due to the different formats of the game available to boys. (super 8s, slog sixes, interfirm etc).

Celtic was victorious in the 1 day competition, chasing Timaru’s 160 all out reached the total with 5 wickets down.

In the two day Tweedy cup final, Temuka lost on the first innings to Timaru. Batting first Temuka were dismissed for 258 and in reply Temuka batted poorly to be all out for 108. In their second turn at bat Timaru faired little better and were all out for 108 leaving Temuka 258 for victory in 37 overs. When bad light stopped play Temuka were 156/6.

All senior sides had reasonable numbers and competed well in both forms of the game with many of the High School leavers filtering into the senior ranks. All other grades enjoyed success at different stages and with the increase in player numbers it put pressure on wickets which meant most weekends some teams had to play away from home. ( a good problem to have).

During the winter months, winter trainings at all age groups were were well attended with cricketers in the 14-16 age group the most promising with large numbers vying for the age group tournament team, This bids well for the future.

One of the issues that must be addressed by cricket administrators at both district and their Major is the availability of school leavers when they head on to tertiary education. Many of South Canterbury school leavers don’t even get the chance to play senior cricket in their association, let alone district cricket as they are snapped up by senior sides in Christchurh and promised the earth, only to be lost in the system.

Woman’s Cricket

Women’s Cricket in South Canterbury has decreased by 2 teams in the past season but increases in the numbers playing modified games. Some of the Milo Shield games have been played under the Quick Hit rules.

One of the positives is the inclusion of the Roncalli side which is made up of many of the girls that were part of the very successful St Joesephs Milo Shield side of a few years ago. In fact with the help of one of the teachers they won the Women’s grade competition with a good final against the Craighead side

At both the u15 and u17 tournaments the South Canterbury teams competed well, with the u15 side doing particularly well with a very young side.

At the senior level, the senior women were not quite as successful as previous years when they only won 3 of their 6 games in the defence of the Aotea Cup. Highlights in this competition would be beating comfortably the eventual winner, Southland on Aorangi Oval in the last game of the season. Batting first, Southland got through to 167/6.

Two girls, namely Janet Brehaut and Liza Grant made their State League debuts this season and should be integral parts of both the Canterbury and Otago setups for a number of years.

Roncalli obtained the services of Amber Boyce, who in her own right is a champion golfer and plays off a 1 handicap. At Aotea cup level she was hands above any of the players South Canterbury came up across and she should easily make the Magicians team if her golfing commitments allow her. She is currently training with Rowan Milburn.

Looking towards the 2008-2009 season

With a busy and reasonably successful cricket season behind us we can look forward to next season with allot of confidence. Implementation of the Milo and Club Cricket initiatives have been very successful and with more in the pipeline to be put into action in the forth coming season it appear that Primary, Secondary, and Club Cricket is once again getting stronger within the South Canterbury Cricket Association.

Many of the age group squads have been announced for the 2008/09 season, with games already been played with the neighbouring associations.