A letter from the President of Valentine Eleebana Cricket Club September 12th 2008

As the winter sports are finally drawing to a close we can now look forward to what is going to be the best summer of cricket since the club started in 2000. Much has changed during the off season, old committee members have stepped down to make way for a new bunch of members. On behalf of the club I truly cannot express my thanks and gratitude to Neil Best and Carl Morris for all of their help over the past 2 seasons. Neil is far from retired in fact he has moved sideways to coach the under 14 team and Carl will be ever present on a Saturday morning watching his son play his last season of juniors.

The club has officially had its name changed from the Valentine Eleebana Junior Cricket Club to the Valentine Eleebana Cricket Club. The club welcomes back sponsors ESP and if you are viewing this message you have managed to navigate your way around one of the best cricket websites in Newcastle. The www.vecc.com.au website is something you should save to favourites as it will become the hub of communication this season. Each week the club will update all sorts of topics from photographs to communication on various important events. You will also note the club has got a blog this is a diary of events and has a lot of information already on it this is a live document and members can comment on any topic on the blog. Please use your name if you intend to add a comment, and remember to please be polite as children will be reading it, non compliance with this will lead to removal.

Since the club first started in 2001 there has been many changes, in fact there have been a number of changes in cricket all round. The game (from a junior level) has moved into a faster and shorter format with the now permanent presence of the super 8 competition. Players as young as 7 can now play for an hour and a half on a Saturday morning to get an introduction into the game. This season the club will field 3 and possibly 4 super 8 teams. On a sadder note the very popular Milo program has seen a name change to In2Cricket with confusion over what that exactly is, this has been supported by poor media, promotion and information, as a result of this Milo numbers are down significantly which is not good for the club. I plan to take this up on an association level.

This season apart from super 8’s the VECC will field teams in all age divisions including 11 through to the 16-17’s some players are in their 7th season with the club and we will be honouring them throughout the 2008/09 season. From a senior perspective the club is on the verge of entering its fifth senior team making it one of the bigger senior clubs in Newcastle.

Pending council getting their act together VECC parents and players will see two new cricket pitches this season. The Valentine Soccer Oval pitch will be renovated and a new pitch will be built on Marks Oval Floraville as a home ground to the juniors and a possible senior fifth team. There are many new senior players who have come to the club this season together with old friends welcome and welcome back.

In 2008 the VECC has a volunteer appointed to be the fundraising Manger for this season. Please support Jill Hodson in her ideas and plans as it is all for the better of the club. I know she has a few things planned and once again all money raised goes toward your children, players and our club. The golf day scheduled for Sunday the 14th of October has been changed to late November. Apart for some committed seniors not one junior player was represented on this day, come on, we can do better than that. Money raised from this day will go directly to pay for the 2 new pitches costing the VECC around $4500.00 anyone out there who thinks these pitches are paid for completely by council “tell them there dreaming”, we need your help for your children.

Don’t forget some important dates for this season

20th of September is VECC Club day. The club would like to take this opportunity on behalf of cricket to thank all soccer associations for carrying the season well into spring and interrupting the summer sports preparation.

11th October the senior and junior season starts

17th October Friday night competition starts. Get your teams organised see the link on the main page. Parents can play with juniors the cost is $2.00 per person per game. Players opting to play for other clubs (junior and senior) are not eligible to play in the intra-club super 8 competition so please don’t register this is for VECC players and parents only.

So there it is, bring on the summer and bring on the cricket

See you all at training

David Jackson
President VECC