Chairman’s update – 12th July 2018
Apologies for the long overdue update. We are well and truly into the heart of the season now and things are rolling along as expected. The weather has been fantastic and very few games have been compromised due to that.
Belgian League
Our first team’s progress in the Belgian second division has been steady (Played 3, won 2), in T20 comp likewise (Played 4, won 3) as well as the second team (Played 2, won 1). In relation to the second team, Division 5 set up has changed, unhelpfully mid-season, by including semi-finals and finals matches at the back end of the season. This is putting a strain on our fixtures, as we always have a packed schedule. But we will do our best to accommodate. In the LCF competition, WOCC is defending its title pretty well (Played 5, won 4).
Availability has been very good for all BCF and the friendly games which is good to see. There have also been some stand-out performances to date, including Ben Embleton’s 155* vs ICCB, Richard Neale’s 187* vs Strasbourg CC and Vikram Vijh’s 6-41 vs ICCB.
Televie Event in May
Following on from my last update, the Walferdange Commune held a huge local fund-raising event as part of the national Televie fund-raising, culminating on 24th May. The OCC also played its part by hosting a food tent which reflected our diverse membership – tea & cakes and curry! It was a great success and, along with the fund-raising during the annual awards dinner, we were able to donate approximately EUR 2500 to the cause. Many thanks to all those volunteers who helped before and on the day.
International Tournament
Last weekend, we hosted Luxembourg’s first international tournament. Although the event was organised by the LCF, I would like to thank all the ground-staff for their hard work in making sure that the ground was ship-shape for the matches.
Six-a-side Competition – this weekend!
Just a reminder, we have our annual sixes weekend coming up. Thanks to Vikram Vijh for organising. The usual format of nine teams of six players playing several games a day and sitting in the sun, enjoying the atmosphere, drinking the beer, eating the BBQ food (thanks Tim Andrews), and of course laughing your head off at the hilarious live commentary. Really funny stuff.
Ground
The Pavilion project is still ongoing. However, the Televie event did take a lot of the commune’s attention, so we did not hassle them. Since then, we have had several exchanges and, indeed, I welcomed a group of commune representatives at the ground last weekend, to discuss the exact location of a building which would serve both the rugby and cricket clubs, but with separate facilities. This is still in concept stage, I was told, as there are many factors – budget, authorisation from the “Administration de la Nature et des Forets”, who have authority over the ground, which effectively forms part of a flood plain.
The new artificial wicket was installed in April, but we have had to change our plans due to the weather. We will look to make further changes at the end of the season, hopefully to reduce two wickets to one in a more central location. This will require some heavy machinery on the outfield, but we hope that it will recover for the 2019 season. We will contact you nearer the time for volunteers – not for the heavy machinery but for levelling, tensioning and nailing down the wicket.
Club History
It’s been a long time since the club was founded in the 1970s, and through the decades much of the club’s history has been lost or is simply languishing in the cellars and attics of past members. We are setting up a project to try and retrieve this and store it in a central location as well as on our website. New member and new Show Pony (you’ll understand after the sixes) Robert Sibson has kindly offered to help with this. If you have or know of anybody who has old publications, photos, score-books, then please let me or Robert know. A taster of what we’ve found in the photo from 1986...
Umpiring
With the increase in number of matches which we are trying to squeeze into a season, there is increased pressure on our existing pool of umpires. If anyone would be keen to learn how to become an umpire, then please get in touch with the club. As the adage goes, it’s the best seat in the house!
Just one final point, we are a club with an increasing membership and increasing demands on resources. All the work which goes into running it is voluntary. We rely on every member to help in whichever way they can to keep the club going. So please feel free to approach a committee member if you wish to help in any way, or simply be a good club-member by arriving early for games, to help set things up and help clear up after, keep the Wendy house tidy. It would be greatly appreciated.
We will be in touch once again soon. In the meantime, some fixed dates for your diary:
- 14th & 15th July – Sixes Tournament
- 17th to 21st July – Juniors Academy
- 15th August – Lagaan Cup
- Saturday 25th August – Cricket in Pink Charity Match
William Heath
Chairman