Dear all,
A warm welcome to the 2014 cricket season. As in previous, we would like to keep up the tradition of sending out a short message to all explaining various aspects of the upcoming season.
After a couple of years of low availability and some diminishing interest, we want to see people playing as much cricket as possible and enjoying their cricket. This season, we hope to inject our club with a new lease of life, achieved through a push for new members and by rebuilding internally. There will be a big push on the social side and, with a good variation of cricket to be played, we hope that there is something for everyone.
Firstly, we want to explain about membership and then we will cover fixtures and some other aspects. As mentioned above, the Optimists are working hard to attract new playing members to our club. Several important elements are involved in this but the first relates to Membership Fees. In order to encourage new members, the Club has decided that all new members will not have to pay any membership fees for their first year. We want to warmly welcome new players to the sport and the playing community and hence the Committee will be working hard to integrate new players in this way. In fact, through the winter indoor season, several new players have already been found and we look forward to seeing them making their debuts at Walferdange when they will be presented with their Club cap. We would like to encourage all of you to relay this message of free membership to anyone you may know who might be interested in taking up our sport.
Regarding fixtures, after quite some deliberation at the Club’s Committee level, it has been decided to only enter the 45 over league in Belgium and not the T20 tournament. This decision gives the Optimists eight important league games during the season with 4 matches at home and 4 away. These are the highlights of our season and training/selection will be focused on putting the best team out for these matches throughout the summer. Joost will be leading this team and am looking forward to some great cricket. Graham Cope has been asked to lead some specific training sessions ahead of each of the 8 games to get us all ready. These fixtures and the specific training sessions are as follows:-
Sunday 27 April OCC vs Hasselt home 13.00 (Training session April 22nd 6.30pm)
Sunday 11 May OCC vs Eagles home 13.00 (Training session May 6th 6.30pm)
Saturday 17 May OCC vs Crescent home 13.00 (Training session May 13th 6.30pm)
Sunday 25 May Brugge vs OCC away 13.00 (Training session May 20th 6.30pm)
Sunday 22 June Afghan CC vs OCC away 13.00 (Training session June 17th 6.30pm)
Sunday 20 July RBCC2 vs OCC away 13.00 (Training session July 15th 6.30pm)
Sunday 27 July Heerlen vs OCC away 13.00 (Training session July 22nd 6.30pm)
Sunday 31 August OCC vs PCCB home 13.00 (Training session August 26th 6.30pm)
Additionally, our Club will enter the Luxembourg Cricket Federation’s league and our team ‘Walferdange Optimists’ (WOCC), will be captained by Tim Andrews. This year, this league involves 6 matches in a revised format where we will play the other 3 teams in both T20 format and 35 over matches. The dates of these matches will soon be confirmed to all and all these games will be at Walferdange.
We will also keep up our club tradition of welcoming teams from other countries for friendly weekends. We already have teams set to visit us from the UK, Germany and Switzerland. This cricket is social in nature and we plan to always arrange a barbecue or curry to make out visitors feel special. Even if not taking part in the match/es, members are always invited and encouraged to attend these social occasions.
We will also be arranging some Cricket Festival weekends which is simply a concept of getting together on certain weekends and playing cricket between friends regardless of club allegiance. We tried it last year and had some great fun, so we will be doing this again.
Our ground will also be hosting several other key events which are all part of building the community of cricket in Luxembourg. Our Juniors section continues to grow and they will have all their normal Sunday training plus there will be a U13s international tournament vs both Switzerland and Belgium in June and an U19s international event against Germany in August. The Maidens are planning their own international weekend in August and will play regularly on Wednesday evenings. The Luxembourg Cricket Federation will also run the Annual 6-a-side tournament in early July which is closely followed by the Junior Cricket Academy, now in its 9th year. The date has already been set for the 5/6 July 2014 and we hope that you will already put this weekend in your diaries.
As always, the Club continually seeks to improve the playing facilities. Over the winter, a new mower has been purchased to mow the square for key games and a new boundary rope has been purchased also. We now also have a ‘mobile net’ for practising out in the middle in addition to our 4 lanes of fixed nets. Additionally, we are trying to make progress with the local Commune to find a solution for the old Wendy hut but this will take time. Obviously, our kind of club relies upon volunteer help and we need everyone to buy into this philosophy for all this to work. For example, on April 12th and 13th we will have the ‘Ground Clear up’ and it is very important that everyone contributes to ensure our playing facility remains as good as it is. I hope to see you all there.
More news will flow to you via the website but also through our facebook page. Please make sure you are fully connected to these so that you can enjoy and contribute to this coming season.
Our Website www.optimists.cc
Our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/108789112665630/
Our Club Shop http://www.seriouscricket.co.uk/shop/section.php/1222/0
On a final note, I would just like to draw your attention to your availability over the coming season. There is a selection committee in place, whose job is not always an easy, and in order for them to be able to select teams for the upcoming weekend they rely on you having inputted your availability into the Optimists website (note: if you do not put yourself as available on the website, we can only assume that you are not available). We want as many people as possible to be available and playing matches this season but for this to happen we need members to regularly update their availability on the website (this means changing your availability it your situation changes). We understand that planning your availability several weeks in advance is not always easy but all we ask is that your availability for the upcoming weekend is indicated by Tuesday mornings as selection is made on Tuesday. If you need any help with the availability function of our website, please do not hesitate to contact any of the Optimists Committee by phone, email, facebook or in person.
Thank you all and see you all soon.
Joost Mees & Tim Andrews
OCC 1sts Captain OCC Club Captain