Badgers Cricket Club – News Archive Page – Season 2003
This page provides a repository of all the archived news items for 2003, in reverse chronological order. If you really have a desire for the older or newer entries, then the links below will get you access to all those that I’ve saved over the twenty-four and a half years that the site has been in existence.
Given the impressive turnout, most of you will already be familiar with what happened at this year’s dinner and dance, but for those that missed out, or were too far gone to remember the next day, the trophies found their way to the following fully deserving recipients:
| Batting | Mark Gordon | 532 runs @ 66.5 |
| Bowling | Alan Tickner | 21 wickets @ 15.3 |
| Fielding | Mark Gordon | 19 catches |
| Captains | Steve Pitts | |
| Frank Butt | Paul Little | |
| ‘Wang Fu’ | Alan Tickner | |
| Coin Toss Award | Simon Fox |
In addition, Mick Willmott regaled us with the tale of Alan Tickner’s CRAFT moment in respect of a hotel room key on the Saturday night of tour – the reason for him taking home the ‘Wang Fu’ cactus – whilst also being called upon to present both the batting and fielding cups, since the skipper had the bad grace to pocket both awards. In my role as the numbers man I feel that not enough was made of the fact that Pat Redding made 579 runs at an average of 64.3 whilst failing to secure the batting title, so I’m going to mention it here.
I will also point out that Mark’s speech was a solid mixture of facts, figures and witty bon mots, that Dave Tickner failed valiantly in his attempt to rattle through the raffle, that the portions were generous, that Paul Little and I were presented with the wrong trophies, and that the toilet facilities (at least upstairs) were a little sparse. I’d also like to thank Mark for the recognition of my contribution to the club – albeit that I feel there are others equally deserving – and all those who proffered their positive comments on this site.
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The annual presentation dinner and dance will take place on Saturday 15th November. We have a new venue this year, Betchworth Park Golf Club near Dorking, and also a price reduction to £25 per head. The evening kicks off with drinks at 18:30 and finishes around half past midnight. I have no explicit details of what time the meal is slated to start, so don’t be late or you might not get anything to eat. Alan Tickner has sent menu choices to all concerned, and since I refuse to publish the garbage that Microsoft Word produces as HTML output you’ll have to refer to that letter or email for the details.
View a map of the area around the golf club
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David Aldwinckle has been hard at work arranging the minutiae of our annual tour to the Cotswolds, from Friday 27th June to Sunday 29th June, and it is good news all round. Firstly, we have a new Friday fixture against Great Tew, a picturesque village a few miles from Banbury that is home to the inimitable Falkland Arms (that site is one of many that feature the pub, just enter ‘Falkland Arms Great Tew’ into your favourite search engine, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to link to a site with that URI!). I can’t find a website for the cricket club, but what I can track down suggests that this map of Ledwell Road is somewhere near where we’ll need to be.
Secondly, accommodation has been booked at the Deddington Arms in Deddington village, just south of Banbury. David has booked what he considers to be a reasonable number of rooms, but if you haven’t contacted him already to let him know whether or not you’ll be going and what sleeping arrangements you’d prefer, then I suggest that you do so soonest.
View a map of the area around the Deddington Arms| Back to index of season 2003 news items |
Alan Tickner and Patrick Redding shared an unbeaten first wicket stand of 200 runs against Stoke D'Abernon on 8th June 2003. This is a record for any wicket, surpassing the previous best of 172 – also for the first wicket – that had stood for just over sixteen years. Alan is the only person to have played in both games, something of an oddity given the longevity of many of the Badgers but made even stranger by the fact that three others who played in that 1987 game were in attendance for some or all of the 2003 match – Steve Pitts, Keith Miller and Simon Fox.
Patrick’s unbeaten 103 is also a record since no other Badger has ever scored a ton in their first season, let alone their third ever game.
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This year’s indoor nets will, as ever, be held in the sports hall at Nescot College, Reigate Road, Ewell, Surrey (Tel no. 020 8394 3133). As usual Alan Tickner organised this little lot, and took a slightly different approach to the dates and times, so hopefully we’ll get a few more bodies there so that at least we all remember which end of the bat to hold come the start of the season :)
View a map of the area around the collegeThere will be four sessions on the following dates:
| Wednesday | 16th April | 8-10PM |
| Wednesday | 23rd April | 8-9PM |
| Wednesday | 30th April | 8-9PM |
| Wednesday | 7th May | 8-9PM |
NOTE that the latter three dates may also extend beyond nine o’clock, but that will depend on numbers and other factors (like whether or not all of us oldies can cope).
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A baker’s dozen Badgers, including the club President, attended this year’s AGM in the peaceful confines of the main bar at Sutton & Epsom Rugby Club, for whose hospitality we are most grateful once again. As the last to arrive I can’t comment on any pre-meeting banter, but I don’t believe that I missed any of the meeting proper, so this report represents my take on the key elements, or at least those that I can remember a week or so later.
The recent trend of fiscal mismanagement continues unabated, and once again we made a profit despite the budget being to break even. I can’t tell you exactly what the profit was, since I’ve only come home with a balance sheet and no statement of accounts, just that we didn’t manage a Premium Bond win this year and that our esteemed Hon. Treasurer once again recommended that match fees and subscriptions remain unchanged, at five pounds and twenty pounds respectively, and that said proposal was carried without demur.
All the current officers were reelected, with nobody throwing themself into the fray to wrestle the plum jobs away from the existing incumbents. The skipper, very sensibly, regurgitated his speech from the dinner for his captain’s report, even using the same notes (and very sensible too, I used to do exactly the same!). There was no team secretary’s report, because there was no team secretary, but the Hon. Secretary had been busy and in addition to presenting the provisional fixture list also regaled us with tales of the much anticipated wonders that await us on tour this year (see below). David made a plea for those who have indicated that they’ll be going to please let him have forty pounds per person deposit, since he has already paid the hotel, and Richard Kemp raised the possibility of a trip round the Hook Norton brewery (in rather more formal style than the one we had a few years back) which would cost seven-fifty per head and required at least ten interested people.
Indoor nets have been arranged to assist the Badger in the process of emerging from its winter slumber (see below) and tentative arrangements were made for a pre-season lunch on 27th April, venue and full details to be forthcoming from the Entertainments Committee (aka Dave Tickner). This year’s dinner and dance will be on November 15th, probably at Betchworth Golf Club, although I got the impression that this is not yet confirmed.
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This year’s AGM will take place on Wednesday 19th February at 20:00. As last year, the venue will be Sutton & Epsom Rugby Club, Cuddington Court, Rugby Lane, West Drive, Sutton, Surrey. All members should receive written notification shortly, along with the minutes for 2002, and probably have already seen the equivalent communication via their electronic mail.
View a map of the area around the rugby clubI am still working on turning the garbage that passes for HTML output from Microsoft Word into something presentable, so don’t yet have a version of the full notice for your perusal, but once I do I’ll try to remember to post a link to it here.
| Back to index of season 2003 news items | View archived news items for season 2002 |