The squads have been named for the 2007 BBS Primary Club National Knockout Cup.
This years squads have thrown up a few shocks, Heindrich Swanepoel and Kurt Butler joining South Wales Dragons, Ali Safder joining Eastern Vipers and Sam Murray going to Warwickshire Bears were among the bigger surprises.
Warwickshire have also recruited Mike Harrison, Shah Miah has returned to Northants squad after Yorkshire withdrew from the cup and Kev Lyon has moved to Sussex.
Remaining Cup Fixtures:
Quarter Finals:
Game A: Northamptonshire VI.XI.NS v Warwickshire Bears
Game B: Northern Galloways v Metro
Game C: South Wales Dragons receive a bye
Game D: Birmingham SCVI v Sussex Sharks
Semi Finals
Winner Game A V Winner Game B
WInner Game C v winner Game D
Final at Lord’s on August 11th
List of Squads
The officials have been named for the 2007 BBS Primary Club National Knockout Cup Final.
Dennis Chapman who umpires for Eastern Vipers and Pete Sugg who umpires for Warwickshire will umpire the final for the second year in succession.
This year there will be two scorers, Sussex's scorer Steve Field will score for the third final in a row and John Mclean who umpires and scores for Northern Galloways will officiate at the final for the first time.
This year’s final will take place at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Saturday August 11th.
Chairman of BBS Cricket David Gavrilovic told us: "The reason we have decided to use the same officials as last year is that Dennis and Pete both did an excellent job in last years final and we felt they were the best options again this time. We are looking at other umpires for future years but felt several promising umpires aren't experienced enough yet in blind cricket. That's why we have appointed John Mclean to score this year, as well as being a good scorer John is a promising umpire and we see his appointment to score this year as a stepping stone to possibly umpiring a future final. As for the other scorer Steve Field is the best scorer involved with blind cricket so had to be appointed again."
The umpires could still change for the final if Warwickshire or Eastern Vipers reach the final as the committee have decided that the umpires will again be two neutral umpires.
VIXINS
enjoy fantastic Lashings Friendly Northamptonshire VIXINS took
part in what will probably be their most important friendly ever
yesterday, taking eight players to Colwall Cricket club to mix
players with those from Colwall CC and celebrity cricket side
Lashings whose squad includes current and former internationals
from 9 of the 10 test playing nations.
The
match contained 8 VIXINS players, 6 Lashings players and 8 from
Colwall CC. The 6 lashings players were South Africa international
Nantie Hayward, former Zimbarbwe bowler Henry Olonga, former New
Zealand all rounder Chris Cairns, former England pair Chris Lewis
and Phil Defreitas and former West Indies star opening batsman
Alvin Kallicharran.
All
of the VIXINS players could have something to remember from the
day, having each been caught by, run with, or bowled at by some of
the best players in the world from recent years.
Highlights
of the day included David Gavrilovic bemusing Kallicharran, a man
with 80 first class wickets, by hitting him for four and Elliot
Stonhill surviving two overs from Chris Cairns and being not out
before retiring. Charles Ronayne also induced an edge from
Kallicharran and Sean Farrow engaged all players readily in some
interesting conversations. The club were also finally able to find
out the meaning of Kev's surname, 'man of many friends'
The
whole 12 man Lashings squad for the day were kind enough to sign a
bat that the club will auction with the help of Northamptonshire
Steelbacks the counties fully sighted team at their end of season
dinner dance to raise money for the VIXINS.
In
the match the VIXINS players played in everyone was on mixed teams
one containing David Gavrilovic, Elliot Stonhill, Charles Ronayne,
John Wood and from Lashings Henry Olonga and Nanty Hayward along
with 5 Colwall players.
The Other team
contained Anne Bentley, Ian Goodearl, Kev Pamphilon, Sean Farrow and
from Lashings Phil Defreitas, Alvyn Kallicharran and for the second
innings Chris Cairns and Chris Lewis.
Charles
Ronayne stared with the ball without taking a wicket in the first
innings when Kallicharran's team batted and managed 80 runs from
their 12 overs.
In Olonga's teams
innings Elliot Stonhill opened and was joined in the 3rd over by
Henry Olonga. These two batted calmly through to the end of the 8th
over when they both retired with Elliot scoring 10. This brought
David Gavrilovic and Charles Ronayne to the crease,
again
both scored slowly both took a single from Phil Defreitas bowling
before Defreitas had Gavrilovic change his grip on the bat and the
totally blind batsman proceeded to hit Kallicharran from 4.
Kallicharran
said "I've taken 80 first class wickets, but that will stay
with me, getting hit for 4 by a totally blind batsman, will stay
with me!"
The game reached
the 12th and final over of Olonga's teams innings with the team
needing 19 to win which nobody expected them to get.
Charles
pushed the first ball for a single before David hit two successive
no balls for four. With the 4's doubled because David is totally
blind this took the team past the target with 5 balls to spare with
most of Kallicharran's team shocked at the way the game ended and
David praising his new batting coach Phil Defreitas influence!
The
main thing was everyone enjoyed the day and the Lashings players
had as good a time as the VIXINS players.
MCC Launch New Commentary Service
By David Gavrilovic
The MCC have launched a new service to provide ball-by-ball commentary for blind and partially sighted spectators on all cricket matches held at Lords.
The service was officially launched in the President’s box at the ground during the lunch interval of the first day of the county championship match between Middlesex and Lancashire on Wednesday June 21st June 2006.
The service will be in operation from now on for all matches at the ground including such games as women's internationals, the national village cup final and even the BBS Primary club national knockout cup final.
The commentary will be provided for England games by BBC's test match special, for county games by BBC radio London and for all other matches by a team of 20 volunteers who won a competition ran by the RNIB to find the team of commentators who will rotate throughout the summer.
There will be twenty headsets available for each days play and these can be obtained by asking one of the stewards once you are inside the ground.
Attending the launch were representatives from several organisations including the RNIB, MCC and VISA (visually impaired supporters association) and Peter Baxter from BBC Test match special.
Also in attendance were current England blind cricket stars Heindrich Swanepoel and Miles Northwood and former England players Geoff Smith and Miles Northwood. British Blind Sport were also represented by cricket committee chairman David Gavrilovic and national development manager Gillian Parker.
It is now hoped that after this well publicised launch other county cricket clubs will be able to follow the MCC's example and install this service at other county grounds.
Draw finalised for cup quarter finals
The draw has been finalised for the BBS Primary Club National Knockout Cup quarter finals.
Warwickshire Bears claimed a 204 run victory against Northamptonshire VIXINS to go through to face Birmingham Sports who got a walkover into the quarters after Eastern Vipers withdrew from their clash due to a lack of available players.
London sports claimed an impressive 174 run win over Northern Galloways and will now face South Wales Dragons at home in the quarter finals.
Leeds and District claimed the final quarter final place six weeks ago when RNC pulled out of the competition and they will now face Worcestershire Royals
Quarter Final Draw
Match 1: Warwickshire v Birmingham
Match 2: London v South Wales
Match 3: Metro v Sussex
Match 4: Leeds and District v Worcestershire
Winners matches 1 & 2 will meet in semi finals
Winners of matches 3 & 4 will meet in semi finals
All matches take place on Saturday June 10th
Clubs name 2006 Cup Squads.
The squads have been announced for the 2006 BBS Primary Club National Knockout Cup. Teams may still add one or two players to these squads but the main players are now registered.
In some headline grabbing club changes Dave Powers has joined Metro, Gary O’Neil, Gary Prescott, John Prasher, Daz Cook, Mike Harrison and Dave Ellingham have joined Northern Galloways and Kurt Butler and Adrian Snellgrove have joined Birmingham Sports.
Other moves include Nick Killen, Shah Miah and Simon Hill joining Northants and Mark Turnham joining Warwickshire.
For a full list of cup squads click here
Or for individual clubs squads click on the clubs name in the clubs section
The first round of this years cup takes place on Saturday May 13th with the following fixtures:
Warwickshire v Northants
Eastern Vipers v Birmingham
London Sports v Northern Galloways
Gary O'Neil becomes BBS cricket development officer
Gary Oneil has been appointed the new development officer on the BBS cricket committee following David Townley's resignation from the position in January.
Gary was proposed for the position by Northern Galloways and seconded by Northamptonshire. He is the second person to be appointed to a new-look committee this year after Simon Hill’s appointment as treasurer. Gary is an experienced player who has played for several clubs including Warwickshire during the 2005 season. He is expected to play for Northern Galloways this year in the BBS section and the cup.
As part of a major overhaul of the current development programme, the BBS cricket committee also plan to set up a development sub-committee to enable development work to continue all around the country during this summer, to encourage both young and old to take part in the game.
The committee are also planning three development days for this summer and will be working closely with the new BBS regional development officers who will be work with all BBS sports
Full list of 2006 fixtures released
It's set to be a busy year for all clubs this season and especially busy for members of the England squad.
The cup has 11 teams in it so some teams will play three maybe even four cup games as well as 8 games per side in the BCEW league and 6 games per side in the BBS League.
As well as this busy league and cup schedule there is also the annual Kersey Cup for Juniors at the start of the season as well as a Warwickshire invitational tournament and a possible Northampton tournament is also being planned.
For international players there will be 10 England squad training weekends and the World Cup in South Africa at the end of the year.
You can find a full list of fixtures by clicking Here or by using the ‘Fixtures’ link at the top of the page.
Officials named for 2006 cup final
The umpires and scorers for the 2006 BBS Primary Club National Knockout Cup Final have been named by the BBS Cricket committee.
Dennis Chapman from Eastern Vipers and Pete Sugg from Warwickshire will be the umpires and Steve Field from Sussex will be the scorer.
Dennis is an experienced umpire and has stood in the cup final once before. Pete has been umpiring blind cricket for three or four years and was also England team manager for the recent series victory in Sri Lanka. Steve is scorer for the England team and also acted as sighted guide and scorer on the Sri Lanka tour.
Clive Spencer from Worcestershire has agreed to act as stand by should any of the officials appointed unfortunately have to drop out.
The final will take place at the Nursery Ground at Lords on Saturday August 19th with the match starting at 2pm.
2006 BBS Cricket League Structure revealed
Each side will face six league matches this season in the new look BBS Cricket League.
The league has faced a major re-structure this season after five established teams pulled out to form a breakaway league. This means division two has been scrapped for this season and the teams in this year’s league will be Northants, Northern Galloways, Birmingham, Worcestershire and early league favourites Eastern Vipers.
The league will work as follows:
- Each team will play the other teams in the division once
- Each team will then play two selected teams for a second time
- All teams will play three home games and three away games
The League has been structured like this because some teams didn't feel they had enough players for 8 games which you would get if all teams played each other both home and away. But all teams wanted more than the 4 games you would get if all teams played every other team once either home or away.
New Tresurer joins BBS Cricket Committee
Simon Hill has joined the BBS Cricket Committee as it's new treasurer following the resignation of Heindrich Swanepoel at the end of 2005.
Simon was proposed for the position by Northamptonshire and seconded by both Northern Galloways and Eastern Vipers.
Simon has previously ran two small businesses and currently plays in the England blind football squad although he has travelled with the squad to two international tournaments but not yet played a competitive match.
He has played for Worcester for the last 8 seasons in the BBS Cricket league and cup and will be playing for Northants in 2006.
2006 Cup Draw Announced
This year’s draw has a standout headline match in each round. In the first round the big tie is Warwickshire versus Northamptonshire, Northants will be looking to avenge the 4 defeats they suffered to Warwickshire last season despite finishing above the Bears in the league.
The draw's real stand out tie however is the quarter final between Metro and Sussex. Metro are defending cup holders and finished second in the league and Sussex finished third in the league not far behind Metro and the Sharks will be hoping to inflict a rare cup defeat on perennial cup finalists Metro.
The full draw can be found here
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