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Weekend 17th/18th July As everyone knows very few good things come out of Lancashire. I would count David Lloyd, Jack Simmons and best of all the road to Yorkshire. That was until we met the good people from Hindley St Peter, near Wigan. They came on tour. I would recommended any club to invite this crowd, although we would like to keep them just for Brooke. A great group of people. Hindley St Peter Cricket Club, we salute you. You are welcome at Brooke any time. Thanks for a great day. Brilliant 25 pointer for the 2s at Dereham. Well done Daynsey and the boys. Back in the promotion hunt. The 1st lost to Downham, but then so does everyone else. We came mighty close to an upset, but those Downham boys really know how to chase down a score. Lots of positives for BCC. If we played like that every week we would probably be second or third. Instead we are still fending of relegation. Keep digging deep. No reason why we should not finish mid table. Remember to keep Sunday August 22 free. 20/20 with Poringland Wanderers. Hog roast and bar. All profits to cancer charities in memory of Kevin. No better cause, be there. -------------------------------------------- Weekend 10th/11th July Sometimes it’s best to wait before putting your thoughts on paper. Take time to reflect (sounding like an old git). So, I have reflected. We were rubbish yesterday. Threw the game away. There for the taking, blew it. Gave our wickets away and failed to bowl on one side of the stumps. What more can I say. Boys we should be ashamed (I could have said you, but we are in this together). Now for the good bit. The 2s are back on the horse. Great win boys well done. Ali’s Sundays are through to the final – September 6, I think. Looking forward to that big time. Can I be twelve man and have another medal, having played in an earlier round? There is even some good news for the Firsts. Mallards, Old Buck, Cromer and Diss all got fewer points than us. Best of all – I believe we can pull off a surprise next Saturday. Come on boys we can do it. Lastly. Howard Webb was superb. I used to like the Dutch (as a race – you know I don’t like footballers from anywhere – Tommy ‘the legend’ Casey is exempt for this statement). I have resolved to avoid buying anything Dutch ever again. Not too much to do, it only includes cheese and clogs. I was about to make lots of comments about dykes, but that would be leaning on an open door, given the public has access to this web page. How dare they criticise our referee. Howard and the team were quality, other than being a little too lenient. ---------------------------------------------- Weekend 10th/11th July Well, it was always going to be hard game for the 2s. Cromer are pretty much the Downham of Div 5. No worries boys, heads up winning again is just around the corner. Well batted Clive and basketball boy Mike Warner. What of the 1s? Captain fantastic did it again 80+ with the bat and another 5 for. Brilliant effort Pants. Unlike one or two previous games, this time we almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Something of an exciting finish. Even the president gave it a positive twist at the end, having moaned throughout the game. Highlight of the week, meeting Mr and Mrs Dewan. We now know where Rahul gets his charm and, according to his father, his cricketing ability. In two quick weeks the Dewan family have become Brooke legends. Dates for the diary – Thursday July 22 our visitors from Manchester. We need everyone to be available to play or to help with the day. Sunday August 22 Cancer Research Fund raising day. We all know the importance of this one – be there. Finally, best wishes to Ray for a speedy recovery. He had his operation on Thursday and, I am told, is coming along well. Out thoughts are also with James who was involved in Saturday’s multi car pile up on the A47. All the best James, hope you are OK. ------------------------------ Weekend 3rd / 4th July Great weekend in many ways. Well done to Habby on his selection for the county development squad. We are all immensely proud. Friday kids cricket was a magic evening. Saturday was a tough one for the 2s. Unlucky boys. Back to winning ways next week. As for the 1st team, Panter is a legend. Really good win boys – trust me to miss the moment of victory. Looking for a repeat performance next week. Jon’s Sunday team just missed out in their semi-final. Again, very unlucky. Well batted to Olly Stamp for a cracking 60, building on this 90+ last week. This is great stuff Olly keep it up. Was also a real pleasure to meet Rahul’s parents. Welcome to Brooke Mr and Mrs Dewan. We all hope you have a brilliant holiday, although Rahul has whisked them off to Scotland – he was warned about the Scottish weather. Sunday August 22 is our 20/20 game against Poringland Football Club in memory of Kevin. Food will be available along with lots to drink. All profits will go to Cancer Research and we are dedicating the newly electrified score box to Kevin’s memory. Clear the day – be there. -------------------------------------- “Brooke’s own Jon Habershon makes his debut for Norfolk Development XI vs Suffolk tomorrow. All at Brooke wish Jon the very best of luck! This is the highest representative cricket a player from Brooke has been selected for, which is great for the Club and for the future! Well done Jon” ---------------------------------------- Weekend 19th / 20th June What a beauty. 290 for 2. Rahul Dewan sublime. Rob Panter, the best captains innings ever. Well done boys. Top performance by the 2s, great win. Quality as always from Simon and from Chunky. Welcome to the party Jamie Savage. Final thought. Harry (the simple one) and William (the tall one). Are they really brothers? What a pair of Muppets? Are they the new Chuckle Brothers? They are certainly what our glorious overpaid ‘prima donnas’ deserve. Well done the rugby boys out in Aus – we have pride. I know who put the Chav flag on our pole. It’s like the footballers dreams, in tatters. -------------------------------- Weekend 12th / 13th June Magic Saturday. Well done to the 2s for a most creditable winning draw and especially well batted to Simon Cushing. We are working with something of a skeleton squad at the moment, but with everyone pulling together and the right attitude things looked good yesterday. The Ist team win over Old Buckenham was top quality. At last our season started. Excellent fielding, well done Ollie and Jez. What about SPs bowling? As they say ‘you never lose it’. Excellent batting as well. The message is, you don’t bowl any short stuff at Rahul Dewan. It just finishes over the trees. A great innings, well done Rahul. Monkey – we still need you back in the side. Imagine the bowling combination of Rahul, SP and Monkey to keep the runs down. A dream ticket. Best of luck to the Sunday boys in the Cup (I’m writing this a little early with the now usual week in Birmingham coming up). Lastly, two things (or maybe three). Subs please to Ed. Book your place at the ball, tickets are going fast, available from the ladies committee or the Post Office (that’s Brooke post office, not any post office)....and finally. I’m finding all the England ‘chav’ flags a massive help. You can spot a pillock driving their car a mile off and you know where they live, making avoiding action easy. The flags should become permanent they are massively helpful. I’m also looking forward (along with Dudley) to the first vuvuzala at a Brooke match! Could certainly have used one yesterday. (Head up Robert, Norwich loves you. If you’d stayed here you could have saved the ignominy of playing for England). --------------------------------- Subs - Can you please pay Ed Sturman this weekend!!? £50 Seniors, £25 for Juniors. If you don't pay up we'll take this into consideration with team selection for the following week!! Kit - If you haven't paid yet, please pay Ben Prentice this weekend!!! Text / email Ben if you're not sure how much you owe!
------------------------------------------------ Weekend 5th / 6th June Saturday was a frustrating day. The 2s clearly had a tougher game than expected. That said, the wicket must have been good. The game at Brundall was fantastic, other than we lost. Mallards victory was based on the performances of their oldest a youngest players. Goldy scored a great century (given his age) and Mini saw them home in the last over as history repeated its self. For us, Rahul and Monkey bowled superbly and Eds innings at the close was excellent, with brilliant support from Rick Timm. So we lost, even so there were lots of positives to be taken. It looks like our season starts next Saturday, only seven matches gone! -------------------------------------------------- Poxy weather. Five games in. One genuine defeat, two weather ruined five points each and two defeats snatched from the jaws of victory. On paper this is the best team Brooke have ever put in the field. Don’t let the old boys tell you differently. Having Rahul Dewan in the side is a dream come true for a team at our level. Savour every minute. Our season starts on Saturday. Each player needs to think about Saturday, starting now. No throwing wickets away with rash shots (OK that’s a bit rich coming from me), no leg side wides. In the field every ball is coming to you. If you need inspiration just watch Rahul. Heads on boys, the team comes first. It’s far more fun playing for a team at the top. You are all good players, you can do it. Saturday is going to be the day when we all give everything we can to the cause, agreed? There was one special treat on Saturday. I’m no fan of Leicester Tigers, but in reality it was Norfolk beating South Africa (cunningly disguised as Saracens). Star men, Ben Youngs (North Walsham) and Dan Hipkiss (Diss), with Calum Green (Norwich and Walsham) prowling the touch line. These boys all show what can be achieved with dedication. That said, best to stick with Rahul as your role model. ----------------------------------------------------- The weekend might not have been too good. Monday was magic. In the morning Kevin Denmark (the County Cricket Development Officer), accompanied by our own Rahul Dewan, were on the ground teaching the basic skills of cricket to children from Brooke Primary School. Well done to all concerned. The children clearly enjoyed every minute. The evening saw a large group of Under 15 players working hard to development their skills, under the guidance of team manager David Wilson and coached John Habershon and Rahul (he gets everywhere this man). The under 13s performed exceptionally well to defeat Beccles in a close game. Well done to coaches Jon Andrews and Andy Westgate. On the field Toby Gilks was a deserving man of the match in a team that benefitted greatly from the excellent captaincy of Matt Carver. Well done to all concerned for magic Monday. All the best, The Chairman ----------------------------------------------------------- Hello All, Slight amendment to the program this week. This evening, Jon and the U13's have a match with Beccles, but the U15 will have a training session as normal with Habby and me. Their match with Beccles U15 has now been switched from Thursday to Friday evening. As Rob said, the bar will be open and your support of our junior sides would be much appreciated. I'd also like to echo Rob's words of thanks to the Holy Trinity of Colin, Dudley and Godders. Getting the ground ready for a match involves a fair bit of work as does the clearing up after. The commitment of these "gentlemen" is second to none and very much appreciated. It would be nice to think that others would be prepared to offer their services in this area and not be reliant on the elders of the Club.
The WAGS to whom Rob has referred were, in no particular order, Jean Bancroft, Carol Mutton and Sue Jones, who upheld the Brooke tradition of putting on a fine display in the catering department. My thanks also go to these ladies. However, as I have pointed out on several occasions, it is not possible to be both a Wife AND Girlfriend. Surely it should be Wife OR Girlfriend! Andy -----------------------------------------------------
Weekend 8th / 9th May Not our best weekend. It was saturation Saturday. That said, the covers are superb and left us with an excellent pitch for Sunday, once the outfield dried. Colin did a brilliant job returning the outfield to its former glory after the rains. Dudley is brilliant – picking up all the loose ends and making sure everything worked well. Massive thanks to Sue and Carol and Jean and Leigh for the excellent catering. All agreed it was absolutely superb. On the field, that’s a different story. Well done to Horsford, we were outclassed on a day when we had such high hopes. Rest assured it will all come together. This is potentially the best Brooke team ever. Politics and a chance for the chairman to rant (Mr Angry at the moment). I gather we are bringing in advisors from Zimbabwe to make sure we operate our next effort correctly. What a shambles – get rid of the returning officers , a bunch of senile ‘jobs for the boys’ old muppets. In fact the Muppets would make a better job. Equally scary we might be run by the Old Etonian Hooray Henry’s. For the first time I my life I voted Hooray Tory. Why I hear ask (or possibly not)? Nobody in South Norfolk merited a vote. However, I discovered our chinless tub of lard is on the all party committee for the promotion of rugby league – and that’s good enough for me. By all means cock up the country, but more rugby of whatever code has to be a good thing. Hung parliament – bring it on. It should stop the politicians interference. They should, hopefully cancel each other out. Result, we will discover the country works perfectly well without a team of self-serving, dishonest idiots at the helm. There were some dream outcomes. The pompous Charles Clarke was sent packing and Cheeky Girl Limpdick Opik (is that really his name) also bit the dust. Love it. More about cricket next week. --------------------------------------------------------- Rahuls Car being presented by Louis Woodgate and Samuel Elwin of the Bodycentre. We thank you as always for your great support. Hopefully he can drive it better than the last overseas.
------------------------------------------------- Weekend 1st / 2nd May Missed the games, as my last rugby match was away in Sunderland. Tough game as it followed a party on Nottingham on Saturday and a hotel fire alarm early Sunday morning. This was caused by a Scotsman smoking in his room – nothing new there. The 1st team could not have been a more close run thing (or should I say close LBW thing?). No worries boys. I know you are disappointed, but that’s the defeat out of the system early doors – just wait until we get them at Brooke House Park. Brilliant performance by the ‘A’ team, what a start. Daynsey is just amazing and Clive superb. They get better with age. Hard to criticise a rack that in two games has produced over 1200 runs and 6 centuries. ------------------------------------------- All the best to the Youth teams in their respective games on Thursday.Next weekend is a big one with league fixtures and the Carter Cup on Sunday. We can really put ourselves on the map, especially with a win on Sunday. Weekend 24th / 25th April We ventured to Old Buckenham and everyone found the ground. Some had set off on Friday afternoon to get there on time. That said, it’s a fabulous place to play cricket. We won, carried home with the last pair at the wicket. The winning runs coming from the flashing blade of Andy Westgate, after Jonathan Williams and Rick Timm had steadied the ship. A really brilliant win. The foundation was laid by Rahul Dewan. Rahul once again showed us what it takes to be a high quality professional cricketer. He scored 88 and took four wickets. Top class. The team spirit was first superb (well done skip), setting the tone for the season. We can, possibly just this once, to even forgive those who went the football. A massive well done to our brave boys at Carrow Road on winning the third division. The dreamy spires of Doncaster, Barnsley and Scunthorpe await, not to mention Hull, Burnley and Portsmouth. Lovely! Surely everyone in the world wants Portsmouth to win the FA Cup. --------------------------------------------------- The volcanic dust crisis has hit the cricket. Our two best players, Oly Stamp and the mighty Ben Prentice are delayed abroad – no flights. That’s because the Icelandics know nothing whatsoever about cricket. They set that volcano off on purpose. It’s revenge for the Cod Wars and the banking crisis was all their fault. Whilst on the topic of foreigners. What about those Spaniards. We’ve had to move the club account away from Abbey because the Spanish know nothing about cricket. The good news – Rahul became a true Brit last night by attending the cricket club quiz. Top job Smithy and Beni, a really outstanding night. ---------------------------------------------------- Chairman’s Welcome 2010 We await the start of the 2010 season with great excitement. The England and Wales Cricket Board have granted us ‘Focus Club’ status. This means we will be doing even more cricket based activities to support schools and the community. As I write the ground is almost ready, a tremendous feat given the pre-season weather. As usual, thanks to much hard work, we have made major improvements over the Winter. The score box is now fully electrified. We have acquired top of the range covers (ready for another wet Summer, bring it on). This season we are joined by Rahul Dewan. Rahul comes with a reputation as one of India’s top young players. We wish him well and will do all we can to make his Summer at Brooke an enjoyable one. Even so, the start of our season is tinged with great sadness at the death of Kevin Elwin. Kevin was the owner of the ‘Bodycentre’, a tremendous supporter of our club and an inspiration to us all. He enjoyed his cricket and we will miss him greatly. Kevin will close to our hearts as we enjoy our cricket this season. As always my good wishes go to all our teams. The committee will do all we can to ensure their success. If you have a skill and can help the club, please put yourself forward and volunteer. Come and join us on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday (or most other nights for that matter). Enjoy the atmosphere, the bar, and of course the cricket. Bring a friend, everyone is welcome at Brooke Cricket Club. ----------------------------------------------------------- Kevin’s Funeral Kevin’s funeral will be on Friday 26 March. 1100 hours at All Saints, Poringland. The funeral will undoubtedly be very well attended and the church is expected to overflow. Donna has kindly said that cricket club members are very welcome to attend. I would like to think that as many as possible will go along to show our respect for Kevin. If you are able to attend please wear you Brooke CC Bodycentre shirt and tie. Godfrey ------------------------------------------------ I know everyone will be deeply saddened to learn that Kevin Elwin died on Thursday 11 March. Our thoughts are with Donna, Samuel and Sophie. Kevin was a tremendous supporter of our club and a great friend to us all. Kevin was also the most genuine guy anyone could ever wish to meet. His attitude and bravery during his battle with cancer was a lesson to us all and typical of the man. He will be greatly missed. Godfrey Bancroft Chairman
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