Club News Letters

THANKYOU

Now that the dust has just settled on the 2022 season, we are able to finally look back on the year and still cannot believe what we have achieved at Catford & Cyphers. This newsletter will go into more detail about what we have achieved over the past 12 months but just wanted to take the time to thank all of our members & parents for representing the club on the field and enjoying our new social scene on a Friday evening. To our senior committee members & our brand new junior committee members who have worked tirelessly over the past 12 months to make our club even better, THANKYOU! 

SENIOR CRICKET

For the first time in Catford & Cyphers known history the Saturday 1st XI were crowned league champions! Having been relegated in 2021 the 1st XI bounced back in empathic style, under the guidance of Tevin Sterling the side won 16 out of their 18 league fixtures securing promotion with 3 games remaining and the league title with a fixture to spare. Well done to all those players who represented the 1st XI over the 2022 season the team atmosphere and spirit has been the best I have seen in many years and really shows on the results of the year.

There are so many performances across the season were individuals stood up and made themselves accountable for the results that we had managed to achieve, every player had input in this league title.

Special credit has to go to Tevin, who in his first full season as captain, not only did Tevin bring home the silverware but he also led from the front amassing 417 runs at an average of 34.75 in nearly all positions in the batting order in various difficult positions. We as a club cannot wait to see what Tevin and the 1st XI can do in future seasons. 

The 2nd XI faced a tough year in Division 2 of the KCL 2nd XI league after securing promotion on the last game of the season in 2021. Not only were we faced with this fresh challenge of playing in a higher division, but all sides were also determined to place as high as possible due to impending league changes in the 2023 season. If that wasn’t enough due to an injury to Patrick Fullarton there was a change in captaincy with the club glad to appoint former 2nd XI captain Hamza Tahir back to lead the side.

At the start of the season we had aimed for the 2nd XI to finish within the top half of the division however, unfortunately, we fell just short of this goal, finishing 7th in the league. There were several games where the side just couldn’t cross the line losing by less than 2 wickets or 25 runs against teams that finished just below or above us. These hard losses didn’t deter the 2nd XI as they bounced back in several games and won some brilliant fixtures. Every player should be proud of their achievements this year as we continue to grow and build our 2nd XI into the 2023 Season.

On a personal note, I would like to thank Hamza Tahir for stepping up and taking over the captaincy from me at the start of the league season, Hamza led the side with great passion, and brilliant leadership I cannot thank him enough for coming back in the senior captaincy group for this year. Thank you, Hamza

As with the 2nd XI the 3rd XI faced playing in a higher division in 2022, the 3rd XI were offered the opportunity to play in division 3 Met/West of the Kent Regional League after finishing 4th in division 4 met west in 2021. Having set out to finish as high as possible within the division the 3rd XI successfully managed to place in the top half of the table finishing 4th having won 6 out of 16 fixtures and picking up lots of bonus points after narrowly losing several games. Well done to all the players who represented the 3rd XI this year, a special well done to Yash for captaining the side throughout the season and to Forid, Vinay, Marc & Patrick for stepping up to captain when Yash was away.

The 4th XI had a mixed season in division 7 Met/West of the KRCL finishing 7th in the league again like the 2s & 3s suffering from several close losses, the 4th XI aimed to finish as high as possible and promote the junior section in having our U15 & U13 players stepping up to play senior league cricket, our 2nd aim was achieved in many games during the season with one game in particular against Bromley Common 5th XI where half of the playing XI were under the age of 15, including several senior league debuts.

Our Sunday XIs like the 4s had a mixed season having played and won several competitive friendly fixtures with some notable individual performances, we turned to the development league at the end of June facing some very tough opposition within this league we fell short in most of the games securing only two wins and a tie against OD CUACO on the last ball. A lot was learnt throughout the season by all players and we look forward to having a better season in the league in the 2023 season.

As we move into winter our thoughts now turn towards 2023, as I’m sure you are all aware via previous communications and conversations during the past several months, the 2023 season will see the merger of the Kent Cricket & Kent Regional Cricket Leagues into the new single structured KCL. It has been confirmed that the 1st XI will move into the new KCL Division 3, with the 2nd XI playing in KCL Division 6A whilst we await confirmation of divisions for the 3rd & 4th XI. In preparation for the season, we again will be holding out winter net sessions at the County ground in Beckenham starting Saturday 7th January 2023 6 – 8 pm, where we will be holding 12 sessions to start preparing our teams and players for the new and exciting challenges that await us in 2023. 

The 2022 season was massive for the junior section, not only do we look back on the achievements of our section on the field but we also celebrate all of our success off the field. The season saw us put out five junior sides into the North Kent Junior League but also the first Girls’ team in the club’s history. 

The Thunder had another successful season with the team winning the NKJL Pairs division 2 title for the 2nd year running, losing only one fixture in their 12 match campaign which is an impressive achievement especially when we consider many of the players had their first taste of league cricket this year.

Well done to Matt, Windell & all players involved within in the Thunder this year.

The Cyclones had a fantastic season finishing in 4th place and only 5 points behind Blackheath who finished 2nd in the league, we were put into NKJL Under 11’s division 1 which matt and Windell were slightly apprehensive about given it was the first year that the squad would be playing ‘standard’ cricket after winning the pairs division in 2021. As a club we could not be prouder of the entire Cyclones squad who represented CCCC this year, they played each game hard, in the right spirit and never gave up producing some fantastic results against some very hard opposition.

As previously mentioned, 2022 saw the first Catford & Cyphers Girls team put into league cricket. For a lot of the Storm players, it was their first season playing cricket. Dan Miles managed the brand new side this year winning 1 out of their 14 fixtures and narrowly losing 5 by less than 20 runs. As the season went on it was fantastic to see the team’s spirit, atmosphere and fight grow every game and to watch the improvements each player made was a sight to behold. Well done to all of the players who represented the Storm in 2022 we cannot wait to see what you can do in 2023.  

The Under 13s had a really strong start to the season winning 4 out of their first 6 games, after a little blip in the middle they managed to finish the season winning 8 out of their 14 league fixtures with one game abandoned this meant that they finished 3rd in the NKJL Under 13 division 3 (SE), finishing only 8 points behind Streatham & Marlborough who won the title. Throughout the season the squad of players showed tremendous attitude and fight to win spirit, in several fixtures we were unable to field a full 11 but this never stopped those that did play, as they racked up the wins anyway! Well done to all Under 13s players and Renee for a fantastic season.

Under the new management of Geoff Green, the Under 15s fought hard every Sunday morning in division 3 of the NKJL, winning an impressive 8 out of their 11 league fixtures and finishing 3rd, due to some silly league rule the side was hampered in finishing 2nd in the league as we could not pick up full batting points in several fixtures due to bowling the opposition out too quickly. Most of the players who represented the under-15s in 2022 were either 14 or 13 years of age which means they have another full season of playing and growing together in 2023 as a squad. We as a club cannot wait to see what they can do in league cricket for the under-15s and also in senior league cricket, where 8 of them made their debuts in 2022.  

As a club, we are always looking to further develop our junior players and encourage them to play at the next level upwards from club cricket, we work closely with the area sides, Greenwich & Lewisham Lightning, London Schools Cricket Association, Kent County Cricket & the ACE programme.  

We are very proud of all of the junior players of all of those players who went on to represent the club at higher levels in 2022 and wish all those who are taking trials for these representative sides the best of luck in the future weeks and cannot wait to see what 2023 holds for the club and all our players.  

CCCC Juniors representative honours in 2022

Kent: Tom Purcell

London Schools: Nathan Richards & Kory Smith-Knight

Greenwich & Lewisham Lightning: Bertie Bamford-Bowes, Joe O’Connor-Coffey, Camilo Finch-Munoz, Theo Lightly, Alex Morgan, Finlay Plant, Tom Purcell, Shastri Rajoo, Nathan Richards, Luke Rowett, Kory Smith-Knight, Arlo Stockton-Sutcliffe & Inigo Symes,

ACE Programme: Nathan Richards & Kory Smith-Knight 

CCCC Juniors who have been nominated for Trials in 2023:

Kent:: Tom Purcell, Nathan Richards & Kory Smith-Knight

London Schools: Bertie Bamford-Bowes, Christopher Blake JR, Rudy Chugtai, Theo Lightly, Luke Rowett, Kory Smith-Knight, Inigo Symes & Harris Zadran

Greenwich & Lewisham Lightning: Bertie Bamford-Bowes, Christopher Blake JR, Paddy Bradley, Alex Cade, Rudy Chugtai, Miles Egelnick, Camilo Finch-Munoz, Hector Gough, Harris Jarvis, Joshua Layzell, Flynn Lohan, Leo Martin, Wilf Morgan, Leo Martin, Bethany Morgan, Wilf Morgan, Eric O’Donovan, Nathan Richards, Luke Rowett, Sebby Sachrajda, Otis Streeter, Silas Streeter & Arlo Stockton-Sutcliffe 

As we look back over the past 12 months there have been a lot of improvements made to our club not only seeing the improvement within the playing sides and some brilliant results/achievements. But off the field, in 2022 we have seen the introduction of live streaming software to the club allowing us to stream over 45 fixtures from under 11s up to 1st XI with over 23,000 views on our new YouTube channel. The NVPlay equipment was kindly donated to us by Jo & Jayne, Jon Barnard’s sister & mother along with a Flicx wicket, new netting for our permanent bays and a set of brand-new covers.  

Due to the committee’s hard work in collaboration with the Joint Club committee, we were also able to finally resolve a structural issue within our hall which enabled us to redecorate the hall, including new flooring, lighting and replacing/lowering the ceiling. A new pedestrian path was installed from the gate to the clubhouse which leads to a new disabled ramp onto a brilliant new & extended decking area with external heaters and awnings to offer a brilliant vantage point for spectators and social members.

A new paved seating area was installed under the changing rooms with brand new benches alongside the JC memorial bench, the exterior of the clubhouse was given a facelift after being painted and inside the changing rooms, we saw new anti-slip flooring was installed along with LED lighting.

On Friday evenings we saw the introduction of Friday Night Cricket Dinners, where we had different food vendors come down to the club and serve different foods from all over the world, these proved to be a massive hit for all our members and cannot wait for the 2023 season to start where we will be bringing back our fan favourites and hope to expand our vendors. A massive thank you to Nick Maybin who organised all of the vendors on Friday evenings  

We were also visited by Simon Storey, Kent County Cricket Club Chairman who had heard the buzz over the county about an up-and-coming cricket club within Lewisham and wanted to see for himself what cricket was like in the area and where he and Kent CCC could help 

We were very thankful to have several publications in online/printed newspapers throughout the season, not only did we appear in the local paper we also went national having a two-page spread on Sunday 25th September 2022 in the Observer which reached not only nationwide but internationally! Having an Australian elite private school email to request a fixture for their touring side after their headmaster read the article online.

Guardian/Observer – Catford & Cyphers CC the cricket hub within the inner city

Catford Chronicle – Sit down with Under 11 coach/manager Matt Bamford-Bowes on our club

Lewisham Ledger – Discussing all social/cricket within the club and hosting the Caribbean cup final

The season is now just over two months away and we all cannot wait for cricket to return to Rubens Street, there has been a lot of work over the past few months in preparation for the 2022 and we are very happy to share the following information with you….

A lot of work is going into planning & running these sessions to ensure players are having quality sessions in the lead up to the season. Senior training is being held on Saturdays between 6 & 8pm at Kent’s indoor cricket school, Worsley bridge road, Beckenham up to and including Saturday 26th March. We have had five fantastic sessions so far working on fitness, fielding skills, net sessions working around gameplay and some 1-2-1 drills to ensure we are ready for what is due to be a brilliant season. 

The KCL, KRCL & Development League have now released the fixtures for the 2022 season, all four Saturday league sides will kick off their campaigns on Saturday 7th May with the Sunday development side starting their league fixtures on the 26th of June. Richard is hard at work as always finalising the friendly fixtures for all sides including some Saturday 5th XI fixtures and we hope to have these confirmed and on play-cricket/Teamo over the next few weeks.

The club would like to take the opportunity to thank Alfie Tizzard-Adams who has decided to step down as Sunday 1s captain, Alfie will still play a vital part at Catford & Cyphers as he builds on his brilliant 2021 season. We would also like to thank Renee Campbell who stepped up during the 2021 season to captain the Sunday 1’s in Alfie’s Absence. The committee are glad to announce the following captains and wish them and their sides all the best for the 2022 season. 

Saturday 1st XI – Tevin Sterling Saturday 2nd XI – Patrick Fullarton

Saturday 3rd XI – Yash Rangineni Saturday 4th XI – Richard McCaughin

Sunday 1s – Wilf Brooke Sunday 2s – Renee Campbell

A steering group was set up over the past few seasons from the KCL & KRCL looking into the current league structures that are in place and what is best structures for the longevity and continued success of the leagues. The steering group along with the KCL/KRCL management committees have now published version 1 of the proposed new structures. The proposal is to adopt a single pyramid structure that combines the existing structures whilst providing a new and improved approach to ensure competitive cricket throughout the county. The proposed new structure will also provide a blueprint of sustainability for the future as the league looks to reduce the amount of travelling whilst hopefully increasing participation in the sport.

The leagues are holding their AGM meetings shortly where it is anticipated the proposals will be approved and will share the updated information when it is available. For further information on this matter can be found by clicking the link below

Junior training sessions are also in full swing at Sedgehill Academy sports hall with the under 11’s training on Wednesday evenings and the Under 13’s & 15’s on a Friday evening with both sessions running between 6 & 7.30 pm. These sessions will run until the end of March before we move to our summer training sessions on a Friday evening at Rubens.

As you know, we’re a very passionate, inclusive cricket club that’s fuelled by a highly energetic set of players and parents but run by a small bunch of people. We have a junior committee, set up this year, that helps us to run things more smoothly but as the club grows, we increasingly realise we at the centre can’t do everything that is needed. 

This season we will have an U15s, U13s, U11s girls, an U9s team, and two under 11 teams in the North Kent Junior League. It’s highly likely that these teams will all play a fixture each week, maybe even two. Then there’s tournaments, cup games, and of course, training. As restrictions ease, it may even mean we can go back to having squash and a quick sandwich between innings too... just like the good ol’ days.

2022 will see the first year in CCCC history that we look to field a under 11s girls side out for competitive matches and we are on the lookout for any new girls who would like to play for the side & club if you know anyone who may wish to know more please get in contact…. 

We’d like to continue to build our sense of community and inclusivity at the club making sure we can get more children down to training, making sure we can support children and families that cannot afford to pay each week, and making sure every player can develop. This requires volunteers to apply their skills to the club. 

Some of the jobs we have to do each season/week which isn’t about coaching: 

• - Getting the ground ready for the summer • - Marking pitches

• - Putting out stumps • - Laying out boundary ropes

• - Scoring & operating the scoreboard • - Umpiring

• - Preparing the ground • - Welcoming opposition teams

• - Cleaning up after ourselves • - Repairing cricket nets

• - Repairing cricket equipment • - Organising travel to and from games

• - Marketing the club • - Meeting schools to offer taster sessions

• - Signing in players on a Friday training session • - Spreading the word about the club

• - BBQs 

We’re fortunate now that it looks like we’ve secured a sponsor for the junior section of the cricket club who are willing to support us with a small investment and to be part of the club’s growth. This will go towards improved playing equipment and training of junior coaches that can support the teams, and develop us further. More on that soon... 

If you’d like to help us out even if it’s just once in a season, or if you’d like to be a more active presence such as being a team manager then please speak to Matt Bamford-Bowes

It is incredibly rewarding to be part of this club and we hope the memories will stick around forever. 

We are always looking to improve our coaches’ skills & knowledge and recently we have enrolled four coaches onto courses to further their development which in turn will further our junior members, recently several coaches, captains & members have completed their first aid certification in preparation for the new cricket season. If you’d like to be a Coach Support Worker, Umpire or Scorer that would help us out too. There are several courses that are being run by Kent Country Cricket Club over the next few months in relation to coaching/umpiring/scoring which can help improve your skills & knowledge to be able to help out the Junior section.

Teamo has been implemented for just over four weeks for the club after a successful trial with the Junior section towards the back end of 2021. Teamo is a brilliant tool that enables members to stay up to date with all club information, mark their attendance for training & pay via the app for these sessions, pay for their annual subscriptions & match fees, mark their availability for matches during the summer and allow captains to confirm their starting XIs for all matches. Signing up to Teamo is very simple and can be done by following the link

A massive THANKYOU from me to everyone who has joined Teamo so far, in the short time Teamo has been operational over 50 senior members, 80 Junior members & 60 Parents have signed up so far and are away using the app.

After over 10 years with Surridge as the provider of our clubs playing & training clothing, we have decided to change our supplier. Having been in contact with a few different suppliers we have decided to partner with one of the world’s longest running and reputable cricketing brands, Gray-Nicolls. With over 160 years of experience in manufacturing cricket equipment, we feel that the quality of clothing, excellent customer service, delivery times and ultimately their expertise this exciting new partnership will be one that will continue into our long and fruitful future.

By clicking the link below, you will be taken to our new Gray-Nicolls online store where all of our brilliant brand-new playing & training clothing is available to purchase and by using the code A_EARLYBIRD22_10 you will be able to get all your club clothing with a brilliant 10% discount

The committee is hard at work building on the brilliant social events that took place during 2021 and have started to plan our main events for 2022. We are happy to announce the planning of the following events, so mark your diaries down to not miss out on what is sure to be some unmissable events. More information will be circulated nearer to the event

Friday 18th March – Race night (18+ event)

Friday 22nd April – Registration evening, Junior training & BBQ

Saturday 7th May – Start of season BBQ Bash

Thursday 2nd June – Jon Barnard memorial game

Saturday 9th July – Midsummer party July – Cricket Tour

Monday 29th August – Family Fun Day

16th – 19th August – Cricket Week

Saturday 3rd September – End of Season BBQ

Saturday 1st October – Presentation Evening

Saturday 5th November – Bonfire Night

TBC December – Christmas party

The club is always looking to improve the facilities at Rubens Street for all of our members, since the end of the 2021 season we have upgraded the changing rooms by laying brand new non-slip flooring, Works on the south-facing wall in the main hall has already commenced, this will fix the small structural issue and also enable us to continue work on the interior of the club such as proposed new flooring, ceiling & lighting

Outside of the clubhouse, the upgrade work to the aerial mast is now completed which means we can get started on the works needed to rectify the damage made to the outer area of the field along with levelling of the rest of the outfield. Having extended the fencing into the ground we are going to build a new path from the pedestrian gate, which has been moved, the path will lead from the gate to the clubhouse with picket fencing separating the car park from the outfield.

The Club will be relocating our scoreboard from its current location above the scorer’s hut to the bottom left of the ground making it viewable from all parts of the ground. We are also in the process of purchasing brand new pitch covers including extra flat sheeting for either side of the covers/bowlers’ run-ups to ensure we have the best opportunity to ensure cricket is played during our wonderful British summers, new netting along with anti-vermin netting is to be installed on our fixed & movable cages along with much-needed repairs to the matting in the fixed net cages. 

For our Junior section, we are purchasing a flicx wicket, which is a portable artificial cricket pitch that will enhance our training sessions and offer us greater flexibility of matches during the season.

One of our final notable purchases during the offseason has been the NVPlay live streaming kit, not only will this enable us to stream our matches at Rubens Street, but the software that comes with the equipment will enable us to produce match & player’s highlights at the click of a few buttons. Not only is this a fantastic tool to extend our cricketing community but it also offers more in-depth coaching tools for each player's cricketing development. Head over and subscribe to our brand-new YouTube channel where our matches will be live-streamed, along with full match replays, bite-size match highlights and more Catford & Cyphers-related videos.

Everyone at the club would like to offer our sincere thanks and appreciation to Jane & Jo, Jon Barnard's mother & sister, for their very kind donation to the club. Jon was always a massive advocate of improvements to the club, ground & Junior section. Their donation allows the committee to make significant purchases to improve the facilities at the club for everyone to enjoy and also enable us to give our members the best opportunities to improve their cricketing skills. Thankyou!!