Posted: Friday 14th April 2006

Source: Stephen Birley

The nucleus of the side that ended in a respectable mid-table position last season has remained at the Club and once more the �home grown� flag can fly high above Cloakham Lawn with all but one of the first team having played for the club at various levels. The one exception is a Barbadian quickie who is also no slouch with the bat.

Andrew Guppy will lead the 2nd XI, and he has the Beighton brothers, Nick and Alex who have joined from Honiton to add to many of the side that played last year. Meanwhile the 3rd XI will be skippered by Alex Wraight and Dave Pike will lead the 4th XI.

In terms of the old stagers still pulling on the whites for yet another season, Chris Friend, Colin Leadbetter, David Harris and Phil Spong lead the way.

Off the field the club does receive excellent former player support amongst them three individuals, Geoff Enticott, Les Haynes and Andrew Moulding who have over 100 years of combined service to the Axminster cause!

The vital job of scoring for the 1st XI will fall to the very capable David Swift whilst it seems that Brian Prior is set to look after the 2nds book, but the Club do need a couple of other scorers and Secretary Geoff Enticott would love to hear from any local people who might be interested, Geoff can be contacted at 01297 32147.

Colts' Cricket is high on the agenda at Cloakham Lawn, and this year�s registration evening is on Friday April 21st when any new individuals will be made most welcome.

The Club is running teams at Under 11, 13 and 15 this year and Ladies� Cricket has also been introduced this year and there are eight fixtures already booked in for the Ladies� Team. The contacts for Ladies Cricket at Axminster are Maurice Beviss (01297 33903) or the Ladies� Secretary Julie Gordon (01460 30860). Chairman of the Ladies� Committee, Mrs Sue Brown assures they intend to have a lot of fun in this their first full season and are keen to welcome aboard any new Lady players.

AXMINSTER CC - HOME GROUND OUT OF BOUNDS FOR TWO WEEKS
Axminster Cricket Club has had to rule their Cloakham Lawn Ground out of bounds for two weeks owing to winter storm damage to the safety net at the North Street End of their ground. It's unfortunate for the club as they have had to cancel a couple of early season warm up games.

At the recent Cricket Force weekend around 50 volunteers were at the Club wielding paint brushes sprucing up sightscreens and the interior of the score box, and giving the whole Club a thorough spring clean.

FUNDING REQUIRED TO SUPPORT YOUTH CRICKET
Providing Cricket for young players of all standards, and particularly for the more talented girls and boys, who play at district level, is getting harder and harder to support owing to a lack of funding.

Until this season 'Active Sports', a government funded initiative, has put money into cricket but that has all stopped and there is no money whatsoever coming into the game from further up the cricketing ladder. This means that organisers have to find their own sources of funding, and that's not easy.

Locally the East Devon under 10's Manager Steve Loud is one individual who is determined to go out and find the sponsorship and to be fair to him, he's doing okay! Recently Steve managed to attract a four figure sum from an Exeter based computer company but as he explains, much more funding is still needed.

He says,

"We have fantastic support across the organisation of Youth Cricket from Bradleys the Estate Agents, but further down the line we have our regional sides at all age groups from under 10 upwards and funding is required to assist with winter workshops, providing kit and equipment, putting on teas, paying for umpires and scorers, not to mention simply getting to venues given the current price of fuel.�

Steve is a dedicated person and clearly wants to succeed in terms of attracting additional funds for the youngsters and he would love to hear from any individual or indeed Companies who would like to help with financial support, he can be contacted on 01404 871329.