All four GCC teams are in action this weekend as the season gets underway on Saturday (30.4.16). The weather forecast doesn’t look too bad – sunshine with the possibility of showers and getting warmer… Good luck to all teams. We hope to bring you match summaries on Sunday. Here’s the weekend’s and next week’s fixtures: Friday 29 April Junior nets 5.30 for 6-8pm Saturday 30 April 1sts at home to Downham, 2nds away to Sheringham, 3rds at home to Gooderstone and 4ths away to Hardingham Monday 2 May U15s at home to Brooke 6pm start Tuesday 3 May U13s at home to Great Ellingham 6pm start Thursday 5 May Nets 6-8pm Please let us know if we’ve missed out any events or we have any details that are incorrect. You can email changes to nickandh@talk21.com  

Aussie Dan Constable has joined GCC as our overseas player for the season. Dan is from near Sydney and will be playing for the first team as well as coaching the youngsters on a Friday evening and coaching in local schools. Dan has already had a session at Thetford Grammar School where he’ll be coaching year 10s on Tuesdays and years 4, 5 and 6 on Thursdays. His first session, which went down very well with all the pupils, focussed on fielding skills including throwing, catching and using the long barrier technique to stop the ball. We hope Dan enjoys his time with the club (yes, the weather will get warmer!) and we wish him all the best for the season.  

All ages up to 15 years. (U17s train with the adults). Every Friday evening during the season. Sessions begin Friday 22 April with registration and training. BBQ after. Club open from 5.30pm. £10 Registration Fee (£7.50 for additional children). Sessions £4 per child (2nd and 3rd child from family £3 each). All new children are always very welcome whatever their abilities and experience. Sarah McGahan, Youth Cricket Manager. 01953 688295 or 07748 094253

If you hurry, we’ve still got a few tickets left for our annual race night up at the club this Saturday 23 April! It’s our first social event of the season and it is a reliable way of raising much needed funds. Tickets are £6, horses £5 and race sponsors £25. Tickets are available from Club Chairman Robert Leech – please call 01953 498252 or 07770 427361 or email robert.leech@farming.co.uk. Please let Robert know how many tickets and/or horses you require. It’s not too late if you have, or know of, a company that can sponsor a race. This will be our first opportunity to introduce and entertain our overseas player who will be joining us for the season all the way from Australia. Let’s show him a proper Garby evening!

GCC would like to encourage all members to register with Garboldisham.play-cricket.com which is our ‘sister’ website which is run by the ECB and ourselves alongside our main website. Garboldisham.play-cricket.com is part of the ECB play-cricket.com initiative which has been rolled out by the ECB over recent years. It provides fixture information, submission of match score cards (which automatically update club, league and player statistics) and other general league administration in conjunction with The Norfolk Alliance and The Norfolk Cricket League. By registering, members will be able to access all their stats and averages and they’ll be able to fill out a ‘Match Availability’ sheet which captains will be able to view – this will make weekly team selection much easier. To register, you will need to sign up as follows: Go to garboldisham.play-cricket.com Click on ‘sign up’ in the top right corner Fill out the details and make sure that at the bottom, where it asks for ‘Do you wish to apply for membership of a site?’ you insert ‘Garboldisham CC’ by searching for it – eg. TYPE enter ‘All’, COUNTY enter ‘Norfolk’ and KEYWORD enter ‘Garboldisham’ …

Our next social event and fundraiser is our annual Race Night on Saturday 23 April.  These have been very popular in the past and it is a reliable way of raising much needed funds. Tickets are £6, horses £5 and race sponsors £25. Tickets are available from Club Chairman Robert Leech – please call 01953 498252 or 07770 427361 or email robert.leech@farming.co.uk. Please let Robert know how many tickets and/or horses you require and whether you have/know of a company that can sponsor a race. This will be our first opportunity to introduce and entertain our overseas player who will be joining us for the season all the way from Australia. Let’s show him a proper Garby evening!

LONG MESSAGE ALERT FROM DANNY CASH! With 30 days until the 1st game there’s plenty of things that need doing. This weekend is Cricket Force. This is a big thing for the club and it’s essential that we get plenty of hands up the ground to get all the jobs done, nets up, covers covered, grass cut, pavilion cleaned and any other jobs that need doing. I have had several people say they are working Saturday, but don’t fear, people will be there Sunday too so no excuse not to give a little time over your weekend for your club! We have scissor lifts coming up at 8am until 11am on Saturday, this will make putting up the nets much simpler, if we have enough people there to help. Please make the effort to attend. If we get the nets up, we will begin outside practice on the 7th. We have a couple of new players and a potential new player who will be in attendance so again please try your best to get up to the club …