Hello all you Panthers. Wow! The off season has really flown by and we are now in full swing gearing up for an uninterrupted season of cricket.
Our awesome committee has been working away to ensure we hit the ground running, with the introduction of PlayHQ our new online platform and online registration portal. Big thanks to Robbie Lashand for stepping up and getting all our registrations details up and ready to go. On that matter we need to get everyone registered before the cricket season with the new PlayHQ system. With this new system and associated insurance policy you CAN NOT play if you are not registered (and therefore you are not insured). Last year we had a really poor registration rate, particularly in the senior grades. This means the club has difficulty covering it's costs, runs less efficiently and makes the committee's jobs more difficult. So please register here and pay your fees.
Remember NO PAY = NO PLAY.
As promised, our net facility has been renovated and is now four full lanes and looks fantastic. Big shout out to Rick from Premier Cricket for finishing the job. It is now a great training facility for all to come and thrive through cricket. We also received a grant from the Cricket Australia - Australian Cricketers Association Grassroots Cricket Fund to help fund the project which is very much appreciated.
Now down to the serious business.
Training & Pre-season Matches
There’s a bit happening this Saturday, October 1. Our Juniors will start at 10am with some centre wicket training and a bit of fun. At midday our Seniors will enjoy a pre-season hit-out with a couple of T20s against Terranora in 2nds and 3rds, which should finish up at about 3pm.
We will have some cold refreshments and a sausage sizzle on the go for lunch. So come down to Rabjones Oval. It should be a cracker of a day!
Also, a big welcome back to our club coach Grant Parmenter for another season with the club. Training with Grant for juniors and seniors will be on Thursdays this season, the first session this Thursday September 29, from 4pm.
Seniors
Our senior season is set to kick off on October 8. 1st grade will get the ball rolling with two days of T20s on the Saturday and Sunday. We will be hosting five LJ Hooker teams for those two days. It’s a great opportunity for our members to get around the club and see the best cricketers in the Northern Rivers go at it.
Our second grade team will be competing in the Coastal League which starts the same weekend, as will our TDCA Third Grade competition.
Juniors
The following weekend (October 15th) will see the start of the BDJCA competition, which is the beginning of the season for the U12s, 14s & 16s. I am proud to say we will be fielding two U12s teams, two U14s teams, and we will be returning with an U16s this year. There’s so much talent coming through our ranks right now. It’s so inspirational to see. Go the Panthers!
On top of that our female participation rates are leading the way, not just in the Tweed but throughout the Northern Rivers. You go girls!! We have had three girls in the North Coastal Zone Academy and nine out of the 13 girls registered for the Far North Coast girls only Academy come from Murwillumbah. Such a proud moment for us as a club. Onwards and upwards for the Pink Panthers!
Our U11s are due to start on Thursday, October 27. It looks like we’ll also have two U11 teams, which is awesome, every strong club needs a big base of juniors. Last but definitely not least is our entry level programs, Junior Blast and Master Blaster. They are due to start with a Come and Try day at Kingscliff on Tuesday, October 25. The TDJCA has decided to put both programs on at the same time and the same venue to make the delivery of these programs easier to facilitate.
Twilight Tonk
Our committee is now currently working on confirming dates for our Women’s and Men’s social offering - the great “Twilight Tonk”! Did you know that our Tonk program has been widely noted by cricket administrators as such a great success that Cricket Australia has started a similar program to encourage other clubs to do the same!! Amazing, can’t beat the original and best though, credit must go to Dave Reading who has coordinated the Tonk events for a long time now! So watch this space for confirmed start dates, at the moment we have the women’s Tonk penciled in for a 26 October start but it is still to be confirmed.
Generational Change in Ground Staff
I would like to thank and congratulate Dave (Rabbit) Reading on his tireless work for many years at the Tweed Council making sure that Murwillumbah has the best grounds on the Northern Rivers. Dave has recently retired and is frequenting the golf course to keep himself busy! Many thanks from the entire Murwillumbah Panthers Cricket Club for the amazing service you have provided us over the years Dave, we will miss your awesome ground management but are still really appreciative to have you stay on the committee with us.
Dave’s off-sider Gavin Judd and protégé Danny Booth (pictured above) are both here to provide us with the same level of service. Danny was trained by Rabbit to prepare wickets, so we will still have the best grounds on the Northern Rivers. Make sure to say G'Day to Gavin and Dan if you come across them, they are great blokes and they love their cricket and league, and they are as keen as mustard to prepare great cricket wickets.
Rabjones Oval Upgrade Grant
The cricket club has partnered with the Vulcans AFL club to design and propose a Master Plan for the AFL and Cricket precinct at Rabjones and Les Cave ovals, which will be subject to council review and approval. So far we have a number of upgrades supported by the council for Rabjones Oval to replace ageing and/or flood damaged infrastructure including a lighting upgrade for the oval and cricket nets, a new electronic scoreboard, new AFL goal posts and new day-night cricket sightscreens. These are all subject to a grant application that was submitted to the NSW government last week. Finger's crossed it gets reviewed favorably and we get the funding to get it done. Big shout-out to club secretary Marc Portus who put the grant application and community survey together, its no small task! Across the AFL and cricket clubs we had 116 responses to the proposed upgrade survey with almost all proposed upgrades receiving well over 90% support. Thank you to those who participated, its very much appreciated and important for the future of sport in Murwillumbah and indeed the Far North Coast region.
New look committee for season 22-23
We have a new committee for season 22-23, which you can see on our "our people" page on our website. Check out all these awesome folks who have put their hand up to help the club this season...
Adam Housen - President
Marc Portus - Secretary
Fred Hughes - Treasurer
Mel Reeves - Female Coordinator
Dave Reading - Event Coordinator
Robbie Lashand - PlayHQ Coordinator
Jenny Stokes - Social Media & Communications
Shandell Carroll - Food & Beverage Coordinator
Grant Parmenter - Head Coach
Corey Nix - Child Safety Officer
The club also has new email addresses for myself, the secretary and treasurer, they are president@murwillumbahcricket.com secretary@murwillumbahcricket.com and treasurer@murwillumbahcricket.com
That’s it from me for now. Looking forward to a great season ahead!
Adam Housen
President
Murwillumbah Cricket Club
A club for all to come and thrive through cricket.