Club update - Jan/Feb 2025

Stokes Valley Cricket Club's 76th year

It has been a year since the 75th Jubilee of the club, so I thought this was an ideal time to keep you informed about how the club has been going over the last year. I know how much many of you have put into the club and what it means to you.

Image: SVCC Jubilee January 2024.

Overall, the club is going pretty well. This season we have seven senior teams and four junior teams.

The two top teams are currently about mid-table and they are playing pretty well without luck. The week before Christmas the top team were well in control of their game. The second day was rained out, but I guess you have all heard that story before. All the other teams are going well and have all been competitive.

Sadly, there is no women’s team this season. However we had a Girls Under 13 team. Four of them are in the Wellington Under 13 team. This is the result of a lot of hard work from our Junior Convenor, Amanda Williamson.

Image: Sophie, Savannah, Memphis and Emilie from SVCC representing Wellington U13 Girls.

We have a strong committee of ten members. They all pull together really well and we are lucky that combined we seem to have enough expertise in every area to run the club.

We have a new life member, Julie Lankow. If you were at the 75th Jubilee last year, Julie ran the quiz night on the Saturday. Julie was our Junior Convenor for four years, our Secretary for three years and our Chairperson for one year in which she received a Cricket Wellington volunteer award. In the last couple of seasons Julie has stepped back from official positions on the committee, however she still does a truck-load of work on the committee. She thoroughly deserved her life membership.

I caught up with Clive Sowry, Arnold Sowry's son recently. He gave me a pile of documents that date back to the inaugural meeting of the club including all the annual reports from 1949 to 1971, every scorebook from 1957 to 1971, as well as photos.

I found out that we have four patrons to add to our record. For me this is the missing link that I have been looking for. If any of you are interested, let me know and I will send this information to you.

I also caught up with Tony Iliffe (life member). He was the club treasurer from 1967 to 1977. He is currently is in hospital care at Seven Oaks in Paraparaumu. If you are passing, I’m sure he would like to see you.

We have seven playing weekends to go in our season. Three of our teams are currently leading their grades (as of 31 January). The Ashes 1st XI, the Scorpions, and the new team, the Stars (T20).

SVCC Stars

Image: SVCC Stars T20 team wearing the club's new uniform introduced in 2023.

Interestingly, they are all leading their grade by one point! This point was earnt at the start of the season if we attended an umpiring course. Kenny Harle, our club captain pushed hard for this and though there is still a little way to go it could be the difference between winning the grade or not!

Interview with Kenny Harle, Club Chairman

SVCC Jubilee


Kenny has been playing for Stokes Valley Cricket Club for approximately five seasons. Kenny came from Hutt Districts to the mighty Valley - a decision he doesn’t regret.

In his first season he made the honours board scoring 90+ in two 200-run partnerships.

Kenny joined our committee after a couple of seasons, he is now our Club Captain and our Chairman. If you have a cricketing problem, Kenny will sort it out. If he can’t, he will find out who can.

Kenny is playing with the Ashes 1st XI and is an integral part of the team. Kenny has also just come back from representing Wellington in the Over 40s.

Image: Kenny Harle at the SVCC Jubilee Dinner.

I sat down with Kenny last week with a Carlsberg and put these questions to him.

1: Favourite Movie: Airplane

2: Favourite Food: Lasagne

3: Favourite Cricketer: Martin Donnelly (before my time)

4: Favourite Cricketing Moment: Rupert Crichton running through the stumps to run out the last batsman when Easts Thirds required one to tie on the last ball of the match. The win put us into the Senior 3 One Day Final.

Kenny is a big asset to our club and we think very highly of him.

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I will send out another report at the end of the season.

Best of health
Woody

Posted: Sunday 2 February 2025


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