21st Century at Stevenage Cricket Club

2003
In 2003 Stevenage 2nd XI won the Divsion 4 League Title under the Captaincy of Ian Brown gaining promotion to Division 3

There were a number of good performances from every member of the team during the season but Ian Brown led from the front taking 75 wickets at an average of 8.5. He was ably supported by the spin of Mahesh Palihakkara, who claimed 51 wickets at an average of 11.4
With the bat Russell Hann topped the averages scoring 538 runs at an average of 38.43 with Albert Sodhi and Palihakkara close behind with 463 runs at 35.62 and 473 runs at 33.8 respectively

Also in 2003 Stevenage 3rd XI finished runners up in Division 9 to achieve promotion, with Richard Burling captaining the side.

The success was primarily the result of steady contributions from all team members, although one of the notable individual performances was from Ashley Bayes who claimed 50 league wickets with his off-spin

2002

SUNDAY 1ST XI WIN THE HERTS ON SUNDAY LEAGUE

The Stevenage side comprising of, over the season, a mix of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th XI players and colts won the 2002 Herts on Sunday League on the last day of its season. Having only lost once all season, in a close fought game with Letchworth, Stevenage were left sweating on the result of the Cricketers vs Letchworth match which had been rearranged to a date late September. The Cricketers needed to win and pick up significant bonus points to steal the title from Stevenage's grasp but were defeated by Letchworth to leave Stevenage at the top of table.
From left to right and back row to front:
Albert Sodhi, Russell Hann, David Carr (Captain), Ricky Gill, Amit Dattani,Richard Sullivan, Simon Luxton, Mark Sinclair, Gary Brown

Thanks to the presentation to the Club of a Sport England Awards For All Grant, 2002 saw a major step forward in the development of Colts cricket at Stevenage. The Grant money was spent directly for the benefit of Colts cricket within the Club and the Town in general.

The above photo shows Vicky Read (Stevenage Borough Council's Sports Development Officer) with the cheque Stevenage Cricket Club were presented with from Sport England for the Junior Youth Development Initiative. The grant went primarily towards revolutionary portable cricket matting and to pay for qualified coaches to teach cricket within local Junior Schools. With the help of Vicky Read, the Club put together a programme of coaching through the summer which provided a rare opportunity for cricket development in schools and projected the Club into the local schools. The Club have identified this as the way forward; the way to provide players and members of the future and to give the club and cricket a future in the town.

THIS WORK CONTINUES TO BE BUILT ON THANKS TO INCREASING HELP FROM THE PARENTS OF THE YOUTH CRICKETERS, THE CLUB'S ECB QUALIFIED COACHES AND OF COURSE STEVENAGE BOROUGH COUNCIL

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