VIXINS Headlines
VIXINS giving a demonstration at the county ground. Click on a picture for the full gallery. All photographs (c) Pete Norton.
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Northants crash out of the cup to superb Warwickshire
The quarter finals of the 2007 BBS Primary Club National Knockout Cup saw a headline tie of BBS champions Northants VI.XI.NS facing the country's form teams, Warwickshire Bears. More
Northamptonshire VI.XI.NS pair Mahomed Khatri and Jagdisch Pata have become the clubs first players to be selected to play international blind cricket when they were named in the England squad to face India in a 5 match series in August 2007.
16 year old Khatri is the youngest player in the squad and earns his selection just 15 months after going blind: "I am really excited and glad to get this chance.” He said, “I can't wait to get my first cap and can't wait to go out there and show everyone what I can do. A lot of people said they thought I was getting better but I was still quite surprised I got in."
B2 Pata was born in India but is now qualified to play for England and his powerful stroke play has clearly impressed the England management.
The series will take place from August 20th to 26th in Worcestershre.
Northamptonshire VI.XI.NS have seen a number of players show some very promising signs for the season ahead during the clubs 3 indoor training sessions at the start of the year.
Most of the clubs players have been to at least one of the sessions during January, February and March.
A few of the stand out performances have come from the clubs captain David Gavrilovic scoring 46 not out and 36 not out in practice matches as well as taking a number of catches, Tom Willis showing improved batting and taking two terrific catches in the most recent practice and Jagdisch Pata showing very powerful batting and much improved fast bowling.
Mahomed Khatri has also showed great improvement in his batting and bowling,Sean Farrow took a fantastic catch in the last practice and Elliot Stonhill has been bowling very well.
Mark Simons has also shown batting improvement and Ian Goodearl has again demonstrated that he is the clubs best batsman. Charles Ronayne, David Keeling, Eddie Claridge, Simon Hill, John Wood and Alastair Provan have also all been to at least 1 practice and all have shown improvement in at least one aspect of their game.
The club look in good shape as they start their BBS league title defence on April 29th against Worcestershire away, with b1's and low partials both playing well with the club having large numbers of both and the clubs partially sighted players are also playing well although the club would like to find one or two more partials before the season starts.
The VIXINS have lined up their second practice session in the new year on Sunday February 18th to take place in Northampton. This follows on from January's practice at the same venue. Anyone is welcome to attend, whether new to Blind Cricket, or just somebody looking for a club. If you are interested, please contact club captain, David Gavrilovic, tel: 07866 751646. Arrangements can be made to pick people up from Northampton or Wellingborough stations.
Northamptonshire VIXINS have been drawn to play at home to Eastern Vipers in the BBS Primary Club Knockout Cup Preliminary Round. The club managed to avoid the BCEW teams of London and Sussex, who were drawn in the other Preliminary Round match, and will feel confident of their first victory in the BBS Cup having beaten Vipers twice in the league last year, albeit in two close games. Should they progress they will face Warwickshire Bears, who knocked them out at the quarter finals stage last year. A semi-final could also see a match-up with Metro, who are one of only two Blind Cricket teams the VIXINS have not been paired against in their short history.
Miah And Goodearl Triumph At End Of Season Awards
Shah Miah and Ian Goodearl both picked up two awards at the club's end of season awards, having both played major parts in the VIXINS first league triumph. More Here
Ian Goodearl and Elliot Stonhill have joined the Northants VIXINS committee in place of Mark Higgins and Robert Fenton who have stepped down. Elliot who works for Northampton Town Football Club becomes Publicity Officer with the clubs star batsman Ian taking over as treasurer. John Wood has moved from treasurer to Vice Chairman, a position vacated by David Gavrilovic who has become club secretary. Anne Bentley has remained Chairman and David Gavrilovic continues as the club’s Captain.
As well as the committee elections the club voted on a number of proposals of varying importance.
The main decisions made were:
The club will remain in the BBS league
The club have adopted a formal ruling on expenses, which penalises anyone claiming expenses for a rail journey when they haven't used a rail card.
The position of Publicity and Youth Development officer has been renamed simply Publicity Officer with youth development becoming the joint responsibility of the committee as a whole.
To see full minutes of the meeting and all the decisions made please click Here
After the meeting some of the clubs members went to a couple of clubs in town to celebrate the seasons success, lead by their "sober and responsible" Captain!
VIXINS end campaign unbeaten with second Vipers win
Northamptonshire VIXINS claimed their first title in only their second competitive season with a win against Eastern Vipers on Sunday. With almost a full strength partial team they were confident of victory going into the game with five wins out of five, though late withdrawals meant the team had to start with ten players, only having 2 B1’s. See a full match report Here
Northants move one step closer to BBS title in Birmingham
It's fair to say you won't see many games in blind cricket like this one! The day started in utter chaos when the Northants team bus was broken into on Friday night and vandalised with almost all of the teams kit and equipment stolen. This meant the away players all had to get taxis to the ground and after several getting lost eventually the Northants team plus an umpire and scorer managed to find the ground ready to start the game. See a full match report Here.
Northamptonshire VIXINS took part in what will probably be their most important friendly ever yesterday, taking eight players to Colwall CC to mix players with those from Colwall CC and Lashings CC, one of the most famous teams in the world.
Colwall kindly also provided nine players and Lashings five, which included former internationals Henry Olonga; Phil De Freitas; Nantie Heyward; Alvin Kallicharran and, for the second innings, Chris Cairns
All of the VIXINS players could have something to remember from the day, having each been caught by, run with, or bowled at by some of the best players in the world during their times.
Highlights of the day included David Gavrilovic bemusing Kallicharran, a man with 80 first class wickets, by hitting him for four and Elliot Stonhill surviving two overs from Chris Cairns and being not out before retiring. Charles Ronayne also induced an edge from Kallicharran and Sean Farrow engaged all players readily in some interesting conversations. The club were also finally able to find out the meaning of Kev's surname, 'man of many friends'
The club were also able to pick up a bat signed by all of the Lashings team from the day, which will be auctioned by the NAB to raise them money.
Northants representatives V Lashings and Colwall: D Gavrilovic; E Stonhill; I Goodearl; A Bentley; J Wood; S Farrow; C Ronayne; K Pamphilon.
VIXINS beat Vipers in stunning comeback
Northants VIXINS took on Eastern Vipers at Obelisk CC in a game that started in mild temperatures with spells of rain and ended in hot sunshine. If contending with the strange weather wasn't bad enough, the game started twenty minutes late due to Vipers train problems. See a full match report Here.
Northants complete Worcester double to top BBS league
Northamptonshire VIXINS have completed a double over Worcestershire Royals to claim top spot in the British Blind Sport national cricket league for the first time in the club's history. See a full match report Here.
On a hot and sunny day at New College Worcester Northamptonshire VIXINS finally started their BBS league season against the Worcestershire Royals. Northants handed league debuts to Shah Miah, Dave Keeling, Nick Killen, Simon Hill and Jagdisch Pata. See a full match report Here.
The VIXINS weather-hit start to the season has continued with their league game against the Worcestershire Royals being postponed.
This game has now been rearranged for June 17th with the VIXINS next league game being played a week earlier against the same opponents, on June 11th.
It is not the first time the club have had to call a game off on a Friday, having also cancelled a pre-season friendly against South Wales for the same reason. And after weather badly hit their cup game against Warwickshire, the VIXINS are hoping that an improvement in weather can bring about an upturn in fortunes for the club who are looking to mount a serious title challenge on the BBS league.
Northamptonshire VIXINS finally got to train outdoors before the beginning of the season after all previous outdoor training sessions and practice matches were cancelled due to bad weather.
The side used a specially prepared wicket at the Obelisk centre instead of the normal strip at the club and it proved to be lightning fast and to provide some extremely low bounce.
14 year old Tom Willis attended his first Northants practice and showed a lot of promise with the bat and looks set to become the clubs youngest ever player at some stage of the season.
The players at the practice were: David Gavrilovic; Simon Hill; Mahomed Khatri; Nick Killen; Shah Miah; Kev Pamphilon; Jagdisch Pata; Alastair Provan; Glynn Radford; Charles Ronayne; Elliot Stonhill; Tom Willis and John Wood.
Also at the practice were Paul Willis (Tom's dad); Gafar Khatir (Mahomed's dad) and Anne Bentley the club’s head coach.
This turn out was very impressive considering the practice was arranged with just six days notice. The side also have a far bigger squad than last season and now hold very strong hopes of challenging for the British Blind Sport cricket league title this season.
During this practice every player bowled at least two overs and everyone batted for three overs whether they got out or not.
Some performances of note included Alastair scoring 52 from just 18 balls and taking several catches, Shah bowling and fielding terrifically and demonstrating fantastic running between the wickets, Charles batted and bowled well and Dave G didn't bat very well but took 2 wickets and 2 catches very well!
Elliot also batted very well and Mahomed and Glynn both showed improvement on previous batting performances.
So now to the start of the season, the VIXINS cup hopes are set to be short lived as they are missing a large number of first team players for the game away at Warwickshire and have 10 squad members unavailable. However it is impressive that despite this the club still have a squad of 13 available players to choose from for the game. The main problem with the side that will take the field is it will have hardly any sight in the field so will be unable to hold catches or stop runs.
So after the inevitable cup exit comes a great chance to start the league season with a win as the club host Worcestershire at home at the Obelisk Centre.
The club would again like to thank the Obelisk Centre for letting us use their ground for our fixtures again this season. It is an excellent pitch with terrific facilities and we're extremely grateful for all the help they've given the club over the last year.
Saturday April 22nd 2006
Northants pre-season preparations were hit by the cancellation of the proposed friendly against South Wales Dragons due to a severely waterlogged pitch at the Obelisk Centre.
Northants were disappointed at the cancellation of their only pre-season friendly before the May 13th cup clash against Warwickshire, so are now trying to arrange a home friendly against another side on Sunday April 30th as South Wales have a league game on that date.
A record 21 people attended the latest Northants training session on April 9th.
It was great for the team to have so many new faces at what was a very high quality practice and the squad have a huge amount of confidence at the moment and expect a very strong season.
Players at the practice were: Laura Doherty; David Gavrilovic; Ian Goodearl; Simon Hill; Alan Kearsley; Dave Keeling; Mahomed Khatri; Nick Killen; Shah Miah; Alastair Provan; Mark Provan; Mark Simons; Elliot Stonhill and John Wood.
The other participants were: head coach Anne Bentley; Anne's grandson Cameron; Mark Simon’s wife Jane and son Chris; Mahomed's dad Gafar and his friend Mohammad and last but not least, Laura's dad Phil.
For the first hour or so of the practice everyone again split into three groups. One group of Mahomed and Laura as new players to blind cricket had an introduction to blind cricket session with John coaching them on batting and bowling.
A second group of Mark S, Nick and David G had a bowling session in the nets with Anne coaching them. The Third group coached by Ian practised batting and bowling in the main bit of the sports hall and were demonstrating some very powerful batting.
Then everyone split into two sides for an indoor practice match. As there were so many people playing it was decided that each player would bat for 1 over, and wickets counted as minus 5 points and the player got to bat for the rest of their over.
Alastair's team batted first, David G gave the team a great start scoring 8 off the bat in a first over worth 13 runs. Shah then bowled an astonishing over to Dave K getting him out off each of the first three balls.
Alastair managed to firstly get a ball stuck in the ceiling like Ian did a few weeks ago and then he proceeded to hit a huge straight six to end his over. Eventually Alastair's team finished on 26 due to losing numerous wickets including one to a brilliant run out from Shah and one to Elliot's first ever catch in 11 seasons of blind cricket.
Ian's team played a lot more sedately with Ian contributing 10 and several other batsman scoring a small number of runs without getting out. Shah again contributed with some powerful batting and terrific running between the wickets. They scored a lot less runs but lost a lot fewer wickets leaving them with 28 to claim a 2 run victory.
Some notable performances included Mark Simons taking a wicket due to Jane his wife taking an excellent catch. David G bowled 2 overs without the batsman getting bat on ball once and he also took a good low slip catch. Mahomed and Laura both scored runs in their first ever innings, which certainly deserves a mention.
Everyone else at the practice contributed a lot too, but as there were so many people there we can't mention everybody this time!
The club would also like to congratulate Mark Higgins for completing his pupilage and becoming a fully qualified barrister.
Northamptonshire VIXINS will play South Wales Dragons in a pre-season friendly at Obelisk CC in Northampton on Sunday April 23rd. The match will start at midday and will be contested over a maximum of 60 overs, with 30 overs per side.
It will be the VIXINS’ second match against Dragons in consecutive years following their end of season friendly last year. On that occasion it was the Dragons who claimed a comfortable victory despite an excellent VIXINS debut from Dave Keeling who took 2 wickets and narrowly missed scoring a debut half century.
Although the strength of the team that the Dragons will put out is uncertain, it looks like VIXINS will field a very strong side for the match as they hope to cause a major upset against last season’s BBS Cricket League Champions.
More encouraging signs of a promising season ahead
Northamptonshire VIXINS enjoyed a third straight high quality practice that was again very well attended.
This practice was the first for new recruits Jagdisch Pata and Nick Killen.
Attending the practice were: Anne Bentley (Head Coach), Alastair Provan, Charles Ronayne, David Gavrilovic, David Keeling, Elliot Stonhill, Glynn Radford, Ian Goodearl, Jagdisch Pata, John Wood, Kev Pamphilon, Nick Killen and Simon Hill.
This was the best attended practice the side have ever had and even more would have been there but Mark Simons was ill and a few others had to work.
The practice started with players again doing specialist batting, bowling and fielding practice. Alastair and Charles showed some very fast and accurate bowling and Nick and Kev also bowled well.
Glynn, Kev and Simon showed some improved fielding after a good session of fielding and Alastair, Dave K and Jagdisch displayed some very powerful batting.
After the specialist training the players split into two teams for an indoor practice match.
Alastair's team batted first with Alastair staring with the bat with 28 not out and charles scoring 16 before being caught by Anne. After two mid-innings wickets Simon batted well scoring 6 and helping Alastair re-build the innings. Most wickets fell from run outs but good bowling from Ian, Nick, Dave K, Jagdisch and Elliot limited the score after 10 overs to 63 for 4.
Ian's team started badly with firstly Elliot being run out from the fourth ball of the innings and then David G cleaned bowled Glynn for a golden duck to leave them 4 for 2 after the first over. But some solid batting from Ian 25 not out and Dave K 15 was enough to steer the side to victory. Jagdisch contributed a rapid 5 and 8 no balls from Charles helped Ian's team claim a 3 wicket win from the final ball of the match to finish 64 for 3 after exactly 10 overs.
Kev again bowled excellently conceeding just 7 runs from 2 overs and Alastair bowled very fast to limit scoring off his bowling.
Again run outs accounted for two of the three wickets and apart from the no balls.
One thing that has been noticeable in the indoor practices has been the lower sighted players have struggled for batting form and the side will be hoping for improvement from these players at the next practice, which will hopefully take place outside.
Northamptonshire VIXINS have had their fixtures for 2006 confirmed.
The season will start with an away trip to old rivals Warwickshire who the side lost to 4 times last season.
The fixtures continue with home and away games against Worcestershire before games against Birmingham, Eastern Vipers and Northern Galloways before the season ends on September 3rd against Eastern Vipers away.
The game away against Worcestershire has changed date to June 11th to avoid a possible clash with the football world cup tie which England may have to play against Germany if they are runners up in their group.
The club still plan to arrange a fixture against Obelisk CC with whom we share a ground and also plans are being made to host a one-day Northants tournament some time during the summer.
For a full list of fixtures for 2006 go to our 2006 Fixtures Section.
Charles and Kev star in high quality training day
Northamptonshire VIXINS preparations for the 2006 season have continued well with a successful February practice.
The day started badly when Alastair Provan had to drop out of the day as he was "still drunk" from the night before!
10 players attended the day along with head coach Anne Bentley. David Keeling, Simon Hill and Charles Ronayne were attending their first VIXINS training session.
The players who attended were: David Gavrilovic; Simon Hill; Elliot Stonhill; Mark Simons; Kev Pamphilon; Glynn Radford; David Keeling; John Wood; Charles Ronayne and Ian Goodearl.
The first half of the day was spent practicing individual skills with Glynn, Mark and Kev doing some fielding practice, Simon and Mark doing individual bowling practice and Kev, Simon, Elliot, Dave K, Dave G, Ian and Charles doing batting practice.
The second half of the day was spent with an indoor 7 a side match which included the 10 VIXINS players, Anne the head coach, Mark's fully sighted wife Jane and 8 year old son Chris and Anne's fully sighted grandson Caleb aged 10.
Elliot and Dave G captained the two teams, Elliot's side batted first and in their 10 overs scored 58 for 3 with Charles starring with the bat scoring 28 not out and Kev starring with the ball taking 2 wickets in a very economical and consistent bowling performance from him.
Dave's team could only slump to 17 all out with Jane taking an excellent catch to remove star batsman Ian before he could score a run. The teams top scorer was 8 year old Chris with 4 and Simon Hill took his first VIXINS wicket.
All in all it was a fun day enjoyed by all and everyone felt it was very useful training and the squad have a confidence about their abilities that wasn't there last season. Things are looking good for the VIXINS in 2006!
The next practice is on March 19th and we hope to have a number of new players attending that day.
Northants to face Worcestershire and Vipers twice
The League structure for the 2006 season has been revealed and Northants will avoid a long away journey against Northern Galloways.
The VIXINS will instead face Worcestershire and Eastern Vipers both home and away as well as hosting Northern and travelling to Birmingham.
With several VIXINS players being former Worcester players most of the team will look forward to facing their midlands rivals again and will hope to repeat last season's home win against them.
Eastern Vipers will start the season as favourites for the league title in what has now become the BBS National cricket league division one.
VIXINS captain David Gavrilovic said "I think things have worked out good for us from a travel point of view as we don't have to travel up to Stockport to face Northern Galloways, but we do have to play Eastern Vipers twice and they are probably the strongest team in the league this year. We will be targeting finishing in the top two this season and will try as hard as we can to beat Vipers and win the
League."
Northants captain David Gavrilovic and new player Simon Hill have joined the BBS Cricket Committee. David has become chairman after winning a closely contested vote at the BBS Cricket AGM. Simon was elected unopposed as treasurer after the position became vacant at the end of 2005.
Having two representatives on the committee will mean Northants are well represented on the body that runs blind cricket in this country.
David will continue to captain Northants along with his new roll and hopes to lead Northants to their first BBS National Cricket league title in 2006.