North Shore Cricket Club in the Media

Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 19

North Shore Cricket Club in the Media
There are several articles from the North Shore News and North Shore Outlook available online. I will track a few down and post them here.

Idea

If any of you see more media coverage - please share.
- bob jr.

Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 19

The big bounce

Erin McPhee

emcphee@nsnews.com

2006 marks the 85th anniversary of a North Shore tradition.

The North Shore Cricket Club has come a long way since its founding in 1921, when all interested local players would meet at the south end of Boulevard Park and play a game that stretched over two evenings. Soon after, a league was formed and in the 85 years that have followed the club has experienced many successes, changes and improvements, with no doubt many more to come.

"Cricket is really a way of life," said Rajiv Jhangiani, second vice-president and spokesman for the club.

"There's a saying in cricket, which is that if somebody does something unsportsmanlike you say, 'It's just not cricket' and that means a lot," he added.

For the uninitiated, cricket is a bat-and-ball game that is played by two teams of 11 players each on a grass field with a long, hard strip of ground in the centre called a pitch with a wicket - a set of wooden stumps - at either end. A ball is bowled by the bowler onto the pitch so that it comes to the batsman off the bounce. The batsman then attempts to hit into the gaps between the fielders or even all the way to the boundary of the field in order to score runs.

"I think cricketers hate to say that it's a different version of baseball because really it's the other way around," said Jhangiani. "It's a game with a great amount of tradition, with a great amount of respect but a lot of skill and a lot of competition as well," he added.

It's written into the laws of the game that umpires' decisions are to be respected.

"It's basically about teaching people sportsmanship. . . . In a sense, you could argue it teaches people how to conduct themselves in life in general," said Jhangiani.

Currently there are approximately 85 members in the club with five teams in the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League including one junior team. Practices are held Tuesdays and Thursdays with game play on the weekends. The season runs from April to September.

This year is a big year for the club in many ways.

One of the newest developments at the club is that a new coach from England, Shawn Miller, has joined the club. Miller is a highly trained, qualified and certified coach and will help the club in the further development of their junior program, said Jhangiani.

"That's one of the things that we'd like to celebrate the most because it's one of the things that really distinguishes our club from much of the rest of the league," he said, referring to the club's junior program. They're working on further building the infrastructure to support young players' growth into senior players.

Another improvement is that the club has secured a new permanent pitch.

"For years we've had to roll out this artificial mat in which to play the game at Norgate Park (where the club is based) and this year we spent a lot of time and effort and money and invested in finally installing a permanent track, which is something we've been wanting to do for the last 20 years," said Jhangiani.

There are many hallmarks to the North Shore Cricket Club, said Jhangiani. One example is its international composition - members hail from many different countries.

"You really get a feeling of the international flavour of the game because your teammates are from all over the place but the common language and love of course is cricket," he said. Jhangiani grew up playing cricket in India, where the game is incredibly popular, and from as early as he can remember he had a bat in his hands. When he moved to the North Shore in 1998, he said he was delighted and grateful to realize that the game is played here and quickly felt at home with the local club.

"Particularly in a place like Canada, often it serves as a way of coping in a new, perhaps unfamiliar environment in a new country and particularly when it brings together groups of people with diverse backgrounds, it really instills that sense of multiculturalism and sportsmanship," he said.

The club has created a strong social atmosphere and regularly holds barbeques, and club members watch matches together.

The club is always looking for new members regardless of skill or age, said Jhangiani. There are even members in their 70s who turn up, he said.

Those interested in joining the club can visit www.nscricket.com or send an e-mail to nscricket@gmail.com.

There is another cricket club based on the North Shore - the West Vancouver Cricket Club, which is based out of Hugo Ray Park.

published on 06/04/2006

Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 19

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman
NS Cricket Club coach and junior program co-ordinator Rod Shainbom, left, teaches Adev Mansahia, centre, and son Richard Shainbom the finer points of the game.

Cricket capacity

Jan-Christian Sorensen jsorensen@nsnews.com

ROD Shainbom is hoping to play the Pied Piper for the North Shore Cricket Club.

Shainbom, the co-ordinator of the storied local club's junior program and coach, is looking to attract more younger players to the sport this spring.

Currently the club sports co-ed under-14 and under-16 sides as well as a U-11 Australian-derived "Kanga cricket" program to give youngsters an introduction to the basics of the sport. The older squads' players feed into the club's Colts team, which plays in the B.C. Mainland Cricket League on Saturday mornings.

"We recognize that the youngsters of today are the cricketeers of tomorrow," says Shainbom, a West Van dentist in his non-cricket capacity. "A strong junior development program is essential for the future of cricket and we are focusing our efforts this coming season in attracting new players to our junior program."

And the club can boast of some solid talent that's graduated from its ranks - the only two B.C. players on the national World Cup team that has qualified for the World Cup of Cricket next year in South Africa (Kevin Sandher and Barry Seebaran) both cut their teeth at the North Shore club. Sutherland grad John Snow and Seycove alum Jay Hughes both learned the ropes through the club and represented B.C. in interprovincial play the past few years as well.

However, South African ex-pat Shainbom admits that it's been a hard sell to youths here on the North Shore, despite its huge following overseas.

"It's not a very common sport here unless one is coming from one of those countries where you grew up with it. There are very few Canadian kids playing cricket."

One of those reasons, he said, is likely a priority on more recognized sports such as baseball and soccer.

However, trying to turn that tide, the local organization has been making strides in local elementary schools, introducing the sport to youngsters through phys. ed classes and stuffing report card envelopes with pamphlets. Shainbom - and the club - is hoping that the increased exposure will spell an increase in the number of junior players filling the club's ranks this season.

Currently, club spokesman Robert Adie estimates that there are 40 youth players spread across the three teams.

He's hoping that increased exposure through the local players representing Canada on the World Cup side will lead to more interest for local youngsters.

"Being in the World Cup really elevates us," he says. "We're expecting a bit of a growth spurt. Hopefully it happens (because) there used to be more kids involved. These days we're seeing a decline in the numbers."

It's not a hard game to teach - or to learn, said Shainbom. And the younger they start, the easier it is for players to pick up the ins and outs and get the feel for the sport.

"With Kanga we focus more on the fun side of cricket," says Shainbom. "Obviously there's a bit of technique added in as well, so that they're learning, but they're also having fun.

"I think that it's something that can be easily learned and easily taught. As with any ball sport you get guys that are natural and if you're that type of player you pick up the skills a lot quicker. The basics are easy to pick up. Our problem is that most kids are familiar with baseball so they approach cricket with a baseball background. The style is different and the concept is different."

Currently the U-14 and U-16 sides practise with the rest of the club's adult teams in an effort to help the youth players better integrate and learn from the more experienced segments of the club.

Youth program practices go Tuesday and Thursday evenings at Norgate Park starting at 5:30 p.m. The program is sponsored by the North Shore Credit Union and the Royal Canadian Legion's Lonsdale and 15th No. 118 branch.

Registration for younger players takes place this Saturday at 10 a.m. For more information on the program, call Rod Shainbom at 604-925-3611.

Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 19

North Shore Cricket Club has storied past

THE North Shore Cricket Club can boast of a long local history.

The club was established in 1921 with 15 players and played on fields at Ambleside, Lynn Valley and on the median strip of Grand Boulevard before moving to its now-permanent home field at Norgate Park in 1954. Nowadays there are 75 active adult and about 40 youth program players that call the club home.

However, the Canadian climate - and an anemic fan following here on the homefront - have made the sport a tough sell as opposed to overseas, says North Shore Cricket Club spokesman Robert Adie.

"It's still huge around the world but here in Canada a lot of it has to do with the climate. We have a four-month season, where in Australia they can play all year round.

"There are matches overseas where they can draw sixty thousand fans per match. It's like a tailgate party at Lambeau (Field)."

And in the same way that Canada has struggled to make its mark in the World Cup soccer arena, the national cricketers have also had their work cut out for them.

But things are looking up - the Canadian team has qualified for the 2003 World Cup of Cricket in South Africa. The only two B.C. players on the team - Kevin Sandher and Barry Seebaran - are products of the local club.

And the club's been on a good run the past couple of years. The organization's premier division team won the B.C. Mainland Cricket League championship last season and this season the club will again sport teams in all five of the League's player divisions. Only Richmond also can brag of having that kind of representation.

Again this summer, the club is planning to import a professional Australian player-coach to give the local teams a helping hand. This season the Aussie will go by the name of Jeff Soden and pick up where last year's coach Shawn Flegler - who's now coaching in Ireland - left off.

It's the third year in a row that the club has enlisted professional help in helping its teams sharpen their skills.

"It takes some money so we have had to do some aggressive fundraising, but it's paid fantastic dividends, not only with the kids but with our adult members as well," says Adie, who's been playing locally for 17 years now and is the captain of the club's third division side.

He first got involved in the club through his father, Bob Adie, Sr., who is still active with the club - he's the captain of the fourth division team and president of the B.C. umpires association which presides at league matches.

"Like many of our players in Canada I got into the sport because of family roots. My dad's from England and like most of our young guys, our parents played the game.

"It was something different for me. It was fun to play, as much fun as baseball or softball, but there's a lot more to cricket than baseball. It really is a lot of strategy. A lot of the game is played in your head. There's a lot of precision required."

- Jan-Christian Sorensen

Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 19

NEWS photo Paul McGrath
NORTH Shore Cricket Club members Rajiv Jhangiani (left) and Eamon Hale work on their skills at a recent practice at Norgate Park in North Vancouver.
============================================
The big bounce

Erin McPhee

emcphee@nsnews.com

2006 marks the 85th anniversary of a North Shore tradition.

The North Shore Cricket Club has come a long way since its founding in 1921, when all interested local players would meet at the south end of Boulevard Park and play a game that stretched over two evenings. Soon after, a league was formed and in the 85 years that have followed the club has experienced many successes, changes and improvements, with no doubt many more to come.

"Cricket is really a way of life," said Rajiv Jhangiani, second vice-president and spokesman for the club.

"There's a saying in cricket, which is that if somebody does something unsportsmanlike you say, 'It's just not cricket' and that means a lot," he added.

For the uninitiated, cricket is a bat-and-ball game that is played by two teams of 11 players each on a grass field with a long, hard strip of ground in the centre called a pitch with a wicket - a set of wooden stumps - at either end. A ball is bowled by the bowler onto the pitch so that it comes to the batsman off the bounce. The batsman then attempts to hit into the gaps between the fielders or even all the way to the boundary of the field in order to score runs.

"I think cricketers hate to say that it's a different version of baseball because really it's the other way around," said Jhangiani. "It's a game with a great amount of tradition, with a great amount of respect but a lot of skill and a lot of competition as well," he added.

It's written into the laws of the game that umpires' decisions are to be respected.

"It's basically about teaching people sportsmanship. . . . In a sense, you could argue it teaches people how to conduct themselves in life in general," said Jhangiani.

Currently there are approximately 85 members in the club with five teams in the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League including one junior team. Practices are held Tuesdays and Thursdays with game play on the weekends. The season runs from April to September.

This year is a big year for the club in many ways.

One of the newest developments at the club is that a new coach from England, Shawn Miller, has joined the club. Miller is a highly trained, qualified and certified coach and will help the club in the further development of their junior program, said Jhangiani.

"That's one of the things that we'd like to celebrate the most because it's one of the things that really distinguishes our club from much of the rest of the league," he said, referring to the club's junior program. They're working on further building the infrastructure to support young players' growth into senior players.

Another improvement is that the club has secured a new permanent pitch.

"For years we've had to roll out this artificial mat in which to play the game at Norgate Park (where the club is based) and this year we spent a lot of time and effort and money and invested in finally installing a permanent track, which is something we've been wanting to do for the last 20 years," said Jhangiani.

There are many hallmarks to the North Shore Cricket Club, said Jhangiani. One example is its international composition - members hail from many different countries.

"You really get a feeling of the international flavour of the game because your teammates are from all over the place but the common language and love of course is cricket," he said. Jhangiani grew up playing cricket in India, where the game is incredibly popular, and from as early as he can remember he had a bat in his hands. When he moved to the North Shore in 1998, he said he was delighted and grateful to realize that the game is played here and quickly felt at home with the local club.

"Particularly in a place like Canada, often it serves as a way of coping in a new, perhaps unfamiliar environment in a new country and particularly when it brings together groups of people with diverse backgrounds, it really instills that sense of multiculturalism and sportsmanship," he said.

The club has created a strong social atmosphere and regularly holds barbeques, and club members watch matches together.

The club is always looking for new members regardless of skill or age, said Jhangiani. There are even members in their 70s who turn up, he said.

Those interested in joining the club can visit www.nscricket.com or send an e-mail to nscricket@gmail.com.

There is another cricket club based on the North Shore - the West Vancouver Cricket Club, which is based out of Hugo Ray Park.

published on 06/04/2006

Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 19

Remembering Greg

Erin McPhee

writer2@nsnews.com

A memorial cricket match held Saturday marked the 10-year anniversary of a tragic sports-related accident that occurred on the North Shore.

North Vancouver resident Greg Hobson, 21, died after being hit in the head with a cricket ball while batting June 3, 1995 during game play at Norgate Park.

Greg was known to always wear a helmet; however, on that day, he had removed his helmet, possibly due to heat.

"I remember him as a youth playing at West Van," says Bill Sims, president of the North Shore Cricket Club, of which Greg was a member. "We were always anxious to get the Hobson twins. They were a prize. I was very, very pleased when they came to join (the club)."

Since 1996, the club has been holding an annual match in Greg's memory.

Twin boys Greg and Wayne Hobson were born in South Africa and moved to the North Shore with their parents Wendy and John when they were 15.

"We were very close twins always," says Wayne. "We spent more quality time in 21 years than most people do in their life."

The brothers grew up playing cricket and upon moving to the North Shore joined the adult league as their skill level was so high. Their athletic careers were mirror images of each other's and they played on the same teams throughout their childhood and into their 20s.

"He was just a happy character to be around on the field, always smiling and having fun," says Wayne, now 32. "In such a serious, serious game, he always found a way to make it enjoyable.

"Once the accident happened, cricket was never the same for me. There was something missing."

The twins shared the field on the day of the accident.

Greg was well mannered, dedicated to the game, a willing learner, a talented athlete and was said to have been able to throw equal to any pro-baseball player, Sims says.

He graduated from West Van secondary and was studying architecture at BCIT at the time of the accident.

"When we lost Greg it was one of the saddest days in the club's history," Sims says. "I admired him greatly."

Wayne remains a member of the club, though he has less time for games due to work commitments and a pending wedding about which his family and friends are extremely excited.

The impact of Greg's death has been felt and honoured both locally and internationally. After the accident, the family received phone calls from Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.

"When this happened there were 700 or 800 people at his funeral at West Vancouver United Church," says John. "It shocked the community. It shocked the world.

"It just didn't stop because it was unheard of that something like that would happen on a cricket ground," John says.

The Australian cricket side signed a bat in memory of Greg after defeating England in the final cricket match played at Lord's after their 2001 tour of England, says John.

PGA Tour golfer Greg Norman also decided to do something for the family after he heard of the accident - he signed a glove in memory of Greg after his first round of the 1999 US Open golf tournament played at Pinehurst, N.C.

Locally, some increased safety precautions have been adopted by the club. They've established a local book of rules in addition to the official rules of cricket in order to create a safer environment in which to play. For example, all junior players must now wear a helmet.

A Greg Hobson Memorial Cricket Fund has also been established and organized by Greg's parents. The fund has allowed for the purchase of 85 cricket helmets and their distribution to junior players. Each helmet carries the inscription "In memory of Greg Hobson, 1973 - 1995."

The fund is also allowing the family to establish a memorial bench in Greg's memory at Northlands Golf Course. The family is now waiting for final approval from the course.

The fund also recently supported the tsunami aid effort this past Christmas.

Another memorial bench was established by the B.C. Cricket Association and placed in Stanley Park, near the Brockton Point cricket ground clubhouse. Wayne says the family often visits the site, which faces the North Shore mountains, where the family continue to reside.

From 1995 to 2001 a Greg Hobson Memorial Golf Tournament was held at the Seymour Golf and Country Club, and the North Shore Cricket Club continues to make the Greg Hobson memorial match an annual fixture on its calendar.

"The two sides that are playing, they were playing the day that my son was killed," says John. "Both captains were good friends of his. They decided that whenever they have to play, one of those matches are going to be in memory of him."

Saturday's event was a regularly scheduled trophy game between the two premier division teams - Kitsilano's Meraloma Cricket Club and the North Shore Cricket Club.

"The aim of this match is to preserve the memory of Greg and serve as a sobering thought to everyone who plays that even though we play to win and we play for fun, it reminds us of the bigger scope of the game and the bigger scope of life," says Bob Adie, webmaster for the North Shore Cricket Club.

published on 08/31/2005