Cometh the moment, cometh the Theo

What a week its been!

It's been a busy old time down at the mighty Chipstead over the last week.

It all started on Friday at a rather boozy black tie fund raising affair with the hope of raising a bit of cash towards the new clubhouse (Which as you'll see below is taking shape quite nicely).



Before Friday we were probably around £35,000 short and the whole club had been wracking their brains to work out how we can raise the rest. Let's just say a couple of bottle of wine and a charity auction were all that was needed. Here's my hazy recollections of how Friday night panned out.

Train, beers, starter, beers, fundraising game, wine, main course, wine, cheeseboard, speech from the foxiest of men Graeme Fowler, getting told off by Foxy, wine....

And from here things started to get a little bit silly. The charity auction followed with some great lots including the chance to play a doubles game at Wimbledon, an executive box for a T20 game at Lords and a signed England rugby shirt. Proceed much bidding, banter and cheque writing. You get the picture...

Following some outrageous bidding and with the majority of the room feeling either slightly worse for wear (myself included) or slightly skint (Brian Padfield included) things seeemed to be heading for a quiet finish.

Cometh the moment cometh the Theo.

Our celebrity auction host and everyone's favourite Dragon Theo Paphitis wants to wrap things up with a final announcement. In a dramatic turn of events, Mr P's right hand man, Chipstead's silver fox chairman, Ian Childs has been somewhat neglecting his duties due to his commitment to the Chipstead revolution. Net result Mr P wants Childsy back and vouches to cover the remaining cost of the clubhouse just so Ian can get back to pulling his weight. What a hero.

My take on the event is that either Ian is pretty good at his job (debatable) or Theo is just a bloody good bloke (likely). Either way this announcment and pending cheque for £25,000 means a cause for celebration. Me and foxy make up, everyone has another port and Mrs Padfield goes home via Croydon to drop the lads of (Brian excluded) at some salubrious drinking establishment.

What a night.....what a bloke..... and what a hangover!

As for the new clubhouse name, current suggestions include "The Den" or "Theo's fortress". I personally wont have problem if suddenly I'm bowling from the Rymans end come May 8th.

Theo we thank you.

It's been a busy old time...

I think one of the beauties of being captain is you get to see how much work goes on behind the scene at your club. Take Chipstead for example....we've got a Twitter feed and a website and a committee dedicated to trying to rebuild our club house before May. It's currently going well and despite the ridiculous winter we're still near enough on track....

Its also quite a busy time for me too. This week amongst organising training, doing table plans and collecting money for our fund raising dinner I've been finalising the signing our overseas player for 2010.

We've signed a cracker too, a young prodigy by the name of Zac Elkin, no not the fella out of High School Musical but a run making machine who's currently captain of Western Province Under 19's

No doubt over the course of the coming months Zac's not only going to score a few runs but drink a few beers and bring some fresh energy to the club in it's 150th Anniversary. The Chipstead revolution marches on and I can't wait for summer.....

Rooney for the IPL?

As if the crazy world of T20 couldn't get any weirder, today has seen IPL chief Lalit Modi announce the interest of a "top three" English Premiership club in buying a franchise for the upcoming 2011 competition.

Obviously my first instinct on hearing the news was to head straight to the Bolton Wanderers homepage. Surely as a "top three" Premiership club I could expect to see news of Kevin Davies batting average or learn of Fabrice Muamba's crafty offspin? Sadly not, but having got over my initial disappointment at the thought of Bolton's only chance of silverware I got thinking...

The IPL has long been a source of contention amongst cricket fans. Undoubtedly it brings together some of the most entertaining and explosive players from around the world, its also proved to be a useful arena for younger players such as Ravi Bopara to learn their trade as well as providing the opportunity for more senior players to work out new methods and game plans which can only benefit the national team. Test cricket has also evolved as a result of the T20 revolution with higher run rates and more positive passages of play. Most obvious though is the fact that whether you like it or not T20 and the IPL specifically has also opened doors to huge wage bills and celebrity status.

I'd be the first to agree that in comparison to other professional sports, first class cricketers are underpaid and if I was an Andrew Flintoff I'd be cashing my £1,000,000 with a huge grin and a gracious thank you.

However, I do think the IPL does create several issues. Most notably for younger players it offers rewards for success in the shorter format which overshadow those available in Test and First Class cricket. Are we in danger of developing T20 specialists who have less interest in playing an Ashes series as long as their IPL bank account receives an annual top up? What about injuries and those players who may decide to curtail their Test career in favour of extending their more lucrative limited over availability?

Aside from that though is the involvement of a football club in the IPL a positive? Given the financial situation at many Premiership clubs including some of the biggest i.e Liverpool, United can extra investment in IPL franchise activity be a good thing? If a Manchester United type franchise did materialise undoubtedly the global fan base of cricket would grow significantly overnight and be accompanied by increased revenue from merchandising but would this be for the benefit of the game? My gut instinct says no. I'd much rather see the future of the game be determined by someone with its best interests at heart rather than a shrewd businessman be they American, Arabic or Russian.

Undoubtedly the landscape of professional sport is changing and with it the potential rewards. With this though comes responsibility for both the players involved and the wider custodians of the game. Only time will tell how responsible Mr Modi and his IPL travelling circus truly is.

Woodsy

Follow me on Twitter: Woodsy2186

The first ball....

Facing the first ball is always a bit daunting. Suppose it's a beauty that starts on leg stump and hits the top of off? Suppose the angry opening bowler wants to maim you because you've been flirting with his wife on the boundary? Suppose you've been doing the Sunday crossword and you're too busy thinking about "4 across" you chase a wide one? Lets be honest, nobody looks cool with a golden duck!

Writing your first blog post is a pretty similar feeling. Suppose nobody reads it? Suppose they think its boring? Suppose you get loads of bad comments? In the back of your head all you want is a nice wide half volley to get you off this mark.....

In fear of doing a Luke Wright and being too expansive early on, I'll keep this fairly short and sweet and say welcome to my blog "On the sweep"!

My name is Nick Woods, I'm a former Lancashire scholarship player, Oxford University captain and British Universities representative and I've recently been appointed captain of Chipstead, Coulsdon and Old Walcountians Cricket Club in the heady heights of Surrey Championship Div 5. We're planning a revolution though and "On the sweep" will hopefully be an entertaining recollection of our season and adventures! I'll also be touching on wider news and more hard pressing issues such as Shahid Afridi's new diet and Stuart Broad's latest hair cut.

So dust off those whites, pull on the pads and get down the nets, summer is nearly upon us.

Woodsy