Emma-Louise Allen wins BSUK's Softball Young Volunteer of the Year

Congratulations to Club Secretary and 2011 Clubman of the Year, Emma, who has won BSUK's Softball Young Volunteer of the Year award. This is a fantastic achievement for Emma and is in recognition of all the hard work she has put in this year to promoting softball within our community and helping with the day-to-day running of our Club.

Emma's particular efforts this season include all of the following:

• In her role as Secretary, she has supported me to make sure the Club runs smoothly
• Organising and helping to coach at junior softball taster sessions
• Helping to run a softball taster at Marlow Rugby Club
• Volunteering on the Club's Development Committee
• Helping to organise the Club's annual President's Day (a day she wasn't even attending)
• Co-captaining Firebirds with Liz, even though she played for Phoenix.

She's done this without a complaint and with a smile on her face and I'm sure you'll all agree that this is a much deserved award.

I look forward to seeing Emma at training sporting all of her new BSUK merchandise and I hope that the trophy looks good on her mantlepiece.

If you think that you could follow in Emma's footsteps and spend time helping with the running of the Club, then please contact Helen Turner, Volunteers Co-ordinator.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year, see you all in 2012, if not before.

Clare
CSC Chairman

Celebrating Award From The Mars Refuel Drink Fund

Chalfont Softball Club, based in Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, is celebrating after receiving a £500 donation from the MARS Refuel Drink Fund.

Founded in 2003, the club was the first in the UK to obtain Clubmark accreditation for Softball and currently has 45 active members aged between 15 and 55.

After a successful summer running taster sessions for Chalfont St. Peter Youth Centre and The Beaconsfield School, their aim is to entice more people into playing the sport regularly, through taster sessions.

The club is run entirely by volunteers meaning the successful running of the taster sessions is wholly dependent on the goodwill of the coaches donating their free time.

The donation from the MARS Refuel Drink Fund will pay for two club coaches to run 10 one hour taster sessions.

Five of members of our coaching staff:
Clare Winter, Louie Periera, Chris Yoxall,
Neil Turner, Dan Lovelace

Clare Winter, Club Chairman and Level 2 Coach, says: "With the donation from the MARS Refuel Drink Fund we can now afford to pay our coaches to run taster sessions.

"This will be a great boost to Chalfont Softball Club as it means we can bring new talent and energy to the club and play for longer. A big thank you goes out to MARS Refuel."

2011 Awards Dinner

It's been a fantastic season for the Club with Phoenix finishing 3rd in WMDMSL Div. 1, their highest ever finish, Flames winning Div. 2, Firebirds having a superb inaugural season finishing middle-top in Div. 3 and our tournaments teams bringing home lots of silverware too, so there was an awful lot to celebrate at our annual awards dinner on Saturday night.

Congratulations to all of our winners:

Overall Club Awards
Clubman of the Year - Emma-Louise Allen
Most Improved Male - Barry Cook
Most Improved Female - Catherine Rowe

Phoenix
Male MVP - Davey Crossman
Female MVP - Sarah Wood
Male Golden Glove - Neil Turner
Female Golden Glove - Steph McKean
Male RBIs - Chris Yoxall
Female RBIs - Sarah Wood
Male Batting Average - Chris Yoxall
Female Batting Average - Sarah Wood
Male HRs - Chris Yoxall
Female HRs - Sarah Wood

Flames
Male MVP - Chris Snelling
Female MVP - Barbra Georgellis
Male Golden Glove - Chris Snelling
Female Golden Glove - Donna Manley
Male RBIs - Chris Howse
Female RBIs - Helen Turner
Male Batting Average - Chris Snelling
Female Batting Average - Barbra Georgellis
Male HRs - Harvey Waywell

Firebirds
Male MVP - Gwyn Jones
Female MVP - Liz Williamson
Male Golden Glove - Barry Cook
Female Golden Glove - Becky Griffiths
Male RBIs - Darren Monteiro
Female RBIs - Liz Williamson
Male Batting Average - Louie Pereira
Female Batting Average - Rosie Archer
Male HRs - Barry Cook
Female HRs - Rosie Archer

Tournaments
Male MVP - Gwyn Jones
Female MVP - Angela Tedman
Male Golden Glove - Lester Deeble
Female Golden Glove - Sarah Wood
Male Bat - Chris Howse
Female Bat - Clare Winter

Finally, a big thank you to Sarah Wood and Liz Williamson who organised the awards, the dinner and the entertainment on the night.

Chalfont Softballer Shines In Europe

James Rowe, a sixteen year old student, has just returned from Kostelec in the Czech Republic where he played on the Great Britain Mens Under 19 Fastpitch Softball team in the European Junior Boys Championship.

It has been a meteoric rise through the ranks for Rowe, who only started playing softball in June 2010 when he joined Chalfont Softball Club after briefly playing softball in inter-house games at Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe. "I found that there was a whole world of softball that I had never come across before and Chalfont was the best for me as it is the first club in the UK to gain Clubmark accreditation" said James. He quickly impressed and became a key player in the Flames, Chalfont's second team, finishing the season being awarded batting and fielding honours and the prize of the club's most improved player of the season.

In 2011, Rowe has continued to develop as a player and has made himself a regular choice of the Phoenix, Chalfont's first team. Good performances for both the Phoenix and Chalfont's new fastpitch team got him noticed by Stan Doney, the GB U19's coach. Impressing at trial during a local softball tournament saw Rowe selected for the European Championships. "After one year of playing softball I never though that I would be doing a trial for GB. Stan liked what he saw and thought that this would be great experience considering at 16 I would also qualify in two years time when they next come round", said Rowe.

Competing against experienced fastpitch teams from Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark and Israel, Great Britain were always going to find it a tough tournament. "It was never going to be a tournament that we were going to win but the hope was that we would get third and therefore qualify for the World Championships in Argentina next year." said Rowe. He added "A highlight of the week was the atmosphere in the dug out when we started to come back from 7-0 down against Israel to win 18-8. My personal highlight was in the game against Croatia which we won (17-7) after being 6-0 down, we were 2 down with a runner on 3rd, I came up and had to hit a single and get to first to win the game on mercy and save us having to play another innings."

Great Britain unfortunately lost out to Croatia in the playoffs to finish in fourth place. Rowe played well the whole week and finished with the third best batting average of the team and achieved the fourth best fielding average - not a bad start for Rowe who is already hoping to be returning to the Championship in two years time as a better and more experienced player.

Development Plan

The Development Committee (Neil, Louie, Emma and Clare) met up last week to reflect on progress made in the last year and to update the Club's Development Plan for the next 3 years.

In the last year we have:

• Increased membership by around 42% (in favour of females!)
• Added an extra team into the league
• Increased the number of coaches (from 4 to 7)
• Qualified 2 BASU umpires
• Run school taster sessions
• Booked our first corporate event

In the next 1 year we plan to:

• Double junior membership from 4 to 8
• Introduce social membership
• Reduce membership fees for students and unemployed players
• Move our home ground to Newlands Park
• Create a Chalfont Softball League
• Increase our fundraising - set up a 100 Club
• Run another corporate event
• Run another youth programme
• And much, much more

And in the next 3 years we also plan to:

• Have 4 adult teams playing in the league
• Have 1 team playing in NSL 2 (at least)
• Hold our own adult tournament
• Develop our home ground
• Run at least 5 corporate events every summer

As you can see, we have grand plans! There is more information available in the 2011 Development Plan - take a look and see what we have achieved and what we are aiming for.

There are exciting times ahead at CSC - if you think that you can help with any aspect of our plans, or if you think we've missed a trick with something, then please shout up. Neil, Louie, Emma and Clare would all be very pleased to hear from you.

Subs, tournaments, website and another GB softball player

Subs

Sadly, only 15 people have paid their subs for the 2011 season. Please bring along your money/cheque to your game this week, or transfer online (email Emma Allen for bank details) as I'm afraid the Captains can not let you play as of next week if you have not paid up.

Availability

There will be selection meeting next Wednesday 25th May between Captains and Coaches to decide your team for the rest of the season so if you haven't done so already, please send your availabiliy through to Liz Williamson.

Fastpitch

After the success of our debut on 8th May, CSC will be entering a team on the other tournament days which are 11th June, 18th June and 9th July. If you are interested in playing on one or all of these dates then please contact Chris Snelling. We need 8 people minimum on the day. Also, if you are male and interested in playing Div 1 in the afternoon, then please also make yourself known to Chris.

Tournaments

Well done to both Phoenix and Flames for the past weekend's success at Diamond 1! If you have not done so already, please return your completed form (available here) to Phil Masters as we are a few players short for future tournaments. As you know already, spots are filled on a first come first serve basis but we also wanted to let you know that if with two weeks to go Phil has not got enough CSC members to fill all spots in the team, he will invite outside players to come and help us out.

Social

The committee will be organising a social for all club members very soon. If you have any marvellous ideas and/or would like to help out, please let me know by replying to this email.

Website

Now the 2011 season is in full swing, please visit our softball club's website to familiarise yourself with our codes of conduct, child protection policies and emergency procedures, especially if you are a new CSC member. This is a Clubmark requirement. You will also be able to see pictures and find contact details of this year's committee members, such as Karen Jones who is our child welfare officer, so you can recognise anyone should you wish to contact them.

Lastly, congratulations

Huge congratualtions to James Rowe who is now the newest member of the U19's GB squad. We're so proud, sniff!

Unbeaten on debut in London Fastpitch Softball League.

Chalfont Softball Club is trying something new this season and has entered a team in the London Fastpitch Softball League.

We normally play slowpitch softball but an opportunity arose to take part in the fastpitch league at Richings Park not too far from Chalfont.

Fastpitch differs from slowpitch in a number of ways including, pitching being done at speeds from 50mph to 70mph, there is leading off and base stealing, batters being able to bunt the ball and the ball being live more of the time.

Our team played and won all three of its games. You can read more about our matches at the London Fastpitch Softball League. The BSF have an article on their website as well - click here to read it.

Chalfont St Peter Youth Centre taster sessions commence

Last night our head coach, Neil Turner, and secretary (Emma-Louise Allen) visted Chalfont St Peter Youth Centre to run the first of two softball taster sessions for their young people. It was a great opportunity to introduce softball to a group of local 14-16 year olds.

The session ran for an hour and took place on the centre's fenced basketball court. Neil and Emma ran some drills to introduce the basics of catching, throwing and fielding before progressing to a modified game based on indoor softball to give the attendees and idea of how a game works and to add a competitive edge between them.

Next week a further session will give the young people to have a go at batting - something that is sure to go down well with them to be followed by a more organised modified game.

It is hoped that after the two sessions a number of the young people will come and attend our next club training session on Gold Hill to fully experience the softball we play at Chalfont Softball Club. Neil and Emma also discussed the possibilty of CSC running a full game on Gold Hill for the people of the Youth Centre at some time in the future.

This series of sessions follows on from a very successful taster session we ran for Marlow Ladies Rugby Club in March. We also have a tasters booked at Beaconsfield School for 50 year 10s at the end of the month at which it is hoped there is enough interest to start an after school club.

If you have a school or organisation that you think would like to have Chalfont Softball Club run an event for you then please let us know.

Third Team Name - And the Winner is...

Firebirds! 29 people voted on the name that they wanted for our new third team and "Firebirds" came out a close winner ahead of "Dragons" and "Heat".

We wish the Firebirds well for their inaugural season in the Windsor and Maidenhead Mixed Softball League Division 3. We are sure that they will be every bit as successful as the Phoenix and Flames.

Club Day - Sunday 17th April

In advance of the start of the new season, we will be running a Club Day on Sunday 17th April instead of a regular training session. The day will be a chance for the coaches and captains to put players through their paces with a series of drills and competitive games but it is also intended to be a social occasion in which old and new members can get to know each other a bit better. With that in mind, we will be finishing with a pub lunch at the Village Hall once all the running about is over.

The session will run from 10:30am to 12:30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend, please email Clare (chairman@chalfontsoftballclub.co.uk) to let her know if you will be there so that we can plan the day successfully.

Level 1 and Level 2 Coaches

Congratulations to Dan Lovelace, Sara Daughtrey and Louie Pereira who all recently gained their Level 1 softball coaching qualifications.

Along with Chris Yoxall, they are now working towards their Level 2 softball coaching qualifications. They join Neil Turner (Head Coach and Level 2 coach), Clare Winter (Level 2 coach), Sarah Wood (Level 1 coach) and Sally Maxted-Bayley (Level 1 coach) on the Club's coaching staff.

They are all looking forward to putting what they've learnt into practice at pre-season training on Sunday mornings.

Pre-Season Update

Home Ground - Goldhill Common

As many of you will know, we have been talking for the last 12 to 18 months about moving our home ground to Newland Park on the other side of the village. This is still in the offing, indeed the development has been granted provisional planning permission, but due to delays in the planning process, we won't be able to make the move any time soon. We will, therefore, continue to use Goldhill Common as our home ground for both matches and training this season, with the Village Hall pub serving as our "refreshment point".

Third Team

With our numbers growing in the last year and some people struggling to get a game every week last season, we have decided to launch a third team this year. The third team will be entered into the league and will have games every week, just like Phoenix and Flames. To get the third team up and running, we need your help:

1. What do you think the team should be called? The committee have come up with a few ideas, but we're not overwhelmed by them, so we'd like your suggestions. Ideally, the name should tie in loosely with Phoenix and Flames, but we're open to anything, so let us know what you think.
2. Once the team has a name, it's going to need a captain or manager to organise it - could you be that person? The role can be what you make it, if you're more of an organising person than a captaining on the day person, then that's great, you can manage the team, and we'll find someone else to captain on the day, or vice-versa. If you're put off taking on the role of captain or manager because you don't have enough knowledge or experience to do it, then don't be - we have a team of coaches that will be on hand to help out and offer advice. The role of manager or captain can be taken on by anyone in the club no matter your experience or skill level and it won't automatically mean that you have to play for the third team, so please consider it. We look forward to receiving a wealth of responses from people keen to get more involved with the successful running of the club!

Club Day

We have decided to run a Club Day in advance of the outdoor season (date to be confirmed, but probalby during the weekend of the 29th April) in order to get everyone back into the swing of things and to give the coaches and captains a chance to get an idea of playing squads for the start of the season. This will not be Phoenix vs. Flames vs. Third Team, we will be mixing everyone in together and having fun, not running competitive trials.

Fundraising

To cover the cost of developing our new grounds at Newland Park, we have estimated that we are going to need to raise around £30,000. The good news is that BSUK have told us provisionally that they will fund match every £1 we raise as a club, so in theory our target is only £15,000. We have been working hard over the Winter to kick off our fundraising campaign - setting up our Amazon link, writing funding applications, researching grants to apply for, identifying companies to contact for donations or corporate days, etc., but we're going to need more help.

• Do you have any great ideas of how we can raise the funds?
• Does your company have a fund for corporate social responsibility that we might qualify for?
• Do you have experience of writing funding applications or business plans?

If the answer to any of these question is "yes" then please, please, please get in touch. We will be writing a more detailed email soon with an update on our ideas and plans, so keep an eye out for that and in the meantime, don't forget to access Amazon through our club website (or by clicking on the link below) in order to raise us some vital funds.

Social Networking

As you may or may not have seen, we've decided to embrace the 21st Century and "get down with the kids" (or some such malarkey). Yes, that's right, Chalfont Softball Club is now on Twitter and Facebook. Please spread the word amongst your friends, family and colleagues and help us to boost our numbers. We're hoping that in embracing social networking we'll be able to generate interest in the club both amongst potential senior and junior members and amongst potential funders. With regards to funding, if we're able to tell potential funders that we have over, say 100, followers on Twitter and Facebook, it will add real weight to our cause as it will demonstrate that we are reaching out to the wider community.

You can find links to our Twitter page and Facebook page at:

• http://www.twitter.com/ChalfntSoftball
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chalfont-Softball-Club/138589126206215

Please note that we will be continuing to use the club website and these emails as our main way of informing you of activities and events in the Club; Twitter and Facebook are just added extras!

Pre-season Training

And finally... pre-season traininig kicks off this weekend. We will be starting at 10:30am sharp and running through to 12:30pm. Training will be on Goldhill Common. Please arrive by 10:20am ready to start at 10:30am.