Super Chipping Sodbury Soaring To Fresh Heights
Article Date: 3rd July 2009
Published in Bristol Evening Post
Chipping Sodbury have plenty to celebrate after climbing to second place in the Bristol & North Somerset table – their highest position in league cricket.
The south Gloucestershire club enjoyed several top-half finishes in the Senior Division of the Bristol & District League before finally winning promotion in 2007.
Last summer was a period of consolidation as they finished fifth with eight wins from 18 matches. This season, however, they are really flying and face a top-of-the-table clash at Claverham tomorrow.
Chairman Andy Shield, 47, who has been with the club since he was 14, said: "We extremely pleased at such an encouraging first half of the season.
"We belatedly entered the leagues in the mid-1970s. Some of the members at the time had a bit of a fuddy-duddy attitute and had been reluctant to do so.
"The Bristol & District Association allowed us to enter in Division II but this is our highest placing we have ever achieved.
"However, we are not complacent or resting on our laurels in any way. This division is extremely competitive, anyone can beat anyone else and there are no easy matches. If we are still there or thereabouts at the end of the season, it would be fantastic."
Sodbury celebrate their 150th anniversary next summer, with a clash against the MCC, led by former Gloucestershire and England spinner Martyn Ball, the highlight of a week of cricket.
Shield insists the door is always open should Ball, 39 and living in nearby Yate, decide he would like to play for his local club.
The key to Sodbury's cracking start this season has been their bowling attack – pacemen Jamie Wakefield, Rich Wood and Jon Toghill and off-spinner and skipper Jamie Rendell.
Wakefield, whose dad Rob Wakefield and grandfather Reg Quinland also played for the club, came through the youth ranks.
Rich Wood is another product of the youth set-up, while Jon Toghill joined from Pucklechurch a few years ago.
Rendell had spells at Knowle and Frocester before returning to his home club three years ago.
Shield is quick to play down talk of winning the Bristol & North Somerset title and promotion this season.
"We'll cross that bridge in a year's time," he said. "We are not getting excited. We are staying level-headed and just looking forward to Saturday's game with Claverham, which should be a very interesting one.
"The division is a very open one. You can win three matches on the bounce or, just as easily, lose three in a row. If that happens, it changes the whole perspective of where you are going."
Sodbury also have high hopes of their youth academy developing plenty of talented players for the future. Shield believes academy co-ordinator Damien Forder has a batch of highly-promising youngsters coming through.
"Damien has given the academy players, who are at the club each Saturday to hone their cricket skills, extra focus," he said.
"Tom Febry and Harry Webb were part of the academy and now they are in the first team."
