Sodbury Duo Win In South Gloucestershire Council Sports Awards
Article Date: 11th December 2004
On Thursday December 2nd Chipping Sodbury Cricket Club nominees, Jeff Long and Mark Reynolds attended the South Gloucestershire Council Sports Forum 2004 Awards ceremony at BAWA, Filton. The evening was chaired by Kim Hazeldine, S.Gloucs. Sports Development Officer.
The awards were presented jointly by the Chair of South Gloucestershire Council, Cllr June Lovell and Geoff Twentyman, head of sport at BBC Radio Bristol.
Jeff had been nominated for the 2004 Sports Volunteer Award (awarded for commitment and dedication over a long period), which he won! Well Done Jeff – thoroughly deserved. Following his success in the ECB’s OSCAs, Mark won the 2004 Young Sports Volunteer Award.
Jeff Long
Jeff joined the Youth Section of CSCC at the age of 14 in 1969. He has played for the Club continually since that time mainly in the 1st XI of which he was the captain on 3 separate occasions in the period 1976 -2001.
He has served on the Club’s Management Committee every year since 1976 in a variety of roles, most recently and currently as Groundsman, previously he has been Bar Secretary and Fixtures’ Secretary (for 20 years).
Since 1982 Jeff has been the Club’s Groundsman and has spent hundreds, more correctly thousands of hours, preparing wicket and improving the standard of the cricket square and the ground in general.
His work is not confined to working on the ground, hours being spent maintaining and repairing the necessary equipment and machinery. Jeff will also be found helping with other projects around the clubhouse whether it be painting, plumbing, brick laying, carpentry or cleaning/tidying.
Jeff has devoted a huge part of his life to Chipping Sodbury Cricket Club and those at CSCC are is grateful and fully aware of the great contribution that he has made to the Club for the enjoyment and benefit of others. The club thanks him for his commitment and hope that he will continue to support the development of cricket in Chipping Sodbury for many years.
Mark Reynolds
Mark joined the Youth Section of CSCC at the age of 8 in 1987. He played regularly for the youth teams in the U13, U15 and U17 age groups, captaining the latter in his final year. During his teens he began to play for the Club’s senior teams. However from an early age it was evident that Mark had a lot to offer the Club off the field of play.
During the winter of 2001/2 Mark began to design and compile the Club’s own website, www.chippingsodburycc.co.uk - Hours of his time were devoted to this project on which can be found the Club’s history, useful cricket links, each week’s senior teams, results, news items, photo galleries, local weather, directions to our home ground and a guest book.
The summer of 2002 came and, with the site up and running, Mark decided to increase his involvement with the youth teams. He was elected on to the Club’s management committee to represent the Youth Section.
He has managed a range of teams from Under 9 to Under 17.
Mark soon realised that it was essential to have more adults involved with the running of the youth teams if all youngsters were to be coached/looked after effectively. He became involved with recruiting personnel from within the club’s membership to attend a coaches course and become qualified. He arranged for seven members to attend and all became qualified, Mark was one of these, and this has been a huge benefit to the youngsters during this past season.
Mark is a very hard working and committed individual who is respected by all members of the Club and also by the parents of our young players.
We are very lucky at Chipping Sodbury Cricket Club to have a team of hard working volunteers, no club can survive without such people. The contributions of Jeff and Mark have rightly been marked in 2004, we hope that others in the club might receive similar recognition in the future.
Congratulations to you both!!
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