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Welcome to the San Fulgencio Cricket Clubs website page. The San Fulgencio Cricket Club was established in early 2009, to fill a gap for cricket on the Costa Blanca, in the La Marina and San Fulgencio areas and since then, the Club has grown from strength to strength, we have achieved unrivalled coverage in various English newspapers for cricket on the Costa Blanca, As well as creating this website page that you are currently reading

We have played various friendlies leading up to our first league season in 2010

The Club has almost 40 players and officials on our books as well as building a social side for wives and girlfriends

A newsletter is printed each month with the Clubs latest news and points of interest

We hope that the information below is of interest to you and if you would like to contact us then please do so at sfccpress@gmail.com
 

Fixture list for The San Fulgencio Cricket Team
The list below gives the dates and the opposition on those dates, plus, the ground that the matches are taking place on

Saturday 15th May 2010 v Intellectuals at La Manga

Saturday 22nd May 2010 v Alfaz Seconds at Alfaz

Saturday 5th June 2010 v Alfaz Seconds at La Manga

Sunday 20th June 2010 v Madrid Seconds at La Manga

Saturday 3rd July 2010 v Madrid United at La Manga

Saturday 24th July 2010 v Madrid United at La Manga

Sunday 8th August 2010 v Intellectuals at Alfaz

Saturday 28th August 2010 v Alcoron at La Manga

Sunday 5th September 2010 v Madrid Seconds at La Manga

Sunday 19th September 2010 v Alcoron at La Manga

As you can see from the list above, we are playing our matches at two grounds in the 2010 season, there is a ground being built in Torrevieja as well as the Ayutamiento building us a junior size ground on La Marina

We currently train every Saturday from 12 midday until at least 2pm on the Market Place in La Marina, and as you can see above the league season runs from May through to September although Cricket is played in Spain almost all year, with only January being match free.
 

February 27th 2010 - San Fulgencio Cricket vs Sporting Alfaz
Sporting Alfaz C.C. of Albir invited San Fulgencio C.C sponsored by www.flightm8.com to send a team to Alfaz for their first match of the 2010 campaign

This was a return fixture as S.F.C.C. had entertained Alfaz in our Clubs very first match on the Market Place in La Marina. For our team it was nice to get grass under our feet again after so many weeks and months training on tarmac at Fulgencio.

The fixture list will tell you that when we played the Alfaz first team in reality it was more a mixture of second teamers, midweek and Academy Players. Alfaz didn’t have much choice in this as almost their entire first team squad were at the Spanish senior trials at La Manga

We did not think that there would be a more favourable time to give Alfaz a close game, unfortunately when it came for us to select a side we too were short of a few recognised first teamers, but this gave us a chance to field some players who may not have had much of an opportunity otherwise

The toss was made and S.F.C.C. Skipper Bob Norton Invited Alfaz to bat, the plan was for a few quick wickets then give our other bowlers a game however, things never turn out how they are planned, David Climent gave Alfaz a solid start and his good work was continued by Chris Cooper who scored a half century. Then ex Nottinghamshire player Paul Taylor kept the scoreboard ticking over and was unbeaten at the end with an accomplished 50 under his belt, but our bowlers kept at it and showed good promise for the forthcoming League campaign, we restricted Alfaz to 164 from 30 overs but at least 6 catches were dropped and if these had been held then an altogether different report would have been written, in any case congratulations must go to Adam Alger, Kieron Ward and Charlie Baker who each got one wicket

When it was our turn to bat we had our doubts because we had never scored more than 80 in a match, after both openers fell cheaply it was the turn of new player Leigh Blann from Gran Alacant to push the score along, and he top scored with 29 valuable runs to keep us up with the run rate. When Leigh fell Gary "smurf " Williams tried some innovative shots but fell cheaply, Graham Shelton in the middle order looks better with each passing match, then it was the turn of Chairman Jon Alger and with some lusty blows he hit a quick fire 28

At the end, it was down to David Riley and Michael Carter to try and bat out the overs but we were bowled out for 131 our best ever score as a team, and when we reviewed the match later in Mix bar on La Marina we all agreed that the day had been a very successful one

For more information or history on S.F.C.C. then join the 2,450 people who looked at our website in February www.CostaBlancaFootball.com/sanfulgenciocricket
 

March 17th 2010 - MIX Bar and Tapas Urbanisation La Marina
St. Patrick’s Day Fun Run Wednesday 17th March 2010 at 4pm there will be 3km Fun Run/Walk in aid of;
San Fulgencio C.C, Totally Dance School for children and K-9 Animal Rescue

The Run starts and finishes at Mix Bar, just off Avenida de Londres, Urb. La Marina, close to the Post Office.
If you would like to take part all you need to do is get as much sponsorship as you can for your preferred cause,
pop on your green clothing and join in the fun!

MIX Bar are offering Free Irish Stew for all fun runner/walkers and the San Fulgencio Town Hall will provide a free bottle of water to all entrants, as well as a trophy for the fastest adult and child finishers!

Following the fun run/walk, there will be an Irish Dancing Display by Totally Dance School & Irish Music at MIX Bar till late, one customer assures us a few Irish songs will be sang.

More details from Bob on sfccpress@gmail.com

February 13th 2010 - Committee meeting of the San Fulgencio Cricket Club
At the latest committee meeting at the White Swan on La Marina Urbanisation on Saturday 13th February 2010, Chairman Jon Alger confirmed the Clubs ongoing commitment to making Cricket at the Club available to as wide a section of the local population as possible

To this end there will still be no charge for anyone attending Training at the Market Place on La Marina, the only charge the Club will make is to cover the coach and petrol costs if we have to take anyone to further coaching at La Manga or Alfaz

There will be no charge to anyone for being a member of the Club, we feel this is totally unique as Sporting Alfaz up at Albir charge 45 Euros for full playing Membership and the areas newest Club who are not even playing League Cricket this year are charging 35 Euros to Senior Players

Regarding match fees, these are charged by the league and it is a charge that we cannot avoid, it covers the cost of the hire of the ground, the cost of the match ball and the fees for the league appointed umpires, But again, we are doing something in line with the Clubs ethos of making Cricket as accessible as possible, we will not pass on this charge to anyone under the age of 18, players aged 18 and over will pay 10 Euros per match if there is any shortfall this will be met by the Clubs Fundraising activities

Press Secretary Bob Norton mentioned that the Clubs website page www.CostaBlancaFootball.com/sanfulgenciocricket has been receiving significant exposure since going live in the middle of January, for example a Google search on Tuesday 16th February for cricket on the Costa Blanca, showed that it is already on page one, number 7 out of 963,000 results!!

On a final note the entire Committee as well as the the Clubs Players and Officials are delighted that the Club are sending 6 juniors to the Spanish Trials being held at Sporting Alfaz at Albir on Sunday 21st February, this means that we have a potential Spanish Player in every age and sex group namely Under 11, Under 13, Under 15 and Under 17 as well as the Spanish Womens team.
Since the meeting Cricket Espana has looked at the long range weather forecast and postponed the trials, the new date is provisionally pencilled in as Sunday 18th April
 

January 12th 2010 - First newsletter published
A very momentous occasion, which was witnessed at the local ayuntamiento in San Fulgencio.

Jon Alger and Bob Norton of S.F.C.C showing a copy of the first newsletter, to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Sports Minister of San Fulgencio
 

December 19th 2009 - San Fulgencio Cricket Team vs Torrevieja Cricket Club
San Fulgencio C.C assembled in Torreviejas impressive indoor Sports Centre Infanta Dona Cristina to take on the Costa Blanca’s newest team Torrevieja C.C at indoor Cricket

Neil Brook superbly caught behind by our keeper Jon Alger

The game had been organized after the success of Torrevieja’s first outdoor tournament which had been won in impressive fashion by our team a nice mixture of youth and experience, and we had hoped to field a similar team

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December 15th 2009 - Christmas Dinner
San Fulgencio Cricket Clubs very first Christmas Dinner, Over 30 Players, Officials and Guests sat down for a superbly cooked 3 Course Carvery meal at the Hillside on La Marina Urbanisation.

Some of our players, wives and families celebrating our first club Christmas

A display was set up in one corner exhibiting copies of the clubs recent Newspaper coverage, a Photo Album showing scenes from the friendly’s San Fulgencio have played this year together with other important events such as the Mayors visit to La Manga accompanied by other Councilors and Club Officials to watch Spain play Israel.

Also on display were the Adults and Juniors playing kit, the Adults shirts have been sponsored by flightm8.com and flightm8 owner Walt Elders and his wife Rose drove back from England just for the occasion.

Plans were unveiled for the Clubs Newsletter starting in January, and Chairman Jon Alger announced that the club has been accepted into the Development division of the Cricket Espana League for next season, the San Fulgencio Ayuntamiento have been busy building the club a ground on Calle De San Sebastian on La Marina Urbanisation which, when finished, will be perfect for the development of the Clubs Junior Players

November 21st 2009 - First Sponsors
The club had just landed it’s first full shirt sponsor www.flightm8.com  To mark this occasion the prestigious La Manga Cricket Club together with Cricket Espana invited San Fulgencio to send a team to La Manga to play their first team.

S.F.C.C Wearing our flightm8.com sponsored shirts for the very first time

San Fulgencio’s Captain, Bob Norton won the toss and asked Ben Essuah the La Manga Captain to bat first, La Manga with a very experienced team containing some Spanish internationals at full and under 17 level put the inexperienced San Fulgencio bowlers to the sword and amassed over 200 runs of their 40 over’s, but the bowling of Charlie, Colin and Gary for San Fulgencio shows they have three very promising players for next season

After a twenty minute break it was time for San Fulgencio to bat, wickets fell regularly to La Mangas international bowling attack once half the side were out La Manga decided to try their less experienced bowlers and this let the owner of www.flightm8.com Walt Elders to hit San Fulgencio’s highest score of the day and push the score into the mid 60s before they were all out.

October 13th 2009 - Challenge Match
The husband of one of our committee members did not believe that Cricket was being played on La Marina, he said that his team whilst enjoying their holiday in Benidorm could come down and beat us, So the challenge was set, Tuesday 13th October arrived as did Kevin and his team, the day stayed bright and shone even brighter when his team was roundly beaten on the Market Square car park, for some reason they wish to play us again in 2010!!

S.F.C.C Players debating the best field placings for the incoming Batsman

October 3rd 2009 - Annual Cricket day at La Manga
SFCC invited the children of Jose Manresa School in San Fulgencio to attend the annual cricket open day at the La Manga Club.

The event was part of a cricket festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of the I.C.C. The purpose of the event was to promote cricket as a fun and healthy team sport. To encourage the children the luxury coach, games , food and drinks were provided free of charge.

Players and parents getting ready for their day trip to La Manga

The response from the school was excellent with a total of 26 children attending, as well as S.F.C.C. sending a similar amount of players SFCC has now made a positive and vital link with Jose Manresa School, and have agreed to supply the school with equipment and coaching manuals to help kick start a cricket team at the school.

Our youngest player Angus playing a lovely straight bat

September 18th 2009 - Pride of Spain awards
S.F.C.C Founder Jon Alger was delighted to find that not only had he been nominated in the Community
Spirit Category for the third annual Pride of Spain awards but that he had made the final three
Jon supported by his family and some of the clubs players attended the awards night which was being filmed
by Viva tv and broadcast live on TKO gold.
Jon looking resplendent in Black Tie was almost lost for words when his name was announced as the winner, and many Pints were sunk in the later celebrations at Mixs bar back in La Marina, And the night was perfectly rounded off by the free Champagne donated by owner Mick and his wife Rachael

Jon Alger and his wife Debbie, back row left with their proud son Adam front left on the steps of the Municipal Theatre in Torrevieja

September 4th 2009 - International Cricket Match
During various meetings with San Fulgencio Ayuntamiento, it soon became apparent that the Spanish knew very little about the noble game of Cricket and we realised that if we were to get any backing from them then we had better show them some Cricket.

Luckily Spain were Playing Israel down at La Manga so we took the opportunity to take some Councillors down to watch the game, the Mayor was introduced to the Players before the match, then everyone fell silent as the two national Anthems were played.

The Councillors were well looked after by the Cricket Espana hierarchy and after a very liquid lunch in a nearby Hotel, they agreed to back the Club in their future plans
with regards to a ground and other support

The match was part of the European championships being played at La Manga and Sporting Alfaz Cricket Clubs.

Mayor Trini Martinez and Councillor for Sport Juan Antonio Gonzales debating the rules of Cricket with Juan Carlos of Cricket Espana

August 15th 2009 - Funday
Gail and Daz of the Woodstock Bar in the “Grey area” of La Marina held a fun day, initially the aim was to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock. The day grew until it jointly became a fund raiser for our newly formed Cricket Club

The day was an incredible success with raffles, donated meals, sponsored beard shaves, tug of war, egg and spoon and wheelbarrow races and at the end of the day a figure in the region of 600 Euros was raised

S.F.C.C. Chairman Jon Alger being splattered by a wet sponge

May 30th 2009 - San Fulgencio Cricket teams first game
Alfaz batted first, at the end of the 20 over’s, Alfaz had amassed 154 for 7, although SFCC tried hard, wickets fell too regularly and they were eventually all out for 119

Some of the players from S.F.C.C. and Sporting Alfaz at the end of our very first match

After this match, enthusiasm was sky high a committee was very quickly formed and it was obvious that the club needed funds.
 

* * Just a little personal note from Dougie at the Costa Blanca Football Team, Bob Norton and John Alger are doing so much to help the kids get into something a lot more worthwhile than just hanging round on street corners, please spread the word to as many people as possible about this excellent cause.
 

San Fulgencio Club de Cricket - The First Year
Although Jon Alger had been coaching Cricket at the youth club in La Marina for a couple of years it was only in 2009 that things started to take shape, Jon was organizing a lads and lasses versus dads event and a lot of the children at the youth club played in the match, some of these have consequently carried on playing cricket so the idea of an actual club was formed

The winning Dads Team, It is a pity we cannot get some of these Gentleman to play regularly
 

The losing lads and lasses team although they lost on the day, really there were no losers

The original idea was to call the club, La Marina cricket club, but it very quickly became apparent that if we were to get any assistance from the town hall we would have to be called San Fulgencio Club de Cricket

Thanks to Bob Norton of Sporting Alfaz living on La Marina, a match was very quickly organized against the Spanish Champions Sporting Alfaz and on 30th May 2009 Skipper Kevin Laundon bought a team to play on the market place in a t20 match.
 

2010 is a big year in the future of S.F.C.C
We came a long way in 2009 and in 2010 we are going even further,
in no particular order
We have the club on a firm financial footing
We have over 40 players and officials on our books
We are having a cricket ground purpose built for us in La Marina
We have our own website page right here
We are spreading the word about the Club in the form of a Newsletter
We are competing in league Cricket for the first time
We are sending junior players to the Spanish trials with high hopes that at least 2 will be selected to play for Spain in their own age groups
We have a Social side that is getting bigger each month, with a massive Funday planned for the near future
We are attracting Players from a wider and wider area
We have built an excellent working relationship with San Fulgencio Ayuntamiento
 

The Club are still looking for players, especially batsmen and as we are playing 10 league matches next season spread over 5 months we can offer almost everyone some games, we also need a scorer, ladies, you aren’t forgotten, as we are building our social side and the ladies are working on a very exciting project around early May, more helpers and volunteers are needed for then.

For anyone interested in joining this happy crowd, just email Bob on sfccpress@gmail.com - you're always sure of a friendly welcome.

A link to our football mates - Costa Blanca Football Team

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