Cricket, Anyone? Season Opens for Napa Valley Cricket Club

The Napa Valley Cricket Club will again host its “World Series” on Sunday, April 28, starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Napa County Fairgrounds in Calistoga to kick off its 2013 season.

Last year, the America & Australia team of club members triumphed over a Rest of the World team and this years game looks like being a hotly contested one as the club has grown its membership since then.

 Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world after soccer and The Napa Valley Cricket Club is now a firmly established member of that community. Cricket is played in over 100 countries worldwide and close to home the game has a strong and passionate following in the South Bay area. It is gaining in popularity and recently a United States national stadium was built in Florida.

 The Napa Valley club consists mainly of expatriates mostly brought to The Napa Valley because of the wine industry from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India the UK and Ireland. The club has also attracted a number of “local” Americans who play with the team having made the transition from baseball to cricket!

Club President Phil Bourke, an Australian, who works at Treasury Wine Estates says “following on from the incredible success of our inaugural season the World Series has become a fixture in the calendar that all of the club members and their families look forward to," he said.

"This year, we are really trying to involve the community in the day and will have an emcee, music, kids activities along with a cash BBQ and beer and wine from our sponsor Clos du Val for sale," Bourke said. "2012 was a great year for us --even though it was only our first season in existence -- and already for 2013 we have games lined up against Bay Area teams and a team from Philadelphia visiting us in early September.”

Rest of the World team captain, New Zealand winemaker Martin Mackenzie said  “we’re all just happy to be playing a game that we love here in the Napa Valley," he said.

"The fact that we can put out two full teams from club members and have 12 or more games to look forward this coming summer goes to show there is an appetite for cricket not just here in Napa but in the surrounding counties too,” Mackenzie said.

The game will have an emcee in the shape of local Calistoga Radio presenter, Dennis DeVilbiss, who will be guiding spectator’s through as many of the games intricacies as he can learn before the 28th and he’ll be mixing this up with players favorite music along with some facts and figures on the teams and their players.

Sponsors

The Napa Valley Cricket Club wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following sponsors

Clos du Val, Tonnelerie Saint Martin, go vino, 3 rock marketing ,Duckhorn Vineyards, Grapeleaf Graphics, Queen of the Valley Hospital, Taltarni, Calistoga Roastery.

Opening Day Details

Sunday 28th April 2013

10.30am – 5pm

Napa County Fairgrounds, 1435 N Oak St, Calistoga, 94515

For more details or to arrange an interview please contact Andrew Healy on 707-227-4273 or by email at NapaValleyCricket@gmail.com

More details on the Napa Valley Cricket Club can be found on the website – http://www.napacricket.com – where you can find details of their games for the summer ahead on the Calendar page.

More details on the game of cricket can be found on the following websites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket

http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/

http://www.espncricinfo.com/

Video series on “How to Play Cricket”

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL66F1E5A61B2F5A6B

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