Darts

SECTION NIGHTS

Our monthly Section Night was held on 6th February. The evening commenced with traditional Yu Sheng to welcome the Lunar New Year. Members were in a festive mood dressed in the traditional red and helped along with generous servings of liquid refreshments and food.

Next was the March Section Night on 12th February. It was an extra special evening as Members took the time to relax and enjoy several rounds of darts in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere and forget the tumultuous events of the past few weeks from the fallout of COVID 19.

SCC CHENNAI TOUR

The Cricket Section undertook a historic tour to Chennai in February this year. Nearly 35 of the Section Members experienced the joys of playing at an international venue like MA Chidambaram Stadium. Our gracious hosts and long-time friends, Madras Cricket Club, opened the doors of their backyard at “Chepauk” stadium and hosted us for four games, including three competitive fixtures and a social fixture. SCC instituted two rolling trophies this year to build on the excellent relationship and history between our two prestigious clubs: Chepauk-Padang Interport Trophy and the SCCMCC Spirit of Cricket. Regrettably for SCC, both the trophies had to be left behind in Chennai as the hosts scored convincing wins. Surya Azad was the pick of the batsmen for SCC being the top run getter (and launching a few into the Chepauk stands!), while TM Vikas Shenoy was adjudged Man of the Match for the Interport game.

Overall, it was an intense cricket tour with eight games played over four days and supplemented by wonderful local food and even a comedy night for the touring party! The participation by Section Members was overwhelming, with several of our SCC Lions players joining the tour, including some of our Singapore national cricketers. We were able to field our Sat XI team, ably led by former national Bala, for two games on the tour as well! If the Chennai tour is anything to go by, the touring culture is truly well and alive.

The Section thanks the Tour Managers (Vikas Shenoy & Aditya Bhargava) and the entire organising team for making this one of the most memorable SCC tours in recent memory.

SCC CRICKET IN COLLABORATION WITH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB

SCC Cricket are always looking to collaborate with highly professional partners from around the world. Excitingly, March 2020 saw the launch of an exciting new relationship, as we hosted Northamptonshire County Cricket Club’s pre-season preparation, in what we expect to be an annual event for the marking on your calendar!

What a great week it was, starting with NCCC going through their paces in some intense pre-season physical & technical workouts

on our incredible Padang. This week also presented vital Coach Education opportunities, as the SCC coaches were offered unlimited access to a full program, which included shadowing first-class coaches at the professional sessions in order to gather tips on how first-class teams & first-class coaches go about their business in the professional environment.

Saturday 14th March was the marquee day of the tour, with NCCC competing against SCC in two Twenty20 fixtures to which presented a tremendous day for all involved. The SCC Juniors, our “stars of tomorrow”, were boosted by incredible engagement with the Northamptonshire players, who were assisting with the running of the training! Tips & tricks were offered, with the NCCC Head Coach (David Ripley) even jumping in to run (and very much partake within) a number of fielding drills! It was great to see a coach at such level giving back to our stars of tomorrow, coaching with such enthusiasm just moments before having to run his own team through their high-performance warmup. A day our kids will surely not forget in a while!

A large crowd gathered for the marquee fixtures against NCCC. SCC were soundly beaten in game one but put in a brilliant and brave showing in game two, scoring over 200 in a high-scoring chase and looking for a long time well positioned to snatch victory, albeit the experience of the first-class squad shone through with

NCCC ultimately winning by a margin of 30 runs. To be awarded the opportunity to rub shoulders with a number of first-class Cricketers here at our esteemed Padang, is something that so many Members (present and future!) will reflect on most fondly, undoubtedly taking away lessons aligned to what is required to achieve at the high-performance level.

We are already looking forward to the NCCC tour of Singapore next year which we have no doubt will be even bigger & better!

SCC CRICKET LADIES DAY

The SCC Cricket Section are passionate about giveback, a passion which was fuelled with intensity on Saturday 14th March following the inaugural launch of the SCC Cricket Ladies Day. A crowd of 110 generous & like-minded individuals ascended onto the Gilmour Terrace for an afternoon of fun, laughter and celebration, as two amazing charities in SAHR (Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights) and AIDHA, were presented a platform to share, discuss and create awareness towards their incredible and selfless operations. With free-flow refreshments, live music and two great presentations from our esteemed guests, the SCC Members were treated to an entertaining (and at times emotional) afternoon that will without doubt expand the footprint of these two worthy causes. Our partners have reported that direct support from the Members, by way of cash donations and purchase of charitable items, raised in excess of *four-thousand dollars*.

In-turn, AIDHA are now positioned to get six domestic helpers through a full course of highly-specific education, aligned to finance management and maintenance of safe working environment. SAHR are now better positioned to use their highly capable legal resources to support Women’s Rights around the world - many of whom are in desperate need of representation. All of this thanks to the support of SCC Cricket and it’s incredible external network.

We would like to sincerely thank everyone associated with the event - in particular our named sponsors in Petersons Wines. Additionally, support in-kind was gratefully received from Swissotel, Hong Seh Marine, Eastern Carpets, Hilton Group, UFIT, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, Mr Wu Restaurant & Caffe Beviamo. SCC Cricket is truly indebted for your warm contributions to such a brilliant cause.