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| Club History |
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| While not a lot is known about the complete history of our club, what is known is that it was formed sometime in the period 1900 - 1910 approximately. By whom, we do not know. It seems that the original club had it's roots in the local Catholic Parish, with a number of clergymen representing the club through the years. |
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| The past 30-40 years of the club are able to be traced due to the involvement of the Fitzpatrick family throughout this time. From the early 1960's Brian Fitzpatrick was Secretary of the club, a position he held continuously for 25 years, resulting in a life membership to the club for his service. After this his sons, Tony and Michael and even his daughter Paula were involved in various roles at the club, the boys filling the roles of President at various times and Paula being Secretary / Treasurer for a period during the late '80's. Paula's eventual husband, Andrew Holdaway has even had a spell as Secretary / Treasurer making it a truly family affair. For the past 6 years Tony has been president of the club and a member of the 1st XI side while Michael still turns out for the 2nd XI. The family involvement looks set to continue with younger brothers, 12 year old twins Karl and Andrew, progressing through the junior section. Brian's wife, Dorothy (and mother of the whole tribe) currently organises the junior section of the club which is based at St Mary's school. |
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| Throughout most of it's history the club has fielded just 1 team most seasons, and at most maybe 2, of which the 1st XI has mainly played in the Marlborough 2nd Grade competition and any 2nd XI's in the 3rd Grade, with the exception of a breif foray into senior cricket during the period 1974-76. This was however changed forever in the 1993-94 season when the club was finally allowed, by the powers that be in Marlborough Cricket, to finally enter the senior competition again (something that we had been trying to do for more than 5 years before this). At this time the club decided that it would not fall into the same trap that many of the other local clubs had fallen into of putting all their energy and resources into their 1st XI team at the expense of the rest of the club. So with a 1st XI side built around a young 14 year old cricketing prodigy (Jarrod Englefield), a young tearaway fast bowler (Carl Bulfin) a couple of Yorkshire Poms (Jimmy Bastow and Richard Barker) and a number of experienced 2nd grade cricketers with a total of 0 senior games experience between them, the Celtic Cricket Club was reborn. Supporting the senior team were a 2nd and a 3rd XI. This first season was pretty hard for the new Celtic team who struggled to win 1 game in the 1 day series which was enough to get a place in the 1 day final, which they lost convincingly. |
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| The 1 bright spot during this season was the clubs insistance on up marketing the image of the sport of cricket in Marlborough by wearing coloured shirts. At the time we didn't realise that by wearing coloured shirts we would be firing the first shots in a battle between the past and the future of our sport that is still not finished (6 years later). The club's continued battle over the past 6 years to gain acceptance for coloured uniforms in all levels of local cricket has in itself been a very colourful battle that has proven to all the detractors (who still oppose it) that the arguments in favour of colour far outway those against. During this time the club has grown from those 3 teams back in 1993-94 to a total of 12 teams in the 1998-99 season peaking at 14 in the 1997-98 season, while all but 1 of the other clubs in Marlborough have experienced negative growth during those same periods. |
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| During the 1994-95 season the club approached St Mary's School in Blenheim with an offer to undertake the organisation of cricket within the school under the auspices of the club. This has been a very sucessful initiative for the club with 7 junior teams being fielded this season. This breeding ground has been responsible for the large growth in the senior section over the past few seasons, with a large percentage (in excess of 75%) of junior players graduating into the senior ranks. In fact the first intake of junior players to graduate to the senior section won the third grade competition in the 1998-99 season. |
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| While the club has always tried to be innovative it has lead the way in Marlborough cricket over the past 6 season's being the only senior team to employ the services of a coach for all of the period it has been playing senior cricket, and in fact being the first local club to pay a coach, ex Marlborough player Dave Win, in the 1997-98 season. This initiative was in itself very sucessful with the 1st XI winning the senior 1 day competition during that season. |
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| During the past couple of seasons the club has been rewarded for it's foresight in building a team around a couple of young outstanding cricketers in Jarrod Englefield and Carl Bulfin. Both players have gone on to play first class cricket for the Central Districts Stags, with Bulfin moving to the Wellington Firebirds in the 1998-99 season to further his career. Carl Bulfin was named, on 22 March 1999, in the Clear NZ Black Caps team to play South Africa in the 3 remaining 1 day matches of the 1998-99 season. While not currently residing in Blenheim or playing at Celtic, Carl is still considered a Celtic man at heart, it was unfortunate that he had to go to Wellington to be able to progress his career, a move which was supported by the club. Englefield has been a member of the NZ Youth side for the past 2 seasons (1997-98 & 1998-99) being captain of this side at the Youth World Cup in South Africa where they finished 2nd. |
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| The future also looks bright for the Celtic Club with a number of other players being capable of making the step up to first class level. The most notable of these is Brent Hefford who played for Central Districts Emerging Players in 1998-99 and is more than capable of playing first class cricket. |
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| Watch this space for further developments. |
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| Below is a breif timeline of the clubs history. If you have been involved with the club in the past or know someone who has who may know more about our club history please contact us at mailto:[email protected]. |
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1900-1910 |
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Approximate period during which club was formed |
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1974-1976 |
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First (?) senior team |
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1976 |
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Club trip to Fiji to play local teams |
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1987-1988 |
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1st XI win Second Grade Competition |
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1993-1994 |
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Second senior team competes in Marlborough Senior competition, making 1-day final. |
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1994-1995 |
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2nd XI win Second Grade competition |
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1997-1998 |
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1st XI win senior 1-day competition |
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Carl Bulfin selected for Central Districts Stags |
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Carl Bulfin selected for NZ Max Blacks to play England in 3 match series. |
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Jarrod Englefield selected in NZ Youth Team to tour England |
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Jarrod Englefield selected in NZ Cricket Accademy |
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1998-1999 |
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4th XI win Third Grade competition |
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Jarrod Englefield selected as Captain of NZ Youth team to compete in World Cup in South Africa and to play against England Youth team in test and 1-day series. |
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Jarrod Englefield selected for Central Districts Stags, playing in Shell Trophy final vs Otago (Won by CD) |
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22 March 1999 |
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Carl Bulfin named in Clear New Zealand Black Caps for 1-day series vs South Africa. |
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25 March 1999 |
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Carl Bulfin to make NZ debut in first 1 day International vs South Africa at McLean Park, Napier. |
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Carl Bulfin batting against England for NZ Black max side |
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