The Napa Valley Cricket Club (NVCC) kicks off its 2019 – and eight – season this coming Saturday, April 13 at the Napa Valley Expo in downtown Napa. The match will be an intra-club match – City vs County – pitting members of the club who live in the City of Napa against those who reside in the County.
NVCC have made the Expo their home since moving from Calistoga in late 2016 and are scheduled to have 16 match days – both home and away – in 2019. After the City vs County match, the club will play a number of away matches in Davis, Sacramento, and Marin as the Expo hosts BottleRock. The next home match for NVCC after this Saturday will be on Saturday, June 15 when they host local wine country rivals, Sonoma Gullies.
“We have a busy 2019 ahead,” said Andrew Healy, NVCC Vice-President “and it looks like it’s going to be our busiest season ever. With an influx of new players each season our base of playing members is growing so we’ve had to add match days to satisfy that demand. In addition, we’ll again be hosting the Golden Gate Aussie Rules folks on the Silverado Green in late June and in August we’re hosting the inaugural North Bay T20 with the Sonoma Gullies and Autodesk joining us for a triple-header of matches on the one day!”
The NVCC will take their annual tour, which in 2019 will be to Chicago, in early June in the hope of finally winning a tour match. It will be the clubs seventh tour with previous ones to Los Angeles, Vancouver, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Phoenix all ending up with the NVCC being on the losing side of the scorecard.
The clubs’ annual big day out, their Napa Valley World Series of Cricket, will take place at the Expo on Saturday, July 20 with the defending team of Australian & American members looking to retain the trophy that they won so convincingly in 2018. The Rest of the World team will be looking to make amends for the poor showing last year in this hotly contested match. As ever that day will be very family friendly with kid’s activities, food, beverage, and commentary for those new to the world’s second most popular sport.
Off the field, the club has another busy year of social events planned. The traditional “Curry Night” where club members and friends create their favorite curry dish for all to enjoy has been moved to early May. With both the cricket and rugby World Cups happening in 2019 NVCC will be hosting both of these at their new venue sponsor, NapaSport, in south Napa
“We had a great run at Compadres with Rick and his crew,” said Rob Bolch, NVCC President “and we’ll miss their incredible hospitality. In light of the change at the property on Lincoln Avenue, we had to find a new home for our events and NapaSport was the obvious choice. And we’re looking forward to a busy season ahead with Michael and his team!”
NVCC is always looking for new members and anyone who’s interested should get in touch with the club via their website or head down to one of their matches.
Next Game – Saturday 13th April 2019 – City v County Intra-club match on the Midway Green at the Napa Valley Expo, 575 Third St. Napa, CA 94559 – from 10.30am (check website for details)
