Hi everyone,
 
I hope that my latest update finds you and your families safe and well as this strangest of years continues to unravel.

Those glorious National Village Cup weekends in August seem like just a distant memory now, but what a fantastic run Jake and the team took us all on and how proud we all are of our 2020 season despite all the challenges.

Aside from the successful NVC run the 1st and 2nd XI teams managed to win their respective ‘bubble leagues’ with George Preston once again doing a fantastic job, in his usual enthusiastic manner, to ensure 3rd XI cricket continued to be available throughout the shortened season.

It was also great to see our Youth Teams at U12, U14 and U15 get their games in and my personal thanks goes to Matthew Burfield, Will Frost and Mark Payne for managing these teams in such challenging circumstances.

Off the pitch there has been plenty happening too with various working parties organised by our Vice Chairman, Mark Downing, to close the club down for the winter seeing as there is likely to be very little opportunity to hold any events over the next few months. Our thanks go out to those who ably supported – Tom, Jonathan H, Steve M, Duncan, Bob, Barry, Rick, Josh M-J, Phil M, George R, Dan, Pascal and Cecelia.

As a club committee we have had to revert back to virtual meetings again following the government introduction of the rule of 6! Whilst this is not ideal, we are getting better at it and it allows us to keep the Club running smoothly. Here are a few updates to share from our meeting last week:-

1) AGM – due to the current Covid19 restrictions the decision was made to postpone the AGM until Wednesday 16th December. The hope is that a relaxation of Covid19 restrictions by then will allow us to hold a face to face gathering at the Club. Should this not be possible then we will go ahead by ‘virtual’ means to be confirmed no later than two weeks before the said date. To help us identify the best platform to use if this is necessary could all Members wishing to attend a ‘virtual’ meeting please let the Club Secretary know as soon as possible - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
2) Volunteers/Committee Members – we rely heavily on our volunteers to support the success of our club and are always actively seeking additional volunteers to do little jobs or even take up a Committee position as appropriate. We know our Members and their families have a lot of skills or contacts that the Club would really benefit from. Please let me, Mark or any of the Committee know if you’d like to get involved as we do need your help. As they say…..”many hands make light work!”
3) All Weather Training Facility – sadly we have been held up somewhat here due to Covid19 restrictions delaying access to some funding but as a Committee we are determined that we should provide the best facility we can and that it will be ready to use well before the start of the 2021 season.
4) Girls and Women’s Cricket Development – for those of you on SPOND you may have recently seen an update from Mark outlining potential opportunities for this and asking our members of any potential interest to:
a. Play cricket at the club
b. Play soft ball cricket
c. Play hard ball cricket
If you or any of your family and friends would like to express an interest then again please let our Club Secretary know – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Subject to the level of interest we’ll then look at next steps to get something going so we can see a Girl’s/Women’s team playing at Willis Lane at some point in the near future.

Anyway I hope you’ve found the update useful and in my November update I hope to be able to share a little more around the playing side of things as we look ahead to a successful 2021!
 
Thanks and stay safe.
Jules
 
Jullian Marshall-James
NPCC - Chairman