I hope all are well and welcome to the season (writes OCCC president Michael Chetwode)
Firstly, I was notified by David Bugge this week that Rob Jones (2 North 1975) sadly died recently. Rob will be remembered by the older generation. He played for OCCC during my first couple of years but had to stop after being diagnosed with MS. He had a tough time but always got on with life as best he could and David visited him regularly. There will be a memorial celebration of Rob’s life at 2pm on 12th May at Questors Theatre, Mattock Lane, Ealing.
An update regarding the coming season. There are some fundamental changes which we’re going to implement this year having listened to players and opposition and to try and take some of the pressure off Eds.
Firstly however, Brad Scriven has gone to live and work in Dubai and is therefore standing down as Captain of the Cricketer Cup side. He’s seen us through three very difficult years which have included the pandemic but has soldiered on manfully and I’d like to thank him for all his hard work. Results didn’t go as he’d hoped but small margins were the difference between two quarter final losses and a run towards the final. He will be back from time to time in the summer and will hopefully be available for selection when he’s around. We wish him well on his travels. In his place, Alan Cope has agreed to take over. I’m sure you’ll agree that we couldn’t have a better man to take over the reins and we’re looking forward to him leading the side.
We have been drawn in the preliminary round at home against Winchester on 28th May and if we win that, we will be at home again against Downside with a potential trip to either Malvern or Hurstpierpoint for the winners.
The majority of our friendly home games will now be limited overs games (probably 40/40 but will be by agreement with the opposition on the day) with a single break between innings. This takes into acccount the wishes of both current players and opposition for shorter game time. The games will still start at 11am however and this will allow players to get back to London earlier than has been the case and also allows a little more time for socialising after the game, hopefully.
We are also reducing the size of the fixture list a little and will no longer be playing Malvern, Radley or the Sussex Martletts. This is because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get teams for games prior to the end of the school term and later in the season.
Eds has agreed a contract extension and will continue to be our club Captain. We are however going to introduce individual match managers for each game who will be responsibe for raising sides and managing the day as a whole. Names will be announced on the website once that has been updated. The fixture list is attached..
Hugo Puddle has been appointed Social Secretary and he’ll be in touch with a few dates for your diaries next year. This will hopefully include a club dinner in London in September prior to the start of the university year.
Sam Bugler is our Social Media Manager and has done a fantastic job of using Twitter and Instagram to make team announcements, give scores and offer general titbits. Do follow the club on either @OCranleighanCC (twitter) and/or oldcranleighancc (instagram).
I’d like to thank Eds for all his hard work. It’s been a difficult time and he’s done amazing work in getting sides for our games over the last few years. I’d also like to thank Stuart Welch for everything he does for the club whether it be for the Cricketer Cup side or helping our relationship with the school run as smoothly as possible.
A big thank you to the school, the ground staff and the catering staff who put up with all our requests, some of which come at the last minute. Without their assistance, we wouldn’t have such an excellent club and facilities.
Our fixtures secretary continues to do a marvellous job all the way from Hong Kong and thanks go to Huggy for the huge amount of work which goes into arranging our fixtures. Thanks also to Gatesy who continues to look after the books.
Final thanks go to Martin Williamson who still oversees the best old boys cricket website in the country, does all the statistics and provides sage advise as well as being an excellent conduit between the club and the school.
If you’ve got this far, my aplogies for the length of this; there was rather more to put in than I thought!
Look forward to seeing you all in the summer.