When I look outside and it’s dark and miserable the cricket season seems a long time ago, but the good news is it’s just 28 more Saturdays still it all starts again!

Reflecting on the 2019 season, it’s clearly been a challenging year at the top end of the club with both he 1’s and 2’s suffering relegation. To counter that you’ve got the 3’s who won their second league title in successive years. What was so encouraging was to see everybody come together on the last night of the season and celebrate those successes in true “One Club” style. I’m not going to dwell too much on the cricketing side of things but I for one am exciting about planning for next season and us bouncing back stronger and developing further with competitive cricket being provided all the way through the club.

With the season concluding it was also the time we said farewell to Connor Smith who flew back to sunnier climes in Perth a couple of weeks ago. Connor will be the first to admit things didn’t go as well as he would have liked on the pitch but he made a great impression around the club and I’m confident he will have learnt loads from his experience over here and do well when his season with Joondalup gets underway. Another ‘former’ UCC member getting their new season underway shortly is Ross Dixon who seems to be settling into life in Australia, even making a brief cameo on local TV previewing his forthcoming season.

We also bid farewell, albeit in a playing and coaching capacity to Andy Roberts who has served the club extremely well over recent years in a variety of roles, latterly that of Senior Club Coach. Andy is looking to spend more time with his family and I totally respect his decision to do that and thank him immensely for the job he has done coaching the senior sides but I’m sure he’ll be on hand on the side-lines to offer some well guided advise should it be required during the season.

September also saw some great coverage for the club as the cycling Tour of Britain passed by and it was a great opportunity for us to work within the local community and invite about 150 of the local schoolchildren down to the club to watch the event. We wait with anticipation to see if the ‘land art’ made an impression on the judging panel in the Tour of Britain’s national competition, but irrespective of the result, it was great to see the cameras focus in on the creation on the pitch and give us national fame, even if it was only for 20 odd seconds!

It’s been a busy few weeks with ‘formal’ occasions I’ve had the pleasure of attending. Firstly there was our Junior Presentation Evening which is a great honour to attend as Chairman but also as a parent and hearing from all the coaches on the fantastic achievements of our younger cricketers. We must have had well over 200 in attendance across the two sessions and it’s plain to see the great work Matt Owen and his team of coaches do and how strong we are as a whole club both now and in years to come. I also attending the Cheshire Women’s Cricket League dinner over in Stockport where it was great to see Cath Williams picking up yet another trophy for our Ladies XI in only their second season of playing competitive cricket.

Talking of social functions, we’ve got so much happening at the club to bring to your attention:

• Friday 18th October – Beer tasting with me!
• Friday 25th October – family Halloween party
• Friday 15th November – Hot Pot & Senior awards presentation evening
• Thursday 5th December – Annual General Meeting (you get a free drink if you attend!)
• Friday 6th December – Christmas Draw & Quiz

Quite a list, and that’s just club functions as I’ve had sight of the diary and in total between now and the end of the year there are 23 bookings!

Right, time to sign off now.

Cheers
Jez