As with last month I open up by wishing another one of our playing members the very best for the future having celebrated the wedding of Sarah & Graeme Keenan a couple of weeks ago at the stunning venue just on the outskirts of Delamere Forrest.

As always, it’s been yet another busy month and whilst things may be relatively quiet at the Club, the activity behind the scenes is less so as preparation work goes into next season and in the case of the strategic planning meetings, the next five years. I’ve now concluded all of the individual meetings with the respective areas within the club and have compiled the output which has been shared with the wider Governing Committee for feedback before the plan is formally accepted at the November committee meeting. Across all of the meetings I was hugely encouraged by not only the forward thinking, but the passion our committee members have for driving the club forward and ensuring the continued development – so much so that the first draft of the strategic plan is some 19 pages long!! Having conducted the majority of the meetings in September, the key meeting in October was with the Cricket Committee and I was delighted that Matt Owen was able to join us in his new guise as Junior Cricket Chairman. Matt takes over from Simon McGowan who has done a fantastic job for the last three years and continued the development of one of our most important assets and mine and the entire committees “thanks” go out to Simon for all the hard work and effort he has put in during his tenure. Matt has some great ideas, not only around Junior cricket but also with regards to the development of Ladies cricket and together with Andy Roberts (Cricket Chairman) and Tom Marsland will form a very young (yes Robbo, you still creep into that bracket – just!!) and exciting Cricket Committee.

On the ‘Grounds’ front, the work doesn’t ease up for the team but unfortunately the rather wet conditions at the end of September meant that the ‘levelling’ work planned for the squares wasn’t able to be undertaken so this work has been deferred until the end of the 2018 season. Mowing of the outfield will continue for as long as feasibly possible to keep the outfields as short as possible, all of which helps when it comes to things ramping up in Spring next year. Together with the ‘House’ team, our fantastic group of volunteers continue to meet up every Tuesday and Friday and if you dare run the gauntlet of getting wet paint on you from wherever Ken Barrett has pained next, then please pop down and see what these guys do if you’re free (you’ll be especially welcome if you take a packet of biscuits!).

My focus for the next week and a half is assisting Pete Clark get ready for the Annual ‘Hot Pot’ and this year’s numbers are looking extremely strong for what is always a very popular event. Having exchanged a few messages with our guest speaker, Phi Defreitas he seems to be looking forward to the evening which is always a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the season just gone, together with hearing tales from the cricketing world, interspersed with some humour from the Clubs resident Twitter maestro Dave Smith (no pressure Dave!). Pulling this all together is no mean feat and my sincerest thanks go out to Pete for all of his efforts over the last 20 or 30 years (in his own words they’ve all merged into one over the years!) in running this dinner and controlling the room on the night to ensure things flow.

Also on the ‘social’ side, I was delighted to meet with the representatives from Upton Football Club a couple of weeks back to help plan a joint Christmas Party for members of both clubs. As the two largest sports clubs in the community, it’s great to be working together and I hope this will be the start of a very healthy relationship working together as several of our junior members are already associated with both clubs. The party is on Friday 24th November, and is purposely early so as not to clash with other festive nights out people may have and tickets cost just £3. If you’d like tickets, please drop me a call (07887 743 230) or email me (jezlamb@hotmail.com).

Another date for your diary, which won’t quite have the razzmatazz of the Christmas Party is the Annual General Meeting on Thursday 7th December (8pm start). That being said, the Treasurer has very kindly offered all members who attend a free drink – trust me, this level of benevolence doesn’t happen very often so I urge you to take advantage. On a serious note, the AGM is an important event in the club’s calendar and facilitates the smooth running of the club and gives you the opportunity to understand in more detail how and why decisions have been made together with understanding our plans for the future.

Finally, I would urge anybody at a loose end to pop down to the Club on a Sunday evening where Paul Radcliffe will give you a very warm welcome and thrust upon you some home baked bread. As my weekends seem to have been very busy of late, I’ve only managed to pop down once, but it was great to see so many members indulging in a relaxing drink, live football and of course Paul’s freshly baked bread!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers
Jez