Well another month has flown by and we now find ourselves in the last third of the season - how did that happen! Once again, July was a very busy month with loads of good stuff going on around. It was a pleasure to be invited by Brian Shenton to play in his team for the inaugural Presidents Day match. The format of the day worked perfectly with a nice lunch for all 1901 Club members beforehand, followed by an intra-club match with all facets of the club represented. This gave a great opportunity for some of our promising young cricketers to showcase their talent, which they did with distinction and reaffirms the belief that the future looks very bright - despite Joe Green forcing me to run quick signals which at my age aren't that easy!

Another great day, just last week was our 2nd Past Players Lunch. After the success of last year's event, we looked to build on this and it was great to see a lot of the attendees were people who haven't been around the club for a good number of years and were such distinguished names from the past. As conversation flowed, old scorebooks were scrutinised and old tails were regaled it was as if many hadn't been away and the hope is we will see them a lot more in the future. Whilst we haven't set the date formally for next year, the intention will be for it to be around the last weekend in July/first weekend in August subject to the 2018 fixtures being released.

Whilst on the social scene, keep Saturday 16th September free in your diary as after the 1st XI's last home game we will have our annual "last night of the season" celebrations, and following the success of last year it will be themed. Myself and Tom Maguire are racking our brain (and scouring our wardrobes) to come up with the theme but we should be able to share that with you next week so as you can get planning.

Looking further ahead, the details for the Annual Hot Pot & Awards Presentation Night have been released. The guest speaker will be former England star Phillip DeFreitas who will be supported than none other than our very own Mr Twitter; Dave Smith. Pete Clark, as always does a sterling job organising this event, and to make Pete's life easier can I encourage you to contact him if you need tickets by phone (678 5177) or see him at the club (not after 4pm or he will have had too many ciders to remember!).
There's been loads of other stuff going on around the club, and in case you've had your eyes closed you will have noticed there has been a bit of excavation work going on in front of the changing rooms on the front pitch. No, we don't have massive moles on the ground, nor are we creating a moat to keep invaders out - we've had a water leak and it's taken a massive amount of effort by John Lamb and Ian Bruce to locate it. That has all now been sorted thanks to Danny DiStefano who was able to repair the pipe once John & Ian had located it.. My thanks go to all of them as they have saved the club a small fortune with their efforts.

On a cricketing perspective, there's been mixed success across the teams in July but focussing in specifically, the Over 40's conclude their season tonight when they welcome Oxton. Having had the privilege to be called upon by Warbo a few times this year, it's been a great year and with a couple of pieces of luck we could have been challenging for a top two spot which would have seen us go through to 'Finals Day'. If you get the chance, try and pop down tonight as it's set to be a great game and a chance for you to enjoy watching old men waddle round the outfield!
Enjoy your month ahead, and I look forward to seeing you around the club.

Cheers
Jez