I'm sure you'll understand with this being a couple of days late but it's been a busy few days with our annual 'marquee' events taking place. First up it was a great pleasure to be able to open our doors to St. Mary's Church as they hosted a fashion show for about 140 people. Next up we had our Sportsman's Dinner where Dean Windass regaled stories of his playing career to over 100 guests, and then to conclude we had 150 people party the night away to the fabulous Trunk Monkeys at the Summer Ball. We've been running these events now for seventeen years, and whilst we have got slicker at what we do, it doesn't make the effort involved any less and suffice to say, I'm knackered!! In the build up to the events I have been looking at things and it's fair to say the Sportsman's Dinner market is a tough one to crack. We've been very fortunate over the last 17 years to have some wonderful support but we do need to consider our options for next year as we do need to review our options if we are to continue to see these events thrive. All that being said, let's not take anything away from a hugely enjoyable weekend for the Club.

Looking back over the last month it's been once again another great one which saw the very first 'Ladies' cricket match being played when we took on Appleton Ladies. The work put in behind the scenes by the coaches and players has been phenomenal and it was a great game to watch with some excellent cricket on show. We can only go from strength to strength in this area and with the depth of talent coming through from the younger girls I am extremely excited to watch this unfold.

I have the pleasure of sitting on the judging panel for the 'Performance of the Week' and I can tell you it's not an easy task at times, however there's been a few stand out performances over the first half of the season with both Luca DiStefano & Joe Green getting recognition by 'Cricket World' - a national online publication with over 54,000 followers on Twitter. Once again, this is a great demonstration of the strength in our junior setup with both of these lads putting in good performances week in, week out.

Continuing with the junior theme, it was great to be able to welcome down to the club, Steph and the team from The Yog Bar a few Friday's back. They set up their mobile trailer and sold their fantastic frozen yoghurts and did a roaring trade by all accounts, but what was great is that they donated a percentage of it to our charity partner; Vital Signs Foundation.
Away from playing matters, things off the pitch continue to evolve as the new scoring hut is now fully functional and has been painted 'Upton Green'. Ian Bruce has made it his personal mission to make the inside as plush as possible and is creating an area scorers will be very comfortable in. We've also had the Community Payback team down again to help with some of the work around the perimeters, and I know I've said it before, but this is so valuable to us and really does make a difference.

So, whilst I'm a little bit tired and grumpy after a tough weekend I stumbled across a quote which has lifted my spirits - "Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism leads to power".

Enjoy your month ahead.
Cheers
Jez Lamb