In the words of Arkwright (him of Open All Hours fame, not the English inventor and leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution) “it’s been a funny old month…” which started on the golf course and ended back in gainful employment having enjoyed a very pleasant three months ‘retirement’! During that time I had plenty of opportunity to crack on with a load of club business, play a little/lot of golf and contemplate the list of jobs Mrs Lamb had for me. A lot of what we do is about consistency and I can confirm that I was consistently rubbish at golf and consistent about not doing any of the jobs on the list!
Anyway, looking back at May more specifically it’s been another busy month in the life of Upton Cricket Club. Our Friday night junior sessions continue to thrive and as always, the atmosphere is brilliant with children and parents alike winding down their week at the Club. Since we introduced the ‘family membership’ we’ve seen a phenomenal uptake and can report we have already doubled the number of ‘Country’ members from 2016. I’ve mentioned before how important this is from not just making parents feel part of the club, but demonstrating that our membership is growing which is so crucial when applying for grants etc. If any parent needs any encouragement regarding their child’s cricketing development they only have to look at the facts from the first six weeks of the season:
• 70% of the players selected for senior cricket have played junior cricket at UCC
• 64% of those players are under the age of 25
• 4 out of the 5 ‘Performance of the Week’ winners started their cricketing life at UCC
• 7 out of the ‘Top 10’ run scorers have played junior cricket at UCC

I think those facts speak volumes, and we will continue to provide the best possible development pathway for all abilities. Another significant development, albeit cut short by the weather was the very first girls cricket match against Appleton a week or so back. This is such an important area for us, as is the development of ‘ladies’ cricket where we have seen a really good turnout to the training sessions that have been taking place on Sunday afternoon’s. Simon Simcox, Matt Owen and Brian Sherriff are doing a cracking job in this area and I’m really excited to see how this develops. In line with the whole ladies cricket theme, I’m going to take advantage of my editorial rights and brag as I was really proud to see my eldest daughter Rebecca captain the Under 9’s as they beat Wirral a couple of weeks ago. Across all the boys & girls in this age group, there’s some real talent there and you can see quite a few of them are going to turn into very good cricketers.

Elsewhere cricket wise, the 1st XI have had a stuttered start to their campaign in Division One of the County League but a morale boosting victory against Oxton in the T20 Cup proved the impetus to register their second league victory last Saturday against Warrington. Things are still very tight in this league so wins are very crucial and I’m confident we have the right attitude in the squad that they will go on to register several more victories and move up the table. There’s a big game for the boys tonight as they head to Paton Field to take on Caldy in the Echo Knockout – a competition we haven’t participated in for a while but yet another opportunity to get some ‘game time’. The 2nd XI are holding their own in a challenging Premier Division and on their day are capable of pushing most sides hard. The 3rd XI find themselves in a battle for top spot and this weekend’s fixture against Port Sunlight 2nd XI. The 4th XI have had some mixed results along the way but have a couple of wins under their belt and are blooding a lot of youngsters which is encouraging to see.

From a ‘Grounds’ perspective, I can’t complement the team enough as the grounds are looking better than ever. We invested in both pitches being scarified a few weeks back. Now for those not in the know, scarifying is the removal of dead organic matter and moss from the base of the grass plant to maintain a healthy growing environment above and below the soil surface (that bit was lifted straight from Google!!!), which will ultimately improve our facilities. You’ll also hopefully have noticed that we have new troughs and hanging baskets which really finish things off and make the exterior of the club look magnificent. My thanks go out to our neighbours, Brian & Linda Redhead who have planted and are maintain these for us. Also, just arrived this week is the new scorers box. There’s still a few finishing touches to be done but it certainly is an improvement on the old portacabin which had become very tight, and unsafe. And finally, to add to our seating area, Grounds Chairman John Lamb has built a couple of new benches which are fantastic pieces of craftsmanship, even if he did have me going round Chester Zoo taking pictures of the benches there so as he could copy the design!

Inside the clubhouse the refurbishment continues as we have had all the bench seating reupholstered thanks to a very kind donation from Ian Black, one of our juniors parents. Moving into the less glamorous area of the gents toilets you will also have noticed (if you’ve been in there as course!) that we have new cubicles and sink units fitted thanks to another donation from one of our juniors parents, ably put together by the ‘dream team’ of Ian Bruce and his pal Andy. There’s still a few other things we want to do to compliment things, which we’ll look to complete in the coming weeks. But I’m sure you’ll all agree, things are really taking shape and providing great surroundings which we can all enjoy.
Looking ahead, it’s coming into a really busy period as we have the marquee going up at the end of June where we will host our annual Sportsman’s Dinner and Summer Ball. Already numbers are ahead of where we were at this time last year, but I would encourage anybody who requires tickets to contact me (jezlamb@hotmail.com or 07887 743 230) ASAP so as you don’t miss out and it also helps with my planning as I’m getting close to the point I need to confirm numbers to caterers etc. I’m also delighted that we are once again working in the community and with St Mary’s church who are putting on a ‘ladies’ fashion show on the Thursday evening. This should be a great event and would be brilliant if any club members were able to pop along.

To close, I’d like to congratulate Club President Brian Shenton on completing the Liverpool ‘Rock n Roll’ Marathon last Sunday. Having listened to Shents swear over the years that he’d never run a marathon, it was good to see him succumb and join some illustrious marathon runners in the Club such as Gary Dixon, Darrin Clark, Richie Simcox, the one and only John Winder and yours truly. Quite spookily, both Brian and myself share the same marathon PB – I’m not sure there will be many cricket clubs that can boast that from their President & Chairman!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you at the Club soon.

Cheers
Jez Lamb
Chairman