It's only been six weeks since the season ended and you'd like to think it's been nice and quiet as we all rest up after what has been an extremely busy 2016. Not quite so as now is off the field, the time between now and April s often when we are at our busiest with all the necessary work that goes in to keeping he club ticking over - the cricket season's the easy bit!!

First up we did a bit of charity fundraising at the weekly 'parkrun' that takes place every Saturday morning in Birkenhead Park. A team, led by parkrun regular and UCC President Brian shenton donned full 'whites' and set about the 5km course. As the runners made there way round the three lap course, donations were received and VSF 'pin' badges were distributed to all volunteers. Once again this was a great demonstration of the club coming together across all age ranges and continues our splendid work we have been doing with our charity partner; Vital signs Foundation. This leads me on to some exciting news regarding this partnership - as we have now raised over £2,000 (£2,088.60 to be precise!), ourselves and VSF will be putting on a heart screening event early in the new year. Full details are being worked through, but this is absolutely brilliant for us to be involved in and to be able to offer a free heart screening for our members and the community for those aged between 15 and 35.

Moving through the month myself and a few others attended the Cheshire County League annual dinner at the Mere Golf & Country Club, and it was great to see Matt Owen being presented with the 2nd XI Division One trophy (albeit not the real one - Matt ill explain!!). We also came so, so close to walking away with three other awards as well as we came runners up in the Aggregate Competition (the combined points total for 1st & 2nd XI's), the Fair Play Trophy and the Most Improved Club award. Whilst winning any of these awards would have been great, I think it shows a tremendous measure of where we are as a club that we are so close to winning all of these awards.

Keeping with cricket, conversations have continued with both Tom Marsland and Andy Roberts as we look ahead to next season. One think we can confirm is that Nat Sariman won't be returning for the 2017 season having secured his 'dream' job and staying in Australia to focus on that. We wish Nat well and he knows there will always be a welcome (and a pint on the bar) waiting for him at UCC. Since that news Tom and Andy have been pouring over numerous CV's from overseas players and we have a meeting later this week to shortlist them.

Coming back 'inside' we recently applied for a grant to refurbish the lounge area under the Aviva Community Fund. If we are successful, then the lounge area will take a fresher look to it which will hopefully make it a more appealing place for people to come in and enjoy. Myself, Rob Chapman and Ken Barrett have worked through the designs and we're pretty confident that they will make a big difference whilst still maintaining the integrity of a 116 year old cricket club. To help us in our quest, can I urge you to register and vote by clicking HERE. You don't need to be a member of the club to do this, so please share this link and get as many friends, family, work colleagues etc voting for our project.

Finally, to finish the month we hosted a Halloween party. I say "we" but it was really my wife Debbie who pulled this all together and last Friday we had 140 people crammed in for the party and a great time was had by all. I strongly believe it's important we keep the club 'alive' during the winter months as it can be a long gap between September and March.

Looking ahead, at the back end of next week we have our Annual Hot Pot which this year will see record numbers as we come together to celebrate the successes of 2016 and a night i'm very much looking forward to - mainly because i can sit back and let Clarky do everything!!

Anyway, enjoy the month ahead and i will hopefully see as many of you as possible at the Hot Pot, and if not, I look forward to seeing you at the AGM on Thursday 1st December.

Cheers

Jez Lamb
Chairman