To be totally honest I'm mailing you all feeling very underwhelmed after an exhausting weekend of work rota for a few of us. Despite this weekend being in the fixture card since the beginning of the summer, several reminders in these mails and announcements at club events explaining why the work carried out is so vital, just 8 adult members turned up yesterday and 9 today, 4 of which did both days. I just cannot fathom why, when we all love our club, there is not more help on such important weekends which enable us to play cricket in the first place; we are all busy. For the record the table has been reseeded, 3 tons of loam has been carried and spread over the table by hand, it has been smoothed and watered in. We have built a fence to protect the square and also completed several other important jobs.
To everyone of you that did attend, be it for 2 hours or 2 days and especially all junior helpers, you are brilliant! Thank you!!
As advertised we are planning another weekend next week, but what we do depends on weather. I will send a mail towards the end of the week when the weather situation becomes clearer.
On a different subject, as you know we held an EGM a couple of weeks ago to discuss all options for 2nd XI cricket in 2019. Again thanks to those that attended and contributed to a very open and interesting debate. We agreed on a stance and Dave and I wrote to the league detailing our request. Our mail read:
"Dear Barry,
Further to our mail below advising, with a heavy heart, to withdraw our 2s from the 2018 league, we had an EGM earlier in the week to discuss all options and decide as a club how we want to move forward. The discussions were positive, honest and all views from across the whole club were taken into consideration.
The result of the meeting was clear and we as a club would very much like to have 2 league XI's entered into the 2019 season. We think this is absolutely feasible as:
- After (too) long a period without a Junior section, next year we have a talented group of what will be U16s who are looking forward to playing competitive league cricket
- There were a number of adult members who have been unable to play over the last few seasons who are wanting to do so more going forward
We are aware of the pressure on availability at the beginning of the season what with GCSE exams. Therefore we plan to limit our Sunday fixtures until they are over to encourage Sunday players to play on a Saturday to ensure we fulfil the fixtures.
Please can you advise if the league are agreeable to our request? Many thanks for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Dave"
I'm pleased to report that the league replied with the following positive response:
"Hi David,
At last night's committee meeting it was agreed that your second eleven would be put in 10b provisionally for 2019.
We do not finalise the structure until our November meeting but that should not change.
Kind regards
Barry"
As and when I/we hear more I will let you know.
I say it in every mail because it is true; NECC is as much your club as it is mine and all of us on Management. If you have any ideas, suggestions, observations or thoughts about anything re. our club then please let me know.
Many thanks for reading my mails and with very best wishes
James
James Scott
Chairman, North Enfield Cricket Club