As we’ve passed the mid-point of the adult season and the junior season is drawing to a close, I thought it’d be a good time to let you know how the season has been going.

Adult Cricket

After 12 games, the 1s are in 4th place in Division 1 of the Surrey Championship. Having lost the first two matches of the season, the team has been in good form recently and are unbeaten in ten, with 5 wins and 4 draws, with yesterdays match abandoned due to rain. The team has shown real resilience to win close games against Valley End, Beddington and Chessington and also to get draws against Malden Wanderers and Normandy when defeats looked more likely. Mike Nicol has been fantastic with the bat and is the top run scorer in the league with 557 runs at an average of nearly 80 including superb centuries against Valley End and Beddington. James Grady has also been in great form and also has two centuries, including a brilliant 152 in an agonising drawn game against Camberley, when we ended on 273-9 chasing 280 to win. Joel Walker, John Tribe and Adam Dyson have all supported well. The bowling has been lead by Dyson with 27 wickets, with good support from fellow spinners, Mike Wakefield and Marcus Dawes and pacemen Mark Farrant and Grady.

The 2s find themselves just above the relegation places in Surrey Championship Division 2, with a much needed and convincing win against Worcester Park last Saturday halting a run of 4 straight losses. The team has been affected by availability and injury issues and has really struggled to get a settled XI on to the field. With games to come against the bottom 2 and availability looking better, the team can be optimistic about a stronger end to the season and a mid-table position. Joel Friend has been the stand out performer with 383 runs at an average of 55, including 133 against Epsom. There have also been 50s for Ali Walters and Dave Baker. Special mention to 15 year old Nathan Vos who has opened the batting in the last 2 games and scored 46 and 30, a great effort. On the bowling front, the wickets have been shared around with 5fers for Andy Baker, Jack Bradley and 7-26 for Dave Baker against Worcester Park.

In many ways the 3rd XI has been the success story of the club this summer. After a 2 year gap without having a team, we entered the Surrey Downs league this summer and I’m pleased to say we now are 3rd in Division 4, with an excellent chance of gaining promotion at the first attempt. What has been particularly pleasing has been the contribution made by our junior players. We are regularly playing a team with 5/6 junior players and they are more than holding their own. A particular highlight was the recent comprehensive win against the league leaders, Old Woking, when all 10 of their wickets were taken by our juniors, with George Tye 4-16 and Jonny Williamson 4-22 standing out. Jonny also made 32 and another youngster, Sam Clegg, made 48. There have also been great contributions from the likes of Alex Friend, Fin Melling and Nathaniel Hunter amongst others and it really does bode well for the future of the club. It’s also been great seeing so many Dads of juniors playing and not always with their sons!

Continuing on this theme, the newly formed Over 40s Social T20 team (pictured above) completed their season with a win against Walton, gaining revenge for a defeat earlier in the season. There have also been fixtures against Stoke and Pyrford in what has been a successful (and very sociable!) first year for the team under the leadership of Andy Meyer. The Sunday Strollers have also had a full fixture list and continue to provide another route to adult cricket for our junior players as well as friendly cricket for our members. The Leatherhead Swans T20 team, run in conjunction with our sponsor Bytes Software, won 1 but lost 3 of their group games in the Surrey Slam and then, unfortunately, lost their first knockout round match to Abinger. Again, this competition has provided more opportunities for our members to play mid-week matches and it’s something we’ll be looking to build on next year.

Junior Cricket

Junior training, which began in late April, has now ended although there are a few matches for the age group teams still to play. For those wanting to continue with coaching, the club is running summer camps in conjunction with EzeeCricket during the weeks of 29th July (ie from tomorrow!) and 19 August. Members are also welcome to continue to use the nets whenever you wish and our overseas player, James Grady, continues to be available for individual or small group coaching sessions.

On the field, it’s been a busy season with over 100 matches played and over 100 players representing the club. The highlight was the Under 15 team winning the West Surrey Division 3, and they will now be involved in play offs in August. The other teams results were mixed with mid table finishes all round. It was also great to see the club field out first ever all girls team in home and away fixtures against Claygate, something we very much want to build on in the future.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Ken Rose and his team of volunteers, especially the age group managers, for all their hard work during the season. We adopted a slightly different approach to coaching this year, using club members as much as possible to run training rather than outside coaches. This has worked well and I’d like to thank all those coaches, who are too numerous to mention, for their hard work and enthusiasm. We very much hope to continue with the same approach to coaching next year, starting with the indoor nets programme over the winter.

With next year in mind, can I also make a plea on Ken’s behalf. The junior section is reliant on volunteers and we are always looking for people to step forward to help out. Specifically, we have a vacancy for an Under 9 manager but, in addition, we’re always looking for people to help with umpiring, scoring, refreshments etc.. We are also looking to make the next step with a girls team and it would help greatly if we could find someone to take the lead on this. Please get in touch with either Ken or myself if you would like to get involved.

Social

We’ve had a busy month or so on the social front with the World Cup Family Day, Wine Tasting and Race Night. As well as being fun and well attended events, they have also been important fund raisers for the club as we look to continue raising money for the ground development. We raised around £1,200 from the World Cup day and around £1,500 from Race Night, all of which will contribute towards our £20,000 fundraising target. Thank you all for supporting these events and thanks to all the volunteers involved in making them happen.

Looking ahead, there will be end of season awards and socials for both the adult and junior sections with dates and further details to follow shortly.

We have also begun to be more active in renting out the ground and clubhouse. We recently hosted one of our sponsors, TWM, for a softball tournament and BBQ and another sponsor, Bytes, will be using the ground for a couple of social cricket matches and BBQs in August. St.Johns school, another sponsor, used the ground for their end of season inter-school festival and we also hosted the Sovereign Trophy final for the Club Cricket Conference on 31 July.

We’ve also got a couple of member parties coming up in the clubhouse, again something we want to do more of in the future.

I’ll write again at the end of the season, at which time I’ll also give you an update on our ground development plans and our plans for the winter. In the mean time, here’s to a successful end to the season to all our teams and I hope you all enjoy the rest of the summer.

All the best

Ian