RODMERSHAM CRICKET CLUB
2008 Club Captain’s Report
Good evening everyone and thanks for coming. I have just finished my 3rd season as club captain and therefore its time for my 3rd report.
I’m going to start off the report on a positive note and mention some highlights from the past season.
Firstly, as many of you are aware, the club won the Doug Wood Cup in 2008 which was a great achievement particularly as Minster managed to produce the worst wicket in the world during one of the few dry weeks of the summer! I’m not sure how long it has been since the club last won it (I know I haven’t won it before!) and we dominated each game we played including the final. In the final, Liam Foster and Lee Jackson both made excellent 50’s given the conditions. We posted 187 in our 40 overs and eventually bowled Milstead out for 135. It was good to see Matt Jewiss and Chris Ansley bowling with great discipline to bowl out the tail end as they tried to really go for it.
The next thing I’d like to mention is the fact that Rodmersham won the Swale Indoor League – again the first time for a while. The indoor league is 6-a-side, 10 over competition played on a Sunday evening and my squad consisted of me, Bondy, Dylan, Jacko, Chris Ansley, Rob Horne, Dan Pumfrett, Steve Pumfrett and Liam Ansley. Again it was good to see the young players making significant contributions. We have now got to play the winners of the Dover League (Bettshanger) next Saturday (31st January) at Canterbury for the right to qualify for the Kent Finals which is also held at Canterbury where we will meet Holmesdale in the Quarter Final.
The club also enters and plays in (unlike some Kent League teams!) the Shepherd Neame 20/20 cup which is played midweek and is contested by each 1XI Kent League team. This year the club made it all the way to the quarter final where we were beaten by our good friends, Gore Court. On the way we managed to beat Macknade, Dartford (a team two divisions higher than us, a fantastic result!) and Addington. The game against Gore Court was a brilliant night with the club putting on a great show with music and a barbeque and it is probably the busiest I have ever seen the club for a cricket match – in fact, I’ve never known people to have to literally dump their car in the corner at the top end of the ground and climb over the fence to get in!
Sundays were also a success with the club playing friendlies and younger players being given the chance to show what they could do. This coming season though the club have re-entered the Kent Village League and will start in the bottom Division (7). I feel this is an excellent move and one I really pushed for. My attitude towards Sundays will be the same – youngsters will get their chance and people who need a bat and bowl will be given it but it will give the people the opportunity to do this in competitive, league cricket. It will also provide a relief to all the tea ladies and to Trev as we won’t be at home every week. Equally though I will need help and commitment from people for our away games. I am really looking forward to Sundays this year – we are going to some places I have never heard of and will be playing at “proper” village grounds (one out, one in the changing rooms!).
My final positive from last season is the performance of Marc Bond. All I need to say is that in all matches he played he scored 1203 runs at an average of 48.12 and took 43 wickets.
This only leaves me to talk about the two Saturday sides which, for me, weren’t quite as positive and yet are the two most important sides. The 1st XI finished 3rd with 209 points which was an improvement from the year before and the 2nd XI came 2nd bottom with 112 points. One team dropped out and the other only finished below us as we’d won 1 more game!
The 1st XI were boosted by 2 new players – Naz & Sandeep. Not only did they add to the team on the pitch but they are great people off of it as well. They live in London but travel all the way down to play for us, are nearly always on time and available every week so ‘fair play’ to them. Although finishing 3rd sounds like a good season I was disappointed as I felt our starting XI was the best in the league – the problem was I very rarely had that XI available!
I have been given the following by Steve to say about the 2nd XI but I would like to say that although at times the 2’s only had a side out to fulfil the fixture, such was our unavailability, on plenty of occasions they also had what seemed like a strong side for that division and should have finished higher in the league.
“The 2008 season started very promisingly for the 2s with 4 wins and an abandoned fixture in the first 8 games. Sadly, however, the second half of the season saw 7 consecutive defeats – due principally to a combination of holiday-weakened sides and poor batting - and an abandoned final game and so, for the second season running, the 2s retained their Kent League status only by the skin of their teeth.
On a positive note, the bowlers enjoyed far more success than in 2007, taking more wickets over the course of the season with three bowlers each bagging 20 or more. In general the 2s fielded very well and held some excellent catches from the first game. Unfortunately, though, the batting fell well short of expectations with only two batters making over 250 runs (but not over 300) and no other player clearing 150! Given the combination of experience and young talent in the side, this was disappointing to say the least.
That said, the coming season offers much to look forward to and we should have every reason to feel confident that a solid mid-table finish – if not better – is achievable assuming the 2s can put out close to their strongest eleven most weeks. Assuming the AGM endorses the nomination, the 2s will have a new skipper of the highest calibre, the younger players will be a year older, wiser and more confident and the senior players more determined than ever to perform as they should at that level and avoid yet another relegation battle!”
This year I am hoping that the first team will finally get promoted and the 2’s can have a much more comfortable season and the fact that Kevin is going to skipper them on a Saturday should help massively. Kevin is a very experienced player and I believe I’m right in saying he has previously captained the 1st team. I’m sure the youngsters will benefit from having him as skipper.
The only way, however, that both clubs will achieve these goals is if the players within the teams are committed enough. As I have previously said, 3rd place for the 1’s was a disappointment in the league due to how much unavailability we had and the chance we missed. I can fully accept players being unavailable due to family holidays, work commitments or playing another sport at a higher level but to hear reasons such as going to concerts, playing in football tournaments or even going to watch a game of cricket is disappointing and frustrating when you are desperate for the club to succeed. It has been said that the 1st team need to have promotion guaranteed with 4 games still to go because of all the problems we have towards the end of the season – its probably true but quite sad.
This season I would ask for the players to give it everything they can. People outside of the club say we lack ambition but I certainly don’t and the committee don’t. I ask all the players to prove we don’t. Again we are looking to bring in some new faces and hopefully there will be some familiar faces back (the likes of Sam Blackwell and Glenn Pearson). The club has again paid for 3 net sessions at Canterbury and will then move straight into nets at Fulston. The nets at Canterbury have been going well but again some people who I was expecting to turn up haven’t – the club are giving you the opportunity to use the best nets in the county for nothing!!
I will again ask people to attend nets throughout the summer – we usually have a brilliant first month and come mid July we are back to only having 5 or 6 people there. If you can’t make a Tuesday then speak to me or Trev about coming up one evening. Trev spends more evenings at the ground in the summer than Jane cares to think about and there is no reason why you cannot come up here and get the bowling machine out for an hour. The club has a bowling machine and grass nets waiting to be used – how many other clubs in this area or even in the Kent League can say that!? We all need to practice to get better – if we didn’t, both teams would have had better seasons! It’s the old adage – you only get out what you put in and we are not good enough to just turn up on a Saturday and smash a 50 or take 5 wickets.
That’s the moan out of the way but I would like to make it clear that I love being captain, I love the club and I love the people within it. The social side here is brilliant and I’m just desperate for the club to have the success it deserves.
So finally, I’d like to thank everyone at the club who worked so hard last season and give a special thank you to, first of all, Trev who, along with Lee, prepares what I think are the best wickets in the division and also puts up with phone calls from me, often moaning about various different things! And to Bec who puts up with cricket almost taking over in the summer – if I’m not playing or coaching with the club then I am often on the phone getting people to games!
All that’s left to say is good luck to everyone for the forthcoming season!
Darren Nokes.