The Cricket Chairman's End of Season Report 2006

A season of contrast compared to the previous season but with many positives that can be taken.

For the first eleven it was a disruptive season in many ways, in particular the changes in professional that were required throughout the season. Whilst we were still able to appoint very good overseas professionals in Adam Griffith and Arshad Khan we were also required to appoint sub professionals and therefore struggled in the first part of the season for continuity. Our final league position of sixth should be good enough to qualify for Lancashire Cup qualification, although confirmation has not yet been received.

In the early part of the season dropped catches proved vital and would have helped us win at least two or three games we ended up drawing. With these games also being against teams at the lower end of the league it cost us all the more dear.

I do feel that as a team we made too many individual mistakes and did not play as well as we are capable, but sometimes issues can affect a game that are out of a our control. We were unfortunate to play in many games this year where the opposition have not made any attempt to achieve the score we have set them, many times having won the toss and put us in to bat. Whether this was because we were champions last year and teams were happy to pick up what they could or felt we got too many runs I do not know. I do feel, and I know all the players feel the same, the sooner we get to win/lose cricket the better. Surely this will be better for all concerned, in particular younger cricketers and new spectators. I find it de-moralising to spend a whole day, sometimes a full weekend and the result is boring drawn cricket. It does make you wonder what else could I have done this weekend, then it’s back to work on Monday. We will see if changes take place, but I am not too hopeful.

I am looking forward to an improvement next year and I am sure this will be the case.

The second team had a reasonable season but unfortunately fell short in the last few weeks. They again had similar drawn games to the first eleven in being unable to bowl sides out, for whatever reason. The batting was again extremely strong with us holding the top three league batting positions aswell as sixth place, but the bowling due to injuries, holidays and first team calls proved difficult and was probably where they lost the league. I do feel however that special praise should be given to Sevie Hirst in his first full season in the team, he bowled exceptionally well and put in some excellent performances. With continued improvement the first team is not that far away. As with the first team i am looking forward to an improvement next year and I am again sure this will be the case.

The third team had an indifferent season with some good performances mixed with bad, consistency seems to be the key here and I know skipper Paul Williams is aware of this. They have suffered this year through point deductions for not having an umpire every week. We will be trying to address this issue but it is not easy to find an umpire every week, if you know of anyone please get in touch, it is a paid position.

If they can find the consistency they are very capable of challenging for promotion as on their day they have proved they can beat anyone in the league. Promotion I feel is a realistic aim and one I am hoping will be realised in the near future.

The fourth team I feel have been the team of the season. They have all year competed to a high standard and their league position of fourth is a good achievement. They also reached the cup final and were only undone by a player from the opposition who I am sure is very capable of playing a higher standard. It was great to see the game played at St Annes and I must congratulate the team for a truly gutsy performance albeit in defeat.

We have this year been able to play many of our young players in both the third and fourth teams on a consistent basis and this is something we aim to do every week where possible. Some weeks has seen us fielding four or five players under fifteen in both the third and fourth team and this is essential for our long term future.

I will leave the junior report to Gerry but I will say it has been great to see the improvement in the number of juniors turning up to play cricket. I am very encouraged by this and we will do all we can to ensure improvements keep being made.

Russell Bradley
Cricket Chairman
23rd September 2006