Hello everyone,
Another year, another batch of grey hair in the beard! Trials and tribulations both on and off the field, ‘babysitting’ a club full of adults and trying to ensure the club remains viable both commercially and competitively is never the easiest of tasks….
I’ll start with playing matters;
The 1st X1 had a very difficult task as they attempted to match the highs of 2021. New faces came to the club in the form of Chris Winn, Robbie Hockaday and Craig Burke. We again signed up for an overseas pro, this time opting for an Afghan with international honours named Shahidullah. Shahid however was called up for further international honours and was replaced by one of his compatriots – Waqarullah Ishaq. As a club, we had optimism for another successful season, something that was sadly short lived.
Despite entering 6 cup competitions, the team lost 5 and conceded one cup tie to remain winless in the T20 format and finished bang in the middle of the 11 team Division 1. Some highlights which included debut centuries for Chris Winn and Aron McCabe in Consett colours. Despite some excellent results at times, the team struggled for consistency and finished the season in farcical circumstances, with my only Saturday game being for the 1st X1 in a match which saw both ourselves and our opposition take to the field with 10 players and sadly, our professional returned home early due to a number of factors. A disappointing finale to the season.
We hope to see an improvement on this for 2023 and have welcomed Lee Whitfield and John Meadows to Blackfyne to help to improve the team further.
My thanks go to Stuart and Andy for their efforts in leading the troops through adversity as well as ensuring everything else was taken care of throughout the season. Both have stood down from their positions going forward but leave the team in a great place as a result of their work. They have been replaced by Chris Winn who takes over as captain and Daniel Pyke who assumes the role of vice-captain, I wish them both well.
The 2nd X1 had one of their best seasons in many years. They won a first league title for 25 years as they finished top of the pile in Division 5 South – a notoriously difficult division to escape from with only one promotion spot as a neck and neck race with Greenside saw us grab the final necessary points as the rain came to threaten an abandonment. The team also reached two cup finals but were sadly beaten in both. They did however turn in some breathtaking performances in both league and cup thanks to consistency of team selection and a spread of performances across the personnel. We had three players in the top 10 wicket takers – Ewan, Nathan and Jack. The bowlers managed an impressive six 5 wicket hauls, Ewan leading the way with 3 of these. We also had five players pass the 250 run mark for the season, something that the 2s have struggled with for many seasons. Well done to Jamie, Ste G, Ste T, Sully and Ryan. Despite no one scoring a century, there were 14 half centuries, Jamie leading the way with 5 of his own.
Looking forward to 2023, the team should remain strong in Division 4. Next season will see them move up to playing 50 over cricket instead of 40 to move them in line with the same format as that played by the 1st X1 which will be very beneficial for anyone who receives a call up and is working toward forcing their way into the team. If they keep up the performances from 2022, there’s no reason why 2023 can’t be a very successful season.
A massive well done to Speedy and Jack for their stewardship throughout the season. Andrew will stay on as captain for the 2023 season hoping to continue his good work but will have a change of deputy as former skipper, Ste Turnbull assumes the role of vice-captain.
The Academcials had a new captain for 2022, Harry Davison. Learning curve for Harry as he had to contend with league rules regarding participation by juniors, as well as some of his previous Sunday stalwarts playing limited roles if at all. The team did play in the right spirit (most of the time) and despite not always being able to turn out their strongest X1, finished third in the division and narrowly missed out on promotion on the final weekend of the season. Highlights of the season were Harry finishing as his team’s top wicket taker, a first senior 50 for Will Marshall, a first career century for Harry, two for Jamie and Sully announcing his return to cricket with 144 in his first game for over 5 years in order to force his way into the 2nd X1 reckoning.
It was great to see other junior players represent the side across the year in the form of James Thompson and Hayden Oakes. The team will continue to strive to be inclusive to junior players into 2023 and although we are very thankful to Jamie, Sully, Simon etc standing in during 2022 when required, we hope to make strides away from calling upon 2nd X1 players, and aim to field 33 players each weekend if possible. Harry will continue his captaincy into 2023 will this time have a new man deputising, Andy O’Neill has assumed the role of vice-captain, while being supported by the senior players in the team and we will hopefully see some of our Under 13 players making their senior debuts. I look forward to seeing how the two take to the task, assuming i’m selected of course!
Our Junior section is in great hands under the stewardship of Junior Co-ordinator Stuart, who is ably assisted by Ste T, Ste G, Dicka and Fos as well as all of the other helpers. They have done an incredible job by welcoming over 60 kids to All Stars again this year, introducing Dynamos to 20 girls and getting an Under 13 team up and running as our junior development progression continues to bear fruit. Our Under 9s went unbeaten in the summer tournaments for the second year running and our Under 11s lost a nail biting final against Burnmoor at the end of the season. It has also been great to see that Louie and Matty have been regularly representing Durham in age group cricket.
The attitude and effort from all of our junior members has been fantastic and they are a credit to themselves when representing Consett. Thanks to everyone who has helped out at both winter and summer training sessions as well as our team managers and long suffering and forgiving wives and girlfriends…
Off the field the year has not been without incident. As most of you will know, we applied for the correct license to enable our downstairs bar to operate within the guidelines of our local council but were met with stiff opposition from some of the local community. Thankfully, as a result of the support of many of our members and visitors, I was able to present a strong case to a hearing at County Hall and ensure that we are able to trade as we had originally hoped, just with a lot more headaches and cost involved in the process than we had first anticipated.
Our elected secretary Stephen, unfortunately had to take the decision to stand down earlier in the year, my thanks to him for his efforts during his tenure and he has been replaced by another returnee to the club – Andrew Cox.
Pressures from the economy have seen substantial increases in operating costs to our club and bar but I believe that we have been able to keep our prices extremely competitive and would thank Joe from Heineken for his ongoing support for the club to help us to be able to do so.
We will continue to monitor increases in costs to the club in everything that we do and find ways to mitigate these as much as possible to ensure that we continue to deliver value for money in terms of both playing and the social side of the club.
Socially, the club has been very well supported throughout the season and as David will confirm, we have had our second best year in terms of bar takings over the course of the last 12 months. We appreciate all of the support from junior parents, players and spectators alike, it’s always great to see the terrace and the bar filled out with smiling faces. We want to see ourselves as an inclusive venue and I have been pleased to see some new faces at the club this year who are very complimentary of our facilities and I hope that we are able to continue to welcome new members and supports alike going forward.
Sadly, our recently formed darts team have decided to move to pastures new so our winter opening will be much more limited than originally intended.
If everyone can keep in mind our aims to welcome more new visitors and members, and consider appropriate behaviour at all times this will always be both expected and appreciated in equal measure. There is a club code of conduct on our website which everyone should take the time to remind themselves of and ensure that they are compliant with this.
A big thanks as always goes to those who keep our facilities in the state that they are in. Our evergreen gents; Keith, Gordon, Geoff and Davey for providing us with such a great playing area and surrounds and our small band of volunteers who keep everything else in tip top shape behind the scenes such as Chappa and Wilk. Machines don’t fix themselves, bar equipment doesn’t clean itself and so on.
We had a lot of support from sponsors again in 2022. We don’t garner premier league football style sponsorship deals, but the money that is raised as a result of their generosity ensures that we are able to continue to improve the club. Projects such as the shower and toilet area flooring being done to make the place feel more homely as well as ongoing maintenance would be all the more difficult without this support so as a club we are very grateful for their generosity whether this was through match sponsorships, purchasing sponsorship boards or another donations that have been made such as the money raised for our new net cage via the junior sponsored bike ride.
Most of you will now by now that attempting to make a local sports club viable and competitive is an unenviable task for those who take to it. Without the volunteers that we have at the club, we wouldn’t be able to provide such fantastic facilities for anyone - from our 4 year old beginners at All Star level, right up to the first class cricketers who have represented the club over the years. I am extremely grateful to those who give up their time to help out in any way that they can and will always welcome with open arms anyone who feels that they can give any additional help to our cause.
One of our long standing committee members, Lesley, is standing down as of this years AGM. Lesley has been a great servant to the club over the years, having worked on the bar, made the teas, organised social events, trailed to batleys to buy the stock, cleaned, planted flowers, provided insight at meetings and much more. Her straight talking insight and clips round the ear for the unruly youths will be a big miss for the club going forward. She will no doubt still be seen on the terrace at most home games alongside myself and David in ‘grumpy corner’.
Over the next 12 months, I hope to see all of our teams compete to the best of their ability and ideally, I would love to see us knocking on the door for promotion to the NEPL to see us push ourselves further as a club. As a club, we hope to welcome back a limited number of marquee events in 2023, something that was lacking in 2022 as a result of ensuring we were able to properly sort out our bar license and therefore plan any future events correctly to offer assurances to the local community in terms of what we are offering.
We do have social events planned for the winter such as our Christmas party with The Great Escape, quiz nights from Aka and of course the contentious football World Cup, all England games will be shown in the clubhouse and it would be great to see these and any other winter events well supported to help to keep the club ticking over.
Dates for our winter training sessions for both juniors and seniors will be released in due course, as ever, any new members are welcome to come along to these.
I hope that everyone winters well and I look forward to seeing some of you at some of the winter social events and into next season and hope that as a result of England now being dual white ball mens world champions that the next generation of players will be inspired to take up the game that we all love.