Hello everyone,
The time has arrived for me to give an assessment of how the club has performed over the last 12 months. Some of it is very positive, some of it not so much.
As always, I begin with playing matters.
Our 1st X1 again began the season with optimism of a strong league campaign and some anticipated success in cup competitions. Despite winning the Eric Topham Trophy in a nail biting final at Blackfyne, the league campaign faltered. Breathtaking victories were paired with disappointing and unexpected defeats as the side finished in 5th place, some 140 points behind runaway winners, Newcastle City. Lee, John and Aron all made sparkling centuries, while skipper Chris finished top of the pile for both runs and wickets but injuries would play a major part in seeing the side struggle to field it’s strongest X1 on most occasions.
Chris has returned to Hetton Lyons, I think him for his efforts over the last two seasons and wish him well going forward. At present, the team will remain the same for 2024, although if the option of strengthening the side presents itself, we will look to do just that.
The 2nd X1 made a good attempt at life in Division 4, they finished 6th in the end but were in the hunt for promotion right until the last few weeks of the season. The telling sign was the fact that 29 players were used in league games this season. Call ups to the 1s, injuries, holidays and so on made it extremely difficult for the side to maintain any sort of consistency of selection. They did reach a finals day which has been carried over to 2024 and with the return of Jamie and Nathan, the side should hopefully push on again next season and challenge at the top of the division.
The Academicals performed admirably despite consistently lacking in numbers from senior players. Injuries to the older gents, myself included, meant that extremely young sides were fielded most weeks. However, our juniors who made debuts this year should be applauded for their enthusiasm for the game and do show that the future is looking bright as they gain more experience. I’d like to congratulate Seth, Ed, Ryan, Noah, Hayden and Oscar who all played senior cricket this season, despite all being U13.
As mentioned, our junior section continues to make excellent progress. Stuart and his team of volunteers have again done a fantastic job of organising sessions indoor and outdoor throughout the last 12 months to ensure that our junior members are given the best chance to develop their skills as they move up through the teams and push toward senior cricket.
For the first time ever, the club fielded a girls team at U11 level and will continue with this next season and beyond. Well done to Fos as he heads this up!
At junior level, many of our U13 players are now too old so for the first time in a while, we will field an U15 team next season.
At all levels, it is great to see so many players competing, right down to those 5 year olds taking part in our All Stars programme, right up to those who have been playing for at least 40 years longer than that who still do a great job in our senior sides. We should always look to do our best to encourage new people to take up the sport and welcome them to our Blackfyne home if possible. One thing I have learned during my years at Consett is that there is never such a thing as having too many players….
The club owes an enormous amount of thanks to those who give up their time to run our junior sessions and take charge of the games in which they play, without them the club has no future.
Off the field of play, not a day goes by without some sort of challenge for the club or myself.
Socially, the club has been very well supported on match days and practice evenings, although the behaviour of a minority of patrons has left a lot to be desired at times. The club has joined the local pubwatch scheme in an attempt to eradicate these issues but it does need the support of ALL of our members in calling out instances of unacceptable behaviour and ensuring that they are dealt with appropriately.
Our bar will again show that we have beaten our previous best year in terms of takings, however, this brings challenges of it’s own in the form of stock management, purchasing, accounts, staffing, training and legal compliance. While better sales look great, they do bring more demand on those who carry out these tasks, which at times can be difficult to fit into the balance of work and family life for those involved. We are now no longer supplied by Heineken who we have been associated with for several years now and will begin the new 12 month period using LWC. Some products will be changed to reflect demand and sales while we have changed how we purchase from the cash and carry after I found I could drive to Birtley and back with my eyes closed, such was the frequency of my visits to Batleys. We will do all we can to ensure the club remains competitively priced but our hands are ultimately tied by the ever increasing cost price of products and ever increasing costs of utilities.
This poor behaviour has not been limited to the bar. The club have had to deal with several instances of poor conduct on the field this year, which is extremely disappointing. It is embarrassing for myself when contact is received from the relevant league and frustrating for those who have to deal with the situation and provide a measured response and take action. We all know that people will get frustrated during games and things won’t always go their way, but they must remember that there is an acceptable level of conduct applicable to all who play the sport and that those who repeatedly fail to adhere to this will be thanked for their efforts at the club and asked to continue their playing career elsewhere. The roles undertaken by the committee and myself are challenging enough without having to babysit adults and remind them of how they need to behave.
There are some positives. I attended a dinner at Durham CC in August which was for their annual awards scheme at grassroots level, formerly knows as the ‘OSCAS’ Our team of wise men were rewarded for their years of hard work as Geoff, Gordon and Keith were awarded grounds team of the year. There was also a retrospective award for David Graham, a fitting tribute for all his hard work for both club and county over the years.
My thanks go out to them for the great work that they do in providing us with a great place to play, especially during the period of July and August this year where rain made their efforts almost impossible at times.
We are currently looking toward fund raising for the club in order to fit a new roof as the one currently in place is more sieve like in it’s ability to prevent the elements from entering the building. Things like this don’t come cheap, and when you mix this with difficulties in getting responses from the council over planning permission, it becomes a frustrating process for grant applications and access to community funds. We are pleased that our local councillor is now on board and trying to assist us with this process and we hope that we might have some positive news on this in the near future. After all, the building is 100 years old and certainly showing signs of it’s age despite our best efforts to keep it in good shape.
A big thank you is needed to all of our sponsors. It is great to see that so many local businesses are willing to support the club. Without their support we would struggle to provide a great environment for our players and spectators. We are always looking at ways to improve the facilities we have, whether that’s updates to our buildings and machinery or the purchase of new kit and training aids, we would struggle to do any of this without this help. I hope that we will be able to welcome these sponsors back in 2024 and hopefully add some more going forward.
A big thank you from me to all of those at the club who have helped out during the last 12 months. Whether that be on match days, training nights, days when the club isn’t open doing the mundane tasks such as emptying bins, ongoing repairs, preparing accounts, making teas and so on. Amateur clubs like this are unable to function without these people. As is asked every year, if you feel as though you are able to support the club in any way, your input would be warmly welcomed.
Personally, I have struggled to enjoy the last 12 months as much as I normally would have done. A bad back prevented me from playing for most of the season, while never being a strong player, I still enjoy taking to the field and being part of the team. I have also needed to work more on weekends than in previous years meaning that I haven’t attended as many games as I have done in the past and have maybe taken my finger off the pulse in terms of trying to manage to the running of the club as well as I would like to. This isn’t something that I envisage changing too much in 2024 which means that first and foremost the club will need a new DPS (licensee). I cannot commit to being in attendance at the club regularly enough when the bar is open to satisfy the criteria laid out for a DPS. I will remain as the named DPS until 31st March 2024, at which point someone else will need to take over. I will pay for the course and license for someone to become qualified to do this, as the club had paid for me when I did so in 2018 so wouldn’t expect the club to be paying for this again. I will happily give more details and support to anyone who expresses an interest in this.
This will also be my final 12 months in any sort of senior role within the club. I will be standing down as chair of the club at the 2024 AGM, assuming i’m voted back in for the next 12 months of course. This has not been an easy decision to come to as I have put a lot into the club over my 26 year of involvement here. Unfortunately putting so much time and effort into this has had a negative effect on my personal life at times and this cannot continue. I have begun the process of writing up a user manual for everything I can for the running of the club to ensure that the committee can easily continue to run the club beyond then and will have all the of the information and contacts required to do so. This will take time however so don’t expect to see it any time soon!
Over the next 12 months, I hope that the club can continue to grow in the right way and we can see success both on and off the field for all our members and visitors. I hope you all winter well. Please keep an eye out for updates around winter training, social events and of course the all important release of the 2024 fixtures. So long as we perform better than England have done at the World Cup, then we should be alright….