It’s that time of year again! Membership to Dorking Cricket Club is due and we have many ways for you to be involved with your club, the first of which is a ‘get ready for the season day’ at both the Pixham and Westhumble grounds on Easter Monday

A quick look back on last season.

1st XI – Came 2nd in Ryman Surrey Championship Div 3 and gained back to back promotion to Div 2, the highest the club has been since 2004.

2nd XI – Started the front half of the season with some great results but towards the end of the season the results unfortunately went the other way.

3rd XI – A strong season by the 3rd team one which they can be pleased to reflect back on. It was nice to see some of the youth progress up from the 4th’team, hopefully they will continue to rise in the coming cricket seasons.

4th XI – The 2nd season in league cricket for the 4thXI, and was focused on bridging the gap between colts and seniors. Some close results that didn’t go their way unfortunately but they can still be proud to reflect on the 2016 season

VCL 1st XI – For the first time won division 1 of the VCL, some top performances by many with fun had by all

VCL 2nd XI – Finished 3rd in the second tier of the Village Cricket League. Great achievement from the younger players and senior players alike.

Colts Roundup

Our thriving Colts sections has now grown to well over 200 young persons, this is amazing for the club as can be seen by the hive of socialising on a Friday night down at the Lane. We’re pleased to see all colts getting some competitive fixtures in last season and we hope we can build upon this valuable experience to help develop their individual cricketing careers.

The 2017 Senior Team Captains:

1st XI – Scott Kelsey

2nd XI – Mathew Homewood

3rd XI – Tim Brewster

4th XI – Andrew Culton

VCL1 XI – Max Ridler

VCL2 XI – Andrew Halliday

Surrey Trust – Toby Blood/Chris Ward

All contact details will be made available in the fixture card

Match Availability

It is really important that all players give their availability. All the club officials are volunteers and it can be really frustrating for the captain (and other members) when left without sufficient players when trying to confirm matches with opposition. It is your own responsibility to give the availability of yourself or your colt so please don’t let the captain or match manager be the one chasing you. As part of our new website deal (more on that

later) Senior players can download an App called ‘Pitchero Club’ and once signed up can give their availability at a press of a button for captains. This is currently only going to be available to the senior section before it is rolled out to the colts as the Seniors have a smaller database and we would like to test it before rolling it out to the colts section.

Training

Seniors and juniors (U16+)

Summer Training 7.00pm-8.30pm, Tuesdays, Pixham Sports Ground

Sponsors

We have a few available banner slots at both of our grounds (Pixham and Westhumble), as well as some match sponsorship options. If you, or someone you know who owns a company, are interested, please contact Chris or Lisa (your membership secretaries) who will be able to pass on your details.

New Members

The club welcomes new members, so if you have a friend interested in cricket either now or during the season, please bring them down to the club so we can sign them up if space is available.

Over The Winter

The committee that was elected at this winter’s AGM have settled into their roles and have started work in their areas, we have numerous projects variant in size, most of which as a member you would not realise we are working on. But the most visible projects are that we have arranged a partnership deal with Dorking Brewery for the bar, renovations at the Westhumble Pavilion and a new club website as well as working with the Pixham Sports Ground Association on work that is required to be undertaken on the main club house.

Volunteers

We are looking to our large membership to help prepare the club before the season, run the club during the season and put the club to rest after the season has finished so please do not be surprised if you get a tap on the shoulder. Without volunteers the whole club would be struggling to survive. If you have any skills that you think the club would benefit from – or just want to help – and are willing to put a few hours in please contact the committee. This could be anything from being qualified to install electrics, being able/willing to paint to just having some space in your car boot to ferry equipment over to Westhumble at the start of the season or helping the groundsman by rolling a pitch for half an hour!

Social events

We are pleased to say that Alison Pavey and Jackie Howlett have agreed to continue with the task of arranging the season’s social events.

They are pleased to offer as your first social event of the DCC year the “Start of Season Dinner”, 7.30pm on Saturday 29th April 2017. With the meal cooked by one of our own DCC players, tickets are £20 per person and can be purchased from Ali or Jackie at your convenience.

Alison can be contacted at alisonclairep@gmail.comalisonclairep@gmail.com for ticket purchases

New Website

The club has invested some time and money into establishing a new website. At the moment this can be found at www.pitchero.com/clubs/dorkingcricketclub/ but this will have our old website URL soon! This site has access to all the fixtures as well as contact details for club officials and you can also download the club calendar for your digital diary. As well as that it has addresses of our oppositions, linked stats for both Senior and Colts players, and more public profiles for sponsors that help support cricket in our area. If you’d like to see anything else on this site please do get in contact.

Over the coming weeks you will receive an invitation from Pitchero asking you to join the site - we ask that you accept and fill in the details, this means you can then use the availability app (as mentioned earlier). If you have any questions or feel there is any essential information missing form the site, please contact Chris Pike for more information (his contact details can be found below)

100 Club
The 100 Club, in its present form, has been going for 30 years to raise money for cricket facilities. In view of the need to update the Pavilion facilities at Pixham, it has been decided to relaunch the 100 Club from 1st May 2017 with the project of raising funds for this purpose. Cost of membership is £5 per month or £60 per annum payable by standing order to the DCC 100 Club account. A STANDING ORDER FORM IS ATTACHED FOR COMPLETION AND RETURN TO the Club Treasurer. Prizes will be drawn monthly during the season and at the start of next season in April and the names of winners will appear on the DCC website.

2017 Subscriptions

Senior Player

£125.00

Junior Player (U16+ in full time education)

£85.00

1 Senior Player and 1 Colt/Junior

£165.00

1 Senior Player and 2+ Colts/Juniors

£200.00

1 Senior Player and 3+ Colts/Juniors

£230.00

Colts Family Membership with 1 Colt/Junior

£85.00

Colts Family Membership with 2 Colts/Juniors

£125.00

Colts Family Membership with 3+ Colts/Juniors

£160.00

Social Member

£20.00

Social Family

£30.00

Due to the increased cost of providing the facilities to play cricket and meet the League requirements as our 1st XI move up to the higher division, the Committee have decided that the subscriptions for senior players should be increased to £125 and match fees to £12.

All Subscriptions are due by 1st May and anyone who cannot meet this deadline due to financial hardship should contact the Treasurer to discuss alternative arrangements.