Down Hatherley Cricket Club

Firstly I would personally like to thank everyone who has helped me the last few weeks. It’s been a bit of a nightmare with all of the bad weather stopping us from doing any work on the ground for 2 or more weeks. It was a foot under water for several weeks and took another week to dry up. This meant that I had a lot of work to do in a very short time. We had already lost a few games and can’t afford to lose many more. This coincided with the birth of my little boy, Harry. There were a few complications which meant I was also in hospital 9am – 9pm for a week, but with HUGH help from Giles Morgan, Mark Best and Paul Drinkwater who all worked really hard at the club, we managed to get it all back in order ready for league cricket. Giles mowed the outfield what seemed every day and one day Mark spent 3 hours rolling, no wonder it’s so hard now! Amazing effort and dedication from you all and the club owes you all a huge THANK YOU!!!

Training nights
I think we can all agree that Thursday training nights have not always been the most productive time. I have spoken to Matt Roberts (one of our level 1 coaches) and we have decided to make training nights more constructive. We are planning to use the bowling machine in the static net, use the mobile net as a bowling net, and have 1 maybe 2 areas (depending on how many players we get) dedicated to fielding and catching practice.

For this to be a success we need you, the players to come and support us. We are trying to make available a night where you can improve your cricketing skills, and with 30 players available for selection this coming week, you have to be at your best to keep your place or force your way into the team!

Selection
A few years ago we had a problem with selection; we didn’t have enough players to consistently fill 2 teams. Now we have attractive many new players, in total this year we have 47 players signed on! This causes another problem of who to pick, put into the equation that due to the new bowling restrictions (9 per bowler) each team needs a minimum of 5 but ideally 6 bowlers per team. The captains now have to get the balance of both teams correct so both teams have enough bowlers to compete, so now more than ever remember you are playing for Down Hatherley Cricket Club and you are not a ‘1st’ of ‘2nd’ team player.

Another issue the captains will take into consideration is if you have paid your subs or not. If the captains are faced with trying to choose between players who have and have not paid their subs, then priority will go to the players who have. So if you want to increase the chance of you being selected then get your subs in quick, bare in mind that we have given you plenty of notice and now it has passed the June 2nd deadline, all subs have been increase by £10.


Subs
We have collected quite a few subs. If the captains are faced with trying to choose between players who have and have not paid their subs, then priority will go to the players who have. So if you want to increase the chance of you being selected then get your subs in quick, bare in mind that we have given you plenty of notice and now it has passed the June 2nd deadline, all subs have been increase by £10.

The subs are:

Full sub: £50
Unwaged/U18: £25
(All subs are payable by 1st June 2012. The subs are subject to a £10 INCREASE after June 1st so make sure you hurry up and pay)
Junior: £10
Associate: £20
Match subs: Saturdays: £5 (£4 for juniors) and Sundays £4 (£3 for juniors)

All subs are to be paid to either myself, Mags or Peter Williams with cheque's being made payable to Down Hatherley Cricket Club. Please send the cheques to:
Peter Williams, 5 The Cherry Orchard, Staverton, Cheltenham, GL51 0TR

Cricket Dinner
We have booked the cricket dinner and the details are:

Venue: GUPSHILL MANOR, TEWKESBURY
Time: 19.30 for 20.00 sit down.
Date: Saturday September 29th
Cost: £25 per person

We have tried very hard of the last few years to encourage people to attend and keep the cost of the dinner to £20. However, this has been increasing harder to get a meal for this price, and finally we have had to increase the cost to £25 this year.

Keith Whitmore and Mags are once again taking charge and are willing to start taking payment now, so if you wish to pay a bit each week towards the dinner to spread the cost you can. We are trying to be a flexible as we can regarding the collecting of the dinner and subs, so if you have any difficulty please speak to us we can arrange payment to suit you.

Have a good season
Regards
Paul Hathaway
Chairman