2021 Review & 2022 So far

The 2021 season didn't get off to the best of starts. Like most clubs coming out of the pandemic we had an awful pre season. As we'd lost ALL of our club sponsors overnight, we took this opportunity to start new partnerships and to give something back to the local community by offering FREE advertising at the Wetherby Oval, Grange Park.

One of the best outcomes from this was to have the amazing opportunity to support Martin House Children's Hospice as our main club sponsor and proudly have their logo on our team wear, which we are continuing to do for the 2022 season.

On the field, 2021 was a great season, However, we started as Wetherby usually do... slowly. After losing the first 3 league games in a row, we found our feet, only losing once more the whole season, and finally gained promotion to Div 2 Ebor, on the last game of the season with a winning draw away to Tadcaster A.

Special mention needs to go to Ian Twitchen with the bat, who got a huge 757 runs with an average of 108.14, from only 9 games.

Wetherby CC also had an amazing season in the T20 Harrogate Evening League and Cup competition. Promotion to Div 2 came after only losing 1 of 10 games in the season, with an incredible R/W 10.49. This form carried on in the cup competition, the Addison Cup. Wetherby CC got through 4 rounds to meet Harrogate CC in the final. HCC were the victors but it was an amazing effort from the team to reach the final for the first time since moving leagues.

To finish the season off, the club's indoor team, who complete in the Jonny Lawrence Indoor League at Tadcaster, went unbeaten to gain promotion to Div 1!

A HUGE EFFORT BY ALL PLAYERS... 3 Promotions and a cup final!!

Off the field, 2021 was more of a mixed season.

The off field work started in 2020 when we dug up 6 of the 12 strips at the Oval to start over. We invested in new machinery, namely a new heavy duty roller. By the time the 2021 season had come around, the 6 current playing strips had had a number of hours with the new roller. The impact of the extra work and new machinery was evident throughout the season with the strips becoming more predictable, allowing the batsman to trust the bounce and score high runs.

The work has not stopped. Currently we are working on enclosing the full perimeter with fencing and chicken wire to stop rabbits getting on to the outfield and digging. Our grounds team are in full working mode to get the Oval back to its playing best.

We have great ambitions to make Wetherby a 2-team Saturday playing club once again. Moving towards that, in the last 2 weeks we have signed 4 players. 3 are returning players who left the club to go to university and Jonty, a new player who's moved from a local team.

If you are interested in playing for Wetherby please get in touch, whether it's for the Saturday team, T20 or indoor team.

On a final note, sadly Wetherby lost a true club legend and stalwart, Ray Dabell. Ray up to his last day was club President, was continually involved in the club's running and ensured we had amazing floral displays throughout the season. Ray will be sadly missed by all at the club.