Even though the nights have drawn and with Christmas approaching rapidly, the thought of summer days playing cricket seems miles away. The cricket committee continue to meet to try and make plans for the new year.
Last year’s season could best be described as exceptional – with only sporadic participation possible in some of the age groups, From the youth cricket perspective I thought that if would be good to summarise what will be happening over the next couple of months.
The club AGM is due to be held in January and as a sign of the times will probably have to run in zoom. Further information will be forthcoming but I will be standing as youth chairman for 2021 – so you will be hearing more from me.
As soon as the AGM has been held I will be opening the youth registration. I have put together a online registration form, using google forms, so we can start getting things organised earlier than we have done in previous years. At the same time I would like to strengthen the youth committee by getting more of the current youth age group parents involved both on the youth sub committee and I will also be looking for volunteers to take on some of the roles required for the smooth operation of the Friday night training sessions. I have included an option on the registration form for people to express an interest.
At the same time you will also see a request for funding. As you can imagine things have been very difficult with no income and we have relied on grants from the ECB. However we still need the generosity of our members to help us through this tough time. Any additional assistance either through a donation or by sponsorship would be immensely appreciated with more information being on the registration form – or please feel free to contact me direct.
Both the club and Oxfordshire Cricket are obviously really keen on trying to offer some form of cricket as soon as we can to maintain the interest and enthusiasm for the game. We are normally looking at starting some winter indoor training around now. Over the last few years we have always recommended the MCC hub, at Sibford School and we are also looking at the option of running specific youth nets ourselves. Unfortunately, neither has been possible due to lack of any venues. Oxfordshire cricket have also been looking at the option of starting a winter indoor cricket league which has again been impacted by Covid. This remains something that we will continue to look at and is something that we are looking to support.
Finally, on behalf of everyone who works so hard to deliver cricket we would like to offer you our best wishes for Christmas and the New Year and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2021.
Richard Badger
Youth Chairman