It’s been a very busy year for Doncaster Town CC, very productive, with lots of change. Procedures have been laid down that will ensure that this great club of ours will carry on going forward, both on the field and off.
At the Committee meeting immediately after the AGM in January 2007, Stuart Jessop took over the role of Club Chairman, and he has been very busy during the past 12 months in his role.
He has presided over an overhaul of the finances, and has worked hard to ensure that all the different factions within the club are working together.
Stuart has been a pleasure to work with, and I really do hope he will carry on for many more years.
I will start my report with the happenings off the field.
The year started with even more players leaving the Club for pastures new, for different reasons, and just before the season our Club Coach, Eddie Hemmings resigned his position.
This proved to bring the lads closer together, and the appointment of Jim Cremer as Coach was a masterstroke.
His knowledge of the game, and man management skills, coupled with the tremendous attitude of the lads proved to be very successful, and the improvement on the field as the season progressed was down in no small way to these factors.
Finance, or lack of it, was a great problem during the year, but thanks to the superb financial management of Mark Lockwood, Stuart and Paul Stokoe, the year has been a relative financial success.
Of course, this could not have been done without the tremendous fundraising efforts of many, and I would like to mention the following people.
First of all, I am most grateful to Ian Bird for his continuous support. His generosity is very much appreciated; he is a wonderful friend to Doncaster Town CC.
Nick Johnson organized a number of successful events during 2007, including another excellent Sportsman’s Dinner.
Nick has explained that he will not be able to organize the Dinner this year, but will still organize the various 20/20 events held during the summer. His professionalism and commitment is much appreciated.
Mike Cowan has agreed to organize this years Dinner, we our grateful for his help and his support.
Nick Hutton and Shaun Cowan have arranged a series of events, which have proved to be very successful, both financially and socially, we are very grateful for their work.
Paul Stokoe has had a very busy year, and his work included making sure that most home games have had Match and Ball sponsors.
Paul has also done much work in obtaining Advertising Boards, and I would like to thank all those who have contributed financially to the Club. Pauls work is very much appreciated.
Stuart played a great part in the Club being successful in obtaining a Machinery Grant from ECB, he liased with the ECB, with the Sports Club, Junior Section and the suppliers to ensure that we received the considerable amount of money.
Talking of grants, the Club were successful in obtaining a grant of over £1400 from the Kevin Parkhouse Memorial Trust Fund to enable some of our youngsters to obtain coaching qualifications.
These qualifications will enable them to go into schools and to coach on Friday nights at the Junior Nights.
We are very grateful to the Fund Trustees for their support, and a long-lasting relationship between 2 bodies.
In 2007, the Club took part in the Chance to Shine project, and Gareth Dawson managed the scheme whereby his coaches went into the schools on our behalf, to take the game to the youngsters.
Gareth’s efforts, and the commitment of the coaches was very much appreciated
We have been asked to take part in the project this year, and Luke Townsend has been busy already in contacting the schools and organizing the coaching sessions. He will manage the project, and will be responsible for all elements of it.
The Club has recognized that we have a shortage of qualified coaches, and have worked hard to identify people who want to gain qualifications.
As a result of this, we have had 6 people on Level 1 and Level 2 Courses, and these guys will be involved in helping Andrew Chadwick and Jim Cremer with the juniors in 2008, amongst other duties.
It doesn’t seem 3 years since the Club gained Clubmark status, and I have been very busy in working towards our re-accreditation, which I am hoping to complete around June 2008.
The criteria has changed, especially the policies and procedures surrounding Child Protection, and Ailene Horrocks and I are busy in setting up these procedures, and ensuring that we all adhere to them.
In order for the Club to gain re-accreditation, the Clubmark adjudicators have to do a site visit, preferably on a junior training night, to ensure that all the procedures are in place, and everyone knows the procedures!
The benefits of reaccredidation plain to see, not only have we the satisfaction of achievement, and knowing that we are a child friendly, well run club, but prospective funders look for evidence of accreditation when assessing applications.
The Club continue to work with the Yorkshire Cricket Board, and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council.
The Council have been very supportive with the Chance to Shine project, and we have been asked to participate in a Council backed Club Accreditation scheme, similar to Clubmark. I will have more news on that later.
On the field, it’s been a very difficult season, but I believe that every player has deserved credit for the way that they have represented this Club in 2008.
Graham Attenborough has skippered the Yorkshire League team with skill and enthusiasm, and with some success.
His young team all performed very well, with Andrew Chadwick proving just how good a player he really is.
The youngsters such as James Stuart and Gareth Phillips have shown their skill and bottle all season, and Kashif Raza had another top season.
His contributions both on and off the field were very valuable, and we are looking forward to his return in April.
Mark Dickinson has had a very difficult job with the South Yorkshire League Premier Division side.
He has not had a settled team all season, and our overseas player, Orin, did not perform to the best of his ability.
Mark deserves our thanks for his hospitality towards Orin; it was much appreciated by us all!
Marks team did very well to avoid relegation, and the youngsters performed very well against much stronger opposition.
It proved to be a very difficult season for our Division 4 team, especially with Finningley being unavailable to us for the season.
Lots of phone calls and meeting followed, and the League agreed that we could rearrange our fixtures as and when we could.
As a result of negotiations, begging and pleading, most of the fixtures were played.
It was not a very good situation, but the lads, under the captaincy of Nick Cowan and the organization skills of Harry Hill, coped very well.
Relegation was inevitable, but there were some very notable performances from Rhys Mann and Matt Windass, which all bodes well for the future.
This season, the ground at Finningley has been secured for our use, on the proviso that we prepare our own wickets, and the wickets for Finningley to play on. Dominic McGough will be doing that work on our behalf.
The Barnsley league team had a mixed season, it’s very difficult to get a settled side, and Nick Johnson did a wonderful job in making sure that 11 players took the field.
Nick had lots of different issues to deal with, including availability of players and pitches, but he dealt with each problem in his own inimitable style. He was ably helped by Tim Hawkins, amongst others, and always led his team with great pride.
The Evening League side was the success story of the season, and Luke Townsend did a wonderful job in organizing every aspect of the team.
On the field, the team was unbeatable, and it was a pleasure to watch them
Everyone contributed to a very successful season, with both the League and Cup winging its way to Town Fields.
I am very proud of our Junior Section, and am very encouraged by the way that the Officials of the Section have supported us throughout the year in everything that we have tried to do.
With the introduction of better, and organized, coaching in 2008, I believe that we can take things forward even more.
Back to off the field…….
Our relationship with the Management of the Sports Club has flourished over the past year, and I would like to thank every one within the Sports Club for their support of the Cricket Club during 2007.
The ground looked as good as I have ever seen it during the summer, and reports that were sent to me said that the square played very well.
This is due to the vast amount of time and effort that Beef and his team puts into the ground, their work is very much appreciated.
I am sure that you will join me in sending Ian Dickinson, who is a good friend to this club, our best wishes in this difficult time for him and his family. All our thoughts are with him.
So, another year over. 2008 brings new challenges to the club.
We need everybody’s help to ensure that we maintain and improve our financial position, that we continue our improvement on the field, and we continue to spread the good work that we do in the schools
Finally I would like to thank our President, Chairman and Committee for their continued hard work in ensuring that Doncaster Town CC are a club that we can all be proud of.
Steve Ward