The 2011 season at Cotford St Luke Cricket Club is now underway

We even have fixtures!

Practice sessions are on Tuesday evenings 18:30 until it’s dangerously dark!

They’re at Bishops Lydeard Cricket Club, who kindly allow us to use their nets.

Attempts are being made to get our own nets in Cotford St Luke but, whilst it’s looking pretty good, I can’t say for definite when/if that will be.

We’ve been pushing for nets in the village for a while to increase the visibility of the club and hopefully get a few more recruits.

We have kit organised from a sponsor, which is a great start to the season. This year it’s time to really push to get the club off the ground.

Matches have been booked as follows:

Sunday 22nd May: At Porlock, a 30 over match beginning at 2PM.

Sunday 30th May: Possible 6-a-side at Bishops Lydeard – to be confirmed.

Sunday 24th July: Against Wembdon CC – time to be arranged.

We’re hoping to get one or two other fixtures arranged too. We’d organise more if we had more players but we can’t organise games until we’re sure we can get an 11 because as it is we have to ‘borrow’ players from outside the club.

So if you’re interested, please come along to practice. It’s all very casual and the standard is suitably low enough that nobody need feel worried.

Election of Club Officials

• John Hassall was elected as Chairman.
• Gordon Ansell (that’s me) was elected as Secretary.
• Rod Lathem was elected as Treasurer.
• Adam Barnett was elected as Fixtures Secretary.
• Chris Couchman was elected as Club Captain.

Bureaucratic Stuff

There are things like a constitution to be sorted out, which is just a proforma sort of thing used by cricket clubs and The Treasurer will set up a bank account for the club.

Subscriptions, Money & What We Might Spend It On

It was proposed that the club charge a £10 joining fee plus £20/year in subscriptions, which will cover a few subsidiary costs and maybe get a few items of kit.

We do hope to pursue other sources of money too such as the Council and the ECB (England & Wales Cricket Board), and we could engage in fund-raisers such as a quiz night at the club.

Funds raised could be used for things like getting our own nets and, eventually, laying a cricket square somewhere in Cotford. John suggested that if can rotate one of the football pitches through 90 degrees we may be able to fit a cricket pitch in the freed up space. This would be something to look at for the 2011 season.

Ideally we’d like a dedicated field for cricketing activities but two things make this unlikely: first, most of the surrounding fields in Cotford are flood plains, even assuming one was available for use; second there’s the cost, which would probably be prohibitive at the moment.

Immediate Aims

The 2009 season has now ended and we really won’t get things going until April next year, although we may try to have a few indoor nets sessions over the winter.

It was decided that next season we really just want ‘casual’ games against teams that are fairly similar to our own whith the emphasis on enjoyment.