Welcome to the 2023 cricket season. We now enter our eighth year of league cricket and you find us in division 7B. Having securing promotion after a very competitive season last year, we are looking forward to continuing to play league cricket this year, and hopefully to continue our progress through the league structure.
On Sunday’s we continue to play friendly fixtures. These are mainly 40 over games, although we still enjoy the occasional timed game in the grand tradition of English village cricket.
We also compete in the Herts Village Trophy T20 competition and were delighted to secure victory at the final’s day on 4 September 2022 at Knebworth Park Cricket Club.
The highlight though of the 2022 season was undoubtedly the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the club. We had a fantastic day of celebration on 3 July 2022, at which many former players attended, where the cricket was accompanied by some wonderful food and speeches. A number of individuals made very generous donations to the club, which has enabled us to invest in a new roller shed to replace the old one which was irreparably damaged by a storm, and the major innovation of an electronic scoreboard. We were very grateful for the donations and for the support of a Sport England Grant of £5,000. Special thanks go to Peter Munroe for organizing the day and to Chris Munroe for the catering arrangements. A special mention also to our great friends, the members of one of the club’s longest-standing friendly fixtures, New Calypsonians CC, who joined us on the day.
We look forward to welcoming back not only our regular opposition, but also a number of new teams, although it is always a particular pleasure to see familiar faces. We value your friendly competition and commit to ensuring that the great sporting traditions of our game are maintained.
Welcome back to our playing members and occasional teammates. We are fortunate to have a thriving club but we are not complacent and we continue to seek out new talent to maintain the lifeblood of the club and to play our part in supporting Aldenham Social Club. With that in mind it was particularly pleasing to be able to sign up 16 new members to the social club in 2022 bringing our total headcount to 45.
On the captaincy front Chris Munroe continues to lead our Saturday team. 2022 Sunday skipper, Basil Letts, stood down at the AGM and Itty Haque has resumed his Sunday skipper responsibilities. He advised the AGM that he would like to see a pool of vice captains to step into the role as needed, either to cover his absence or to develop their own captaincy skills. I am sure both captains (and any vice-captains), will receive the full support of the club members and that this is reflected in the collective commitment to timely attendance and assistance with pitch preparation.
As well as approving the new governance document, the code of conduct introduced in 2021 was reviewed at the AGM. No changes were considered necessary, and the meeting reconfirmed the importance of treating each other with both respect and inclusivity. Needless to say adherence to the code is a pre-requisite for all members of the club, and there is a disciplinary procedure to enforce this should the need arise.
After such a successful 2022, I was delighted that the enthusiasm of the committee has not diminished and, apart from Basil Letts and Vikram Chudasama, all willingly volunteered to stay in post. We were delighted to approve Majid Ahmed Fadra’s nomination to replace Vikram as social media secretary and welcome him to the committee. The committee therefore now comprises myself, the two captains, the fixture secretary, Tim Hale, team selector, Mike Ward, treasurer, David Whitehead, Aldenham Social Club liaison officer, Peter Munroe, secretary, Andy Jackson, welfare officer, Sachin Sanghvi and Majid Ahmed Farda as social media officer. I’d like to thank all the committee for their continued commitment to the club.
Also many thanks to all those others who provide support to the club. In particular to David Whitehead, Basil Letts, Chris Munroe and Pete Munroe for their hard work on our square, which is a great credit to Aldenham Cricket Club; to our vice presidents, who continue to make an important financial contribution to the club; and to Aldenham Social Club itself, for providing an idyllic setting for village cricket.