posted 22nd March 2021
With Mondays announcement by the Prime Minister on how we come out of lockdown, it looks very much like we will be back in full swing by the middle of the Summer. Despite the delayed start to the 2020 season and the return to lockdown (twice) the club has continued to plan for the 2021 season and we wanted to share with you a few updates. Whilst we were unable to have a full cricket programme last year, we did manage to provide loads of opportunities for people to play, meet, and enjoy themselves in the familiar surroundings at Vicarage Hill.
This included the use of the refurbished (after the February storms) nets, group training for adults, matchplay for the Youth age groups, and reduced league seasons for two Saturday teams and two midweek teams. The ground was pretty much busy everyday of the week, with over 50 matches being played (only just short of the full scheduled amount!) and at one point we had 32 matches in a 21 day period!!!.
We were pleased to see so many people supporting us during the summer, with the newly constructed Beer Garden/Chicken Coup proving popular and designs for the 2021 version are well underway.
With the announcement on Monday we are hopeful that we will be able to start the season on time, and kick this off with outdoor training in early April. We have arranged a full preseason with fixtures starting on the 17th April. The
Cherwell League season should begin on 8th May, and we will have 3 senior teams on Saturdays participating, in Div2, Div 5C and Div7C, with Joe Harris, Tom Pill and Mike Hannaby the captains. Fixtures are available to view on our website
Alongside this we will again be entering 2 teams in the Wednesday night T20 Downs League, Div1 and Div4, with Ross Packham and Mike Konschel the captains. We are also pleased to say we will be entering the OCB T20 Cup competition this year, with the side captained by Conor Jones.
Whilst we know it won't quite be 'back to normal' at least for the early part of the season, we will be putting measures in place to make a match day as welcoming and practical as possible #arriveinwhites #packedlunchormealdeal
The logistics of quite how things look this year have been under discussion for the last couple of weeks, and we're just waiting on confirmation of the guidelines from the ECB to allow us to finalise these. We will again be running All Stars for our youngest cricketers, will be introducing Dynamos for our aspiring Joe Roots, and have entered teams in the OCB competitions at Under 11, 13, 15, Girls Under 13 and Girls Under 15. The Under 19 side will again play in the Berkshire competition. We will be working out the timings of sessions once we know the restrictions, and are aiming to have most (if not all) sessions on Friday nights as usual - with the social element operating in line with Government guidelines. We will be in contact with all current families, and opening for newbies, in the next couple of weeks - all youth cricket activities this season will be priced at £40 per person