Bloxwich CC Presidents Review of the 2006 Season

     Terry Jenkinson Club President 2006

In June 2005 I took over the club procedures files from PL which he had compiled
when he was Secretary. The ECB had changed all the “goal posts” on procedures
and they had to be revised and re-collated. Come September the ECB had still
not appointed a Cricket Development Officer for Staffordshire so I contacted
Stuart Lampitt the Worcestershire CDO. to meet with Gary Chris and me.
Stuart was very helpful and advised us on amendments that still needed to
be done and after the 2005 season had ended we did get the newly appointed
CDO for Staffordshire Mr Johnathan Finch to visit at the club. He checked all
our records and systems and agreed that Bloxwich Cricket Club had reached
the necessary standard of excellence in our club Management and control, our
child protection , welfare and safety, in club equity and in playing member
development to enable him to recommend to the ECB that we be awarded club
mark status. I trotted off to America and in January 2006  Bloxwich
Cricket Club was awarded ECB “CLUB MARK” accreditation. Unfortunately
Mr Finch has been Mr Illusive during the 2006 playing season and we have
seen no benefits yet for our “Clubmark” status. Mark Allcock will be attending
future Walsall area Cricket Development meetings each month during the closed
season to promote our cause.

OK but the 2006 season has still been enjoyable and productive during which
we have bought a bowling machine, one more mobile practice net, one new fine
mowing machine , a new and secure equipment shed seen the completion of the
security fence all round the ground and won promotion

Congratulations to the First and Second team captains and players who have
won promotion back to Division 1 and Division 1A.

Congratulations to the Bloxwich Ladies section who have excelled themselves in
the improvement of their cricket abilities and competitiveness finishing runners
up in the West Midlands Northern League.

Congratulations to Mark Allcock in organising colts matches in Five different
age group leagues’

Congratulations to Cheryl Allcock and Emma Pearce for their outstanding
success at County level

Congratulations to Kelton, Chris, Joan and Mike Scott and all the players who
took part in another hilariously enjoyable 6-a-side day.

Congratulations to Jez Scott who this year completed his 25th consecutive
season in the 1st Eleven - the only other player to do this at Bloxwich as
far as I know was Jack Dunning the 1st Eleven wicket keeper from 1951 to 1976.

Congratulations to Matt Langston for his success in Club Captaincy in the last
two years. He has encouraged weekly team practice and instilled discipline
and determination which has been lacking in past years. This has produced an
excellent team spirit with every player contributing to the teams success with
no prima donnas.

The 2006 season has also been thoroughly enjoyable from a personal point of
view, not only was it generally a good warm weather watching season but also
a good playing season for me to be active whenever a second, third or fourth
team were a player short. I played only a couple of games in 2004 before my
“ticker” decided to protest and “Arthur Ritus” wouldn’t give me permission to
play all that often in 2005 although I was able to carry on coaching most Sunday
mornings and in managing a colts team. Coaching has its rewards in seeing
young three feet of mischief grow into six feet of cricketing competence. I felt
so good when watching our Sunday First Eleven at home defeating Bridgnorth
with 9 of the 11players being a colt or ex colt. But there is still nothing that can
compare with being able to play.

However good 2006 was we have a difficult 2007 to look forward to. Your committee
is very concerned over the state of the wicket in King George’s that we rent for the
3rd and 4th team matches. The Walsall Council or Parks Dept have let us down
badly after all the promises they made and the committee are already looking for
alternatives. If they are not successful we may have to lose a 4th team and if we
do we may lose our ability to develop some of the colts and consequently may
lose some of them to other clubs. This would be a big-big disappointment after
nine years of dedicated colt activity.

There is a plot of land off Lichfield Road, Bloxwich just behind Keltons house it
was the Elmore Green School sports ground and the home of Bloxwich Cricket
Club from 1919 to 1933. It has been derelict for a few years but if we could
persuade the council to let us work on it and maybe pay a nominal rent we could
I am sure return it to its former glory.

With our return to Division 1 your committee has also got to work hard on applying
for grants to help us obtain covers for the square and if we continue our success
with colts we need to develop the ex Tennis courts to provide an Astroturf area
and practice nets Which reminds me we also have to have our existing Astroturf
strip repaired and refurbished.

I am also concerned about the upkeep of the ground. Kelton has worked extremely
hard on preparing the square and has gone to considerable lengths to seek advice
and to study the practices of groundsmen’s work but how long will he continue to
do this knowing that we will be under increased pressure from Division 1 clubs to
provide first class wickets ? I know that Kelton, Matt and other first teamers want
to try and recruit one or more senior players as it will be harder to stay in Div 1 than
it was to get promoted.

Club members, committee and players are going to have to pull together in 2007

Finally a word of appreciation and thanks is warranted for all the unpaid volunteers
who have dedicate large amounts of time and effort for the benefit
of all the members in 2006.

Thanks to the members of the committee a number of whom will be serving
again in 2007. Thanks to Kelton for fulfilling the duties of Chairman of the
committee for his 7th consecutive year and for taking over the responsibility
of working on and looking after the ground. Thanks to Chris Scott, Nick Burden
and Dez Smith for assisting Kelton with the ground maintenance. Thanks to
Mark Allcock for his dedication and his many hours of work in coaching and
organising the colts section. Thanks to Gary Pearce who has done a wonderful
job of club PRO as well as club Welfare Officer he has also developed and
kept updated a club Web Site and maintained all the match and individual
statistics for the 2006 season. Thanks to John and Carole who continue to
help and work extra hours whenever we ask. And again thanks to Joan and
Mike who have continued to fill so many different rolls in helping the Bloxwich
Cricket Club. Finally thanks to the Team Captains for their reports for this the
14th year book and thanks in advance to PL for organising the photocopying .

TERRY JENKINSON