At the Annual General Meeting last Tuesday evening, I was elected president of the Newtown and Chilwell Cricket Club.

 I want to thank the club for offering me that opportunity in our Centenary Year.

 I also want to pay tribute to the past president, James Purcell, who I am pleased to say is staying on the committee in a senior role.

 And also thanks to last year’s committee for their unstinting efforts in often difficult times.

 As many of you will already know we have been working long and hard to ensure those difficult times very quickly become history. We have had some success recruiting a number of people who will help us do that.

They include our new Director of Cricket, Don Royce, new coach, Bryan Thomas, and new assistant coach, Mick Wood.

We are also in the business of recruiting new players, but at the same time, we’re not in the business of simply pushing aside those players who have been with us through the hard times.  Last year’s Coach and First XI captain Ben Neville has been reappointed Captain.  We are aiming to provide him with the quality of players that he deserves.

The plan is to meld the new players into the mix right through the grades ensuring an improvement in not just our performances, but our enjoyment of the game.

At the meeting I said, with half a smile, that there will be a changed attitude this year to absences.

I’ve long had a view that there are only two reasons for missing cricket – death and being in hospital. That applied Tuesday and Thursday as much as it did Saturday.

I know the world has changed since in recent times, but I am sure, as we enjoy our cricket more that we will all renew our commitment to training and being available on Saturday.

It is great to have Don Royce back working for our club.  He is one of the most respected Cricket Mentors in our region and both Don and Bryan have been sharpening their claws down at The Geelong Cricket Club over the last decade as preparation for their next task.  We are attracting quality players to the club already simply because of their presence.  Don and Bryan will be primarily responsible for the training program this season, that hopefully will enthuse many more to participate.  I am expecting quality time between the same starting and finishing time each Tuesday and Thursday.  They will have more to say about what they expect as we get closer to the pre-season.

I just want to say that we have in Bryan and the team we are building around him the sort of structure that looks to share the load.

We’re also looking to share the load off the field a bit more.

We want to triple our sponsorship this year, and in future years.  We can’t do that leaving it to just one person.  We have already expanded the Sponsorship group from one to six.  As well as an increased off ground Coaching staff we have the cost of the relocation and establishment of our new Practice Wickets to address.  We would appreciate hearing from you as to prospective sponsors that we could approach.  We believe that we have designed an appropriate range of Sponsorship packages that will offer sponsors value for their assistance.  Please contact any of Phillip Morgan, Terry Hickey, Brett Bentley, Mark Giles, Gavan Clark or myself in this regard.

What we are doing with the Sponsorship Group we are endeavouring to do in principle with other major portfolios.  In particular we also want to lessen the load on people like Scott and Steph, our new Junior Cordinator, and our Turf Captains.

If you can help us, put your hand up now. There’s no better time to be involved in our club.

I look forward to working with you all as we celebrate 100 wonderful years at our club. 

Neville Crane

President

N&CCC

P.S.

Pre-Season Training Dates and Venues known at this time are as follows:

Geelong Indoor Sports Arena   13 Gravel Pits Rd South Geelong

Sunday          August          1, 8 ,15, 22, 29       September 5, 12. 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.

Friday                                                                        September  3, 10, 17.      6:30 – 8:00 p.m.