Every year we have fifteen County matches, the Spring and Autumn meetings, the Captain’s Day and Tour, a Mixed Invitation and a Past Captains, Committee Members and Match Managers competition giving us twenty-one events in all that need to be organised and managed.
This year has been a very difficult one in getting teams together. Although members have requested to play in various matches at the start of the year we have experienced a very high level of withdrawals following the Captain’s invite and then having managed to fill the gaps we have had late withdrawals, some within a week of the match which we have not been able to fill. This means that so far this year in four of the seven matches we have played we have been unable to field a full team and I think this has reflected in the match results.
I would like to express my deep thanks to the various match managers who have worked closely with me through these problems to get as many people playing as possible and also to the members who have stepped up at the last minute to help fill the gaps. I think we have a problem caused by a membership which is not growing as fast as it should, older members who regularly played but now can’t play as much and a big match schedule. I have recommended to the committee that we look at reducing the number of County matches that we play in the hope that a reduced schedule will enable us to field full teams.
The Match Manager system is working well and this year we will have twelve members taking on the match manager role which has meant that some people have taken on more than one match. My hope is that we can reduce this to everyone only handling one match in the season and if you are up for taking on a match manager role next year please let me know. It does require access to a tablet or PC but should take up no more than maximum of four hours work for one match over a period of six weeks. It’s a great way to see how the Association works, meet other members and to get involved.
I only have three more invites to send out this year and the last one is for the Autumn Meeting which this year is at Burnham Beeches. I send the invite out to all of our members. When you receive the invite, if you don’t want to play, it would be helpful to respond with a NO. This way I will take you off the reminder list and not bother you.
Again, I would like to thank everyone who has helped me in my role this year
Rod Jones
Match Secretary