News and Events

2008 was in my mind a season of consolidation.

Despite that the 1st XI were within an hour of winning the league, won the Oxfordshire knock out, the second XI consolidated their position in Division One of the Cherwell league and had they showed the form at the latter part of the season in the earlier part of the season could have been challenging for the title, with three weeks to go the 3rd XI could have won promotion from Division 6, the 4th XI were champions of Division 8 and the 5th XI finished mid table.

If you add to that our Under XIs were county champions and our women's team performed credibly in the Midlands league. Not a bad season.

I should have commented that additionally our work in the community improved through the 'Chance to Shine' initiative to the degree that we have been offered to run two schemes within Oxford City this year, the only club in the country to run two schemes.

As I stated last year the clubs a demeanour is one of excellent quality, strength and one with a great future. Yes we can improve in a number of areas but we should be conscious of our successes and celebrate them.

I mentioned last year that as a result of us undertaking the ECB's club development plan I was staggered at the amount of people who are involved in helping running Oxford Cricket Club and I thank you all for your effort and time which is given on a voluntary basis.

Jason Harrison as first XI coach has continued development of the first XI squad and made Oxford CC a team that others do not relish the opportunity to play.

Special mention goes to Jack Brooks who has gained a professional contract with Northamptonshire and we wish Jack luck for the future. The good news is that Northamptonshire have agreed to release Jack to play for us should he be available which is a demonstration of good club/county relationships. An attitude not shared by all counties.

Thee new ground is an often talked about subject. This continues to be so and whilst throughout 2008 we felt there were signs of progress the credit crunch has brought a halt to BMW's immediate plans. However these will not be shelved forever as the current Romanway site still has to be developed and my understanding based on discussions I have had with officials is not 'if but when'.

Whilst we have a lot of people who help out in the running of the club, we still need more. Therefore any members who would like to take up positions on the committee would be most welcome. By sharing out roles and responsibilities the workload on the few can be spread and not be as onerous as having to deal with the many aspects that are involved in running a club of our size. I look forward to hearing from any of you who would like to take an active part in the running of the club.

In last year's report I mentioned my disappointment at our website. We have made progress in the past year and John Finch's has availed the services of a work colleague who has offered to help get the information on the website.

If you have any articles for the website about games, funny incidents, any news, please forward these on an email to John who will arrange for these to be placed onto the website. John's e-mail is Johnf@allmakes.co.uk

Finally, since 2004 Ros Porter has led the youth section with her usual vim, vigour and determination and demonstrated to other clubs what a good example Oxford CC is in the running of youth cricket. Ros has decided to stand down after four years I would like to thank her formally for the work that she has put into the role. She will be sorely missed and we hope that she may come back to the club in a smaller role in the future. Thank you again Ros for your efforts.

Finally I would like to thank three people who have done an unstinting amount of work in the last year. Richard Summers, who takes on the role of both Secretary and Treasurer and keeps the club on the straight and narrow, Rupert Evans and John Finch who have both ensured that we have five teams out every Saturday. Thank you for your efforts.

Let's look forward to an even more successful 2009 season.

Regards

Yours

Ian Pickford
Chairman

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