MDCC Chairman’s end of year report 2020

Not sure where to start with this end of year report, the year that everybody wants to forget! I have been pondering over the last few weeks as to what to write and attempt to put a positive spin on things. Well here goes.

As you are aware a lot of work goes on in the background to ensure a cricket club can play cricket. This season was slightly different even before COVID! We had a new scoreboard installed, a new sponsor secured, a fixture booklet to please the Vice Presidents, and a new overseas professional to find. All done by the middle of March, bring on the season.

Then the virus came, and the world changed. Everything was put on hold and we had to wait and see. Lots of “zoom” meetings for me, various telephone calls and then we waited. Eventually, after lots of hard work by league administrators we had a truncated season starting at the end of July.

As regards to playing highlights, the one that stood out for me was seeing the happy spectators on that first game of cricket at Outgang Road in 2020. I do not think Moulton Harrox have had that many spectators watch them before! That first game on the 19th July produced the first hundred of the season scored by Kieran Judd. We then had another friendly on the Sunday and this produced our second hundred of the season scored by Joe Malton (his first ton). Then in the last 1st XI game of the season, Nick Green scored a glorious 139* to confirm his class against Kings Keys which unfortunately meant that Peterborough Town won the league! Fingers crossed for Nick in 2021, where hopefully he will be rewarded with a summer contract with Leicestershire.

The future still looks bright, 13-year-old Alex Green opened the bowling for the 1st team on a Saturday and 13-year-old Reece Plowright made his first team debut this season. We need to continue to work hard with the development of our junior section to produce cricketers for the future and beyond.

The league positions of our teams in all their respective divisions did not matter, it was just about playing cricket as at one stage of the year, even this seemed a long way off.

I would like to say a big thank you to our Vice Presidents who stepped in to make donations towards the cost of the scoreboard. For those of you who are not aware, one of the first donations we received was from Don Crawley, sadly Don died in November. Don joined MDCC as an umpire in the 1990s when we did not have league appointed umpires, he was a Vice President ever since we started having VPs. I was pleased to see him this season when he popped down to watch a game. RIP Don.

I would like to thank the committee for their efforts over the year. Virtual meetings are not ideal and hopefully we can get back to normality in 2021. Special thanks go to Ian Jones and Nigel Smith for their tireless efforts at keeping the ground and square in good order.

As regards to the Junior section, I would like to thank Richard Pickering for all his hard work in 2020. He managed to arrange several friendlies at short notice, he also ran a successful “All Stars” programme. The feedback received from the parents was incredibly positive and encouraging. Sadly, it was only a 10-week season for the juniors. I would like to make a plea at this point that we need more people to volunteer to help with junior teams. The club is happy to help with cost of coaching qualifications.

For your information, we have been very fortunate that financially as a club we are in a stable position and have been able to secure a grant from the ECB to help with our costs over the 2020 season. That said, we still need to raise funds for the 2021 season, and I would like us to attempt to start up the 100 Club again. This is an excellent fundraiser that everyone can get involved with, watch this space for details.

I will sign off by wishing you all a safe and a Happy Christmas and a positive New Year.

John McDougall

Chairman

Market Deeping Cricket Club