The 2014 Season is now well underway and we are settling down into what constitutes our new 2014 groove. The start of the season has been a bit mixed and the odd rocky road is presenting itself. In the next few weeks a few serious decisions have to be made, and 18 months on from the absolute peak of winning the National Village Cup at Lords, and our 1st Xl gaining promotion to SHCL Division 1 in the same weekend, where are we really heading as a Club?
Some might ask “What type of Club” are we? Where do we want to be, and are the members prepared to back their hopes and wishes with the required inputs, or just pay for them?
In my mind there (at least) 3 types of Cricket Club.
The Corporate where a “Turn Up, Play and Pay” (or not as the case may be!) syndrome exists. Here generous Commercial and Private Sponsors, or 24/7 big club commercial entity money, underwrite the presence of key players (sometimes regardless of “League Rules”!). This finance spearheads the 1st Xl’s position and the Clubs operations as a whole. In these clubs Top Team players tend to turnover more quickly. The Overseas Players are rarely there for more than one season and the “Premier League Badge Kissing” of one year is rarely repeated by the same persons more than once or twice in succession! Non-playing membership is often a specific type of association – seemingly a pride more akin to what your money can buy you, and/or success by association, rather than true local long held connection. A bit like the “Prawn Sandwich Brigade” at Man U. Die-hard Manchester supporters (until success trips up) living in Islington or Notting Hill!
The local players, unless they are exceptional, tend to operate in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Xl’s but even these teams can be compromised and over elevated by the occasional “Reserve” Overseas Player that has to play one level down to give lip service to the League rules that even “clever accounting” or “Brown Paper Envelopes” cannot hide!
Then we move on to the ECB theorists Evangelical Clubs.
Do these really exist?
These seem to be Clubs where Certificate laden persons, all operating in volunteer roles as Certificated Coaches, Certificated Managers, Certificated Administrators, Certificated Umpires, Certificated Scorers, Certificated Welfare Officers etc etc., have all been procured through part-funded “Workshops”/”Open Days”/ECB Funding Streams and are all prepared to manage and operate a Club, educate and train other peoples children for no reward and bring utopian harmony and success to previously inefficiently operating clubs with little or no structure.
Actually I can’t think of any – but they seem to keep advertising courses for people who must want to populate them.
And finally the Family Clubs.
These are the Clubs that have in the past formed the true bedrock of English Cricket. These are the Clubs that broadcasters and administrators eulogise about, and the general public hold in mystical esteem. The Clubs where many fondly imagine the match in glorious sunshine, on the Village Green, with a sumptuous tea being prepared on creaking tables in the timber framed pavilion, whilst adjacent to the tearoom ex-players and the village cognoscenti exchange outrageous social opinions over frothing pints of bitter, or cooling lager, procured from the Club Bar!
The players are all local chaps, and their sons. Their opponents are mainly well known to them and from not too far away. They meet them annually at least on the field of play/battle, and after a hard fought encounter on the field, legs are pulled and ego’s blunted in the bar after the match! The local weekly newspaper is eagerly awaited each Friday as news of a previous weekends significant local triumph will be heralded in the headlines, points made, and the odd aspersion cast at the competence of an Umpire or the questionable integrity of the odd opponent!
The Club will be run by a long serving Committee of competent, able volunteers, many of them ex Players and all of them willing and able to undertake required Club Tasks from preparing the ground, to building extensions, operating the club bar, and generally keeping the show on the road. No need here to partake in “Workshops to find Volunteers”.
Playing numbers, playing standards, and the League Levels that the teams play in, ebb and flow year on year with the vagaries of persons moving from, or arriving in, the local area, keen players sons progressing into manhood, Careers changing, University Days arriving and being completed. A constant flow of population is united by a fondness and love of an institution shared and respected. The emphasis is on ENJOYING the game.
This type of Club tend to specialise in what in some cases these days is sneeringly referred to by some, but lovingly referred to by others, as “Recreational Cricket”.
Times move on, the local press reports become website blogs, and realistically not all the above continue to apply.
So which of these models of Club do you want yours to be?
Which one do you want to belong to and play for?
In a fluid modern world in the weeks ahead we may have to withdraw our 4th Xl from the SHCL owing to lack of current availability. However, that’s life, and the few persons impacted by this regrettable move will have Cricketing opportunities available to them on Sundays which, in the fullness of time, they might find more convivial and enjoyable, whilst skills advances and improvements in technique will give them the opportunity of elevating themselves into the remaining 3 x Saturday League Xl’s.
Additionally, mainly because of the current Club Membership Profile (not enough families with 8 – 11 year olds) we are really struggling with our Colts Under 11 operations. 6 Members only at the last count! A few active Evangelists are required here to go out and find some more members and feed the pipeline if we are to continue to operate our Colts at our previous very successful levels.
A sunny Sunday awaits outside!
ENJOY your Cricket!
JQH
(This Weekly column is written by John Heslam Club Chairman of Reed Cricket Club. The views expressed in the article are his own and do not necessarily comprise those of the Clubs General Committee)
