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KEMPTON
CRICKET CLUB
FOUNDED 2003
2011 AGM.
This will take place at the club on Wednesday 26th January at 7.45pm. Please make every effort to attend. You will also be able to place orders for your club kit for 2011 so please ensure you order and pay for your kit on the night.
WINTER NETS.
Nets will start on 30th January 2011 from 10am - 11am at Matthew Arnold Sports Centre, Kingston Road, Staines, TW18 1PF. Alternatively Martin Sherwood has booked nets in Southall on Saturday afternoons, if your preference is for these please phone Martin on 07834 901638 for details.
2010 CAPTAINS REPORTS.
1st XI.
At the beginning of the year much hope was expected of Kempton’s young charges. A new captain and the addition of an overseas player (albeit Australian) was expected to give the team the impetus to reach its potential.
The end of
season form can be attributed to a number of factors. Ultimately the team
managed to find a winning method when it mattered most – opening bowlers
Henderson and J.Miah finally got their deserved bowling rewards which frequently
paved the way for victory and the batting became a genuine collective effort.
This was most evident in the critical 1 wicket victory vs. Old Paulines which
exemplified the strength in depth within the club. Vital contributions were made
by many: with the ball (Henderson, J.Miah and Dhillon), with the bat (E.Miah,
Watts, Inwood and J.Miah) and in the field (Ward and keeper Dart). It is in
games such as these that one can see the true fighting spirit at Kempton: a
characteristic that was lacking earlier in the season. After Paulines the
Kempton bowling department dominated proceedings and no opposition scored above
130 allowing a more enjoyable run-in and a respectable league table position.
Looking back over the course of the year there are a few positives from the initial 12 matches: the highlights being the destruction of Chobham by E.Miah, Watts and Inwood to facilitate a much needed 9 wicket victory and the stunning victory against Shepperton (another team performance with J.Miah, Dhillon and Loveridge sharing the wickets and Ward, Watts, Dhillon and Porter seeing Kempton home with the bat). However, for every positive there was an area for improvement with bad losses at Sanderstead (66 all out chasing 242), Battersea (all out 126, 7 wicket loss - coming off a cup victory a few weeks previously) and Oxted (all out 139 chasing 231).
Despite
the few poor results there are many positives to take into 2011 with a number of
new players making it into the 1st XI and the old stagers still able
to mix it with the under 25s. A particular mention should go to James Dart
who’s enthusiasm behind the stumps was something to admire throughout the
season (although the jury is out on those pink gloves!).
Overall
the 1st XI has a great team spirit and if the ‘off the field’
energy can be converted onto the field during 2011 a much more fulfilling and
successful season beckons.
Finally, thanks to those players that helped with colts, ground preparations and nets during the season and special thanks to the support team behind the scenes: Ian Haddow for umpiring, Celia Mackay for scoring and to June Inwood and Daniella Hammett for the wonderful teas.
2nd XI.
KCC 2’s started the season with high expectations having dropped down a division from the previous season and also having attracted a number of new players over the winter months.
This confidence was reinforced by 3 comfortable friendly wins but upon the commencement of the league campaign it quickly became apparent that we would not have things all our own way. Washouts at Caterham & Chobham , a shock(ing) defeat to Byfleet and a losing draw vs. Merrow leaving us looking firmly at the bottom of the table with 4 matches gone. This alarming start to the season was quickly turned round in some style as we went on a winning run of 4 games with victories against CMO, Shepperton, Battersea & Churt & this return to form left the team looking forward to the second half of the season in some confidence. Sadly again inconsistency both of form and availability meant the we were only able to win 2 more matches and particularly poor performances against Horley, Old Tiffs & Staines quickly ended any hope we had of a promotion push towards the end of the season. The highlights of the season include 2 match winning knocks by Richard Warne at Shepperton & Effingham, the 149n/o by Jay Dhillon vs. Byfleet and the consistent bowling of Steve Crossley both with new ball and old. For the 2011 season we also expect to see more from the emerging players who came through in 2010 with a fast start to the league campaign of paramount importance if we are to push for promotion back to the Surrey Championship.
3rd XI.
The
season started off very well with winning 3 out of the first 6 games and put us
between middle and top of the table and the team were feeling very confident
that we could perform well during the rest of the season and with some optimism
that we may even challenge a promotion place. How wrong we were when we actually
lost 6 of the remaining 11 and managed 3 losing draws and winning 2 games and
the facts are that although the club as a whole has a lot of playing members
particularly at the beginning of the season, availability had become an issue
and therefore our standard dropped and we were playing teams who appeared to be
at a better standard than our side. To summarise the season we played 17 games
and won 5 (including one game that was conceded to us) then we had 4 losing
draws and lost 8 games although two of the ones we lost were only lost by 3 runs
and 15 runs respectively. It came down to the very last game of the season of
which we played Merstham and they also needed to win and although it rained very
heavily the night before and there were conversations between both clubs as to
whether the game would be abandoned , however our committee and many members of
the club made a sterling effort to ensure the game was played and although we
did win against Merstham they also managed to stay up due to other results on
the day and I congratulate them for doing so.
I
have to say that we had a core of players through the season that were always
available and played throughout the season and I thank them all for showing
their commitment to the club and 3rd XI team. I also would like to
thank all the youth players that came into the side and gave 100 % and we will
be watching them go through to our higher elevens in the not too distant future.
Highest
run scorers this year were Bilal Aziz with 268 followed by Wayne Morgan 198 and
Dave Maidment 191.
Pick
of the bowlers was Wayne Morgan with 25 wickets including two 5 wicket hauls
followed by Bilal Aziz who collected 12 wickets. I would also like to mention
James Russell bowled very well for us when we fortunate enough to have him
playing for us.
There
were a lot of disappointments through the season and some of our batsmen
including myself did not have the best of seasons, however the standard of
bowling was particularly high against us. Bowling was also not of our best
attributes at times and fielding was pretty mediocre and perhaps let us down at
times.
To cap the season, we really needed a much more settled side in order to have been in a better position in the league and to escape relegation was in hindsight like promotion as we can hopefully improve next year and not find ourselves in the same position again.
No report received.
Sunday XI.
After a poor first outing against CYPOS our season really began with a good victory after posting a low total against Phoenix; the start of an unbeaten run lasting from April to August until a narrow defeat coming at the hands of Imber Court. During our 12 match run we travelled as far as Wembley, Clapham and Hillingdon, whilst entertaining familiar opponents like Hampton Wick Royal, Harlesden Wanderers and Old Wimbledonians.
The highlight of our early season would be the home win against Hampton Wick Royal seeing us chase down a good total of 242 losing only 3 wickets with Ellis Miah scoring an unbeaten 166 in an excellent innings. Another highlight came at home against Wibbandune where an good team effort saw us keep our record intact, the very next week we travelled to Wembley to face Harrow Weald, in one of our best bowling displays clearing Harrow up for 60 with M.Dart, J.Bateson, A.Ward and T.Warne demolishing the batting order. Our next big test came on a hot day against West One: our young bowling attack starting well and then came up against an excellent batsmen, leaving us with 200 to win. Gary Porter and Ellis Miah survived early scares off good swing bowling to both pass 50 and then left it to Andy Ward and Trevor Warne to guide us home, continuing our unbeaten run.
A game which reflected our strength as a team came at Magdalen. With a team typically full of youngsters we needed to bat out remaining overs to earn a draw protecting our record. It was left to T.Bovington and J.Bateson to see out the game in a gutsy display. After tests against Hillingdon Manor and Old Ashdordians our run eventually came to an end at Imber Court; after fielding and bowling well a batting collapse typical of a very young side left us 11 runs short. In the remaining weeks of the season we finished strongly by beating Chobham and West London with two centurions: Allan Inwood smashing his was to a maiden century at Chobham and Trevor Warne showing a fine display to hit a hundred against West London.
Highlights of the season saw us with 4 centurions Ellis Miah, Andy Ward, Allan Inwood and Trevor Warne. We also saw high scores of over 50 from Gary Porter, James Dart and Luke Neville. The highlight of our bowling came with leading wicket taker Danny Loveridge.
With a team containing only 3 members over the age of 25 almost every week we look to the future for even more success and can only be impressed with the contribution of the youngsters this season on a platform to extend their ability. A big mention to the core of players that played pretty much every game without fail, that dedication and effort made it possible to play every week – Thank you.
It’s been a good season in terms of results and importantly, atmosphere around the team, all ending in an enjoyable and successful year.
Colts Manager's Report.
2010 saw our colts section join the West Surrey Gladys Chitty League at all ages from u9’s to u15’s for the first time. With our colts section growing at steady rate over the last 5 years we had pretty good numbers to fill all age groups, but this did not stop Bob and I having sleepiness nights, wondering if we had tried to run before we could walk with suddenly going from 0 teams to 7.
Don Taylor decided to run the u9’s (his son William’s age) and with numbers being a little light also took over the u10’s to utilise some of the better u9 players. This age group at times could be very testing of Dons patience but watching the progress of the boys at this age group from the soft ball in the u9’s to the hard ball in the u10’s was very rewarding and made up for what comes with working with such a difficult age: the victory’s this team had over the season must go down to Don.
It was down to me to run the u11’s and u12’s, which was pretty much the same squad. This bunch of boys are probably our most naturally talented bunch and won more games than they lost. My favourite part of the season was one of the dads moaning to me that he had no idea why his son wanted to play this boring sport and couldn’t wait for the footie season to start again. Well, after 3 games of the u11’s going down to the last 3 balls, all of which we won, he openly took back this statement after his boy hit the winning runs in the last match of the 3 and said “when’s the next game”. This summed up the attitude of the lads at this age, never giving up and I only ever had to tell or show them once and from that there was improvement.
The u13’s and u14’s found the season much harder as they found the opposition’s had been together a few years and clearly knew what it took to win games in this league and it was all new to our boys. Having said this after every game we discussed where we could improve and what we did wrong, and sure enough the we improved each game and got that little bit closer to the oppo, but never quite had enough to push us over the finish line. There is a lot of talented lads in both these teams and with a couple already in our senior teams, it’s important we start pushing a few more through as they are the future of the club.
Andy Ward run the u15’s and they won about half of their games and were never far away in the one’s they lost. There are one or two talented players in this team but as most of this team are St Pauls u15’s they were already working as a team and all the boys had some success and this was great to see. The fielding in this team is something else, and I think this goes down to Andy who sets the same standards, whether working with Kempton 1’s or the u15’s. As with the u13’s and u14’s, only a couple of these lads are playing adult cricket for us and with no u16’s cricket due to exams in 2011, its important we work hard as a club to start filtering the boys though to keep hold of them at Kempton.
Plans for 2011 are already under way and we are not resting on our laurel's. Although we made progress in 2010 we are still miles away from where we want to be as a club and the colts holds the key to this. We need everyone’s help in 2011, whether its stepping up to manage an age group, or helping out at training or even popping down to umpire or score for a game, it all helps. I think our membership is up to about 70 and if everyone gave up 2 hours of their time in the summer it would go a long way to making our colts section a success and therefore, the club a success. A great thanks to ALL who helped out in 2010.