Both our Third and Fourth XIs have been promoted as the Herts Leagues are rejigged to reflect changes in the numbers of teams each club is able to field in 2009.

This means that our 3rd XI will play in Division 11 and our 4th XI will play in Division 13 this summer.

Even more incentive to get along to the Winter nets, which will start on 1st February for Seniors at the Knox-Johnston Sports Hall (the Collegiate) at 6pm

Congratulations to Niki, Julie and Conny for organising the most amazing event on November 8th at the Old Town Hall. A great time was had by all and a substantial sum was raised for the Club

See the page "After the ball" to order any pictures that weren't collected on the evening and details of all our sponsors and supporters.

1st XI Player of the Year - Mark Herring
2nd XI Player of the Year - Darren James
3rd XI Player of the Year - Ian Merrett
4th XI Player of the Year - Martin Ledger
5th XI Player of the Year - Oliver O'Gorman

Sunday 1st XI Player of the Year - Rajib
Sunday 2nd XI Player of the Year - Ian Campbell

Clubman of the Year - Mark Lewarne

Runs

David Sherjan 583
Steve Tougher 543
Ben Langley 518
Peter Dudley 515
Mark Herring 510
Aaron Todd 454
Phil Brown 396
Simon Cusden 395
Doug Foster 372
Luke O’Dair 352


Wickets

Darren James 73
Huw Barnett 51
Mark Herring 47
Olly Janaway 37
Ben Beard 36
Martin Ledger 29
Michael Antonelli 31
Seb Smith 27
Josh Roberts 27
Ian Dent 23
Martin Gough 23
Ian Merrett 23
Ian Sudbery 22
Rajib 22
Jordan Harrison 22

The clubhouse was packed to the rafters last night as we celebrated a fantastic summer of Colts cricket. Our congratulations go to the winners of the various awards at each age group:-

Colts Shield Winner for Colt of the Year - Ben Beard

U14/15 Player of the year - Luke O’Dair
U14/15 Team Member of the year - Michael Antonelli
U13 Player of the year - Joseph Atkins
U13 Team Member of the year - William Holderness
U12 Player of the year - Joshua Roberts
U12 Team Member of the year - Edward Butler-Caddle
U11 Player of the year - Daniel Angel
U11 Team Member of the year - Peter McCall
U10 Player of the year - Ted Stanford
U10 Team Member of the year - Charlie Nicholls
U9 Player of the year - Eddie Duncombe
U9 Team Member of the year - Eddie Holderness
Girls Player of the year - Sophie Beard
Girls Team Member of the year - Kayla Lennox

Special Awards for Champagne Moments went to Charlie Benson, Robert Spencer, Jonathan Harvey, Anna Nicholls and George Carter

On behalf of the Cricket Club the Colts Manager Mark Lewarne would like to extend his thanks to all those that came along last night and to all those people who contributed to making this such a special season. See you all next summer!

The Veterans All Stars showed that they still have it when it comes to taking on the Chairmans' XI. Bowling tightly from the start they restricted the Chariman's XI to 153, with wickets falling all too easily under the pressure of setting a good total. Max Jones, Ollie Campbell and James Westley all got starts, and Johnny James looked well set, until falling to the wily Dave Smith, who ended up with 5 wickets. Craig Anderson, Mike Thommo and Ali Spooner looked like they had been bowling all summer and Mike Atkins behind the stumps showed excellent hands. A creditable performance in the field produced only one pulled hamstring and a tactical fielding substitution allowed young Bobby to pull of the catch of the match while Benny ("I could have done that") Mitchell looked on in admiration.

The Veterans innings opened with Ali Spooner (86) and Dave Wotherspoon (30ish) who proceeded to strike the ball effortlessly to all parts, forcing a change of tactics from the Chairman. Slow bowling from Ollie Campbell and Jack Kilgannon slowed the run rate but failed to break the partnership, until Jack changing to seam-up bowled Wotherspoon with an absolute beauty. Obviously wearing a borrowed U11 jumper to restrict circulation is a tactic the Ones should consider more often. Benny Mitchell spent a few overs looking for the ball and a couple more wickets fell bringing Dave Smith to the wicket needing another 70 to win. Agressive strokes and easy running kept the Vets up with the chase, and only the tempting loopers of Peps casued a brief wobble as he collected two filthy wickets. Max Jones bowled straight and a good length and was able to enjoy an over supported by six slips before the Vets got over the line as the gloom matched the colour of the burgers grilling temptingly on the decking.

Congratulations to the Vets and huge thanks to Benny Mitchell for rounding them up and making sure this inaugral fixture will now be a permanent fixture in the season. Thanks to all the Vets who took part - we look forward to seeing you around the clubhouse more often now - and to the Chairmans' XI who selflessly destroyed their season's averages in a good cause.

More pictures in the photo galleries section of the website (link on the left)

...Women's ODI played at Shenley on Monday 11th August.

They also formed part of the squad that demonstrated junior cricket on the outfield during the interval between the two innings. Charlotte Towler, Kayla Lennox, Sarah Harris, Libby Marsden, Scarlett Lyon, Hannah O’Dair, Amy Park were a credit to the club in the way they showed the crowd how we play cricket at Berko.

WORDS OF WARNING 17/7/2008
The safety guidelines that require players under 18 years old to wear helmets when batting or standing up to keep wicket are well known and accepted, but two recent incidents show that the risks of batting without a helmet apply to older players as well
In the first incident in June, a 43 year old player from North Crawley in the North of Bucks, batting in a Four Counties League match, was hit in the face by an accidental beamer and lost an eye as a consequence.

And early in July a 52 year old from Ferndown in Dorset was partially paralysed after being hit on the head by an apparent beamer and suffering a fractured skull. His son said, "All I saw was the ball coming in and it was a full toss. I saw the ball hit my dad on the head and he fell on the stumps."

All batsmen who choose not to wear helmets should be aware of the risks they are taking.

Plans to upgrade the non-turf nets area

The Cricket Club is planning to upgrade the nets area on Kitcheners Field as described below. We will continue to keep you informed of progress as our plans are finalised in negotiation with input from the supplier, when selected, and the ECB.

The Plans
The Cricket Club are looking to replace the current pair of nets with a completely level all non-turf area with four contiguous net bays, two where the current nets are and two more on the shed side. The nets and playing surfaces will be fully ECB compliant and meet all their performance standards. The area will extend about half a metre all round the cages so that there is no grass growing in or around the nets. Ideally it would like this all to be in place for next season. The nets can have different speeds so BCC are proposing two nets at Slow/Medium and two at Fast/Medium, which is about a 20% difference in speed between them. The impact of levelling the nets area is that some grading of the ground around the nets will be required to smooth the contours back into the rest of the field. The area affected will not impact either of the playing outfields, not any football pitches.

Progress so far
The ECB's County Development Officer has indicated that the BCC will qualify for ECB funding (75% grant, 25% interest-free loan) for the £40,000 plus that this will cost and will support its application. As the amount in question is over £25,000, BCC need three quotes from ECB-approved suppliers. It has had three companies come along and do site assessments and it will be receiving the three quotes in the next ten days or so. We are confident that the Cricket Club can fund the repayment of the loan portion over three or four years, given its current level of operations and demonstrated by its recent funding of the new scoreboard (£10,000) and sight screen (£3,000).

What has happened to the recent resurfacing?
The work undertaken two years ago has enabled the club to meet the current demands of the rapidly growing junior and senior sections - without it, BCC would not have had adequate practice facilities and its recent growth would have had to be constrained. Equally, without making a further investment, the current facilities will not meet future requirements. Already the batting ends are showing signs of wear, exhibiting uneven bounce, and the bowling ends (not repaired previously) are now so badly worn as to be unusable by the end of the summer. It does not make sense to continue to attempt to maintain the current facilities, when there is the opportunity to provide practice facilities commensurate with a Focus Club of the size of BCC.

Conclusion
We hope that you will agree that this exciting development will improve the appearance of the grounds and give the Cricket Club much needed facilities. Should you have any questions, Julian Dent (01442 863389 or jdent@viaint.com) will be very pleased to answer them.