2015 Season Review

Apologies for not being in touch earlier in the season, unfortunately I can only blame a change of career and lack of secretarial skills/facilities! However......thank you to so many of you who have been down to the ground this year to wish us well or heckle from the boundary - your support is very welcome. In brief we have had an interesting year: a move back to the Marches League, an amazing cycle ride and we took in some lodgers too!!

As you will have probably seen, it has been an extremely tough year on the pitch with Andy Lloyd again working miracles at times to make sure all league fixtures were fulfilled.

So let's start off field and the tremendous effort we saw from the Ledbury2MonteCarlo men (James Fortnam, Andy Lloyd, Nicko Evans & Neil Stokes and don t forget recovery driver Luke Cottrell). A fantastic achievement to cycle 1008 miles in 10 days and raise up towards £10,000 to be split between the club and the SMA trust. The plan is to get electricity to the ground using the money raised by these guys. Thank you once again all of you - a massive effort and a great personal achievement.

On the pitch then, we certainly underachieved but it can be said we were playing in a competitive league for the first time in 3 years, make no mistake this Marches League division 1 is strong. The win early season against Ledbury was pleasing but proved to be a false dawn. We found that to our cost when we consistently failed to put competitive (250+) scores on the board and weren't incisive enough with our bowling......well maybe our catching wasn't clinical enough......Lloydy had more catches dropped off his bowling than he took wickets......not that he was counting!! So we ended the season at the foot of the table with thoughts that maybe we should have been in this league a couple of years earlier. Notable performances, James Fortnam scoring the only 100 of the season was a particular highlight and well deserved. We did have on success on the field with a 6-a-side victory at Bartestree winning every game in a four team tournament.

As I said earlier, we took in some lodgers in this year. Marden CC have been without a home for 2-3 years and needed a place to play their cricket in Division 2. In an odd turn around Marden won division 2 meaning we will be changing places for 2016 season. However, we did not take them on simply as lodgers. There was always the chance that we would be able to merge together in some way. This possibility is now looking a little closer as we have an agreement in principle (subject to verification at both clubs AGMs in coming weeks) that we will share players next year. This is a win-win for everyone with both teams having some players striving to play at the top level in the 1st XI but also a few wanting to play a more relaxed game in the 2nd XI, whilst still retaining our individual club identities.

The juniors again continue to grow with the club fielding u9, u11, u13, u15 teams in the Herefordshire league. coaching nights were very popular this year with attendance regularly exceeding 25 juniors. On the field, the u9s ended mid table winning 4 losing 4 games. The u11s were highly competitive and ended the season in third place behind the Brockhampton and Colwall. The u13s and u15s are still teams in development but did secure wins in their respective age groups. Our thanks once again goes to the coaches and coordinators who make all this possible, Matt Richards, Andy Booth, Paul Creswell, Emily Rogers, Kay Harris, Lee Richards, Sally Booth, also special thanks to Luke Cottrell for umpiring multiple u13 and u15 games and offering advice where he could. We are going to need some additional coaching support in 2016.

As ever we are indebted to Mark Godsall for his superb efforts on the ground. His time is hugely appreciated and a massive thanks for coordinating pitch work throughout the year. We as always need more volunteers to help with the ground and if you feel you could spare a relaxing hour a week to push a mower around it will make a difference. Matt Richards continues to cut the outfield and is always keen to check the umpires scores for pitch and outfield each week!


Finally, we should take a moment to think of the supporters we have lost this year, Joyce Child was one of our most avid fans and always supported us with a smile on her face. She passed away in July and our thoughts are with David, Alan & Ben. We also heard of the passing of Alan Maude who captained the 2nd Xl in the 1980s.

I will try and keep you updated through the winter and into the 2016 season with our news and look forward to seeing you at the annual dinner on Saturday 28th November at The Trumpet. Whilst writing our AGM is being held on Sunday 11th October at 5pm at The Hopton if you would like to join us.

Yours in cricket!!


Andy Rogers
Canon Frome CC Chairman