Following on from Sunday’s Junior presentation, and in advance of this coming Saturday’s Senior presentation, this week felt like the perfect time to close out the summer. Hopefully you have all enjoyed the last week or two of rest/rain, and will spare me five minutes to read this (I don’t do it entirely for the fun of it!).

So, 2021, the season we got back to structured cricket with promotion and relegation to worry about. After the high of 2020 cricket wise, when the First XI won their division, it was time to look forward and really see where we stood competitively as a club. The First XI this year finished 5th in Division 1, missing out on promotion to the Championship. The Second XI ended the season in 11th place in Division 4N, whilst the Third XI were unfortunately relegated from the Sunday Division 1. There were some stellar performances from individuals in every team this season and hopefully we can all kick on next year. My thanks to our captains for all their efforts this summer – hopefully next year we have fewer injuries to contend with!

The tale of the season though must really go to our Junior section. When we signed up to the All Stars programme back in 2017 the goal was to see the return of structured junior cricket to Thornham, and this season that was achieved, with the Club entering an under 11s side into league cricket for the first time in a number of years. Our Tuesday night training sessions were an incredible success, particularly considering our lack of overseas players this year; to anyone who has given up their time to do a bit of coaching, you should all be so proud of yourselves. And for the juniors and their parents – we hope you have enjoyed your cricket at Thornham this year and we’ll see you soon for our winter junior practice sessions!

Hopefully all our senior players are looking forward to Saturday’s presentation evening which is always a fabulous night. We look forward to sharing stories of funny moments throughout the season, reminiscing about high quality performances, runs, wickets, drops, balls that kept low, and also moments of sheer hilarity. A polite reminder that the dress code for the evening is smart – please respect the occasion and wear your best! For those of you who are unable to make it, we will share our awards winners via the website a few days after the main event.

As per usual, it would be remiss of me not to thank, on behalf of all our members, the fabulous volunteers that make life at Thornham what it is. Our committee members, grounds staff, bar staff, junior coaches – basically anyone who has given up any of their time this year. Without you doing what you do, the Club wouldn’t be what it is, and you should give yourselves a massive pat on the back. Seeing the growing numbers of the community coming down to watch cricket and use our facilities shows that the efforts that you put in are working – so well done and thank you everyone!

Looking forwards to 2022 – the advert for captaincy interest is out – if anyone is interested in captaining a team, please do let me know before Wednesday of this week so we can make some decisions sooner rather than later. Winter nets are booked for Total Cricket in Ashton - Monday nights at 8pm, starting on Monday 24th January. The club’s Annual General Meeting will take place on the second Wednesday in December – that will be in the clubhouse, Wednesday 8th December at 8pm. Reminders will follow nearer the time.

Please do keep an eye on our socials and the website for news over the winter – we hope all our members old and new stay in touch over the next few months and we look forward to seeing you all soon.