Our First Net at The Oval

Since my last blog some pretty exciting things have happened. Firstly, and this is the moment that every year puts me in a good mood, I noticed the days getting longer. From the dark nights of December, slowly, the faith that spring and summer are on their way is brought about by looking outside at 4pm and noticing it’s still light. It’s the small things that count to those of us who long for the summer so we can get back outside and into the middle.

We had our first net at The Oval which was good and bad. Great to blow off the cobwebs for the 10 of us in attendance but also the stark realisation that there is plenty to do in the next 8 weeks to get ourselves season ready. This was something that we had conveniently not prepared ourselves for, despite 22 years previous experience of exactly the same thing!

It’s great to get back into it despite the obvious need for much more practice. Every cricketer goes through it, as I suppose does every sportsperson when preparing for a new season regardless of their chosen sport.

It’s a great time of year for sport, the RBS Six Nations always gets the juices flowing and the end of dry January for most is a welcome return to normality. Football and Rugby seasons across all levels are steadily getting towards reaching their climax and so everyone is pretty interested. With a huge summer and autumn of sport to look forward to with both cricket and rugby world cups, plus a mouth-watering Ashes contest in prospect there is much to be excited about.

At the club we have realised the importance of social media. Community engagement is huge for a sports club and as we move forward we will look to improve our offering to the local community around the Raynes Park and Wimbledon area. Our sponsors, we hope, will also reap the rewards of the work we are putting in and as local businesses we hope that the community continues to support them. We are proud to be sponsored by Tennison Property, Snoggy’s Butchery, Wimbledon Cufflink Company, Masuri and Greene King.

The nights will continue to get longer, and we hope we will continue to get a little bit fitter in preparation. Our friends at Old Rutlishians and other clubs local to us will be in the same position and we wish them all an injury free and fun filled preseason.

The next stop is the first social of the season, the Chairman’s quiz. Such is the difficulty, anything but the wooden spoon is a fine result! I hope to tell you of a great success for my team this time next month.