Chairman’s beginning of season update

It’s remarkable that, after such a lot of rain during the winter, we have played a home game in mid-April. Even in more normal years we have not been able to play at Stonham in April before! Clearly the dry spell which followed the monsoon has helped but huge credit must go to Simon for all the work he has done, assisted by Luke, to get everything ready, bearing in mind how the ground holds the water like a sponge.

As usual there were many favourable comments about the appearance of the ground which, I hope, has helped to make all the hard work worthwhile.

Thanks are also due to Jonny and Rob, who used some very interesting and original techniques to repair the sightscreen which had been damaged in the high winds of the winter, and to the pre-season work party.

Unfortunately the first match was lost in the penultimate over – our 170-odd was probably 20 short – but we are looking forward to better results once the boys have shaken off the early-season cobwebs.

The Sunday XI’s first fixture, at Bury St Edmunds, was also lost. The total which we set, over 240, seemed pretty good but we hadn’t bargained with one of Bury’s young guns who scored more than half that on his own leading Bury to the win with only a few balls to spare. Some of our batsmen got good scores, though, which we hope they will follow up in similar fashion in the weeks to come.

Now the season is under way we are looking forward to playing with the sun on our backs and getting some wins on the board.

Trevor Spall, Hon Chairman