Rye Cricket Club will be holding its annual general meeting for members at The Sidney Allnutt Pavilion at The Rye Cricket Salts on Sunday January 29.
The 2016 season was a challenging year for the club, both on and off the field, but it emerged with great credit. On the field the 1st XI achieved the highest finishing position in the Sussex Cricket League pyramid, teams were raised for all 120 fixtures and the U13s won their league.
Highlights of the year
• Players of the Year: 1st Harry Smeed, 2nds Spencer Fielding, 3rds Luke Payton.
• U16 Player of the Year: Tobias Farrow, U21 Harry Smeed.
• Clubman of the Year award went to James Jury, for his hard work supporting the club to become a limited company.
• More than 120 games of cricket for three Saturday teams, a midweek team and five Colts sides
• A winter and summer coaching programme for 60 Colts
Off the field the club made great strides forward
• Rye Cricket Club became a limited company by guarantee
• A 99-year-lease was signed for the pavilion
• Pavilion social areas were painted
• Downstairs kitchen was installed.
• Rye Town FC are using the pavilion.
• Bat and trap night was attended by 160 people
• The Clubmark Award was maintained
These were only made possible by the hard work and contributions from many members
The team captains for getting sides out every week, probably the hardest of all jobs, were: Gary Willis, Martin Blincow and James Jury.
Managers running the Colts fixtures were: Peter Thomson, Peter Farrow, John Mackenzie and Hugo Nel
Members of the committee were: Chairman, Kevin Jury; Vice Chair, Mark Cook; Treasurer, James Jury; Website Manager, James Hamilton; Bar stocking, Darren Smith.
Thanks to several individuals:
Chris Ashbee for all his hard work looking after the bar, ensuring we enjoyed a record year of income
Ross Smeed for sourcing and installing the downstairs kitchen
Zara and David Rhys-Jones for running the BBQ
Nick Paine for his help with the pavilion maintenance
The 1st XI scorer Janet Tiltman for her invaluable support throughout the season.
Rye Cricket Club now looks forward to 2017 in which the committee proposes that the focus should continue to be supporting the development of the quality of cricket that is played and the experience of playing cricket for all members. So we will be continuing to upgrade the quality of the facilities at the Rye Cricket Salts, both the pavilion and the wicket.
Coaching for Colts starts on February 14 at Rye Sports Centre:
5-6pm primary-age Colts / 6-7pm Under 13s / 7-8pm Under 15s / Under 17s
For details and to join the coaching, contact Martin Blincow on 07535 482006 or blincsfamily@aol.com.
The club starts with pre-season adult nets in March and overseas player Sylvester Clarke arrives in mid-April from Barbados to be ready for the pre-season games.
Rye Cricket Club welcomes new members and invites potential members to join us on Sunday January 29, when the bar opens from 7pm.
Editor’s note: On the subject of thanks and awards, Rye News would like to take this opportunity to thank Martin Blincow for his regular and detailed reports of matches during the season and keeping this paper (and therefore our readers) up to date with all the off-season activities of this thriving Cricket Club.
Martin Blincow