CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2015/16 to AGM 2016
Date: 11th January 2016
JW's Report as printed in the AGM 2016 papers:
Having survived two terms of office as Chairman I must say that I am genuinely honoured to be embarking on another two years working on behalf of such a cricket league as ours.
I am often asked as I go around the County on Junior Cricket business if I think that the Liverpool Competition is the best League in Lancashire. My answer is as follows: “It really is not possible to say as we are not comparing like for like. What I do know is that we have a significant number of County contracted players and an increasing number of County Academy and Colt level players playing in our league together with a number of top level clubs regularly featuring in the latter stages of Regional and National competitions. This year we have the Lancashire (Bootle) and Welsh (Colwyn Bay) Champions and one of the National Club Championship finalists (Northern) as well supplying the largest number of County Junior players from any league in Lancashire. Judge for yourself.”
The eleven divisional winners and the six knockout cup winners have been celebrated at our Annual dinner in October, once again splendidly hosted at Bootle Cricket Club and I congratulate them all, together with the promoted clubs who can look forward to new challenges in 2016. Therein lies part of the Liverpool Competition’s success as an ECB Premier League, providing opportunities for clubs to play at a higher level with the motivation to improve their ground and facilities, as many have done in recent times.
We continue to play representative cricket at Under 12, 14, 16, 18, 21 and Senior Level, and played 14 games in 2015. Thank you to all the clubs for hosting games and those individuals helping out with the teams. This will continue in 2016 with our League running a pilot U21 Inter-League tournament featuring four leagues, including the Northern League and the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire League. The Under 18’s (Colts) side was again successful in the Readers Colts Inter League Competition beating the Central Lancashire League in the final at Middleton CC. We ran the largest ever Player Development Programme last January and are set to deliver quality coaching again to 45 players from 29 clubs in January 2016. The indoor cricket has continued with two teams going forward to the Lancashire County Finals day at Old Trafford and although the Under 40’s competition never really took off we will try again in 2016, this time with a set fixture list. The Development League, (our 12th Division), catering for those preferring social level cricket, was a partial success and will be repeated in 2016.
I say a big thank you to the following:
To Med Imaging for their three years of sponsorship and for agreeing to continue as our sponsor for a further year: Their support is much appreciated and is used as the primary source of funding for the representative programme.
To the Management Committee who work tirelessly so that clubs and players can enjoy the game of cricket: We should all be grateful for all they do.
To the Assistant Results Secretaries and those on the Cricket Committee, Disciplinary Committees and other sub committees for all the work they do.
To the MCUA, the umpires and the scorers: The game could not take place without you.
To all the volunteers in clubs: Priceless!
Finally a brief mention on the change that seems to be sweeping through the game of cricket: Pink Balls, day/night tests, abandoning the toss, new helmet regulations, these and more on the way, are being introduced into the First Class Game. We, in the Recreational Game, are being urged to “Get the Game on” by looking at start times, when we play, how we play and who we play with. In Lancashire, Leagues are undergoing significant change, introducing structures that the Comp had the foresight to work towards over fifteen years ago.
We are not immune from all of this. As a League we must ensure that clubs and players in particular, are fully involved in identifying and introducing those new ways of playing cricket that will bring the greatest benefit to everyone in the Comp.
John Williams Chair MiL&DCC Dec 2015
And an addendum hot from from South Africa………
The Player Development Programme starts this Saturday; its full - indeed oversubscribed - and Steve Critchley has set up a waiting list in case anyone drops out; Every club that nominated on time has got at least one player on it.
In the U21s Inter League Competition the fourth League is now confirmed as being the Cheshire County League
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