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Secretary's Report for 2020

Secretary's Report for 2020

David Caldicott5 Jan 2021 - 16:06
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Goole Town Cricket Club Secretary Dave Caldicott reports on a very different year for the Club.

SECRETARY’S REPORT JANUARY 2021

This has to be the strangest report I have done in over 25 years as Secretary. I began this report by looking back at the report of the 2019 AGM in November of that year. It was full of optimism following a successful year with the 1st team winning promotion to the premier division and being runners up in the 1st division just 1 point behind the winners. The 2nd team finished 4th in their league and the 3rd team and junior sides had some success with the youngsters all progressing well. The Club was in a great position to advance junior and girls cricket in particular. So the year of 2020 was full of promise until the covid 19 virus arrived and March 2020 saw the whole country in lockdown in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
Cricket was cancelled until mid- July and the Clubhouse was closed for over 3 months.

On the playing side, it was pleasing that there was eventually some cricket able to be organised by the York Senior League and around half a season took place with mini leagues of 10 teams set up. Goole 1st team were runners up in their mini league with 7 wins and 1 defeat from 8 matches played. They were 2nd to York with the same points, missing the title by net run rate. Goole had wins against York and Carlton, who were always challenging with them for the leadership.

The 2nd team won 3 matches and lost 6 in the West 3 division and the 3rd team won 4 and lost 4 in the Sunday league. I have done a summary and highlights of the season for the 3 week-end teams published separately to this report. There are details on the Club’s and the league’s websites of all matches and performances.

It did look at one stage that there may not be any cricket at all so well done to all who made it possible including our own groundsmen, officials, staff, umpires, scorers etc. as well as appreciating the work of the various league and ECB officials.

Away from the playing side, the Club is fortunate that the virus has not caused financial meltdown for us. I am sure many clubs are in a far worse state than us and if this had happened 5 years ago when we had no savings it could have been very serious. Fortunately the last few years with the Yorkshire Water rental use of the land and successful bar and financial management has enabled us to withstand the worst effects of the virus problem and we remain confident of getting through it. The Committee were able to meet via conference calls and systems/methods were put in place to minimise the financial effects of the virus. Extra work for the committee, Elza and her staff to cope with the guidelines enabled us to open the Clubhouse.
Whilst income was affected by the closure, expenditure reduced also and mitigated some of the losses. For example there were savings on umpires, teas, staff etc. A further payment from Yorkshire Water and government grants have enabled the Club to remain in a reasonable financial position despite the covid virus situation.
The situation remains uncertain with the virus and no one knows what the Winter and 2021 will bring, but we remain optimistic for the future.

Once again a very busy year for the small band of officials and committee and I would like to thank Neil, Stewart, Steve, Simon and the rest of the committee for their help. Thanks also to Elza and her staff who had to cope with the new way of working to get the bar open. Also thanks to all those who helped with scoring, umpiring and getting some cricket played in strange circumstances. A quite challenging year for the Club. My thanks go to all who helped.

The Covid rules prevented the Club holding it’s AGM as normal and this will now most likely be held in Spring when the situation allows it.

I do hope our players, supporters and customers had the best Christmas and New Year possible under the current circumstances and hope everyone remains safe and well.

David Caldicott
Secretary
Goole Town Cricket Club

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