March is our last full month before the outdoor season starts so there is a great deal of activity around the club. Some of that activity is highlighted in this newsletter.

Ground Force Days
#GetSetWeekend will be taking place again this year on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March. Please support your club in getting ready for the season. Any time you can give will be much appreciated.

If you are able to help, please complete this form so we have an idea of numbers: #GetSetWeekend

Please contact Ben Osborne on 07527 520764 if you have any questions.

Tea/ coffee and Bacon Buns will be provided!!

Team Captains
We have 21 teams representing the Deane on a regular basis. The number grows when you include teams that play against touring sides.

To be captain of any team is obviously an honour and a recognition of a player’s qualities of leadership. Yet to be captain is also time consuming and demanding. So, we are grateful that we have players across the club who are willing to give up many hours during the week ensuring we have teams on the pitch at the weekend.

Our captains for the 2024 season are:
1st XI – Harry Smith
Women’s 1st XI – Madi Cooper
2nd XI – Ali Warren
Women’s 2nd XI – Harriet Kelly
3rd XI – Connor Chilcott
4th XI – Paul Goss & Neil Lane
5th XI – John Ponte (Team Manager)
Women’s Development XI – Niamh Wait
Women’s Softball – Ann Glinn

More New Faces
In our first newsletter we highlighted the work of Karla Rose, Russ Jones and Dan Trick.

We now have two more members who have stepped up and will be making a major contribution to the safe and efficient running of the Club.

Ann Glinn is our new Club Safeguarding Officer. She will have overall responsibility for safeguarding throughout the club and will be supported by other members in the various playing sections.

Mark Pritchard is our new fixtures secretary. Mark has the task of ensuring all the games on the fixture list can be accommodated and then add some more when a cup run is extended or a touring side wants a fixture or the weather wipes out a week’s cricket.

We are delighted to welcome such committed members to join the team.

Match Day Managers
We are working hard to make the Convent Field the best possible place to play, watch and enjoy cricket.

Part of that is about making our visitors feel welcome and to help them during their time at the Deane.

For all Men’s and Women’s 1st XI home league games there will be a designated Match Day Manager whose role will be to ensure umpires, opposition players, opposition scorer and other visitors are welcomed, helped to find their way around the clubhouse, advised on parking and to respond to any queries that may arise. They will be in attendance for two hours before start of play and some will stay on for the whole game.

We have recruited an extraordinary group of respected and knowledgeable Match Day Managers some, if not all of whom, will be well known within the club.

We are delighted to have Barry Jones, Dave Sizer, Keith Woodman, Gary Chaffey and Dave Stephenson as the first to take on this important new role.

From Sponsors to Partners
We have always enjoyed the support of local organisations whose contributions keep the club going. Running a cricket club that uses three main pitches, runs more than twenty teams and plays nearly 300 games a season takes a lot of time, effort and money!

We are currently contacting our existing sponsors not only to ask them to continue their invaluable support for the club but to start shifting our approach. We want to start calling these organisations our Club Partners. We want to see how we can help them promote their business not only with an advertising board or logos on shirts but with bespoke packages.

If you have any ideas about an organisation that would like to be associated with the Deane please get them to contact me, Dave Smith - dcsmithtdcc@btinternet.com or 07584908727.

Senior Men’s Cup Competitions
In recent years we have entered six teams into various cup competitions. That has proved over optimistic as we have often fielded weak sides or even, in the case of the National T20 competition, had to withdraw as we could raise no more than 4 players.

We have decided to make as strong a bid as we can to have success in the Baker Cup by entering only one team.

We will put three teams into the County Cup competitions, one for each section.

Dream Team
I am sure it won’t take you long to work out what all these players have in common.

Rob Woodman Somerset & Gloucestershire
Jack Leach Somerset & England
Devon Conway New Zealand
Neil Brand South Africa (captain)
Dave Stephenson England (over 60s)
Calvin Harrison Nottinghamshire
Will Smale Glamorgan
Ed Middleton Gloucestershire
Nathan Gilchrist Kent
Alfonso Thomas Somerset & South Africa
Shoaib Bashir Somerset & England

Although we really can’t claim that they are all genuinely ‘one of our own’ (we definitely claim Woody, Leachy and Stevo as three of our own), it does demonstrate that the Deane is a good place to develop your cricket.

Over to you…

If you want to offer help at the club, if you want to become a Club Partner or if you simply want to make a comment please do so to Dave Smith - dcsmithtdcc@btinternet.com or 07584908727.