The promise of things to come

Jonny Gates - secret nets

As we look cagily out of the window and see coats and umbrellas one can't help but wonder how the hell the cricket season can be here already. It is hoped that the incoming fixture secretary Michael Roper will give more credence to the indisputable phenomenon of global warming than his predecessor and make an immediate decree that there must be no cricket in April.

We travel to Esher this weekend in the customary season opener. Their offer of a BBQ at tea time is kind but laughably inappropriate. Chestnuts roasted on an open fire and hot chocolate would be the sensible option. Journalist will inevitably ask in the build-up how prepared we are and how pre-season went. Speaking from a personal point of view the answers would be 'woefully un-' and 'it begins on Sunday'. I visited the nets at Cranleigh on Easter Saturday and it snowed.

Looking at the teamsheet for the Esher game it is hard to spot anyone who will have touched a cricket ball in 7 months. Henry Watkinson has pretty little cricket balls as cupboard handles. That may be the best we can offer. There is always the hope that Jonny Gates may feel this is the season that he fulfils his potential as an opener who should average at least 15. He may have sneaked in a net. Beyond this we can pretty much guarantee a lost wicket in the first over if we're batting and three wides and full toss if we're bowling.

Whilst we may be a little rare going into the first game, the forthcoming season as a whole must be viewed with excitement. It is not meteorologically possible to have 12 games abandoned or cancelled due to rain this year so there should be plenty of good, hard cricket. The fixture list certainly invites this.

It is a continuing mission to widen the net and ensnare more OC cricketers from all generations. It goes without saying that those recent School leavers are the main target but just as important is wheel the older citizens onto the pitch a few times a season. The vets game aside I want to see Williamson, Chase, Webb, Bailey, Bond and Colgate out there leading the way. Tom Hufton is breaking his 'only play abroad' rule of many years to play for the OC's this year. Dare I even dream that Abeed Janmohamed may be seen on Jubilee again? It would be particularly amusing to see the increasingly large Rick Johnson the wrong side of the rope at least once this season too. Imagine being an OC rookie like Scriven, Burgess, Croker or Westcott being able to say in ten years time that they took the field with Johnson. Memories like that remain forever.

When the university boys like the merry Will Langmead, Morgan Fletcher, the Preecae (presumably the plural of Preece), Huggy Harrison and comrades return they will provide fresh impetus in time for cricket week. Until then we will be relying on the unsung heroes of OC cricket to keep us going and manufacture results. Time after time, yeomen like Spreadsheet Merry, Damien Hill and Jonny Gates make themselves available, put pride to one side and do their damndest for the club they love. Marriage and babies would make lesser men take their eye of the ball. Not these foot soldiers. They have or will vow at the altar not to let their marriage get in the way of their cricket.

It's not only the youngsters
who spent time in the gym

There was a time, perhaps around 2006 when a new and altogether different generation of cricketers poked their head through the doorway of OC cricket, saw that it was good and stayed. It is hard to deny that these chaps – the Copes, Crumps, Jupps, Ropers, Harmans of this world brought a little bit of glamour to proceedings. Some bleached hair here, a tanned torso there not to mention some unexpected coloured trousers, it was something of an eye-opener to the older generations. These characters backed up self-confidence and mischievous attitude with a decent helping of cricketing ability. It won't be lost on the original playboy of the club that his tally of hundreds which have been painstakingly accumulated over nearly twenty years will shortly be overhauled by several of the above.

These chaps will form the spine of the Cricketer Cup challenge this year and in the years to come. Others need to become match winners on the big stage – the little man who bowls sharp (Barson) and the future headmaster of Cranleigh School (Waters) to name just two. It will be important to have a blend of experience and Henry Watkinson now full of the youthful vigour of a twenty one year old and Will Howard who carries around more discarded clubs than Ian Woosnam's caddy could both have roles to play.

Off the pitch the club is looking like emerging from the recession with at least some funds to its name. After Martin Williamson's reign as treasurer, famous for ploughing club funds into ill-advised investment vehicles, there was a period of perhaps five years where the new accounts team struggled to get to grips with club finances. Year after year Rob Merry, a young and inexperienced treasurer, had his accounts lambasted by former presidents until finally he decided enough was enough. He taught himself how to use Excel, changed his name by deed pole to Spreadsheet and an upward curve began to be seen. Immediate financial ruin looked inevitable when we turned up to the Hampshire Hogs last year to find a notice in the dressing room announcing 'Oppo match fee £275". Off-season negotiation with the Hampshire-men has seen a deal struck and the fixture will continue.

The Chairman continues to be nominally in charge of catering but on the first occasion we have a catering conundrum with a match on the Lowers he has scheduled himself a flight out of the country. Louise Chetwode has kindly agreed to continue looking after us in cricket week and this news has been widely lauded by all cricket week opposition except Charterhouse... who play us at home this year.

There will be more focus than ever on the troops looking the part of the pitch and wearing the same uniform. Another batch of the finest wool jumpers is to be distributed and it is hoped that 'baggy hoops' will shortly flood the market so that no one is in any doubt – we attended public school.

Having written this article I am now rather looking forward to the season. Ex cultu robur.

Ed Henderson Captain

Note: it is inconceivable than an article about the OCCC doesn't mention Mike Chetwode. It does now.