Page 4 - West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club Yearbook 2014-15

PRESIDENT’S REPORT
At our last Annual General Meeting it was decided to split the role of Chairperson / President as a step towards a gradual succession plan. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be President of this great Club and to help guide us to a sustainable future.
I would like to call out the amazing contribution that Barry has made in his 30 years of leadership. Our Club is in great shape and is acknowledged as a leading example of a successful club. This has been achieved by our wonderful volunteers over many years but has been achieved under great leadership by Barry. Thank you Barry.
Briefly, a bit about my background. I have been involved in WPHCCC for over 15 years starting with children playing Kanga then through Juniors and now Seniors. I have also been President of the Westbrook AFL Club and have a passion for the role that organised sport plays in our community.
This season has seen many highlights:
• One of the things that differentiates us from others is our policy of ‘Participation over Results’ for our Junior players. This was redefined this season by Julian Bish to reflect years of what has worked and what hasn’t and has been well received.
• While we didn’t win any Junior Premierships, not that this is what we define as success in any event, the numbers of children transitioning from Kanga to our Juniors is a good sign for our future. This season we had 16 teams from the U8s to U10s with 6 teams in each of the U9s and U10s.
• Graham Chivers has done an amazing job with the Girls. Working closely with CNSW in a partnership relationship, Graham established both T20 Blast for Girls aged 8 to 12 years (32 participants) and a team in the new CNSW Breakers Junior Cricket League. Well done Graham.
• We have also made a number of Grand Finals and won a number of Premierships:
o Our Girls won the inaugural Junior Breakers League Spring Season Competition as
undefeated champions
o Our Juniors participated in 2 Grand Finals – U13 White and U12 Blue and just missed out o In Seniors we had a record 9 teams in the Semi Finals, 8 in the Grand Final and 4 Premiers
including A1 winnng a club record 4th consecutive Rofe Shield.
A special mention to our A1 Grade side who won a Club record 4th straight Rofe Shield in convincing style. Apart from being a Club record for consecutive wins in this grade, equally important was the way that they won. The boys won with grace and with impeccable behaviour in at times challenging circumstances. At the end of the game, even the Umpires noted the professionalism, conduct and performance of our team.
Our future
The season past has been outstanding from many respects. The future also offers many opportunities and challenges to build on our great history. Our on-field and off-field success over many years does not just happen. Our volunteers do an amazing job and we can’t survive without these very generous contributions. We need to continue driving our future and refining the strategy.
We have completed a detailed demographic analysis and this shows that our population is ageing and that the socio mix is also evolving to a more diverse community. We have developed a comprehensive strategy to identify our strengths and weaknesses and this will be finalised before the start of next season.
Next season is our 85th year as a Cricket Club and this is an impressive achievement. We are looking forward to another great season.
Andrew Miedler President
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