Page 3 - West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club
P. 3
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT
As a Club we have survived the Great Depression (1930s) and WW2. Coming off last season that had bushfires, drought, flood and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020/21 Season, that includes the lead-up to the season, was unlike any that we have experienced with Covid-19 dominating every aspect of our lives.
I usually start my year in review with an overview of on-field performances. This season it is all about Resilience – resilience of our Leadership Team and Volunteers who navigated through the lock-downs and got the competition up and running seamlessly on 24th October – 7 weeks after the usual season start due to the delayed finish of the football season.
Our Volunteers
At Association level, the Executive team was superbly led by Andrew Miedler (President) & Rob Hanich (Juniors Secretary) and an Executive Team that focused on getting cricket underway.
At Club level our Volunteers, led by our Executive Committee were superb. To set the scene:
• Our Schools program, critical in our growth strategy was limited to visiting just one School (Cherrybrook Public) due to school access restrictions;
• The winter and summer seasons blurred into each other with the extension of the winter season and the community uncertainty around ‘social distancing’ and how this would affect parents willingness to let children play;
• Inability to have a Registration / Information Day with 100% of registrations done on-line;
• The high level uncertainty about job prospects raised the real prospect of the ability of people being able to pay registration fees.
All this where there was no rule book or guidelines on how to manage in a pandemic with decisions based on judgement and being agile. Adding to this was the inability to have face to face meetings and the use of Zoom technology for the first time.
Our 1st all-Zoom meeting during the Covid-19 lockdown in May 2020. This was a planning meeting with CNSW to start the 2020/21 season.
Members from left to right: Barry McDonald (Chair), Jane Bish Vice President), Sreeni Pillamarri (Sponsorship), Peter Lees (Finance); Middle row: Bill Peterkin (Junior Blasters & Blowfly), Ross Anderson (Operations), Daniel Anderson (CNSW), Rick Turner (Seniors); 3rd row: Steve Burrows (Juniors), Rob Hanich (Vice President), Suzanna & Grant Colburt (Girls), Andrew Miedler (President) and Akshay Trevedi (CNSW). Apology - Kirsty Newbury (Child Protection)
2