Page 6 - West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club

PRESIDENT’S REPORT
At the end of the 2019/20 Season, I commented that this was a season like none before it with Bushfires, Drought, Flood and Covid-19 causing cancellation of Grand Finals. The 2020/21 Season has taken this experience to the next level with new protocols and rules around social distancing covering all aspects of the game.
The season started 7 weeks later than scheduled to allow winter sports to complete their shortened seasons in a collaborative arrangement between sporting codes. The cricket season started on 24th October and with protocols around the game changed to provide a Covid-19-safe playing environment.
The Association released detailed playing conditions covering all aspects of the game. Just when we thought that the season was progressing the last game before the Christmas / New Year break was cancelled:
“With the growing Covid cluster in Sydney’s northern beaches, the HK&HDCA Executive have decided to abandon play for Saturday 19th December.
The Executive has made the difficult decision in the interest of the welfare of players, coaches and parents. We believe this is a responsible approach to the health alert in helping reduce the risk of spread.”
The Country Carnivals (U14 @ Tamworth; U15 @ Armidale & U16 @ Taree) were also cancelled due to Covid-19 risk.
Ongoing change
Change was not limited to the new protocols around Covid-Safe playing rules. A mandatory helmet policy was introduced across all grades and the new junior pathways program across all Junior competitions was implemented.
The resilience, willingness to embrace the changes and level of compliance with Covid protocols by our players and families to these changes has been remarkable. Despite all this uncertainty and change it is worth reflecting on the many achievements of this season.
Registrations
To put the following numbers in perspective it is worth thinking about what was happening around the start of the season: uncertainty about the season even starting, how games would be played, social distancing and economic uncertainty with many jobs either lost or at risk. Add to this the ever present risk of the pandemic taking off again, as shown in Victoria. Key metrics for this season were strong:
• 767 unique registered players – not including Blowfly cricket or Women’s Social Cricket participants
• 40 Junior Teams – equal to the Club and Association record we set in 2015/16
• 3 Girls teams – minus 2 on last season with 2 Teams graduating from Juniors
• 13 Senior Teams – plus 1 also a Club & Association record
• 94 Junior Blasters – plus 2 on last season
• Blowfly Cricket – approx. 20-25 participants
• Women’s Social Cricket – approx. 15 participants.
Our Women
Barry called out the major awards won by our outstanding women. A highlight of the season was being awarded the Pink Service Award by the McGrath Foundation in recognition of being one of the top 7 Clubs, nationally, in fundraising support - $42,500 since 2010/11. To quote Foundation Ambassador and Director Tracy Bevan.
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