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PRESIDENT’S NOTES
remember my father once saying to me that very rarely did anything take him by surprise. “What about my hundred on that hot day at Cheltenham?” I said. “Yes” he said, “ that was one
of those rare occasions.”
But I understood what he meant. There comes a stage in life when not much takes us by surprise and we nd that after a while we can cope with most things.
Well I don’t know about you but the events of the last year
or so have caused most of us to take a step back and indeed take stock. There has been more time than we would wish to ponder over and fret about a pandemic of such proportions to have taken everyone by surprise.
The upset for many millions has been profound and far reaching. It has touched everyone from all walks of life in di erent ways. That it will as likely as not zzle out given time is not in doubt but the scars left behind may be very raw and long lasting.
And it is here, I believe, that our wonderful world of cricket played on beautiful grounds amidst fresh air and a warm heart can make a real and lasting di erence and do much to revive spirits. So many, particularly the young, have for more than a year been deprived the sport and recreation for which they clamour. And so have we at The Forty Club. Now, as Spring and Summer begin to emerge, we have the chance to put the past behind us and focus upon and indeed appreciate more fully than ever before the privilege it is to play cricket and so share our lives again with others.
Whether or not there is a deep message to be absorbed from this extraordinary experience, I don’t know but I am as sure as ever I can be that, as we all get going again, there will be much good and positive to be derived from this calamity.
And so I will simply nish by thanking everyone for putting so much energy into the latter part of 2020 in the sure and certain knowledge that this will bear fruit for all we do in 2021 and act as the forerunner of a great harvest in the future.
Thank you all for your sel ess determination on behalf of the game.
John Barclay.
I
The Forty Club 2021 Yearbook
King’s Ely Gordonstoun School
REPORTS