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GENERAL SECRETARY’S NOTES
O ver the past few months, we have been able to look back and take stock of 2020. As others have recorded in this Journal, despite all the odds we managed to play
a considerable number of matches and in so doing brought a joy and a feeling of well-being to many. We can look back now and recall the friendship,
the spirit of unity and the achievements of the Club in sometimes testing conditions. The testing times experienced by so many have led to a deeper appreciation of the mutual support and spiritual sustenance we enjoy by being connected to others.
Then we entered a winter of house-keeping
and administrative change, designed to put the management of our Club on a better keel, and the evidence of the bene ts of this initiative are still being experienced.
The need for physical distance, or to live and work largely in isolation has been an unusual experience. We in the Forty Club have become accustomed
to connecting and communicating via innovative technology with meetings being held online.
We have been able to stay in touch with friends, fellow members and counterparts even though we have not been able to meet in person. Such immediacy, although physically not ideal, has helped to transcend boundaries and divisions and helped any sense of distance to disappear.
As I write this, we expect soon the all-important announcements from the DCMS and ECB about the coming cricket season. The Forty Club, through the tireless work of xtures secretary Tony Fare and the district chairmen, has arranged an impressive xture list. We are being positive and planning for the best. We know that there
will be setbacks, especially in April and especially amongst the schools community, but we continue to plan for success, arguing for rescheduling rather than cancellation. This planning also extends to what we hope will be a Quadrangular Tournament in Spain in October, a tour to Dubai in November and a tour to Sri Lanka in the new year. For these events we are of course dependent upon arrangements in Spain, UAE and Sri Lanka.
In direct response to the energy and enthusiasm
of some, and the artistic creativity of Stephen Dell, we were delighted that over 100 new members joined the Club last year. For the record, 35 new members have already joined this year and we wel- come them all. Despite all the conversations about
cricket at the highest levels in the EWCB bailiwick – the dominance of IPL, the superiority of the white ball game, the apparent and impending demise of Test cricket – at grass roots level there is a much less complicated approach. In keeping with so many, The Forty Club wishes to – and will - enjoy its cricket, to inspire others through its cricket, to assist as many younger folk as possible to love their cricket and stay with the game, and to be adaptable to whichever colour of ball might come along.
We encourage all our members, whether young or less young, to enjoy and play the game.
We expect that white ball cricket will grow within the schools community as it is fast becoming dominant at the national level. Eoin Morgan says that “T20 is our window into selling our great game.” Ed Smith says that T20 “can breathe life into the grand old game”, suggesting the latter is on its last legs. To the current EWCB hierarchy, “the short form of the game is the way forward as a means of honing skills and driving revenue.”
Well, may be. But from where I stand recreational cricket will veer and tack in response to members and oppositions preferences, and The Forty Club’s experience will be no di erent. Our players’ ages range from 18 to a lot more; we have got all the tee shirts; we are content with keeping our game relevant, competitive, enjoyable and ful lling. And in the main, we would like it to last more than 3 hours.
Barry Aitken
REPORTS
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