Ongar Cricket Club

There is the saying “one step forward, two steps back”. For Ongar Cricket Club, unfortunately, it was more than two steps back in 2007.

In previous years, it has always been pleasing to report on the improvements that have been made on the pitch. Over the last few years there have been improvements in the number of games won, the increase in points gained and also and probably the most pleasing was not finishing at the bottom of the league table. Unfortunately, the 2007 season brought none of this and the club returned to the dark days of 2002 where victories were elusive and the club spirit was severely tested.

The loss of key players was a major factor in the down turn of results. 1^st XI Captain Steve Reynolds made himself unavailable due to family commitments so not only did the club lose a skipper, they lost a top class batsman. After two seasons at Love Lane, overseas player Matt Maguire returned to Perth and confirmed he would not be returning. Having contributed over 500 runs and taken 25 wickets in 2006, this would be a big hole to fill. Unfortunately, circumstances dictated that a large part of the budget had to be allocated to winter ground work and the finances did not stretch to a replacement. There were also injuries to the ever reliable Dean Mitchell (shoulder) and to wicketkeeper Neal Clark (broken foot and hamstring) and a club the size of Ongar can ill afford to lose this amount of players.

Dave Hetherington took over as the new 1^st XI skipper, something he described as an honour and he summed up his account of the season by saying “My first season as the Ongar 1^st X1 captain has been an eye opener, to say the least. It’s been a tough year results wise and to say I am disappointed would be understatement. I know we are all disappointed.

I must say that I didn’t see this coming especially after our fantastic effort against Premier league side Wickford in the league cup prior to the start of the season. This turned out to be false hope because they were relegated from the Premier league at the end of the season. The loss of Matt Maguire, Steve Reynolds and Dean Mitchell before the start of the season proved to be a step too far. It was always going to difficult for a club like Ongar to replace one of them let alone all three but despite this loss I still had high hopes for the team. I must also mention that we missed Neal Clark (the best wicketkeeper in the league) for a majority of the season with injuries to his left foot, although Mick Ayres was an able deputy. We did manage to compete against some of the teams and when we did this we enjoyed the competition but more often than not we were left dejected. We never gave up and eventually our efforts were rewarded with our back to the walls win against Epping in the last game of the season. A good feeling and a fabulous team effort! Notable performances from everyone but a special mention for David Coles who scored a very brisk 50, his 2^nd of the season, Bradley Stewart with three wickets and 40 not out batting at number and Daniel Shuttleworth for a brisk 39. I know we would all like to experience this feeling a lot more next season. All in all we didn’t score enough runs and take enough wickets consistently and we will need to do this on a regular basis next season if we are to improve on this year’s performances. Our performances have not reflected our abilities but if we can recruit two or three quality players to join our existing pool we should be competitive.  I know it’s not going to easy but we can’t give up. We must look at ourselves and ask whether we can do more individually. You only get out what you put in. Despite our lack of playing success during the season we became a tight group and I am sure everyone will agree that off the pitch the team spirit has been wonderful. The camaraderie is second to none and embodies the spirit within the whole club. Long may this continue!

A brief mention for three of our younger players namely Nick Suker, Daniel Shuttleworth and Matt Adcock who all deservedly established themselves as 1^st team regulars. They can only improve if they want to and this bodes well for next season and many more.

Do I want to be captain again next season? I have thought long and hard about this and despite the many lows and few highs I have enjoyed being the captain and would like to give it another go next year. If there is someone more barking than me then I will step aside.

Please remember that cricket is a team sport not an individual sport and it is not what your club can do for you but what you can do for your club.”

Despite the trials and tribulations experienced during the season, Dave has agreed to carry on as skipper in 2008.

The 2^nd XI also saw a change in captaincy, not only before the season but during the season as well. Daniel Shuttleworth agreed to step in when Ross Darby took the decision not to continue but it wasn’t long before Daniel’s performances in the 2^nd team saw him picked for the 1^st XI and another new skipper required. This time, it was the turn of Tom Stock to take on the role and he did manage to last until the end of the season.

At the AGM, Tom said "Football managers often use the cliché of a season of transition to describe a poor season but for the 2nd XI I think the season really was one of transition with two official captains, three temporary skippers and a massive 41 players turning out at least once (beat that Rafa Benitez).  Most important of all however was the growing influence of the younger members of the team who matured as the season wore on.”

Obviously, with a struggling 1^st XI, Tom was always likely to lose any player who was either taking wickets or scoring runs but he never complained, he just got on with the task in hand.

With so many players representing the two’s, it would be difficult to mention all of them individually so but there were some performances worthy of a mention. Sam Adcock turned his hand to everything and usually did it really well, being leading run scorer, second leading wicket taker, a dynamic square leg and most notably a spin bowling machine at Epping picking up a massive seven wickets to drive the team onto victory. Sam Sweeting improved his batting over the year and caught everything in the gully and Matt Adcock played like only he can but matured over the season. Chris Sims had a hard season and popped up in every team but chose the twos to score a great 50 when it really mattered and Lee Paris was probably the unluckiest bowler to play for Ongar this year but could at least comfort himself as being third leading run scorer.  Peter Ellis came down from the ones to spearhead the attack and picked up 19 wickets in just 8 games and Jon Browning came back from some difficult games (and several retirements) to take four wickets in the Woodford Green home game, sadly injury restricted his season after that encouraging performance.

Of the three sides, it was the 3^rd XI who could boast the least amount of losses in 2007; however, this was largely due to the fact that of the 18 games shown in the fixture card, 10 of these were not played as a side could not be raised. This was a worrying sign as in previous years, no matter what, captain Mark Suker always managed somehow to gather 11 bodies.

Based on the progress made in previous seasons, Mark was confident that this would be another good year for the team and maybe they may find themselves in the upper half of the table but it soon came apparent that all was not well in the three’s.

Heavy defeats against Old Parkonians and Southend on Sea were not the start hoped for but a greatly improved batting display at Epping almost secured a victory only for the game to be lost in the final over despite a superb knock of 107 from Chris Simms.

As the weeks rolled on, the battling displays against Benfleet and Epping were sadly undone with more heavy defeats against Brentwood and Southend. It was becoming harder and harder for the captain to raise a team and one of the main considerations when selecting a side was how many of the players were old enough to drive in order that they could get to the grounds!

Mark likened the third team to a patient. One week the patient was doing well with signs of improvement then the following week, the patient was being rushed to the emergency room. The committee were conscious of the fact that games were constantly being cancelled. With all of the teams being deducted five points; this did not help the points tally when it was proving difficult in securing the much needed bonus points.

It was on the 4^th August that Mark reported that the third team ‘life support machine’ was being turned off. Mark summed up his feelings by saying “ it was a very sad day for me when I had to report back to the committee that I felt the third team could no longer be kept going but we have to be realistic. May be my enthusiasm was only hiding the fact that the third team was critically ill and this decision should have been made earlier, who knows? Having said this I have really enjoyed my time as third team captain and the highs have far outweighed the lows.

I would like to thank all the players who have played for me in the 3rd team this year and over last few years, far too many to mention them all but I would especially like to thank Bob Overy, Ian Groves, Michael Wood and Steve Andow who without their support  the third team would have died years ago”.

It was decision time for the club and the options were either move to another league or approach the SNEL Executive Committee and ask if they would allow us to field only a 1^st and 2^nd XI. The Ongar committee were reluctant to give up without a fight as it had taken a lot of hard work to get into the league over 10 years ago so a request to ‘drop’ the third eleven was submitted to SNEL and this was subsequently accepted. At this point the club would like to thank Cliff Greenhill and Mike Barnes for their support and Ongar will ensure that they meet the minimum requirement which is to field two teams.

Off of the field, a lot of work was undertaken on the cricket square and although this did not help with results, there was a noticeable improvement in the way that the pitches played and it was nice to hear positive comments from so many of the panel umpires. This work will continue over the winter months but such work costs money and this would not have been possible without a substantial amount of money that was raised at a club golf day and at the end of season dinner and dance. Neither of these events would have happened but for a lot of hard work, time and effort that was put in by the Club Chairman, Nigel Shuttleworth.

The hopes for 2008 are to improve results on the pitch, only time will tell if fielding two sides instead of three will help, at least we won’t be continually deducted points for not raising a third XI. The club is hopeful of recruiting an overseas player of a very high standard, somebody who can make a real difference as it is noticeable how the bar has been raised over the years in the quality of overseas players. Whatever happens, we as a club will continue to play our cricket in the right spirit. Too many times last year, we were subjected to abuse from opposing players who assumed that as we were at the bottom of the league, it was their divine right to just turn up and beat us. If a defensive shot was played we were mocked, if an attacking shot was played, it was met with sarcasm. Despite what several postings on the ECCC website have suggested, we will continue to play our cricket in the Shepherd Neame league. It’s all too easy to walk away from difficult situations and it takes character to continue and continue is what we shall do.

Onwards and upwards.