Wishing everyone well

Ladies and Gentlemen, I know your thoughts are more likely to be on a knees up rather than a leg before and a turkey rather than a duck, but allow me to briefly interrupt your seasonal cheer with a few cheery thoughts of a season to come by way of a few juicy appetisers.

1.Keeping Score:

As you may well remember, there was much good work done last season to raise funds for the new electronic scoreboard, and you will be pleased to know that it is now on order and will be installed in good time for the beginning of the new season.

2.Thames Valley Cricket League:

The TVCL held its AGM on 5th December which was most notable for a generous tribute to M&BCC's success in 2007 as we were congratulated on '' a great all round club effort'' from 1st XI to 4th XI.

Meanwhile the league continues to grow in size and will expand in 2008 from 7 Divisions to 9 Divisions; the details for all our 2008 fixtures should be available in January and will be posted on our website http://www.mandbcc.co.uk

3.M&BCC Ladies Cricket:

I am delighted to announce that we are launching a Ladies XI in 2008.

The initiative is being led by two of our lady coaches, Amy Newman and Lyndsey White, and we are planning at least half a dozen friendly fixtures next season with three home game dates already set.

Amy and Lyndsey will be running Ladies (only) practice nets at St Pirans School in Maidenhead in February and March and are keen to hear from any Ladies (over 15) who would like to get involved whether beginner, intermediate or seasoned ace.

Please feel free to contact Ami or Lyndsey and they will be happy to tell you more, and please also tell any friends or family who might be interested in joining in.

4. Winters Nets:

Talking of nets, the club's Winter nets practice for Colts and Senior Mens sides start at St Pirans School on 19th January and run until 26th April ( with the exception of 15th March).

The Colts sessions will be from 11.00am and 12.30pm, and the Seniors sessions from 12.30pm until 2.00pm.

We are obviously keen to build on our success of last season and your Coaches and Captains very much hope to see playing members in action from January onwards!

5. Colts Colts Colts:

Lastly, and at the shameless risk of repeating earlier correspondence, another mention must go to our Colts who did so well in the recent District and County trials and another big thank you goes to all the coaches who helped them.

Those selected are:

Sam Hooper, Tom Harrison, Vishal Gossain, Alex Hess, Sachin Moudgil, Jamie Odell, Cameron McCrystal, Cameron Jacobsen, Karan Kumar, James Brooks, Ben Howard, Asad Zaman, Raoul Cheema, Oscar Beardmore Gray, Matthew Balmer, Monty Bampfield, William O'Shea, Bradley Upton, Simon Wykes, LD Basson, Avinash Gossain, Thomas Noakes, Alkesh Vaja, Blair King and James Parrott.

It seems fitting to end the Christmas newsletter on this note of youthful optimism and so best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Kind Regards

Nick Clements

M&BCC Chairman