Anthony Axford Bolton Cricket League
CHAIRMANS REMARKS 2006
May I begin by thanking all concerned for affording me the privilege and pleasure of being Chairman of the Bolton Cricket League in 2006 and thus allowing me the opportunity to present this Report .
LEAGUE OFFICIALS - The BCL are fortunate to have such hard working and conscientious people the amount of time and effort that Ray Taylor and Bill Stevenson put in (as Secretary & Treasurer respectively) deserves our highest appreciation thank you chaps . Our President has not enjoyed the best of health in 2006 and yet he still continues to make a valuable contribution not just to the BCL (in a wide range of areas) but to the LCB and to the MEN Inter League Competition thanks Peter and best wishes for 2007 . In addition can I thank 3 other hard working officials Tony Hayes , David Morris and Mike Hall who as our Co-opted Members Chair the 3 Sub-committees Discipline / Ground / Competitions & Registrations thank you for the time and effort you put in throughout the year helping to resolve all the difficult issues that occur - fortunately you have the patience of Job ; the judgement of Solomon ; and clearly understanding wives !!
CLUBS & CLUB REPS - Thank you to all Clubs and particularly all Club Representatives for your contributions and support throughout the year we have over the past couple of years tried to encourage the active participation of Club reps in our various Sub-committees and you have all been prepared to get involved and contribute , sometimes in solving problems and reaching decisions which were difficult and time consuming thank you for your help and assistance
UMPIRES - Firstly a huge thank you to Karen Knott and Eric Smith who attend our League Meetings as representatives of the Umpires and keep us in touch with the views, comments and opinions of their colleagues as well as keeping us abreast of MCC and ACUS matters your reports are always informative and well presented , and occasionally when you are required to listen to some barbed words you invariably do so in good spirit and respond in a fair yet firm manner thank you .
Secondly , can I thank your Chairman (Paul Dalton) and all the Umpires for your commitment and dedication throughout the whole of 2006 which includes the organisation and running of the Axford Indoor Competition ; all the Courses you run aimed at increasing the numbers of Umpires & Scorers ; as well as your officiating in all the full range of League and Cup matches throughout the Season ( with special congratulations to Paul and Ted who were given the honour of the LKO Final at Old Trafford in 2006 ) - thank you for your contribution to the BCL
JUNIORS - The Junior section is a hardworking and committed group thanks mainly to the Club reps and in particular to our Age Level reps John Hutchinson , Barry Cryer and Ian Cavill who ensure the Season runs smoothly .
Many thanks also to all those who help out at every Club Team Managers , Coaches , Parents , Club Officials , and the many helpers for all your hard work and effort on behalf of your Junior players and the BCL .
At Inter League level we are indebted to all those people who look after the various teams too numerous to mention individually but many thanks to you all .
Finally , the Junior section could not run as efficiently and effectively as it does without the commitment and dedication of Mike Buckley thank you Mike for your passion and sheer hard work .
CONGRATULATIONS - To all those Clubs who had a successful season in 2006 it is not my intention to mention each Club and Player individually as that was done at the League Dinner , but I must specifically congratulate a few Clubs and players : -
Walkden CC won the League Championship on the last day of the season in magnificent style and were deserved winners yet again superbly led by Mike Bennison as Captain with Paul Wiseman as Professional their Champioship winning season was truly a team affair although special congratulations must go to John Smith on achieving the magnificent total of 1,000 career wickets in the BCL , all for his own Club Walkden .
Runners up in both the League and the Hamer Cup were Greenmount CC with their Professional Usman Tariq enjoying an excellent season together with John Ashworth who deservedly won the Players Player of the Season award . Mark Stewart achieved the same milestone as John Smith in 2006 , 1,000 career wickets in the BCL for his own Club Greenmount superb achievements by 2 very special players , well done John and Mark .
The 2nd X1 Championship was deservedly won by FSC , having led the table for much of the season and never really looked like being caught their blend of experience and youth proving too strong for everyone else it was a great pleasure to present the Winners Trophy to their Captain Marshy .
The Birtwistle Cup was won in great style by Westhoughton CC who batted magnificently and then bowled and fielded superbly to defeat Bradshaw , whilst Tonge CC won both the Hamer Cup and the Lyddon Trophy with brilliant all round team performances .
Congratulations to all the Winners in 2006 .
A quick mention of 2 Professionals Adil Nisar for Tonge CC whose performances throughout the season in batting , bowling & catching were simply outstanding and special congratulations to David White of Horwich CC who has reached the career milestone of 10,000 runs and 1,000 wickets in the BCL a fantastic achievement .
THE FUTURE - The BCL is fast approaching its 80th year of existence and throughout those many years we have continually sought to improve so that we can now be proud of and enjoy our hard-earned reputation as a Senior League within the County .
We provide competitive and quality cricket within our Senior League and no other League provides its Junior players with a better foundation than the BCL with our commitment to finding and developing young cricketers through the efforts of our Member Clubs and our unique approach to a League supported Coaching structure .
We continue to provide numerous players , at various Age Levels , for the County hoping to emulate the success of our BCL produced Sajid Mahmood into the England Test side indeed we had 3 players in 2006 who reached County 2nd X1 status . It is disappointing therefore that some people within the County structure still insist that players move out of the BCL to Premier Leagues despite our track record .
There are 3 areas that I believe the BCL can still improve upon :-
1) Administration improvements in the quality and timing of our reporting Match Results , Umpires Reports , Media all these areas are relatively simple to address , requiring a little bit of self-discipline , yet we continue to let ourselves down by slackness . It should not be necessary for the League to consider penalising Clubs with the deduction of points for such matters Clubs should be able to resolve these things internally
2) Grounds & Facilities - it is important that we continue to strive for better wickets , better outfields , better dressing room facilities etc some of our Clubs have made great strides over recent years , some have still a way to go better sightscreens , bigger sightscreens , better wicket covers , better machinery , cleaner dressing rooms , more showers etc all of which will have a direct influence on the quantity & quality of cricket we produce
3) Clubmark - the accepted accreditation for all Cricket Clubs and which provides the blueprint for Club development as well as pointing the way to the necessary funding for Clubs to achieve their objectives . Disappointingly we only have 4 Clubs out of 14 with this accreditation it should be a priority for us as a Senior League to have all our Clubs reach this standard , the benefits to each Club far outweigh the effort required to attain Clubmark
I must take this opportunity to thank everyone for attending the Forums we recently held to discuss & debate Bolton League Cricket your opinions were gratefully received and early in 2007 we will publish the results and set up further meetings
Finally may I thank everyone for all their hard work throughout the year and wish everybody a successful 2007
Derek Kay 12/2006