BEYOND THE BOUNDARY with John Riley: Rollercoaster summer for Scarborough CC
As the cricket season draws to its close, this will be my final column for this year.
It has been a tumultuous year with the new committee pulling round a club which was teetering on the edge and thankfully, most people have been really appreciative of our efforts and have commented on the fresh, forward thinking policies we have tried to adopt.
On the club cricket front, our First X1 have held their own and have had a season which has allowed our players to evaluate their experience.
Our spectating members have high expectations given our history as a club but to be fair, all these lads are home grown and we have no paid or overseas players as we try to rebuild.
The rebuilding seems to have worked with the Second XI who have had a brilliant season and have gained a much deserved promotion.
Next season, there will only be two leagues between the two club Saturday sides.
The junior section, the heartbeat and future of the club, continues to thrive under Danielle and our team of coaches.
We run eight junior teams from Under-9s through to Under-15s including our newly formed girls’ side.
The U11 Vikings reached the Plate final, the U11 Superchargers reached their cup final and the U13 Vikings won their league.
The youngsters’ skills will continue to be enhanced through our winter programme.
The highlight of our first class season was undoubtedly the Metro Cup fixture against Derbyshire which featured a brilliant game, excellent receipts and our food vendors reporting that they hadn’t sold that amount of grub for 14 years!
The weather broke for the four-day game against Leicestershire and the game never really got going.
It proved a tough experience for our indefatigable groundsman, John Dodds, who after three dry and scorching months then had to have the covers on and off for four days.
John has prepared almost 140 matches on the ground this season and he freely admits that the Leicester game was a real tester.
Our thanks go to him and the rest of our team who have worked so hard through this generally glorious summer.