The 2000 season started where the previous season left off, with the club struggling to survive with a clubhouse in a state of disrepair. Our efforts to secure lottery funding for a new building were stalled, as they had been for the previous three years, and it seemed that the club was dying a slow death. Then, in June, the clubhouse was gutted by a fire: the police believed that it was arson, but had no idea who was responsible.

In the short term, this plunged the club into an even greater crisis, because we had to survive the rest of the season without facilities. However, in the longer term, because the building was insured, it has given us the opportunity to build a new clubhouse and, in so doing, to save the club. We have now settled the insurance claim and plan to modify the former squash court building, which was not damaged in the fire, converting it into a clubhouse.

In the circumstances, we did reasonably well on the cricket field during 2000: the 1st XI finished third out of ten in Division 2B of the reformatted Thames Valley Cricket League, and we played a full season of 1st XI friendlies on Sundays, winning more matches than we lost. However, life was more of a struggle for the respective 2nd XIs: we finished twelfth out of sixteen in Division 5 of the Thames Valley League, with very poor availability all season, and we only played a half season of Sunday 2nd XI matches, mainly because availability from 1st XI players was very poor. This latter point is more related to social change i.e. players tending to only play once a weekend, rather than any particular malaise in our club. It almost goes without saying that the club is greatly indebted to the two 2nd XI captains, David Peters and Richard Heath, who both worked tirelessly all season.

The 2000 season marked the 150th anniversary of the club and to celebrate this landmark we staged a match against the Club Cricket Conference. The match took place in July i.e. after the fire, and in the circumstances the day was a great success.

Phil Noot did a wonderful job, yet again, with the colts, continuing the good work of 1999 when we established three teams. He was helped by Sean McSweeney and Tony Hewston, who both attended an ECB coaching course before the season started. However, we still need more volunteers to help out; I seem to say this every year, but the colts are the single most important part of any cricket club and we must not lose sight of this.

We had some problems during the year with the ground and, partly because of this, we have now parted company with our groundsman. During the winter we have relied on the golf club to cut the outfield, and on David Banner to look after the square. We are currently looking for a groundsman for the forthcoming cricket season. David Banner has done a phenomenal job on the ground over the last year or so, and the club is greatly indebted to him for his efforts.

Finally, I am pleased to say that I am looking forward to the new season with more optimism than in recent years. At last, we have some tangible plans for a new clubhouse; it is planned that the new building will be partly operational (toilet, shower and changing facilities) by April and fully operational before the end of the season. This will, of course, only be the beginning, but it should at least give us a sound base from which to build. In the meantime, we need as many club members as possible to come forward and contribute to the ongoing rehabilitation of our club.

Matthew Stevenson