northwichcc

Its been a long, difficult season, but there is no need to feel too disappointed.

We are arguably the fourth best club in the Mellor Braggins league and have won a trophy, something 30 other clubs in our league have not done.

It is our highest finish in the Cheshire League ladder for 14 years, since we were kicked out of the County League.

But we need to all think about and discuss how we are going to move forward for 2010. Remember, that as an improving, forward looking club we have to improve our finishing position EVERY season.

We will be holding a Players Meeting at the club on Saturday at 7.30(ish), when everybody will be expected to attend and contribute.

AGENDA

Season 2009 review. Where can we do better and how?
Presentation Evening 24th Oct 2009. Organizing.
Volunteers and Helpers. It is YOUR club.
Planning for 2010. What do we do to improve?


Dodgy Shirt

For the last game of the season we will be having a “dodgy shirt day.”

All players (and spectators) must wear the worst shirt you own (or can buy).

Prizes will be awarded to the worst ones. Fines will be levied on non-entrants.

Fines will also be issued on match day and proceeds will go towards the evening supper.

We will also have the return of man and clown of the match with a special penance for the 2 match clowns!

Interesting agenda.

As many of you know, i have always said, this season in Div 1 of the MBCCL should have been looked upon as a consolidation season. To finish 3rd would be an excellent result, as next season the players in the 17-20 age group will have seen the standard required to compete in the CCCL.

Make no mistake, next season will not be easy, with the two CCCL teams that come down, plus Stockport coming up.

Far be it from me to critisise ANY drinking culture, i do find it strange, that players going out on Friday nights, and getting home in the early hours of Saturday morning, still expect to perform at their best, come 1.30pm???

Maybe two net sessions a week, say Tues + Thurs may help?

The bottom line is, players don't get paid to play cricket in the MBCCL, as it is an 'amateur' league, but if players prepare in an 'amateur' way, then unfortunatly, the results will follow.

As you are all aware, this is just my own humble opinion, and will be dismissed out of hand, which is to be expected, i understand that.

But maybe it will start off your meeting on Saturday evening?

Anyway, for what it's worth, an exellent season, run by an exellent skipper.

Knuckle down next season, and there's no reason why NCC will not be promoted.

orite then who has logged in as Slogger !!!!??????

I cant believe im saying this but that post was spot on mate it should be seen as a succesful failure. I hate losing and wont give up until it is not possible !!! Which is why i have only just accepted we didnt have a chance !!!!!!!

sorry James side tracked me at the end of that reply i didnt mean "didnt have a chaance" as i still beleive we are a better side than the two that went up !!!!

I meant no longer mathmatically had a chance !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was me mate! And every word, i meant!

Unlucky this season, but you'll get it right.

Dont think that theres anything wrong with drinking on a friday night - as long as you can still perform on a sat! and its perfectly clear that some people cant!

Its all about attitude, some of our youngsters have great potential (well past that stage myself) but arent using it because they turn up for games in a mess.

Its up to them, but do they want to get to 27/28 and realise that they havent achieved anything in the game? or do they want to work hard and become as good as i think that they can be - very very good cricketers!?

Personally i think i know the answer! But id love some of them to prove me wrong!

Oh and im not jsut blaming the younger members of the squad for us missing out this season - i dont think that any of us can say that we have had a good one!

To be honest lads, i dont know what it is, but it seems that this season just hasent been as enjoyable as previous ones??

The drinking before a game..yeh fair enought it shouldnt be done if we do want to do well for ourselfs, but can just the younger players be blamed for this?

This year has been a big season for the development for example the younger lads being given more of a chance in the first team, and even youngers lads scoring 100s in senior cricket, and now that we have all had a taste of what the top Mellor Briggins league standard is like then next year we will know what to expect, therefore this should give us; as a club a great chance for promotion!!!

After that im nackered now lol took me ages to think what to write!!!

x

I know what has happend this year.

For the past 3/4 seasons Northwich have been playing in shit leagues against mainly non-cricketers (some exceptions) and our team has been too good.

Each winter the message has been lets keep going.

This year we are playing at a higher standard but we are not prepared to roll our sleeves up and work hard for it, as we have not needed to in previous years.

I have played in all divisions in the CCCL and to be honest going up again could have a negative effect on the club, because the next step up is even bigger! but can we step up????

There are some young players at the club who are very talented but need to flick the switch and step up to this level, and some older ones too! They are young, lets remember that. They also need to listen a bit more, but hey we were all young once.

We finished 3rd, great result. The reality is that we have now highlighted where we need to improve and fill gaps, we have 7 months to plan for this! No excuses.

There are lots of ideas buzzing around my head, i will leave you with one thought - whilst the method of communication is sometimes flawed, Slogger knows the game better than most - FACT. I would love to see him involved.

Cheers for that last comment Stuey.

The point about my communication being ''flawed'', i must slightly disagree. All i used to say, was what i thought of either an individual, or maybe team selection.

In truth, over the last two seasons, the discipline and respect in the club has deteriorated some what. This was noted by other older players too.

I honestly believe the club could move forward with a more stringent regime in place, to deal with the above two points.

Having watched and skippered most of the younger 1st and 2nd team players, their attitude did disappoint me.

So, as you can see, this post is written in the past tence, and should answer your last point.

Preparation is the key as Stu has mentioend. Whilst we have 7 months to plan for next season there needs to be a clear message as to what this plan will entail. My thoughts would be that this is confirmed by the captains for next year and is then communicated out to the players of what they expect.

The respect is a massive issue for everyone and a reason why our training has been poor. Granted i can't comment on what it has been like for the last 6-8 weeks but prior to that it was not enjoyable.
I for one feel that for us to gain the most out of training there needs to be more structure in there as Slogger has mentioned, with more structure we may find that this improves attitudes? It should also help keep people interested in training.

The drinking issue is one that will be around forever, people will continue to do what they think is right, all you can do is appeal to their better nature and hope that they are sensible enough to realise how drinking will affect them the following day. Dougie - you are right, the finger can not just be pointed at the younger players as it is not just the younger ones who have been guility of this. I know I have been out and got p*ssed on a friday on more than one occassion.

Slogger - I think whats Stu's saying is right alot of points you make are valid andpeople understand you say what you think. Its who you are

This is a good quality to have however you need to think about how you say it as the wrong way is gonna annoy people even more.

I do agree whol heartedly wityh alot of what your saying though. An example of this is highlighted for me from something we did at Knutsford in hockey. Last season the players were given an agreement that we had to incorporate. It wasnt a contract as such but an agreement between the team about how we would do things in the season.

This was things like be at training unless a good reason or no going out and getting hammered on a friday night.

The captain said to us he appreciated that its an amateur sport and we are amateur but because of the attitude and commitment we gained promotion and won the cup in our leagues.

This may be something worth looking into if people would buy into it ??

Another good thing this promoted was team spirit as we had several nights out as a team during a season and this was a real asset for camaraderie.

Just a thought

I have to say that this was a success and if everyone buys into it then it does work well and you have a great time.

The main points of ours was: -

Trainging unless you have a real excuse (holiday/ work/ sickess) anyone not attending should let the skipper know before training starts

Commit to missing only 3 games - holiday etc. Anything outside of this would incur a financial fine that goes into the pot for the end of season do.

Weekly fines for lateness - £1 after the first 5 minutes and then a £1 for every minute after that. Again all funds to the pot

Attempt to have a team night out every 6 weeks (approx).

This is all open to intepretation but can say that this did help with the banter. Along with this there was a game day judge. Everything is run by his watch and he will look to hand out fines on the day which we can make run in accordance with the stuff that we were doing last year.

As it has already been mentioned this is for fun, it is not a contract but a list of points that the team/ squad/ club agree to. If there is a point that the team do not agree on then this needs to be looked at or re-work so that everyone is happy with it.

Certainly something that should be considered.

Afternoon all!

Great to hear people looking on the positives of what can be done moving forward within NCC. This season has been great and an essential building block for the future. In life, business etc - nothing will ever run smoothly and things are sent to challenge you along any journey. My thoughts are - if you continue to do things in the same way - you'll continue to get the same results. If you advance what you do in some way - you may get advanced results?

I also feel that we are over-reacting on certain issues! We have had a succesful season - just remember that it's our own standards that have caused a feeling of failure. We haven't failed at all - maybe we set the wrong expectations at the start? Targets need to be achievable - and involve certain time expectations too! Ability is essential - but experience and attitude are THE clinical factors! Everyone knows what is required to push for promotion next year now - best of luck!! And enjoy the winter months - they're always cosy!!

I have said this a couple of times that we do not seem to be as close as other teams. Like for example how many times this year have we all got in a taxi and gone out after a game on a saturday as a team - ZERO!....We have hardly even all stayed down the club for a few beers much at all unless we have won something (Twenty20 CHAMPIONESSS) and these are the things that create good team spirit.

Training is the big one tho, this is where the real team spirit is made, but like people have said it needs to be enjoyable so that people want to turn up. even if that means you net properly and then have a big game of rounders or quick cricket of something like that.

On the other hand i like the sound of that "Team Rules" sounds like a laugh, becuase this year we did miss out on fines big time even if it was only really me and jaimo who paid them!

x