Welcome Back!

Dear Member/Supporter,

Welcome back!

Well here we are again at the beginning of a new cricket season, we hope you are all looking forward to it as much as we are.

The new drainage lines have worked very well over the winter and as a result the ground retains much less water than it did previously. This, and many hours of hard work from our grounds volunteers means that Church Lane is looking in great condition, ready for our first senior matches this weekend! However, there are still some important jobs that need doing around the ground to allow our grounds team to focus on the playing surface. Many members have already helped out, but we still need a few extra hours to be volunteered before the weekend. Please contact Richard Cragg on 01625 576092 to confirm when you can assist.

We recently shared information of our refurbished clubhouse & bar. We now have our new windows installed (and no unsightly bars in front of them) and new front doors will follow in a few weeks. CCTV is also being installed within the clubhouse this week.

We are very happy to be welcoming back a number of our cricket partners that were so successful last year, including:

- Dott Coffee, who became a firm favourite last summer with their excellent offering of hot drinks and tasty treats

- Stephen Parry, ex Lancashire and England cricketer, who will continue to work with our u13s and u15s, as we continue to invest in the development of all of our young cricketers

- I Knead Pizza, another firm favourite on a Friday night, will be joining us once a month.

- We will also be expanding the food offering on Friday evenings to include Jamaican, Greek, Malaysian, Sri Lankan and Japanese, on different Friday nights throughout the summer, so fingers crossed for some sunny evenings!

We are very pleased to finally welcome our 2022 overseas player Sean McNicholl, a 23 year old who plays Victoria Premier First Grade cricket for Greenvale in Melbourne, Australia. Covid has prevented Sean's arrival the last 2 years and it's an exciting prospect to have one of Victoria's best young fast bowlers in our midst. Across the week, Sean will be part of our junior coaching team in the weekly Tuesday and Friday group sessions alongside Craggie's Academy sessions. Sean will be available to members for private 1-2-1 bookings (click here for info) and will also be an integral member of the Grounds team under Craggie and Phil, helping prepare the pitches and surrounds for us all to enjoy our cricket this summer. 

We’re sure you’ll make him feel welcome and here are a few words from Sean himself:

“Hello Everyone,

My name is Sean and I’ll be the club’s overseas player for the 2022 season. I hail from Melbourne, Australia and am a right arm pace bowler. 

What attracted me to Bramhall was the quality of people, high-class facilities and opportunity to help the first team win the league after last year’s close and disappointing finish. Accordingly, I’m really excited to develop both my own game while I’m here and especially the skills of the club's junior players who I’ll be working with throughout the season. Please click here for more info about my private 1-2-1 coaching sessions.

This is my first time travelling abroad as an adult and so I’m really excited to do a bit of travelling around Europe while I’m here.

Despite only being here 10 days, I’ve absolutely loved my time in the UK so far and feel really fortunate to be staying with such a welcoming host family as Steve and Sarah Driscoll. I couldn’t be more excited to get stuck into the season and a massive thank you to everyone who’s introduced themselves so far and if you haven’t yet, I look forward to seeing you around the club for a chat.

Cheers,

Sean”

Just a quick reminder that all players need to have paid their 2022 membership subscription online at www.webcollect.org.uk/bramhallcc in order to be selected. In addition, the ECB & Cheshire County League are now stipulating that every player in a senior team must have signed up as a member of their club’s Play-Cricket website – this is new for 2022 and non-registered players will not be selected by the club. Please see here for details of how to do so.

A date for you to save in your diaries is Friday June 10th for a major club event which sees BCC take on a PCA England Masters team (made up of recent England players) to raise funds for our partner 1000 Hearts for Harry and our club.

Keep your eyes peeled for weekly updates containing summaries of our recent matches and those matches in the next few days. We'll also shortly have a refresh of our website online.

We look forward to seeing you all at Church Lane very soon.

Sarah Smith

BCC Chairman