As happened last year the 2008 season was dominated by rain and dark clouds coming in from the south west but in spite of the gloomy weather we had a very enjoyable summer with lots of good and challenging cricket.
For much of the season the Saturday 1st XI was challenging for honours in the Surrey Downs League but a poor finish meant that they ended in fifth place. Both Ruky Wickremasinghe and skipper, Richard Callcut passed the 1000 runs for the season but generally just not enough runs were scored to enable the bowlers, who performed heroically throughout the season, to secure enough victories. It was gratifying to see under 15, Matt Clarke, force his way into the first eleven and secure a regular place.

Saturday 1st XI

Charlie Major, Matt Clarke, Ben Crook, Allan Cooper, Richard Callcut (Capt), Sam MacDonald
Ruky Wickremasinghe, Bill Turner, Mark Rance, Ramachandran Sridhar, Kris Scarzynski.

It was always known that the Saturday 2nd XI would have a tough season following their promotion last year into the second division, where all the other teams were first elevens with the exception of Headley Old Freemans. Skipper, Paul Bettesworth, who had an excellent season, was delighted that the team managed to maintain their status and ended up third from bottom. This was generally a young team with sometimes as many as nine players who had come up through the junior section.

Saturday 2nd XI

Sam MacDonald, Martin Clabby, Anneez Anwar, Paul Bettesworth (Capt), Mike Quigley, Dan Jones
John Callcut, Ben Brearley, Sam Slade, Hiten Patel, Will Bowley

Under the guidance of Mike Quigley a few 3rd XI matches were played and due to increased demand it is the club’s intention to create a limited fixture list for this team in 2009.
Both Sunday XI’s had enjoyable seasons under skippers Sam MacDonald and Sam Slade. The first eleven had good wins over Ashtead and Dorking and the second eleven saw the introduction of a number of junior players being introduced to senior cricket. Matt Jee scored his second century for the club and Hiten Patel hit his maiden century against The Journeymen. Well done to these two young players.

Sunday 2nd XI

Hiten Patel, Andrew Posner, Mike Quigley, Craig Jones, Chris Perrin, Dave Keeling
Matt Dilger, Peter Trower, Chris Fox, John Callcut, Sam Slade (Capt), Dai Fraser

We had an excellent 6 a-side tournament and a highlight of cricket week was a visit from Garware House Club from Mumbai in India.

The Brocus in September

We had 95 juniors registered and entered teams in the East Surrey Colts League at under 8, 9, 11, 13 and 16 levels. The highlight was when the talented under 13 team won the league cup after an intense final against Lingfield. They then played in the Surrey semi-final and lost a closely contested match to Wimbledon. A group was selected to display their skills at the Oval during the interval at the One Day International against South Africa and about forty juniors, parents and friends saw Surrey play in a NatPro 40 match again at the Oval. A number of juniors attended district trials during the winter so we look forward to seeing Newdigate juniors representing the County in 2009. We are able to offer excellent facilities for juniors with plenty of equipment which was further enhanced in 2008 with a bag of Kwik Cricket equipment from the Lord’s Taverners. . None of these activities would be possible without the dedication of our coaches.

The cup winning under 13s and a day at the Oval

During the summer term we re-established our link with Newdigate Junior School and established a new link with the Weald Junior School and provided cricket training for junior players at both schools.

Newdigate Infants School

We would like to thank all our sponsors, Bob’s Shop, KAM Trucking, BC Plumbing, EDF Energy, Redhill Analysts and Addstore who provided shirts and the fixture cards, Createur Limited for subsidising our caps and an anonomous donor who made a large contribution towards the training tops for our juniors and coaches.
Our website (www.newdigatecricketclub.co.uk) was established by Martin Clabby and kept up to date throughout the season with details of fixtures, reports and latest news. We also started an on-line shop through our website where top quality equipment, much branded with the club logo, can be purchased.
Last year the club achieved the ECB Clubmark Accreditaion and has recently been informed that they have been accepted as a Focus club, a status afforded to only a limited number of clubs throughout the UK. We have also achieved the Active Surrey bronze, silver and gold awards which together with Clubmark basically acknowledges that we are a well run club and provide a safe and enjoyable environment for players and guests both young and old.

The season ended on the 22nd November when over 120 members and guests enjoyed the annual presentation dinner and dance at the Wotton Hatch.

Junior and Senior Clubmen of the Year Awards

Matt Dilger with Paul Bettesworth and James Scowen with Andrew Major
Final game of the season – 28th September 2008