We approached the 2021 season with much trepidation following all the disruptions caused by Covid but we needn’t have worried as cricketers young and old came back to the club all wanting to play.

During the spring the pavilion was re-painted with preservative, the outfield scarified and re-seeded and new covers were purchased and a space next to the pavilion was cleared for their storage all in readiness for the season.

Saturday 1st XI

The Saturday 1st XI played in the Premier Division of the Fuller’s Brewery Surrey County League and were hoping to gain promotion to the Surrey Championship. By the middle of the season this looked a real possibility as they sat at the top of the league but a series of setbacks saw the team actually fighting to avoid relegation. A win on the penultimate match ensured their survival. The 2nd XI played consistently throughout the year and ended in second place thus gaining promotion. There were a series of excellent performances throughout the club. Centuries were scored by Lewis Davies (139),Scott Dunkerley (100*) and Richard Callcut (101) and on the bowling front we saw two brilliant performances when Charlie Wyllie took 8-51 and Scott Dunkerley took 8-71.

Saturday 1st XI

Saturday 2nd XI

2021 was a slightly disjointed season, with one club dropping out of the league, and the weather effecting us more than anyone else. As a result, we only had eleven completed games, of which we won 7, drew 2 and lost 2. this was enough to get us promoted, however, it came down to a winner takes all final game to secure it.

Our great strength was our bowling, with Ben Crook’s 23 wickets taking the divisional bowling award. He was well supported by Peter Pople with 18, and Sean Roast with 16. Charlie Wyllie picked up 11 wickets, with 9 of them in our two games against our closest rivals, Whiteley Village, This included match figures of 8-51 which is the third best figures in the club’s history.

With us predominantly chasing low totals, there wasn’t much opportunity for the batsmen. however, Dave Wrightson and myself formed an effective opening pair, and managed to finish first and fourth in the league standings with 415 and 248 runs.

The highlight of the season would have to be our win against Haslemere, with Ben and a hobbling Dave scrambling 20 off the last two overs. Beating West End Esher when, chasing just 97 and getting to within 12 runs with seven wickets in hand, we contrived to lose 6-6, only for Jacob Moon to stroll out at number 11 and smash his second ball for six to win it. And that crucial final game against Whiteley Village when it looked like it might be slipping away before Pete Pople went in and smashed 32 not out to take us home. He had only scored ten runs all season until that point!

I would like to thank everyone who turned out for he 2s last year, some at very short notice. Availability was always an issue, and we used a total of 31 players, with 17 of these only playing one or two games! However, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve promotion without each and every one of them, so thank you for ll making the effort.

We are looking forward to the challenge of Division 1 cricket next season.

Richard Callcut – Saturday 2nd XI Captain

Saturday 2nd XI

Sunday XI

2021 was an exciting year for Sunday XI teams at Newdigate Cricket Club. Again, we had two teams on a couple of occasions and participation from all levels within the club.

The Sunday 1st XI was scheduled to play 17 matches limited overs matches, 3 of which got cancelled, secured 8 wins, managed to lose on 6 matches and we played 4 away matches.

Sunday 2nd XI played mostly T20s and one limited over match; 4 of those matches were played away. We were scheduled to play 6 matches, secured 1 win and lost in 5.

Overall, the players and the oppositions enjoyed playing the matches. We saw a good number of matches finishing very close, the passion and excitement were noteworthy.

Match reports with pictures and videos were published on the club web-sites, the Dorking Advertisers also provided a good coverage of the Sunday matches. Please feel free visiting the club websites and Play Cricket website for each match overview and scores.

Individuals shone with their performances. Ben Haynes, Tanvir Mahmud, Jack Bowley, Simon Carrington, Angus Harper and David Callcut scored over 200 runs for the Sunday Teams. Ben Haynes topped the batting ranking scoring 400 runs with the average of 57.14.

10 or more wickets were claimed by Monjur Elahi, Jon Bell, Balaji Raju, Tanvir Mahmud and William Bowley. Jon Bell won the top bowling performance who took 13 wickets with the average of 16.85.

And the most popular ‘Players’ Player’ award for 2021 goes to Jon Bell too!

In the year 2022, Newdigate Sunday XI is playing both Friendlies and the Village Cricket League (Eastern Zone). This is the testing year for us with VCL and if goes well, we will be looking to enter into the full VCL league in the coming years. The VCL is expected to provide the older colts with a perfect platform of playing at a friendly competitive environment while preparing for the big league matches.

For 2022, we have 24 fixtures arranged, 6 of which are VCL fixtures. 8 out of these 24 fixtures are away matches to accommodate some of the Newdigate Ninja’s Home matches. The friendly fixtures are carefully chosen to match our strength and ensuring our long-standing fixtures and maintained. We will look for opportunities to play our Sunday 2nd XI when players numbers and fixtures are available. Moreover, there are plans for playing a few T20s inviting the neighbouring clubs on Fridays when the colts finish their season.

I would like to thank Andrew Major and James Penfold for their outstanding efforts to get the ground prepared for Sunday XI. I would also like to thank all the cricketers, clubsmen, oppositions for their continued support to successfully arrange and deliver Sunday matches. It gives me great pleasure to see the players enjoying, colts thriving with the given opportunities. The bond of fellowship we develop as we play in this growing cricketing family is a reward and I look forward to delivering a more successful year in 2022.

Monjur Elahi – Sunday Captain

Surrey Trust Development XI

Sunday XI in action

Ladies XI

Our ladies had a spectacular season – a just reward for their practice and dedication. They played in the Surrey T20 Slam and won their league – they then beat Cranleigh and then Guildford to reach the finals that were played at Horsley & Send Cricket Club. They came up against a very strong Richmond side in the semi-final and sadly lost.

Mid-Week XI

In 2021 the Newdigate Mid-Week side played a full season on eighteen games plus our usual end of season Brien-Jeffery game. We lost 13 and won 5. We rostered our matches from 26 players, 14 of whom were full season players and played 9-10 games and the remaining 12 were part-season players having 4-5 games.

Our awards for 2021 were as follows:

BATTING: Lee Brien with 270 runs with Angus Harper runner-up with 169. BOWLING: New player Jon Bell with 18 wickets and runner-up Lee Brien with 18 wickets but a lower average. CATCHING: Angus Harper with 6 catches. SPECIAL AWARD: Ryan Bennett 21 runs off 8 balls. PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Mark Treliving with 3 catches in the Surrey Oaks game and 3 wickets in the School Dads game and another 4 in the Beaverbrook game.

As many of you will remember in 2020 I retired from playing on my 80th birthday having hit my last six. I have been scoring for the mid-week team ever since. I have now decided to retire from running the mid-week side after 34 years and concentrate on being an Hon. Vice President of the club which I think involves no specific duties! I am very pleased to hand over to recently retired Julian Jeffery for the next 34 years!

Graham Capel

Our young players are the future of the club and junior numbers were up with exactly 100 registrations. This necessitated splitting training sessions to Monday and Friday evenings but on both days, with the addition of watching parents and relatives, the ground was packed, so maintaining social distancing was a challenge. The weather was mixed and out of the 14 training sessions we lost three weeks due to rain. We again ran All Stars cricket for the under 7s and entered teams in the new Surrey Junior Cricket Championship at under 9, 11, 13 and 15 levels. One stand-out moment was when under 15 Thomas Clark hit 123 not out against Dorking. There was hardly a day throughout the season when either matches or training were not taking place on the Brocus.

During the last week of July we ran a fun-filled Summer Camp when over 20 children attended each day. We also took a group to the Oval to see a professional one day match.

For many years we have presented cricket to schools throughout the area under the Chance to Shine scheme. Since its inception more than 5 million children have been introduced to cricket. This year we did twelve sessions to over 40 children in Years 1 & 2 on the Brocus for Newdigate Infant’s School.

In September, to close the season we had a junior awards presentation and our dinner and dance at Stanhill Court was sold out. Then the pitch was put to bed.

Our fingers will be well and truly crossed as we wait to hear about our application to Your Fund Surrey. We are desperately in need of new nets. Ours were originally installed in 1994 and now require constant maintenance to make them usable. With more and more young families attending we have a real health and safety issue and we are hoping to erect new nets on exactly the same site but to have them totally enclosed.

nb. Our application to the Your Surrey Fund was rejected despite us being short-listed. However, we have been able to obtain a grant from the ECB for £10,000 and an interest free loan of £23,000. Our Chairman has been able to organise a Crowd Funding site and it is hoped to raise the balance. The new nets will be installed at the end of May 2022.