What will you do when the season finishes and there is no more cricket to enjoy? You could join The Cricket Society, a national organisation with a branch near you. The Durham and North East branch meets at The Riverside on the first Thursday of each month from October to March at 7.30pm. There is also an annual dinner in April. There are nearly two hundred members in the area and about ninety attend the monthly meetings.
Each month we have a speaker on cricket. These have included players past and present including Jon Lewis, Paul Collingwood and Martin Moxon; administrators such as our own Bob Jackson and visitors from other counties Peter Anderson and Jim Cumbes; as well as a selection of cricket people like Jack Chapman, Sidney Fielden and Keith Hayhurst.
To keep you up to date, all members receive the society's Journal twice a year and the Bulletin eight times.
Branch Chairman is Ian Howie who is a director of Durham CCC. Secretary Ian Jackson and a committee of Tony Banks, Michael Gauntlett, David Henley, Gill Dawson and Trudi Harding help him. Finances are under the eagle eye of John Dudley.
If you want to talk to somebody about what we do catch one of us when you are down at The Riverside or phone Ian Jackson on 0191 236 4737 or email him on ianjackson@cricketsociety.com.
We hope to see you over the coming winter when the Cricket Society helps us all to overcome those end of season blues.
Statisticians Join Society for Award
The Association of Cricket Statisticians produce an annual covering the second XIs of the first class counties and in it they name their Second XI Player of the Year. This year it has been won by Garry Park of Durham CCC. He received the trophy at a meeting of the Durham and North East Branch of The Society after scoring 653 Second XI Championship runs, including 3 centuries and taking 37 catches and 5 stumpings in his nine matches in 2006. By the end of the season he had broken into the championship side and scored a hundred in the decisive game against Yorkshire.
After Branch Chairman and Durham CCC Director Ian Howie had made the presentation around 100 members enjoyed hearing the views of Garry and his team mates Kyle Coetzer and Neil Killeen. Many thanks to them and to everybody who has given freely of their time for the benefit of The Cricket Society this winter.
