By Charles Randall
27 November 2012
The Club Cricket Conference has maintained efforts to enhance many aspects of the recreational game in 2012, including universities and ethnic leagues for the first time, and further strides have been made towards creating a national set-up by uniting the south with organisations in the midlands and the north.
Roger Dakin told the annual CCC lunch at Lord's on Monday that the year had been "one of the most exciting and productive" in recent CCC history, with much credit going to a small band of dedicated people led by the chairman Alf Langley, of Shepherds Bush CC.
Dakin said that the CCC aspired to be part of a "dynamic force" by combining with the Midlands Cricket Conference and League Cricket Conference in the north to support recreational cricket on a nationwide rather than regional basis in conjunction with the ECB.
Dakin added: "We're looking to set up our own Club Cricket Conference charity to maximise our fund-raising efforts. We're creating aid for universities outside the MCC universities structure. The first of these will be the University of East London. We're also make huge strides by identifying and engaging with many Asian leagues. These are ground-breaking initiatives that are already showing exciting results."
The 513 diners at Lord's applauded the winners of the 2012 spin scholarship competition, backed by Kingfisher Beer and All Out Cricket, which provided Joe Ellis-Grewal (Wanstead CC) and Rishi Sharath (Slough CC) with a trip to the Pune academy in India. The CCC organised tours to Oman and Jersey with mostly under-21 players, mentored by the former Kent and England left-arm spinner Min Patel, the CCC head coach. Fixtures against county second teams increased, allowing unheralded players a chance to break into a higher level, and more resources were directed to women's cricket. Sam Burge, of East Molesey CC, was awarded his CCC cap for appearances in the last three years.
The event's main speaker Chris Cowdrey spoke amusingly about experiences in Test cricket and the 'shame' of watching his 11 year-old son make a county under-13 debut at Tonbridge School -- for Surrey, not Kent. The name Cowdrey appeared in Kent team sheets for 48 consecutive years, from Colin through to his two sons Chris and Graham.
This popular lunch was attended by a number of former England players -- Cowdrey, Min Patel, Angus Fraser, John Price, Richard Johnson, Clive Radley, Derek Underwood, Geraint Jones and John Emburey. It was interesting that when Cowdrey asked for a show of hands in the room to find out how many people thought Kevin Pietersen should have been selected for the England tour to India, barely a couple of dozen people thought so, out of 500-plus. And KP's finest England innings, 186 at Mumbai, was still fresh in the memory.
The event raised a substantial amount of money, likely to match last year's £35,000, through raffles and auctions for the benefit of the Lord's Taverners and club cricket.
Photographs of the event are available from Maureen McLean Photography