Its been a while since I had a rant so with the new season fast approaching, I thought it was appropriate to have a bit of a rant. My New Year’s resolution is to write in this column more often as I only wrote one rant all year last year.
The season is yet to begin but its all systems go behind the scenes.
Firstly, Chuck and I will be attending the KCL AGM on the 30th of January.
Then on the 20th of February the Wombats will have their AGM at the Clubhouse in Shinjuku from 5pm. The will include important items from the KCL AGM, a financial statement, election of committee members, and other important information for the upcoming season. It will also be an important chance for all Wombats members to have their say. And don’t forget, if you want to vote, you have to have paid your yearly membership by that date.
You may pay before the start of the AGM if you wish. I’ll post full details with an agenda in the near future.
Then in March we’ll have our first practice session for the year and hopefully a practice match will be organised for some time in March or early April. Also in March for the non-peahearts of the club, or as Nikka would say, those that don’t squat to piss, the Chiang Mai 6s tournament will be held. It should be a great week of playing cricket and drinking with mates old and new. Plenty of new friends will also be made, and from a club perspective, new relationships will begin, hopefully blossoming into reciprocal tours and other cricket exchanges. Ian will be posting something in the coming days about the CM6s.
In April the season kicks off in earnest. In the KCL, as we were Division 2 Premiers last year, we have been promoted to Division 1 and we will make our debut in Division 1. The teams are generally a lot stronger and more well organised in DI than DII so there should be some excellent cricket played. In the JGC, no word as yet from the organisers of that competition as to the structure of the league for 2005.
An exciting development from the JCA is that they are looking to establish a third permanent ground in Fuji with a concrete pitch. The Fuji City Council is very supportive and it seems they also have found a potential ground. That ground may turn out to be unsuitable but nonetheless it is a promising development.
Finally sometime in February or March a day or weekend of ground maintenance is going to be organised. As the Wombats have always been proactive in helping with the Fuji ground, the caretakers of the ground have already contacted me and asked for our support. The fact that we are the first they call is a wonderful tribute to our club and how hard we work for Japan cricket supporting such things as the Fuji grounds, so I for one am keen to get other fellow Wombats done to Fuji and not let the caretakers (Mark McTamney and Anton McCloy) down. They do a lot of hard work and its up to us to give them as much support as we can. They have also said they are keen to get on the piss with us and make a big night of it. Mark and Anton are great blokes, even though they are Kiwis, and a great time will be had by all. I’ll post details as they come to hand so stay tuned.
That’s it for the minute. I’ll keep you all posted for further developments.
Cheers,
President Grumpy