It’s a great pleasure to be able to speak to a real life AGM instead of the remote meeting we held last year.

I did think of making this the shortest ever report by saying that the 1st XI won the league and got promoted and leaving it at that. However, whilst this achievement was the centrepiece of the 2021 season it shouldn’t be allowed to mask all the good things that we’ve been doing on and off the field.

But first of all congratulations to Alex Tredgett and his team for gaining promotion to the premier division. This has a spectacular achievement for a young team most of whom came through our coaching and development system. Also we had no paid player when several opponents were fielding two or more. The achievement was a tribute to coach Andy Clarke and manager Steve Cotton and also to the coaches and captains of the lower level teams who helped the players come through.

Joe Parry was top run scorer with 494 at and average of 49.4 His top score was an unbeaten and match winning 96 against Fives and Heronians.

Our great strength was in our bowling attack. Joe again led the way with 40 wickets at the brilliant average of just 13.1. Connor Whetstone, Tom Debenham and Bill Prideaux all took more that 20 wickets with averages of below 20.

To me the best performance of the season was bowling out local rivals and eventual runners-up Shenfield for just 61.

The 2nd XI finished a very creditable 3rd in the table. Ben Parry topped the averages with 423 runs at 42.3. Danny Cocklin took 12 wickets at the ludicrous average of 7.6 with both Jon Mowll (22 @ 19.9) and Tom Patterson (21 @12.7) both taking more than 20 wickets. All four players made significant contributions to the 1st XI.

The 3rd XI retained their place in the premier division (just) with centuries for Henry Hodgson and Chris Taylor. Chris topped the batting average with 327 at 46.7. Ian Crispin also scored over 300 runs. The evergreen Dan Rickard took 30 wickets at 16 and there was a promising performance by Aman Gupta with 17 wickets at 24.5

The 4th XI finished runners up but were denied promotion because of the pyramid system. They did have the satisfaction of being the only team to beat league winners Hadleigh and Thundersley. Ashish Verma was top scorer and topped the averages with 342 at 28.5. He was closely followed by Darren Howard with 283 at 28.3. Newcomer Mudasir Nazir scored 221 in just 3 innings. James Abbott led the bowling averages with 11 at 9.2. Freddie Abbott was top wicket taker with 18 at 9.9. Best single performance was Jack Bolton taking 5 for 10 in his only bowl of the season.

The 5th XI continued to give opportunities to the older and emerging players whilst enjoying the pleasures of Mountnessing and a variety of other “interesting” venues. Tom Overington scored a century against Brentwood as part of his 339 at 26. Jon Wilson scored 241 at 24.1. Leading wicket taker was Vijay Shankar with 11 at 21.3.

The Sunday league was a bit of a mess. Of the eight league games four were abandoned or cancelled. Of the remainder we won one and lost three. Joe Parry and Bill Prideaux both totalled 88 runs. Connor Whetstone took 12 wickets including 6 for 30 against Stallions.

Women and girls cricket at Hutton continues to go from strength to strength. The women’s 1st XI won the inaugural Essex Premier League in 2020 and came within a wicket of retaining their title before losing out to Harold Wood by 3.2 points. Erica Hobson was by far the leading run scorer with 570 at an average of 71 including 3 fifties, 2 centuries and a top score of 174. Grace Manek was leading bowler with 15 at an average of 11.20.

The Friday T20 side is run as the development side to introduce young players into competitive cricket alongside the older, social players. The weather was not kind to this team and they had four matches abandoned to rain. They won four of the eight remaining games to finish in a creditable 4th place.

This year we introduced a successful softball session with a grant aid from Active Brentwood. This developed into a competitive side Hutton Hildas who are now playing regular fixtures against local sides.

President’s Day on August Bank Holiday Monday was a memorial match held to commemorate the lives of club stalwarts Eileen and Doug Pont, Richard Pryke and Brian Wiggett. Danny Pryke presented the Three Amigos Trophy in honour of Richard, Brian and John Clarke. Ian and Keith Pont unveiled a new pavilion clock which bears the name of their mother and father. The game was played between two invitation elevens featuring past and present Hutton players. Appropriately, Andy Clarke hit the winning run as the light faded. The memorial drinks went on long into the night.

We also hosted the annual Sam Pountney Memorial Match against Brentwood. Despite bad weather the game went ahead and we look forward to next year’s match at Brentwood. Many thanks to Bob Pountney for donating the black sightscreen covers.

For the first time in many years we held a cricket week in early August with games against Great Baddow, High Roding and The Authors as well intra-club matches.

We also hosted a number of friendly games including those against The Rain Men and Shakespeare CC.

The season ended with the Orchid Charity 6 a Side played in glorious sunshine.

After the 2020 lockdown curtailed most youth activities we were able to return to a full programme in 2021. We attracted record numbers to the national All Stars and Dynamos programmes and held youth coaching on practically every evening of the week. A huge thank you to all the coaches, managers, helpers and parents.

Our Under 15s won the District Cup by beating Springfield in the final. The Under 19s looked set to repeat the 2017 success in the county T20 competition before weather meant having to field an under-strength team against Colchester. We ran a complete league and friendly programme of hard ball and soft ball cricket introducing our young boys and girls to competition and helping then develop their skills.

A highlight of the season was the Mini-Matchplay event which tool place over two nights at the County Ground in Chelmsford. This allowed our younger players to experience playing under lights on a first class ground, something your chairman hasn’t managed to do.

Thanks to prudent management we were able to come through the Covid crisis in a strong financial position. We were aided by government grants to small business which we received thanks to the assistance of Brentwood Council which I’m happy to acknowledge. Thanks also to the many club members who showed their support for the club by paying 2021 subscriptions early.

Because we had cash in the bank we were able to invest in our facilities. In the spring we committed around £7,500 to ground improvements at the Polo Field including reseeding and fertilising. The ground looks better than ever and we did further work in October.

We’ve also carried out repairs to the pavilion and we’ve invested in improved CCTV and additional pitch covers. We drew on last year’s President’s Day funds and our reserves to improve our practice nets by resurfacing and renewing the nets and surrounds.

Finally, by way of saying thank you directly to members we reduced match fees for the season and reduced the price of tickets for the annual dinner in December when Mark Ramprakash will be guest speaker.

We have renewed our subscription to the Essex Playing Field Association and entered their Best Kept Playing Field competition. We won a Gold Award. Many thanks to our groundsman Jamie Foyster and his team

As the COVID restrictions lifted we gradually introduced a limited social programme which ended in a successful quiz night. We hope to have a full programme back next year.

The end of season karaoke coincided with the 1st XI promotion celebrations and was a night to remember.

After many years running the cricket teas, the Friday night kitchen and other events Nicola Parry stepped down as catering supremo. We gratefully put on record our thanks for her magnificent contribution to club life.

She’s handed the reins to Lisa and Charlotte Sparkes who delivered after match meals in the 2nd half of the season and provided an excellent meal at our Volunteer Appreciation Evening.

Sadly, over the past year we have lost a number of members of the Hutton family.

• Ron Grief
• Bob Marsh

We remember them with fondness and affection.

Out of the blue I had an e-mail towards the end of September to say that Brentwood Council had given Hutton CC the Star of Brentwood Award. It turns out that his was in recognition of the work the club had done during COVID.

Which showed the club at its best. Cathy, Ali and Nicola organised collections for their local food banks and charities, we delivered cricket teas to the housebound, we organised a telephone line to keep in touch with those who were shielding and generally played a big part in keeping the community and club going. Behind the scenes Carole made grants applications which brough it tens of thousands of pounds to keep the club going.

One of the perks of being chairman is getting to go to award events and I was able to collect the trophy on behalf of the club. However, it belongs to each and everyone of the club members who helped the club through the pandemic crisis and into the successful 2021 season. On behalf of the club I’m honoured to be able to say thank you.

Jim Lynch
Chairman
Hutton CC