2008 is a special year for Burridge CC as we celebrate our 40th anniversary. Hopefully, we will welcome many friends – old and new – to the club and the events that we plan during the year to mark the anniversary.

On the field, the first team especially will be looking to make progress in the Southern Electric Premier League Silver after holding onto their place in their first season back in the division last year. After a season of consolidation, we need to kick on and cement our place in the top half of the division.

Andy Ford stood down as 1st Team captain and we thank him for his efforts. Under his leadership, we returned to Silver League and he instilled a “let's practice” mentality, into at least the Firsts. Let’s hope that mentality can be expanded through the rest of the club. I am very pleased to report that he is staying with the club as a player and we wish good luck to our new captain, Rick Ankers. One of Rick’s tasks will be to ensure the first team work hard to improve their behaviour on the field and avoid another embarrassing finish in the Fairplay League.

There have been many changes at the club since last season. We have consolidated the cricket club in the main pitch clubhouse. The bar will be there, it’s up to us to make sure it stays open, and use it after games. We have also improved the facilities with new nets and artificial surfaces laid and, for the first time in several years, we embark on our first regular Sunday cricket. However, the club remains desperately short of volunteers behind the scenes and we make our annual appeal for people to step forward.

The less said about last season the better. Burridge resembled a lake for much of June and particularly July when we played on just one weekend, games were cancelled and much needed income lost. In all we lost 25 senior games. The lack of income has continued to haunt us through the winter. We can only hope 2008 brings better fortunes, with the weather and for all our teams.

1st XI review - Andy Ford

First Team Back in Silver. Our record for the year…..Played 13, Won 5, lost 8.

The 2007 season started with a huge amount of optimism following our promotion from SEPCL 3 as Champions. The key to our success in 2006 was momentum. We managed to string a series of important performances together when it mattered. To succeed on our return to the ‘Silver’ league in 2007, we’d needed to find a similar level of momentum.

Sadly our performances on the pitch didn’t match our achievements of the previous season. Brunchie and I have built our success at The Ridge on a regime based around practice. We work hard on our game (batting, bowling and fielding) every week – and enjoy the practice session we have immensely. But the weather disrupted our practice so much that al hope of getting into a good rhythm was destroyed. We entered a rain disrupted spell in the season which meant we played just one match in five weekends. It was dismal….

It’s been a good three years and I hope all of those who’ve played under my captaincy have enjoyed themselves. Winning the title last year and returning us to our rightful place in SEPCL 2 made me very proud. It was the job I said I’d do when I agreed to take the captaincy on!!