Blankney Cricket Club - 2010 Review

As the nights now start to pull in, it is both time to look back at what has been a fairly successful season for the club and also look forward to next year.

I will start with our Saturday team who played in the third division of the South Lincs and Border League, captained by Simon Behan. They had a very successful season finishing second in their division and fully expected to be promoted to the second division. However, like a lot of things in this day and age, we had not read the 'small print' in the league rules which resulted in only the division winners gaining promotion. Therefore we will again be in the third division next year and will have to make sure we win the division to ensure ourselves of promotion. There were some outstanding performances for this team during the summer with everyone contributing to our success at some stage of the season.

Our success really was a team effort. Credit must go to one of our new players, Neil Gilbert, who amassed 35 wickets, the second highest total within the division, which he would surely have exceeded if not for his work commitments towards the end of the season. This total is also the highest tally for the Saturday team since its inception in 2005. The highest scoring batsman was again Simon Behan, who, despite not having his best season with the bat (his own words) still amassed more runs than anyone else. I must mention another player, Phil Woodcock, who scored the only century for the club this season. This was certainly not his first hundred but, in my opinion, was certainly the best, and I have seen most of the ones he has scored.

The Sunday team, after being relegated from the Premier Division in 2009, played their cricket in Division One of the McKinnells Lincoln League. Everyone knew this would be a season to consolidate and hopefully enjoy their cricket more, after some of the maulings suffered the previous season. The team was captained by James Ingamells and the season has gone well with the team finishing in a midway position in the division, which is just as well because somehow the fourth place team were promoted to the premier division. Another couple of wins would probably have seen us promoted again, which the club are not ready for at this time. The highlight of the season was probably our victory at neighbours Martin, who were the runaway leaders of the division from day one.