Dinting chairman provides update on latest developments at club

Dinting Cricket Club chairman, Martyn Knight has provided an update on the latest developments at Simmondley Lane.

The 2021 cricket season has certainly started with a bang on Simmondley Lane at both senior and junior level. The 1st XI suffered an opening day defeat at home to Dove Holes but followed this up with a good win away to Stalybridge whilst the 2nd XI has won two from two against Tintwistle and Buxworth. A narrow defeat for the 3rd XI on Bank Holiday Sunday to Whitfield but both teams displayed some very good cricket throughout the day. Juniors have been and integral part in all three senior teams thus far with Alfie Joy opening the bowling for the 1st XI and 2nd XI appearance for Greg Pugh, Ollie Maltby and Taylor Yardley. 

Friday night junior coaching has been extremely well attended by all age groups and has been extremely well organised by Matt Parker and his fantastic group of volunteers. The improvement seen by all our juniors is very impressive and has led to victories for the under 11’s and under 13’s Destroyers and a narrow defeat for the Diamonds. Frustratingly, the weather has delayed the start of the under 15’s season and fixture confusion on the D&CCL side has added to this. In such a short junior season, we are hoping for few rain disruptions but will be aiming to re-arrange all cancelled fixtures for the end of the season. 

Matt has also created a vital link with St. Philip Howard School for them to use our nets and ground when required with a view to us using their facilities in the winter months. We have already seen one pupil progress through the junior ranks and on to senior cricket and this all despite having never played the game until a few years back, Well done to Taylor Yardley for this and hopefully he is the 1st of many to do so. 

Our Allstars and Dynamos programmes are due to start very soon with us having to cap number because of the very high interest levels in our courses. We have 24 Allstars (5–8-year-olds) and 18 Dynamos (8–11-year-olds) which could mean over 100 children enjoying our facilities every Friday night. Combined with the 5 junior teams we are putting our every single week is testament to the hard work and commitment of our committee, junior committee, and volunteers who we heavily rely on for their time, effort and support all year round. 

Following the short junior season, we will be hoping to continue well into summer to ensure the juniors have as much cricket as their appetite needs. There are also plans for junior tournaments and some fund-raising plans in the way of our ‘Run to Lords’ that will see our junior members combine to cover the equal distance from Dinting to Lords’ cricket ground (152 miles). 

Off the pitch, continuous improvements are underway with the net extension very close to completion and plans to purchase a new electronic scoreboard with just the specifications to be agreed before this is approved. 

One thing of note is the improvement we have seen to the square and wicket which is testament to the hard work put in by Matt Coleman and his helpers in the lead up to the season that has led to flatter and more evenly paced pitches that everyone enjoys playing on. Matt has a mammoth task of producing up to 4 different pitches every week for all our teams to use for matches and in training and is managing commendably in a role that is voluntary and he does this fantastically well! 

Our new outdoor gin bar very comically named ‘Cow Corner’ has been a real hit and when the weather is fine, we will be opening this on Friday evenings and all day on Saturday for those gin connoisseurs to come and enjoy. We are also planning a ‘Spiced Rum night’ very soon so keep your eye out for this if Spiced Rum is your tipple. 

With covid restrictions hopefully being lifted further next week (17th May) we will be able to host more people with indoors hospitality available so please come and pay us a visit, you can sign in with a current member and social membership is only £5 for the year from then on. 

Our 100 Club continues to grow with monthly winnings now standing at £225. We had our very first ‘Super Draw’ winners with Ken Wilde winning the 1st prize of £500, Peter Brack winning the 2nd prize of £105 and Mike Stansfield winning 2 bottles of Gin from our sponsors at Slush Puppie. Congratulations to our winners so far. The 100 club is just £10 per month and this includes playing and social membership for the year with the chance to win cash prizes every month. 

Thanks, must be extended to our sponsors Croft Lettings, ITEC Power, and SLUSH PUPPiE for ensuring we are able to subsidise our playing kit for the next 2 seasons meaning every club player will now be wearing the kit bearing the club and current sponsors logo. We will be taking team photos as soon as the restrictions allow us to do so safely. 

Please feel free to get in touch through any of our social media channels: 

Facebook: @dintingcc 

Twitter: @DintingCC Email: htcccommittee@gmail.com