Thank you firstly to my vice-capt George Dabby (for his support and filling in when I’ve been away), Andy Popperwell (for bringing kit, scoring collecting tea money…), Peter Herrmann (for another comprehensive fixture list), Tom Roles (for his tireless work throughout the season to ensure we have 11 every Sunday), Bill & Hilary (for all their work both behind-the-scenes and front-of-house at the dinners) and finally our chairman Richard, who despite the onset of the ‘Mandelson’ virus (ask Richard), continues to keep us in order.

We welcomed a couple of new faces to the Bushmen this season. Luke Hastings, who works at World Service and played cricket in his teens for Farnham Common. He bats, he bowls, is excellent in the field and is under 25! Thank you to Chris Ancil for getting Luke back into cricket. Ricci Achillini, a very experienced club cricketer who can be relied on with both bat and ball. I hope to see them both playing in many fixtures next season.

Results were varied, but despite our record of; won 5, lost 11, drew 3 and 6 cancelled, it felt like a successful season on the field. The number of cancellations was disappointing, with weather intervening (in what felt like a good summer) and maybe a double booking by one of our opponents!

We toured in Dorset (won both games), Suffolk (complete washout) and Menorca (a great time was had by all and we will return soon). Next year’s overseas tour is to Vis, Croatia (an island near Split).

On the stats front these were dominated by Naman Paropkari (675 runs and 28 wickets) and is a worthy winner of his awards. Gerry Tucker was a stalwart with the gloves this season with 16 victims including 11 stumpings and is also being recognised this season.

We now look forward to the dining season and the start of nets at Lords in January.

John Whitehead

Captain

BBC Bushmen