Following on from the words of our esteemed new Chairman last week, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Gordon Dutch and I am the new Director of Cricket at TPCC. You can contact Me via gjd@bbg.eu.com. I moved to Tring about 20 years ago with my wife and then 2 young sons, who have both represented Tring at Cricket and Rugby, with Steve also playing Tornadoes and Hockey. I absolutely love Tring - one of the best places to live in the UK, if not the best place!

I have a history with the club that goes back around 15 years. I not only played a bit for the club, but became Chairman of the TPCC Youth Section and helped develop this critical section around the time of all the new Child Safeguarding and Club Mark rules.

Last year I helped start up a new Cricket Committee to help us understand more about what we need to deliver across the club, both on and off the pitch, for all our members and have now had the chance to engage with many members across the club, including George Bezani & Vicky Butterfield who do an amazing job of running our Youth Section, and Chris Curry and his team of coaches who do a brilliant job of looking after all the youth coaching. These people are genuine heroes. Without them, we would not have the talent we do coming through.

This year I am very pleased to announce that we will have an Adult Ladies Team, which is being run by Sarah Woodall, as well as 2 x girls teams. This is an exciting new development and follows on the success of the England Ladies Team. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Sarah via' swoodall@btinternet.com Also staying on this year as Club Welfare Officer and helping run the Ladies and Girls section is Duncan Marriott. Should you have any questions or concerns ever with this regard, please feel free to contact Duncan via duncanmarriott@btinternet.com.

On the mens' side, I am thrilled to be working alongside Wilson Gumbs, our 1st Team Manager and Club Coach, and Shelvin Gumbs our superb 1st Team Captain. Toby Wastling stays on as our 2nd Team Captain this year and we are all very grateful to have someone of Toby’s ability running what will become our ‘feeder’ team to put more locally grown talent into our 1’s over the coming years. Mark Bater has stepped up to 3rd Team Captain. Mark is another “Club Man” whom I have had the pleasure of knowing for over 15 years. Last but by no means least,, Andy Grout the club legend , will Captain the 4’s and who does not love “The Grouty!”

James Wheeler (Wheels) has stepped up to help us with our new website, ably supported by Alex Laine and Carl Stokes. A massive Thank You to Wheels and all the web team who have worked and still are working so hard to get this key resource up to speed.

A big thanks to Gareth Darby for all his time in showing me the ropes this year and for his work around the club, Claudia & Adam for being THE best Bar team of any club I have ever visited, new Club Captain Benn Langdon and Doilly for supplying the best squares of any league anywhere and of course, the new Chairman Nick Wake, Treasurer David Sidwell and all the Committee and Volunteers.

Finally a Thank You to all of you who put in your time, money and support for the club. We simply cannot run this club without all the work you guys and gals all put in… Only 4 weeks to start of the season and so get your new kit ordered and maybe bring a snow shovel just in case…