Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. A few weeks ago at the end of the season in a conversation with Martin, he said he had not enjoyed a season so much as 1993, for a long time, and he concluded, but I only remember the good things, coming from one who in his capacity as Chairman, has to suffer the criticisms that go with the job, I thought, what a splendid remark, so therefore I propose to mention a few of the good things of the past season.

The enjoyment and enthusiasm of the junior team, with their willingness to learn, was good to see, and was shown in results, the organising team of Martin, Arthur Roberts and Keith Morris was a huge factor, and the club should be deeply grateful to them. I have to mention that everyone of us has a weakness somewhere, Keith's is an obvious one, his support for Aston Villa, we can forgive him.

Good is hardly the word to describe the work put in by our Tea Ladies, they were fantastic, the profit to the club funds realised almost £800 and the quality of the food they provided was unsurpassed anywhere in the league, also despite domestic problems which always crop up unexpectedly. John Plimmer who deserves our thanks for working out a rota, tells me someone always came to the rescue at short notice. The David Genge memorial match in aid of the Beaufort Mentally Handicapped School realised £400, a worthy cause and one which aptly perpetuates the memory of someone we still miss very much. Another social success was the Club Quiz, the result of much hard work by Dad-to-be Neil Plimmer, his wife Julia, Pat and Mick Hemming and Steve Reynolds and Rhonda, many thanks to them. Succulent steaks provided by the superb cooking of Stan Redding and Arthur Bishop at the summer barbecue, soon disappeared into the mouths of our hungry members, and the profit to our club funds was considerable and useful. Mention of club funds brings a special thanks surely, to the many people, too numerous to mention individually, who sponsored matches and cricket balls. Our accounts will show how much their generosity means to our survival.

Survival, turning now to the cricket scene of 1993, that was unfortunately the word that was on everyone's lips towards the end of the season. Well we all know now that we retained our place in the 1st division for the second season running and we are in danger of being dubbed the great escapists. I plead with our players to set about losing this title, we all know the talent is there. A senior player of our club, albeit a 2nd XI player, had a wonderful season after a lean one, this player, not always perhaps careful in his choice of words, preaches and shows passion and dedication to the game, I refer to our own Bruce Grobbelaar, Stan Redding, surely this is all we need. Team honours were of course few but the 2nd XI in a great final, ably led by new father Congratulations Steve Bose, took the Marston Green Trophy and truly demolished our old rivals in doing so. It's an ever-changing scene at our club, and everyone will regret the departure from the playing arena of Bryn Jones. He has served the club loyally and well for many years, to see Bryn Jones in top form was always a delight, despite pressure on him to stay, he has decided to retire while still one of our best batsmen, we wish him well. It was however good to see the way John Rose, Mark Woolley and Kevin Wilson have settled down with us, all have done well and proved an asset in every possible way.

Despite the relatively poor team results, there were many fine individual efforts, in fact more centuries were scored than ever before, 9 were made with Simon Carlin scoring a remarkable 4 of them, he will obviously relive those outstanding efforts again and again. The other centurions must have felt similar satisfaction, particularly Rhys Williams, who must have felt his centurion days had gone long since.

The mercurial Jimmy Rasin, as unaccountable as the English weather, had a fine season with bat and ball, exceeding 50 runs on seven occasions. Mick Hemming now fancies his chance as the Mike Atherton of Sheldon Marlborough, certainly Mick showed concentration as an opener during those vital closing matches.

Martin Bucknall had a splendid season too, and celebrated in an apt way with his marriage to Rowena, our sincere best wishes to them both.

Evergreen players like Steve Reynolds, Neil Plimmer, Ken Maguire and Ansell Pottinger continue, and can be called the backbone of the club to provide the steadiness so essential, indeed Steve, Neil and Ansell have been with us since they were 15, loyalty unquestioned. Danny Marshall will remember his 6 for 23 against Union Locks, as will Matthew Read with 6 for 18 against Wishaw.

There has already been a tendency to blame the wicket for poor performances, this certainly could not be put at the door of Richard Mousley and Paul Davis, who not only excelled at their job, but with their batting too.

I wonder sometimes if the battle for League points takes away some of the game's enjoyment, this belief almost became positive the way the Devon Tour was enjoyed, and finally the always epic Senior and Junior match, where every man is trying his utmost, who will ever see a better innings than Rob Walker provided that day.

Only time forbids to mention more of our helpful members, but it would be wrong not to ask for your applause and thanks for Arthur Bishop and Clive Bishop and finally Nick Price. Opponents' comments on our splendid outfield are proof indeed of Arthur's zeal and he also looks after the tools of his trade.

Bar returns are still our most important fund raiser, and with the departure of Peter O'Carrol we had a problem. Right well Clive and his staff came to the rescue, and they are always looking to improve the service all the time Nick Price too took on the difficult umpires job and we are truly grateful.

The photographs on the wall yonder are symbols of happy times in the past and are something for our younger players to emulate in the future. Well thank you for your kind attention, ladies and gentlemen, but I would like to close with an old caption I am fond of. It goes:

"God could have made a better berry than a strawberry but he never did -. he could have put it into the mind of man to invent a better game than cricket but he never did."