It has been a busy start to the 2022 summer for our senior teams.

It’s been great to welcome back all of our returning players for another year, complemented by a host of new faces who we will continue to add to throughout the season. To all new members, welcome to OWCC and we hope to see you down for years to come.

With one league game played at the time of writing, the opening day was a mixed bag for our Saturday teams. The Second XI currently sit top of Division Three after being handed the maximum points due to opposition forfeiture. There will obviously be greater challenges to come when our rivals can actually field a team, but it is nonetheless 40 valuable points on the board – and they all count the same at the of the season!

There was no such luck for our First XI, who came up short against South Nutfield in their opening match. After an energetic fielding display restricted South Nutfield to 184/9, including three wickets for Jack McArdle and two for man-of-the-match Nick Dunn, a disappointing batting collapse saw Old Woking come up short. However, they have more than enough firepower in their ranks to correct that and there were plenty of encouraging individual displays, certainly enough to suggest this could be a successful season.

Our T20 campaign also gets underway this week, as we make the short trip to Chobham, and we will do everything we can to slog our way to the latter stages of the Surrey Slam cup.

These league fixtures come after a busy pre-season that brought plenty of runs and wickets across Saturday and Sunday fixtures. Most of our established players go into the competitive matches in decent nick, having big scores or wicket hauls under their belts already. But it has been particularly encouraging to see the contributions from those who are improving and taking their games to the next level, with several having hit their highest scores for the club in these short few weeks. This just shows the power of preparation and practice!

Our President’s Day was once again a rousing success, with the official opening of our new clubhouse and an inter-squad game played out in great spirits. Team Nico just edged out Team Aaron, with Justin Bradley’s figures 5-9 from 7 overs the standout performance.

Most importantly of all, every over has been played out with smiles on faces. Of course, we would love to win every game but that’s just nor cricket. While it is still too early to predict what 2022 will hold on the field for our teams, OWCC’s unique spirit remains undiminished by it.

Up the Wokes!