President's Letter 2022

 Dear Fellow Dumplings, 

It is a great pleasure to write to you in my first year as President, and I hope you are  looking forward to the season as much as I am! 

I first played Dumplings cricket just over twenty years ago, having been introduced to it  by record wicket-taker Jeff Stanyer, and have been lucky to play alongside many of you in that  time. The combination of competitive cricket, sportsmanship, good humour, lovely grounds and  great teas is something special and I am hoping that in the club’s 120th year we will continue  these traditions. Teas may even make a welcome return this year! We will see how things go.  

In a year where the push towards shorter formats has unfortunately appeared to have  caught up with the England Test team, we continue to promote declaration cricket. The  opportunity to experience having to bowl teams out, judge a declaration or hold on for the draw if a win is out of reach is something I believe to be highly valuable and enjoyable. Perhaps there  are future Test cricketers in the county! 

A huge thank you must go to Peter Jolliffe and Wendy Hardy along with the rest of the  Committee for ensuring so much Dumplings cricket has continued safely within the guidelines over the past two seasons. I cannot overstate how much Wendy does for the Club and we are  very lucky to have her. As things stand, there is hope for a more conventional season ahead and  a full card has been organised by Peter including several new fixtures and the Oxford tour once again. Whether you are still actively involved or are more of a supporter I hope to see many of  you through the season and it would be great to hear from you as well.  

Communications have moved on in the past few years and the Club’s Facebook page is  active in raising sides, introducing many young and overseas players to the Club, which has been  great to see. However, if you are not a regular Facebook user it is particularly important to  contact managers to let them know you are available as we want all members to be able to play  whatever their technological choices! Players from across Devon who want to play our style of  cricket are always welcome and if you know someone who might enjoy playing please put them  in touch.  

If you would like to follow the teams this season as well as on Facebook, Wendy has  done great work with our play-cricket.com site, as has Paul Berman with the Dumplings  website, whilst our newest committee member, Harry Kandampully, is kindly setting up an  Instagram page. The occasional email update will also go out if we have your email address.  Please send it to Wendy if you would like to receive these.  

Finally, we have been very sorry hear that some members have passed away or have  been suffering ill-health. One member who contributed a huge amount to the Club was Peter  Spencer, a former President, keeper of the records and author of Three Shades of Green, a  history of the club. He has very kindly left us a bequest, which will partly be used to present  Dumplings caps to new young players. It would be great to see as many players as possible  wearing the Club’s colours this year. 

I wish everyone a very successful and enjoyable season, and good health in the year  ahead. As always, many thanks to everyone involved in making things run smoothly and to all  the match managers, umpires, scorers, groundsmen and other volunteers without whom games  would not happen. And finally thank you to all of you for playing in the spirit that makes this such a special club.  

Very best wishes, 

Dominic Tuohey