Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone at the club for their support in electing me President for this coming season. For those who know me, will know that I come from a cricket mad household and I must say that much of that enthusiasm has rubbed off on me as I look forward to the year ahead. I cannot claim to be anything other than a cricket beginner but I have thoroughly enjoyed the games that I have played.
I hope to be able to encourage the club to move forward in many different areas but the biggest of these I see as being a greater community involvement. As we know it is very difficult to engage new players and children especially when there are no home facilities and we need to travel to either Dunbar or Edinburgh to host games. I sincerely hope that significant movement can be achieved with the support of East Lothian Council and the Tranent & District Community Sports Club. As I am sure you know Tranent is the only large town in the County that does not boast at least one cricket ground. We are also behind Tyninghame and Gifford in this regard too.
The way to establish a solid foundation for the future is to actively engage children in playing the game. I am a firm believer in giving children the opportunity to play and many will decide that the sport is worthwhile and will choose to get involved. In achieving this we need build on relationships with Active Schools co-ordinaters and the schools themselves. This is only part of the issue as we also need to have a suitable number of trained volunteers and facilities to train and ultimately play games on. This cannot be achieved overnight but this is something that we need to develop as soon as possible.
I am sure you are aware that our season has now started in the East of Scotland Indoor Sixes and this Friday will see us commence our indoor nets at Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh. I hope that the turnout as these training sessions will be high despite the location and the players can properly prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead.
Finally I look forward to meeting you all and discussing your cricket views during the season at games, social gatherings and camping trips.
Fiona Russell
President of Tranent Cricket Club