Well chaps,

A new season is upon us, bringing with it an anniversary of sorts - an ashes year has come around again, and with it marking the fifth year of the existence of Henleaze Old Boys. The legendary 2005 ashes coinciding as it did with HOB's inception; although our first season was far from legendary. A rabble roused to fight for the inaugural HOBs cause rocked up at the then YMCA ground on the 5th of May 2000; innocent and ignorant in main part of the ways of cricket, thirsty to learn and on a general hiding to nothing against an experienced Lazarus XI. Our squad pulled together from friends, relatives and future non-Henleazian stalwarts such as Stu Adams and Ed Davies were joined by a future-fiend Octopi in Stuart Ogilvie for our first ever match. Hindsight furnishes us with a particular amusement in Stu's horrific misfortune in making the special effort to turn out all the way from London for the momentous occasion, only to injure himself fielding in the first few overs, unable to bat or bowl - onwards and upwards an all that... We've got Leigh "the Knee" as payback I guess...

We won that game, which was something of a rarity in that first season. A learning curve though it was, for a club conceived in a pub the previous winter by stalwarts Jon and Ashley, the season turned out ok results-wise and provided some enjoyable cricket, fostered relationships with teams we still play to this day and set the tone for years to come.

Now, on the brink of our fifth season, embedded in the Bristol casual cricket club fraternity (with an emphasis on the casual) we have come a long way since that nerve-filled, unknown day. It's a credit to those involved in the development of the club that we've grown from strength to strength - participating in semi-competitive Twenty20 league cricket and winning the competition on our first attempt, as we did last year, represents quite some distance-travelled for Henleaze Old Boys. Our values, modest though they are, have remained constant for the ensuing years: retaining a "Henleazian" core to the team; emphasising the social side; fun in the first instance (winning being something of bonus, if not sometimes an embarrassment); widening participation and spreading our wings - to the extend that now the only things we lack are a Youth Team and Club Cricket status. We're working on it....

So the club is developing and progressing, with new players having joined and offered more than just ability on the pitch (although results have also taken an upward turn!). However we need to maintain rooted to our core values and the spirit of the club, conceived as it was in a dodgy pub in Hotwells. The identity of the club needs protecting, without being mollycoddled. Old-school players of lesser ability need to be reminded of their value to the club and the part they played in establishing the spirit and ethos of the team - we need to remember that in spite of recent successes, we were once crap and it didn't matter.

People come and go though, and the club has progressed (I realise I am writing as though WG used to play for us or something!) in a positive manner. But retaining the original core and social ethos is the key to the club's future prosperity in my view - so let's embrace the new season with spirit in tact, ethos in mind and commitment to the old HOBs values: those of winning, losing, socialising, but primarily humility and a spirit of enjoyment and involvement...

I shall see you all when I get back from my Honeymoon, Good luck for the start of the 2009 season.