Others not in photo - Andy Gray, Malc Rogers, umpires Malc Fry and Joe Hulse

You may have noticed that black armbands are being worn. This was a difficult and unhappy year for us in several ways, two of which were related to the well-being of key members. Firstly, our Chairman, and League umpire, and occasional player, Steve Saunders was diagnosed before the start of the season with Leukaemia. Despite intensive treatment in Southampton he succumbed to related illnesses in June. This was a major blow to our club, to lose someone like Steve, who was so keen to develop our club, in this manner. Steve bore his illness bravely, and initially his progress seemed to be good, however, sadly he could not pull through.
In the photo below you can see that a minute's silence in his memory was observed before the start of the home game against Shanklin.

The second member to fall ill was Malc Rogers, who suffered a heart attack whilst on holiday. Fortunately he recovered, however he was unable to play for us for most of the season, and his accurate and tight bowling was sorely missed both in League and Cup cricket.

On a lighter note, this year we saw a welcome increase in the number of colts attending net sessions, and Plessey Colts playing some other clubs in some fairly serious cricket. Ironically, this was one of Steve Saunders' ambitions, to see us fielding 'proper' Colts teams, sadly it happened too late for him to see it realised. However, the role of Youth Co-ordinator was gladly taken on by Kevin Hatt, a qualified Coach. Welcome sponsorship from SP Systems, namely Paul Rudling (President of the Club), enabled us to purchase some excellent equipment. A few of the colts are shown in this final picture.