by Mat Churchill

The Court House Hotel Port Douglas Mudcrabs will be under new leadership this season with current wicket-keeper and club captain, Josh McConnell, stepping aside to focus on the club's senior administration, to help make the club a more professional outfit for the coming season and into the future with the newly elected Senior Social Committee.

"It's been a successful period for the senior club over the last couple of years and it was a very hard decision to stand down as I've enjoyed not only the role as captain but helping transform the club from 4 people turning up to training to having 15 to 20 each night last season, but I feel it is better for the club to have more people involved to give more depth for the future of the club " he said

The announcements were made at a club meeting on 28 June. The Social Committee positions filled at the meeting were Club Coordinator (Josh McConnell), Secretary (Jessica Mison), Treasurer (Simon Cody), Junior Liaison (Steve Doble), Social Events and Fundraising (Sam Evans), and Curator (Keith Taylor).

"It was great to see all these people that have been helping transform the club over the last couple of years, put their hand up as a volunteer to put even more time in to grow the club for the future, and with the announcements of the new Club Captain in Kingy and Steve continuing as a captain of the C Grade the club is in good hands and the scene is set for a big season ahead" Josh said  

At the meeting the nomination of a new Club Captain was put foward by outgoing Captain Josh McConnell    , and the new Club and B Grade team Captain will now be Nathan King after he was nominated and elected unapposed, with Steve Doble continuing as the captain of C Grade team, from when he took over the reins half way through last season.

King said the club is in a strong position to repeat the success of last year where the B Grade team reigned supreme to take out the grand final. "We have recruited some players from down south and we are hoping with the transformation of the Senior club we can have the promising young players from our juniors come through this year to play a few games in the C Grade to help with the transition to senior cricket. Having Steve as C grade captain is going to be great as he is a great leader and well respected amongst the players and will be a huge support in guiding the youngsters to senior cricket."

 
In the coming weeks the new Social Committee will be meeting to set the new design of club shirts in relation to the sponsors of the club, so if you want to be a sponsor of the club you can contact any of the committee, but if watching rather than playing is more your style, social memberships will be available this season for people to support the club while enjoying a nice day on the hill.

In the coming weeks a lot more will be confirmed but it looks at this stage that the first training session will be on the 1 August, with sign on around the start of September and the first game of the 2010/2011 season is on the 18 September.