Updated 03/01/06

Seasons greetings to you all, and I trust that you've all been drinking Port, eating Stilton and watching the Ashes DVD until you can quote Mark Nicholas's platitudes perfectly. I hope Santa brought you everything you desire and yes, Mr Prince, you can stop knocking your bat in now (and keeping the kids awake) - it really won't make any difference!

Some of our readers have been very busy over the winter months and I can exclusively offer a tempting preview of the new Midweek Kit that Mrs Fiona Jolly has been constructing with the aid of her trusty knitting needles and a few 50g balls of wool.

As modelled by our ever-willing (should that be over-willing!?) Chairman Mr Sandy Peirson, I think you'll agree that this "Knickerbocker Suit" offers the levels of style and comfort that we'd be mad to ignore. Curiously it also seems to knock a few pounds off as well. In order to avoid disappointment and secure your kit (sorry, hand wash only!) please click here

If you were looking forward to the AGM and your opportunity to bring the Committee to task for (yet) another season of woeful underachievement, I'm afraid you've missed it! Even worse, in a blatant misuse of procedural niceities worthy of Lord Maclaurin, the entire Committee re-elected itself en masse in a single motion with the help of a couple of lickspittle members who were clearly the worse for drink (you know who you are, and I hope you are properly ashamed of yourselves...). The only doubt was that over the position of the (current) Secretary who had failed to lay on the usual provender, but was saved by the fact that he's by far the best speller in the club, and has very neat handwriting.

Two main points of interest (which should be chiselled into your diaries immediately):

• Next year's tour to Herefordshire has been confirmed for 7-9 July with the same fixtures as last year
• The Annual Dinner will be held on 27 January at the Warwick Arms Hotel (more details to follow)

At Barford we are always looking for new players to reduce the team average age, hopefully, to below 140. At weekends, we play only friendly games against similar local teams and several league Sunday 2nd XI teams. In the meantime you are most welcome to take a look around this site and if you want to attend nets or come along to any game or social event then please feel free to get in touch with a committee member or e-mail us directly.

Anyone seeking guidance on the club ethos could do far worse than read Marcus Berkmann's hilarious take on village cricket in "Rain Men" and the follow-up "Zimmer Men", which are uncannily close to real life. If you enjoy the books, you'll love playing for Barford...