Dear ##firstname##

I hope that you and yours are well and coping with the current extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances.  You may well have seen the attached cartoon. (It does not apply to the Cryptics of course!)

For all of us for whom cricket is important, this has been a very disappointing summer.  For some cricket lovers it is the competitive side of the game which is most important, for others it is watching the top players in action, for others it is staying fit.  I would venture to suggest that for many Cryptics it is the pleasure which comes from competing hard in a warm social environment.  Cryptic batsmen want to score runs, bowlers to take wickets; Cryptic teams want to win.  Playing for the Cryptics also means friendship, something for which our staple diet of all day matches and tours is well suited. There are many Cryptics who have made lifelong friendships from among those they met perhaps in their early twenties from their teammates or even the same opposition each year. Whatever recreational cricket is played this year, it is unlikely to be in our preferred format which fosters such friendships and camaraderie. Having said that if we can play any of our scheduled matches we will; meanwhile if the chance arises for to you to play for your local club, I hope you enjoy it!  Let us know how it goes, send us a photo.

Please look at our website to see the latest on our fixtures for this season; we will keep it updated as best we can.

The Officers of the Club are in regular contact about Club matters.  We postponed the Annual Dinner and AGM from March to 10th October at the OUOTC in Oxford.  This is still in the diary.  No-one knows for sure whether such events will be possible or if so, in what format.  We will bring you news when we have it.  Those who booked to come in March all committed at that time to attend in October; there were others for whom the March date didn’t work but the October one does.  Please let me know your thoughts about whether or not you will attend the Dinner in the light of everything which has happened since March. (I would like to hear from you, whether or not you were on the list for March.)

Some clubs and organisations of which you are a member may have made changes to the membership fees or subscriptions to reflect the circumstances.  We do not have a club house or ground to maintain; almost all our expenditure relates to the matches we play so there has been little expenditure this year against the annual subscriptions received.  It is our intention to demonstrate tangible benefits to members from this.  The following are being considered:

• Subsidising a future dinner to make it as attractive as possible to the largest number
• Subsidising to a greater level young cricketers to play Cryptics cricket 
• Holding 2021 annual subscriptions and Match Fees at 2019 levels

More information on these in due course. 

The postponement of the Dinner in March also of course involved the postponement of the AGM.  It was decided that the terms of office of Officers and Committee would be extended until the rescheduled AGM; that remains the case.

I am writing this to all those on the Cryptics' database for whom we have an email address. In doing some work on the database recently we have found a number of anomalies - including possibly incorrect contact, playing and subscription details. We will be looking to tidy this up over the next few weeks and months.  To help with this, please do let us know if would prefer not to receive emails from the Cryptics or if the contact details we hold for you (see below) are not correct.  Please rest assured that we keep any data we hold securely; it is used only for the purposes of the Cryptics Cricket Club and we never share it with any third parties.  

On behalf of the Cryptics Cricket Club, best wishes

Nick Priestnall, President

The personal details we hold about you:

##firstname## ##surname##

##address##

##homephone##

##mobile##

Your log in to the database: ##login##

Your password: ##password##