Hello <<Voornaam>>,

Just like last year, again I may put my thoughts on paper after the end of the season. I checked my piece from last year and I noticed that it was mainly retrospective. I would now like to look a little more into the time ahead of us.

By now, everyone noticed most likely that the long-cherished wish to create an indoor facility is currently being realized. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it is pretty hectic at the moment. A lot has already happened, but there is still a lot to be done before we can start using the new facility and I hope that the second half of November will be the time the first balls are bowled. But just as when buying a house, you can also look through it to see what it will look like in the future, we are getting a pretty clear picture of what the club will look like when we start using the nets.

A lot of time will be allocated to making training possible for all VCC teams. These are not only the 'traditional' youth winter training sessions that used to take place on Sunday mornings in the Maartenshal, that will now move (for the 'hard ball teams') to the indoor nets. All senior teams have also indicated that they would like to train throughout the winter and we will also set up slots for individual training sessions. Hence there will be activity at the club on a lot of weeknights.

In addition, there also is a lot of appetite in the greater The Hague cricket community, which means that we already foresee occupancy of the nets for all days during the week. This obviously brings new challenges and questions. How do we organize access for all users, how do we deal with the use of the clubhouse and changing rooms, what conditions do we apply for the use of the hall, just to name a few. I am therefore pleased that Dorith, Sybrand, and Emil have indicated they are willing to work on this.

What we all will need to experience is what it means to become a club where there is 365 days of cricket. This offers all kinds of opportunities to further strengthen the VCC DNA, the DNA of which we will also celebrate the 90th anniversary next year. With a first team that really wants to take the last step, other teams that want to turn their efforts during winter into results in their competitions, on hybrid pitches that we can make intensive use of and at a club where we can hopefully welcome a few big events. Many reasons to look very much forward to the coming year.