Downham Stow chairman hails excellent season

Downham Stow Cricket Club chairman Ashleigh Corbett says his first season in the role exceeded all of his expectations.Corbett has overseen two promotions with Downham Stow clinching promotion to the East Anglian Premier League for the first time in the club’s history after beating Ramsey in the play-off final last month.Corbett said “This year has been my first as chairman of Downham Stow Cricket Club and it was a role I was honoured to take on.”I’ve only ever played for two clubs, Downham Town CC and now Downham Stow CC and as seasons go I don’t think I could have dreamed of such a successful season across the club.”At the start of the year, we held a senior men’s players meeting, where the team’s captains and I set the players several goals for the season.”They were for the first team to win the Premier Division, the second and third teams to remain in their leagues promoting youngsters into adult cricket and the fourth team to win their league”The guys not only smashed all that but went even further with the 1sts achieving promotion into the East Anglian Premier League to become the first club from West Norfolk to play at this level. “It is an incredible achievement from our club and completely justifies the decision we made in 2020 to merge the two clubs. “The 4ths also had a fantastic season, the blend of youth and experience worked perfectly and they deservedly won their league in convincing style.”It is very exciting to see what the next batch of youngsters can do over the next few seasons.”Corbett also paid tribute to the remaining teams at the club. “Credit must also go to our second and third teams who safely established themselves in their respective leagues,” he said.respectively. “The 2nds particularly had a very youthful look with at least three 16-year-olds playing almost every week, alongside several lads under or just over 20.”Not only have our men’s sides thrived, but our ladies’ section has gone from strength to strength and watching the improvement and enjoyment in these players has been amazing. “The ladies won their Softball League and Softball Cup. They also won their hardball league and came agonising close to winning the Norfolk hardball final at the weekend.”The Youth Section at the club is ever-expanding and we will continue to offer cricket to children from the age of five years old.Downham Stow now has a new 4-bay training net and has also held several social events as well as hosting a very strong Zimbabwe Emerging XI (containing seven international players) and the 8:56 Foundation – a charity the club is delighted to support.Corbett added: “The hard work of the committee, our volunteers and coaches over the last few months has been unreal and we are very thankful to everyone. “We especially couldn’t have done it without our sponsors Hart Farms and the Downham Tandoori.”We are very excited for the future, but we know there’s going to be some serious challenges ahead both from a playing point and committee point of view.”