We’ll always give youth a chance insists Elwood
SOUTHPORT and Birkdale chairman Tony Elwood believes that the club is in “a good place” at present despite its relegation from the top tier of the Liverpool Gin Liverpool Competition and he has also strongly defended last week’s signing of Gary Keedy as player/coach.
September’s demotion was the third S&B have suffered during Elwood’s nine years at the helm but the chairman remain optimistic about the club’s development.
“When I took over from Ken Standring one of my objectives was to bring about improvements in our domestic cricket and you’d probably be surprised to learn that I think we have achieved that, at least in part,” he said.
“As Chris Firth suggested at the AGM, Premier League cricket is a lot stronger than it was ten years ago but we have resisted the route taken by some of our competitors to load their teams with first-class players on their day off.
“That’s because we don’t believe that sends the right message to our up-and-coming juniors; and also because we prefer to spend our limited resources on improving S&B.
“We do, however, acknowledge that we need to improve as players and that’s why Gary’s recruitment can be seen as something of a coup.
“What it is not, as some cynics have suggested, is a betrayal of our commitment to developing our ‘ home grown’ players. We just want to ensure that they improve and progress along the best possible lines given the appropriate support and advice.”
However, Elwood also paid tribute to the support he has received from members in helping to spread the burden of running the club and in helping to make Trafalgar Road a more vibrant place than it was even twelve months ago.
“The response I’ve had has been superb,” he said. “We now have a fully functioning committee structure embracing junior cricket, ground & facilities and sponsorship & fundraising, as well as a dedicated and innovative County Match Delivery Group.
“To single out anyone in particular from those groups would be unfair, but I was delighted that we’ve been able to confer Honorary Vice Presidencies on George Ball and Paul Parker, two of our longest-serving, hardest-working volunteers.”
In addition, Elwood said that he soon hopes to be in discussion with officials from Emirates Old Trafford with the aim of renewing the threeyear staging agreement by which Lancashire have committed to playing County Championship cricket at Trafalgar Road.
“Another of my objectives was to bring county cricket back to Trafalgar Road and we’ve certainly achieved that,” he said.
“We now have five very successful games under our belt and, as I understand it, we are the only outground in the land with a multi-year staging agreement.
“The next task is to seek a renewal of that agreement and we’ll be meeting with Lancashire officials in the coming months to discuss that.
“All in all, then, I think S&B is in a good place and, if we can maintain the current impetus, I think we can look forward to further improvements on all fronts in 2018.
“I’’ve just been re-elected for the tenth time. Either I must be doing something right, or there is no one else foolish enough to take on the mantle. I suspect that the truth lies somewhere in between.”