The 2008 season was a huge success on the fielding front. The overall standard of ground fielding and catching was literally unrecognisable from that of 2007.

Although there were dropped catches and misfields there was nothing on the scale of our famous trip to Derbyshire the previous season when we dropped 10 catches in one game !

There had been close season talk of an urgent need for practice fielding sessions, but the talk alone may have been good enough to get us up to a good standard.

Some of the catches taken were breath taking and the arrival at the club of Big Mike Freeman has raised the catching standard to yet another level. When the ball goes in the air now, we actually expect the ball to be pouched, which is a totally different expectation to that of 2007.

Our collective fielding is now at a standard that enables us to compete with established club sides. We must not relax though, as we can always improve.

The one poor area though that needs to be reported is that of negativity during tough sessions in the field. This was particularly apparent in the last trip to Harlow when players had visibly accepted defeat in their body language and lost interest in maintaining our usual enthusiasm and high standards.

Thinking about our fielding and working hard when we get back on the pitch in 2009 will hopefully see us improve even further.