Old Hill are back on the front foot

Tonight's end-of-season dinner will be a celebration of a campaign which, while ultimately ending in disappointment, can undoubtedly be called a success.

Unfancied at the start of the summer, the club came within a whisker of promotion and while a final-day defeat to Walsall means their exile from the Birmingham League Premier Division will extend to an 11th season, the overall picture, both on and off the field, is the brightest it has been since their 2005 relegation.

Not long ago, that was far from the case.

"The club was very close to the edge, there are no two ways about it," explains chairman Bob Jones, who claims to have discovered a 'financial mess' when he took the post in 2013.

"We realised the depth of the financial problems and it was a case of 'we have to stop this or the club is going to bleed to death'.

"The debts were enormous and there was no immediate prospect of things getting any better. We had to act quickly."

Decisions

There is no shortage of history at a club which achieved national fame in the 1980s and 1990s thanks to four National Knockout titles and a team which included the likes of Ron Headley, Mushtaq Mohammed and Greg Matthews.

There was, and is, no shortage of support both at the Haden Hill Road ground, with hundreds regularly turning up to watch. Last season, coaches were even organised to take supporters to away fixtures.

But Jones knew the figures could not be ignored and a major change of philosophy needed. While some of the decisions taken have not been popular they were, he insists, necessary.

"We had to put in some very aggressive cost-cutting to try and get things on an even-keel," he said.

"Some of the things I've done, like taking Sky Sports out of the bar, did not make me too popular but they were for the good of the club.

"We were open seven nights a week, paying staff. For the money we were spending, we were getting next to no benefit in return.

"In the space of a year, we went from a £27,000 loss into a £14,000 profit."

Also slashed was the playing budget with young captain Danny Cox charged with moulding a side consisting mostly of promising young players into a unit which could both compete and survive in England's toughest cricket league.

Jones reserves particular praise for Cox who he believes, four years after taking the job on, has grown into the club's strongest skipper since the glory days of the 80s and 90s.

"He is a great captain and an essential part of the club," said the chairman. "There is not a day goes by when we don't talk about an aspect of what we are doing.

"The team has really come on under his guidance. There were only two guys in the XI over 30, the rest are young players.

"That was always the intention, in any case, to develop the youth system and give our own players a chance.

"We have done it on a shoestring and it has been a fantastic effort."

With the club on a surer footing, Jones hopes to make further advances off the field with plans to secure funding for a redevelopment of the pavilion already at an advanced stage.

"Things are going the right way," added Jones. "There are still things we want to improve, we want to get a better strength in depth.

"But the club is in good shape."

n Old Hill host a bonfire and fireworks night tomorrow. Gates open at 6.15pm, with the bonfire lit at 7pm. Entry costs £5 for adults and £2.50 for children aged under-14. A family ticket costs £12.