2022 Chairman’s Report
Good evening, ladies, and gentlemen and welcome to my chairman’s report.
Finally, I can report on a normal year at the club and what a busy one it has been. We have hosted a full season of senior weekend & midweek cricket, a full junior program plus 2 weddings and a christening. An awful lot to fit into a five-month period and of course it has only been possible due to the commitment of so many people. To those, we as a club should be very thankful and appreciative, but in particular Chas, for keeping the bar so well, all at the same time as his busiest time of the year on the farm.
On the pitch it is a very similar update to last years report, with the first team being relegated but this time the seconds did manage to remain in their league. Having been involved in both teams during the season, I personally feel both outcomes are an accurate reflection of the performances over the eighteen weeks. As has always been the case, when both teams areable to field their strongest eleven’s, there was no doubt they belonged in their respective league, but sadly compared to the teams we were competing with, we just don’t seem able to field the teams we need for the big, must win, games. This ultimately has cost us again this year. On a brighter note, we welcomed some new playing members (and re welcomed so old playing members playing again) to the club, who all have made solid contributions and the arrival / discovery of some younger members too, potentially bodes well for the future, ifthey stick around.
For me, this is the key area that the whole club needs to focus on, above all else – acquiring and retaining regular playing weekend members. I can think of multiple games against opposition teams that were close to us in their league position, and we were not able to put 22 regular league cricketers on the field to fully compete with them. These games did cost the firsts and nearly cost the seconds.
Having noted all the above, none of the on-field performances should be a reflection on the commitment and dedication shown by our two captains. Without that, goodness knows where we might have been. I know Steve is working hard to gain additional players, so please all I ask is that we all attempt to support this year’s captains, with better availability. Appreciation must also go to Chris Cox and Paul West for scoring and Martin Roberts for his umpiring stints. Thank you.
Away from the playing side, the clubhouse development plan continues at a pace. I hope the addition of the new carpets and mats have added to excellent work started the year before. With the planning application to be submitted shortly for the new groundsman’s shed, the hard work needs to start in fund raising to be able to complete that project and conclude the internal development, which aims to give us better disabled facilities and female changing and showers. As well as making the ground and wicket look and play as well as ever, despite the incredibly challenging arid conditions, further acknowledgment must go to Jim for personally driving this project.
In line with the clubhouse the junior section also had a makeover, with Colin passing the baton over to Steve Dobson. It is fair to say the transition went very smoothly with numbers and revenues being up on previous years and with plans to further tweak this, we look forward to seeing some of the investment into the junior section paying off with some regular weekend playing members. Thanks must go to all the coaches for giving up their Friday nights, and a further mention must go to Lauren for keeping us all legal and compliant and of course Rizzy and Polly for their BBQ’s.
As a committee we continued to meet regularly, and I am pleased to report that in recent weeks Alex Tebb has stepped into the position of communications manager and has totally rebuilt our website, which looks fantastic and will hopefully aid us in attracting more regular weekend playing members to the club.
As you will hear shortly, the finances of the club are in a very sound place, thanks to the careful guidance of Martin, which should come as a real comfort to us all.
That’s enough from me and so let’s look forward to another twelve months at this fantastic club and welcoming plenty of new, committed, weekend cricketers.
Simon Smith - Chairman. November 2022