On Friday 8 November the club held its AGM. There was a good turnout of members and a number of issues were discussed.
Jean Farnes reported that the club was in a good financial position and special thanks go to our sponsors, without which we wouldn’t be able to do many of the things we do or provide the fantastic facilities our community benefits from. Jean will be stepping down as Treasurer but in great news we already have a replacement lined up in Annie Tatchell! It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway, Jean has down a fantastic job running the club’s finances for the last few years. Taking over from Mike’s large shoes must have been daunting, but she took to the role like a duck to water and we are extremely grateful.
The Chairman reported that the season was mixed at a senior level with a decent showing from the First XI, mid-table finish for the Second XI, safety secured by the Thirds but sadly relegation for the Fourths who struggled for large periods. At a club level the club is in a healthy state with more members than ever before. We rely almost entirely on volunteers and Mr Chairman was enthused by the level of support we get from our volunteers. However he was keen to impress that the volume of cricket is placing greater and greater demand on the club, and in particular our grounds and facilities team. The number of grass pitches required to support this increased volume of cricket has meant that we have outgrown our facilities and an additional ground for playing matches will be needed. This is largely due to the number of wickets available to us, which is contextually very low when compared to other large clubs in the county. Steps have been taken to address this by the addition of two extra wickets at our Abingworth Meadows ground, however we will be looking to hire additional pitches from local clubs/schools in 2025.
Simon Capel’s Junior report noted that we had around 250 children take part in cricket last year and we entered teams into leagues in every age group from U9 to U16, whilst the girls teams grew to three. Squads have been competitive, had successes and lots of fun! Our U15 Girls made the final of the SJCF. He said that the club would continue to run the SPP Program next year with some additional support from subsidised professional coaching. That said, there would be some changes to the structure.
It was also revealed that Simon will be stepping down as Junior Chairman and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank Simon wholeheartedly for the tremendous job he has done over the past four years, overseeing a number of changes and challenges in the Junior Section – an ever-growing Junior Section at that, and one that takes great skill to manage. He’s been a real credit to the club and overseen a hugely successful four years.
In the Women & Girls report, Sarah Osborne said that numbers look good at the youngest and oldest groups, although a bit low in the middle (U12-U14), and adult hardball numbers are on the up. Softball however was a challenge and increasing numbers here is an objective for 2025. Another area to explore is the Sunday Women’s Hardball league which will be revisited in 2025 with the aim of entering a league side (last year we only had Sussex Slam teams). Training might take a restructure.
With her Welfare hat on, Sarah noted the addition of Assistant Welfare Office Nicola Stedman, who had been a great help this year.
On the membership side of things, Mandy noted we are in the process of moving to a new system (more on that here) due to the fees that LoveAdmin are imposing, and on membership fees and match fees there will be some small increases to selected groups. Updated membership fees for 2025 can be found here.
The meeting finished with a long discussion on plans for the senior men’s teams next year. Unfortunately, we lost several players last winter which went a long way towards explaining why our Third and Fourth XI’s struggled so much. To address this we are seeking to stabilise availability in our First XI playing squad to help the Seconds, Thirds and Fourths. We have already secured the services of an overseas player called Ashay Palkar, and he will be accompanied by his wife who is also very interested in cricket. Ashay will play for the First XI and will also coach at Thursday night senior training with the Thirds and Fourths and at various other times. We are also looking to get a playing coach for the First XI who will coach the First and Second XIs. We will also be looking for an amateur overseas player for the Second XI. A senior cricket development plan is in the works. Look out for more on that later!
During the meeting Neil North and Matt Hennings volunteered to oversee the transition of older junior players into the Fourth XI and will try to encourage more adults to play at this level too, effectively making one (or both) of them Fourth XI captains for the coming year. Thanks guys!
Election of Officers
Chairman – Stephen Hodgson
Hon Treasurer – Annie Tatchell
Hon Secretary – Mandy Davies
Junior Chairman – due to Simon’s resignation, this position is currently vacant although Dan Barnes has very kindly offered to Chair in a temporary capacity.
Welfare Officer – Sarah Osborne
First XI captain – Hugo Gillespie
No other positions are elected at an AGM.
Minutes are available in the documents section of the website.
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