The AGM took place on Monday evening with a fantastic attendance, highlighting the growth and progressive development of our wonderful club.

Below is a summary of the key points arising from the meeting, but this is not the official minutes.

A key task of the AGM is to elect the committee to run the club for the next 12 months, and the captains who will lead our various teams on the field of play in the coming season.
Pat Semon has served as club secretary since 2016, but has decided to step down in order to take a well deserved rest. We owe Pat a huge debt of gratitude for her service, which was duly recognised by the meeting.

Elected in Pat’s place is Sam Brown. Sam knows the club inside out having been around for the past 30 years supporting the playing career of her husband, Dave, and then that of both their children (Mattie & Emily) as they progressed through the colts and now into adult cricket. We wish Sam congratulations and good luck in her new role.

At last year’s AGM Stefan Saleem was elected to take up the position of Chairman of Cricket after an 18 month period in which the position was vacant. The Cricket Chairman role is a big one, representing all senior cricket on the committee, over-seeing the selection process, ensuring all cricket related admin is completed appropriately, liaising between the colts and senior sections and developing cricket at the club. In order to allow Stef to focus on the development of our cricket culture at C&LCC, a role that he is ideally suited to, he is stepping back from the Chairman of Cricket role. The gap between our 1st XI playing at level 5 in the Thames Valley League and our 2nd XI at level 9 is too big so Stef will be focusing on attempting to narrow that gap by working to bring greater structure, and therefore outcomes, to senior training, attracting players to the club and organising our overseas player program.

Elected to step in to the Chairman of Cricket role is Dave Brown. The club has always felt that the optimum candidate for this role is someone who knows the club intimately but has recently retired from the field of play. Dave has certainly not publicly retired and still hopes to continue playing, but injured knees (the result of nearly 7000 overs in senior cricket) have severely curtailed the amount of cricket he can play going forward. In his role Dave will support the captains and Stef as they seek success on the field of play.

So, following the elections your new committee is as follows:

President – Peter Brocklehurst
Chairman – Simon Hargreaves
Treasurer – John Moffit
Secretary – Sam Brown
Chairman of Cricket – Dave Brown
Colts Chairman - John Campbell
Women & Girls Rep - Nick Walker
Fixture Secretary - Sue Eltringham
Membership - Dave Brown
Ground - Peter Brocklehurst
Pavilion – Sam Brown

We also have appointed a number of people to the committee in various roles to reflect the growth of the club and the changing nature of running a club such as ours:

Social Events – Rohin Modasia. Rohin took over the running of our BFN event in 2024 from Michael Lurie - a huge thankyou to Michael for his sterling service managing BFN over the past years plus many other contributions he has made during his time on the committee. Rohin now steps into the role of social events manager, looking to re-ignite a club spirit through the social element of the club.

Funding & Grants – Nick Walker. Without dedicated resource the club has historically not benefitted from grant based funding. Nick’s aim is to ensure that we do access funding opportunities so that we can continue investing in the club facilities.

Head of Welfare and Safeguarding – Andy Bird. Safeguarding and welfare are increasingly important elements of managing an amateur sports club. Andy steps into this role to ensure that we are complying with all regulations in this regard, but more importantly to ensure that C&LCC remains a safe environment for those of all ages to enjoy their cricket.

Health & Safety – Basia Hargreaves. It is important that a club such as ours has the correct procedures in place to ensure that it is a safe and healthy place to be. Basia will be ensuring that health and safety risks are minimised at the club so that all members can enjoy themselves at the club healthily and safely.

Bar Manager – Mick French. In 2024 Mick took over the running of our bar, introducing a wide range of new beers and establishing the bar as a venue in its own right (“The Sticky Wicket”). Over the winter the bar has been open on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday lunchtime / afternoon. As the season starts he’ll be opening more often giving us all greater access to his fayre and helping to foster a better vibe at the club.

Marketing – Dave Brown. Using the website, social media and other mediums where appropriate this role is about ensuring that awareness of club news within the club and awareness of the club in the local community is high, with a view to harnessing a sense of belonging for our members and recruiting new members. In 2024 Alex Walker has done a superb job of enhancing our social media presence, specifically on Instagram, and we look forward to further growth in 2025.

Our wonderful club has seen unprecedented growth over the past few years. Credit goes to everyone at the club for facilitating this, but special credit goes to the management committee for working so hard to develop and grow the club.

The downside to this is that the workload upon the committee has also grown such that it is no longer possible for our officials to cope and run the club efficiently or effectively.

We are therefore appealing for members to come forward to help.

The first appeal is for someone to take up the position of Sponsorship Manager: Sponsorship is a significant yet untapped opportunity for funding at our club. We are looking for someone to manage and nurture our existing sponsors, and to proactively work to develop new sponsorship partnerships. The role could easily be shared among 2 or 3 people. If you are interested please speak to Dave Brown or Simon Hargreaves.

Our mantra is ‘many hands make light work’ and we are looking for 2, 3 or 4 people in each of the following areas to form a small team working with the committee member responsible for that area. None of these are committee positions so you don’t have to worry about coming along to meetings; all we’re asking is to get involved and help out in a way that suits you:

As previously mentioned, our bar is going from strength to strength under the stewardship of Mick French. But he can’t be there all the time and if we are going to open more frequently with publicised hours then we’ll need volunteers to take on shifts behind the bar. If you’re interested in joining a group of volunteers who could take on shifts occasionally then please contact Mick (mickbeernut@gmail.com / 07771 866370)

The captains for the 2024 season were elected as follows:
1st XI – Alex Walker
2nd XI – Ian Gilmour
3rd XI – Ashish Mehta
Sun XI – Luke Marsden
Women 1st XI – Emily Brown

Vice captains are not voted for by the AGM, but rather chosen by the captain. The captains’ selected vice captains are as follows:
1st XI: Stef Bartlett
2nd XI: Kiran Vadlamani
3rd XI: Gaurav Mehta
Sunday XI: TBA
Women 1st XI: Emma Braddock

The final task of the AGM was to set the subscriptions for the 2025 season. Over the winter we have invested or intend to invest in the pavilion (new carpeting throughout plus new flooring in the male toilet, updating the electrics and the plumbing), plus other projects such as the netting for our 3rd net, a new hybrid wicket and replacing the picket fence. This investment has been long overdue and necessary. Additionally, the club is not immune from general rising costs. Some of the increased expenditure has been offset by sponsorship or increased bar revenues plus our record breaking BFN in 2024, but we do need to increase our subscriptions revenues in order to cover those costs. Having evaluated the various options in which to do this, the committee proposed a £20 increase in subscriptions for senior playing members and students and a £10 increase for colts (excluding U5s). All other subscriptions and match fees remain unchanged. Despite these increases, membership at C&LCC remains very competitively priced compared to other local clubs. This proposal was supported by the members with a unanimous vote.

Finally, a reminder that the pre-season working parties take place this weekend (22nd & 23rd) and on 5th & 6th April, from 10am-2pm on all 4 of these days. You do not have to be there the whole time, just come along for a couple of hrs. The club relies on volunteering to get many of the jobs done to prepare for the season without incurring unnecessary costs, which in turn enables us to keep subscriptions to a minimum.

It would be great to see all sections and teams / age groups within the club represented, including parents, players, other halves etc so don’t let your team mates down, make sure you come down and do your bit.