Dear Eversley CC Members,
As we move from 2022 to 2023 we would like to wish you very best wishes for the new year.
2022 was the year in which we came out of Covid with a full and uninterrupted winter training and summer season. We have managed to navigate the challenges of Covid very well and are pleased to advise that the club is in very good shape. With 2022 Membership levels at a high across Junior, Men’s and Women’s cricket we have in excess of 250 playing members. At Junior level we ran 13 Junior teams competing very successfully in the North Hampshire League and with more than 30 juniors playing representative cricket with either Hampshire or Berkshire. At Men’s cricket we ran 5 Saturday teams competing in the Thames Valley League including our first team in Division 1, a Sunday team and a weekday T20 team and at Women’s cricket our soft ball team had a very successful season.
During 2022 we invested £25k in repairing/renovating the Cross Green grounds shed and changing rooms and via the ESA more than £25k replacing the Indoor Training Centre lights (moving to energy efficient LED lighting). It was great to see a number of our members on TV when BBC South featured Eversley Junior & Women’s Friday night training as part of their “out in the community weather report”.
Looking ahead to 2023, the club is very well placed for further cricketing success at Junior, Men’s and Women’s cricket.
One of our key ambitions is to develop a pathway for Girls and Women’s cricket as we have for Boys/Men’s cricket. In 2023 we will introduce a Women’s hard ball team and for 2024 we plan to extend Girl’s cricket to having teams at U11 and U13 as well as the U16 team that we have been running over recent years. (This will require more Coaches and Helpers, so anyone interested in getting involved please let us know).
Due to the success and growth of the club we have initiated a project to have a new state of the art four lane outdoor net system on the Fox Lane grounds. This has become necessary to accommodate the growth in hard ball cricket and the resulting pressures on our two squares. The new outdoor nets will enable us to move training from the Fox Lane square enabling more matches to be played which will be required going forward. At a cost of £80k this represents a very significant investment and we have started a fund raising campaign to enable this. We will only raise this amount of money if all members get involved whether through supporting the various events that we are running, through using your contacts for sponsorship, through direct donations or by becoming part of the fund raising team.
We are planning to have a PCA – Professional Cricketers Association - Day on 2nd June – this will be a team full of ex England cricketers playing an Eversley XI . This is booked but requires us to have enough sponsorship in place by early February for us to pay the PCA.
Another exciting development is that Simon and Michelle Riddy - parents of Juniors Frank/Charlie – have taken on the management of the Clubhouse which has already led to a greater availability and use of the Clubhouse/Bar for and by Eversley members.
So, all in all your cricket club is in good shape and 2023 is set up to be a great season.
Key events to get in your diary as follows :
- Friday 9th January : Curry Night at the clubhouse
- W/C 9th January – start of Junior and Women’s Indoor training
- Sunday 15th January – start of Men’s Indoor Training
- Friday 3rd February : “An evening with Andrew Strauss" at the clubhouse, the event will be ticket only, details to be advised shortly
- 17th March : St. Patrick's Night (clubhouse)
- April : Season kick off event (clubhouse)
Best regards
Jon Last Acting Chairman, Dave Howorth (Acting Vice Chairman and the whole of the Committee)