Dear Eversley CC Members,
On behalf of the Club Committee I would like to wish you a very Happy New Year and best wishes for 2024 (on and off of the cricket pitch!).
2023 was a hugely successful year for the club….
Our Men’s section had their most successful year ever including the first team achieving its highest ever position coming second in Division 1 of the Thames Valley League, our second team winning Division 5 and our fourth team also gaining promotion. We continued to run 5 Saturday teams and were again very well represented by our juniors not just in terms of numbers but in terms of key performers and performances.
Our Ladies section had their first hard ball season and despite some pre season nervousness competed extremely well finishing second in their league. Our soft ball team continued and whilst we struggled to maintain the number of friendlies we competed in some great festivals with local teams.
For our Juniors if it wasn’t the most successful season ever it must have been right up there…… our U9s won Div 2, our U11s won Div 1, won the North Hants Cup, won Div 2 and came Runners Up in Div 3, our U13s got through to the final of the Hampshire Cup, were joint winners of the North Hants Cup, were Runners Up in Div 1 and Div 2, and our U15s were Runners Up in the Plate competition.
Off of the pitch we enjoyed a fantastic PCA Day, we hosted an “evening with Andrew Strauss” in our own clubhouse, the Ladies put on a Curry and Quiz night all in addition to the ongoing social events, with monies raised from these events going towards our new nets fundraising initiative.
On the subject of which we have now raised £65k of the required £85k (£33k being raised by members and events, £22k coming from club reserves and £10k from an ECB grant). This has been a fantastic effort with monies being raised from all sections of the club for which we thank you, some of the individual contributions and efforts have been incredible and very humbling. This has given us enough confidence to go ahead and try to have the new net system installed ahead of the 2024 season….it will be tight but we will try to make this happen.
In 2023, thanks to Simon and Michelle Riddy, we had a much improved management and availability of the Clubhouse and Clubhouse Bar and we look forward to this continuing in 2024.
Looking ahead to 2024, our aim is to continue to be a successful and sustainable club competing at the highest levels whilst offering a great cricket experience to all. On the pitch we are looking to again compete strongly across Mens, Ladies and Junior cricket, the successes of 2023 will be tough to repeat or exceed but we have great foundations in place, we do not want to standstill, so bring it on. Both our Ladies and our Juniors are starting early playing indoor cricket this winter. Off of the pitch whilst there is no PCA Day (we hold this alternative years) we are looking to run some alternative member events….watch this space. Our success creates its own challenges as we continue to need to grow our facilities to meet the demands of a successful club. In addition to completing the fund raising and the installation of the new nets, the effort and cost of maintaining our cricket surfaces against the ever increasing demands is a key challenge for us.
The club is completely managed by volunteers and I would like to thank all of the those, particularly calling out the Committee members, the coaches and the team captains that put in the hard yards to make it all happen and into making Eversley such a great and successful club.
For us to continue our success we need more volunteers and member help, and we have roles & tasks that any of our members can help with, whether that’s supporting some of the “back office” things that go on eg finance, maintaining/developing our website, developing sponsorship/raising funds, organising a club event….or helping with preparing the grounds…or getting involved with Junior coaching. Please get involved and be an even bigger part of this great club.
With best wishes for 2024.
Dave Howorth (acting Chairman) and the Club Committee