Despite the non-cricket weather and the Ashes results we are remaining upbeat and looking forward to another successful season, although it seems a long way off currently, the first game is scheduled in only 9 weeks from now!

Please find below some updates on what has been happening and also some appeals for volunteers.

Coaching for the junior section started 3 weeks ago and the numbers across all age groups has been excellent and the number of coaches has been healthy which has enabled us to provide coaching to a few children at a time.

A positive meeting was held with the head of the estate at Ragley Hall, I am still waiting for the minutes from that meeting to be approved by Ragley Hall before I can share too much detail. But in the meantime, I can let you know that they do want us to remain at our current site and our future is safe. I need to do more work on providing them with detailed costings on pavilion improvements, extension, extra land for a 2nd ground etc before they will consider these changes. I will report back in due course with more information as and when I have it. We could do with a survey being done on the existing pavilion to ascertain its suitability for being extended (or if it’s going to fall down soon!) so if there are any members what could help with this or know someone that may help, please let me know.

Senior nets begin on Wednesday 4th March at 6pm at Alcester Grammar School and run for 6 weeks, until the weather will hopefully be good enough for us to train up at Ragley. We hope to have some coaching available to those that need it! During the season we hope that the outdoor nets can be enjoyed by all senior and junior members, not just during coaching times, so please ask a captain or committee member if you wish to use the nets and they can assist with access and let you know if the nets are available. The ladies and girls section pre season training dates will be confirmed shortly.

We hope to have a calendar of social events taking place this year, with the highlight being an end of season ball to be held in September up at the ground. If there are members or friends of members who can help with a Marquee, catering, music or anything else that would add to this experience, then please let me know. I have quotes in place for all these so far, but they are a little eye watering, and I’d like to keep the ticket price to a minimum. We used to hold an end of season ball annually, but cost constraints have stopped us from doing this in recent times, I would love to get this resurrected again so we can all celebrate what is hopefully a successful season for the club, and if there isn’t anything to celebrate then we can have a good time anyway!

The playing surface has had its annual service and the results are looking good, with a healthy, even, grass regrowth across the square. The pavilion is in the process of being cleared of all the junk out of it to make it a more appealing place to be. The outside is being stripped back where the paint is falling off and a new coat will be applied. A new cooler has been installed in the beer cellar, so we hope to see less wastage than last year on the draft beer. Thank you to Tim Foster for liaising with Inns Express to get this for us at no cost.

A new player attraction initiative has been launched to help increase the number of senior players at the club. Here are the details “If anyone introduces a new player who then plays more than 5 leagues games in a season, then the player who introduced them will have 50% of their annual subs refunded at the end of the season providing the new player pays their annual subscription”.

And finally, a warm welcome to Amanda Hobby who has stepped in to be our club secretary. Thank you for taking on this important role and I am looking forward to your contributions to the committee.

I hope you appreciate this update, I will provide updates throughout the year. If you are able to help with any of the pleas above, then please email me at bentomlee39@gmail.com or message / call on 07866746027.

If you have anything pressing that you wish to let the club know about – whether it’s good, bad, or indifferent then please use the email / phone number above to let me know.

Ben Lee
Director of Cricket