Club newsletter June 2018

Alcester & Ragley Park Cricket Club Members’ newsletter June 18

Your committee want ideas to move the Cricket Club forward. We have alot of good, committed people at the Club and we need to expand that group. As you can see around you, we have a vibrant youth section, mainly due to the efforts of Ian Biddle and his team and we want to build on that, so that we are seen as a Premier sports club in the area.
Membership is the key, please sign up. If you have registered your children great but please register yourself as well. This will show funders and the English Cricket Board, who do provide assistance to us, that we have a growing and well supported club. Membership is free at the moment but we are looking to provide member benefits for a fee going forward. Any ideas? Forms are available but please use the link at http://www.arpcc.org.uk where you can also sign up to our 100 Club and Funtasy Cricket competition.
It would also be useful to know what skills the membership can provide, practical as well as fundraising and what local businesses may want to support us. In the short term we are looking to repair the roof to the equipment store, so any materials or labour would be appreciated.
Plans have been in place a number of years for a new pavilion – but it is maybe not realistic, in the short term, to expect that this will happen. The likely cost is £250k+ and we currently only have around 10% of that in Club funds. While loans are available, we need to show that we can repay these –borrowing £50k over 5 years, even interest free, is £10k pa. A better Clubhouse would enable us to host more events but it is a chicken and egg situation.
Therefore in the short term, and to demonstrate that as a Club we can raise funds, a formal proposal will be put to the next Committee meeting, to seek approval to repair our nets – cost £25k approx. This, we believe, is a realistic and worthwhile exercise and helps us to appeal to new people as a cricket club, as we will have better facilities. Also it will demonstrate that as a club we can fundraise.
We are looking to the membership to help us. We need people who will take on responsibilities to organise events or help in any ways possible. Please do not say “why don’t you”, please say “I can help to organise……………???”.
We have obtained funding from the ECB over the last couple of years for new tables, chairs, storage and cooking equipment, a glass washer and a large TV, so we are trying to improve facilities but the next moves will be larger and will require the help of all the members.
If you have any questions or can help in any way, please speak to any of the Committee or respond to this Facebook post.

Tracy Wassall - Fixtures Secretary Ian Biddle – Director of Junior Cricket