There is much to inform the membership of as the season approaches, so even though there’s no cricket to report yet, the weekly bulletin makes an early return in 2025. This means we won’t need to bombard your inboxes with multiple emails, rather all the information is in this bulletin.

2025 Subscriptions
Subscriptions are now available on the website. Full details at this link

Please pay promptly and early, many of the club running costs are loaded to this time of the year so we do need funds to be coming in so that we can maintain a healthy cash flow. Also remember that you are not insured via the club if you have not paid your subscription. And for senior playing members, remember that there is a discount for paying early.

Overseas Player
We are delighted that we will have the services of a fast bowler from Grenada this year. We have sorted accommodation for him but just need a job. He is looking for manual work – if you can help out please reach out to Stef Saleem on 07780 530300

Your New Committee
At the AGM the committee was elected to run the club for the next 12 months. Below is a summary of the main changes to the committee and a full list of the committee members:

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.

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.

An appeal for further help to run the club
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:

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)

Captains for 2025
The captains for the 2024 season were elected at the AGM 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

Congratulations to all – please give them all the support you can as we aim for a successful season.

Working Party – 5th & 6th April
Many, many thanks to the 24 people who turned last weekend for the first working party to put in a shift to prepare the ground for the upcoming season. You know who you are and we are very grateful to you.

The pavilion roof has been de-mossed and de-leafed, the umpire’s changing room has been tidied and cleaned, the kitchen has been deep cleaned, most of the wood and rubbish has been cleared from behind the bins and burnt, the fence along the car park has been dismantled, the patio has been pressure washed and the scoreboard has been erected. Plus a few other tidying and sorting jobs.

If 24 people can achieve all that, then imagine what we could do if everyone came along to help! There is still much to do so please do make time on either the 5th or 6th April (10am-2pm each day) to come along for an hour or two to help.

If you haven’t been able to make it last weekend and can’t make it on the 5th or 6th April then please get in touch with Sam Brown (07934 446772 / sam@homebrown.co.uk) who will be able to let you know of any jobs you could do at another time

Investing in Chenies & Latimer CC
The period since last season has witnessed unprecedented investment in club facilities. A number of projects have been completed or will be imminently:

• New carpeting throughout the dressing rooms, corridor and main clubhouse area.
• New flooring in the gents toilet
• A re-vamp of the electrics in the pavilion including new fuse boxes
• Installation of a permanent net around the 3rd net surface that was installed a couple of years ago
• Installation of a hybrid wicket on the main square
• A full review of the water and plumbing with extensive re-working of the system provisionally scheduled for early May
• Replacement of the white fencing around the patio and car park with a UPVC picket fence – scheduled for late April
• Plus a number of smaller jobs to tidy up the club and ensure it is a safe place for all members

Instagram
Some great work behind the scenes by Alex Walker has revived our Instagram account and we’ll be posting regularly and aften throughout the season. Please follow us @chenieslatimercc