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Chairman's Report For AGM - November 2009 2009 has been another excellent year for the club both in playing achievement “on the field” and further “off field” consolidation. Membership remains strong and we continue to exert influence in both Bassetlaw and county cricket circles. In these difficult times we have kept cost under control and as a result subscriptions have not had to be increased, this will also be the position in the coming year. As club chairman I am still worried by the potential we have for “volunteer fatigue” which I mentioned in this report last year. It is up to us all to ensure the work load is spread evenly amongst those who benefit from cricket in clumber. To this end it has been very encouraging to see the contribution from a number of our younger members in 2009. We all need to consider can we do more and help those who do more than their fair share. I would like to recognise one particular fund raising achievement from Robin “Sonia” Wild. His achievement in running the London marathon not only made up for our loss of a key club sponsor in the year, but funded the new team room for the benefit of the 3rd and 4th X1 on the new ground. The standard of our wickets continued to improve again in 2009, with even more runs being scored on the new ground, this reflects the huge workload by all the ground team. The playing season can be summarised as follows: 1. Playing Seniors. • 1st XI had a great season under the new captaincy of Mark Dean, winning promotion to Division 1 in style. The effort was a team one, with exceptional all round performances contributions from Gareth Beard, David Beard and Chris Ward. The standard of fielding was excellent with notable contributions from Matt Deaves behind the stumps and contributions made from all players at one point or other during the season. New young players flourished and I would like to especially comment the contribution made by Chris Rix. Sitting at last weeks Bassetlaw AGM I was very proud to hear the Clumber achievements acknowledged by the league secretary. • 2nd XI had a successful season in Division 5 pushing for promotion right up to the last match, narrowly failing. We expect big things from an even stronger team in 2010 ably led by David Taylor. Congratulations go to Jim Delaney who won the league batting prize. • 3rd XI competed well with a very young squad and finished strongly to and avoids relegation with ease, by one point. • 4th X1 again finished in 8th place in Div 9 winning four games and gave valuable experience to numerous young players, many thanks to David and Tony for captaining and managing the under the most difficult circumstances. • Sunday League XI continued to compete well, with mainly younger players gaining valuable league experience. We must all agree the aims and objectives of this team; it is not acceptable to have its makeup seen as superior or a priority over the Sunday cleavers. • The Cleavers competed, had fun and gave juniors vital senior match experience. Juniors. • The Under 15 competed hard all season and we had good fun with some excellent wins. • The Under 13 played well all summer winning the South section of the league for the second season in a row. • The strong Under 11 had some excellent results and finished fifth in the league. • Both the Kwik teams had a lot of fun and the Acorns have great fun every Friday. • 9 juniors represented Bassetlaw in District teams. • We staged another very successful cricket coaching week in early August attended by over 50 children again raising valuable funds for club development. Huge thanks go to Oli Williams, and his team for their stirling work here. We continue to receive tremendous support in the structure of our junior section from our coaches and many other helpers, my thanks go to you all. These players we coach are our future and we have to continue this investment to secure this future. 2. Ground/ Facilities The hard work on the square of the last few seasons is starting to bring reward as the quality of Clumber wickets improves each year, the new ground played better and better as the summer went on The National Trust eventually re-thatched the pavilion and it looks much better. Thanks also go to John Telfer for his ongoing hard work in improving the pavilion garden We continue to chase funding for the structure of the pavilion and other facilities. 3. Finance As you will see from the accounts we are solvent and have funded all developments and expenditure with no borrowings. Future funding is getting harder to access but we have various options still open to us to fund our future developments. Two areas are being worked on at present. We hope to generate grant aid from our Focus club status in 2010. The management committee has again reviewed subscriptions and match tax. Following the increases last year we now feel we have a better balance of players paying to play. The management committee are all very aware we are always asking the membership to dip into their own pockets; I hope it is obvious from our success in obtaining external funding this is not always the case. Running the finances continues to be major operation requiring an enormous amount of time, responsibility and commitment. I would like to extent thanks to Deborah and Elizabeth for doing a stirling job as treasurer and Anne for her guidance and audit advice all their hard work. 4. Social Not only have they raised substantial funds from the excellent Club Fixture card and numerous social events they have also provide us with opportunities to develop the important social aspects of a fast emerging sports club. This is a very important element of what we are about as a club. This development influences people to become involved in the running of the club, sharing the burden of work and keeping the enthusiasm going. As usual I would like to thank the management of “The Park Inn” for their invaluable support to the club. It is imperative we continue to support events here throughout the year to help secure the future of the venue. Its loss would be a big blow to the club. 5. Accreditation / Focus Club The significance of our accreditation should not be underestimated as yet though we have yet to gain any material benefit, we will! We have just successfully completed the laborious re-accreditation process and it is in place for another three years. In summary our status as an ECB accredited club immediately earned us Focus Club recognition from the Notts Cricket Board. As already outlined this has opened doors at Trent Bridge and we are developing these links as a priority We have formally adopted the ECB “Safe Hands” Welfare of Young People in Cricket Policy. Also as a part of accreditation we have also had our club development plan updated and agreed by the NCCC. You will be glad to hear we are identified as a club in need of improved facilities as identified in the Nott’s CCC action plan all we need is the funding to become available! 6. Next Generation Project Update Progress made, we have our own second ground! We still have plans to modernise the old pavilion, to improve its internal specification and add electricity to both grounds. 7. Club Questionnaire Results I have left this list to review the issues raised and action taken. • Less nets more coaching / fitness and skills work. Under further review for 2010 We remain a progressive and “open” cricket club always looking to improve both on and off the field. We have come a long way in 9 years and have ambitious plans for the coming years, this would have been possible without the fantastic commitment of a massive number of members, thanks to you all. Michael Beard. Chairman. November 25th 2009
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