While England have had mixed fortunes over the winter, hopefully that hasn't put you off already counting the days until this summers cricket season starts !

Our Juniors started their winter practice back in November with over 150 Boys & Girls attending sessions at Blatchington Mill School. Our partnership with Blatch Mill, which saw us renovate their Sports Hall & cricket nets in return for almost exclusive use over the autumn & winter, is paying dividends as the facilities are fantastic and its 'very' local. Indoor cricket facilities are at a premium across Sussex so this arrangement is the envy of many clubs.

AGM Notification – Tuesday 12th March 2024
Start time - 19:30 @ The Nev Clubhouse
As a club run by volunteers and responsible to its members, we hold an Annual General Meeting to ensure the club is operating in a clear and transparent way. We have pushed this years AGM back to March (its usually in November) as we feel its likely we will get more attendees as the Nev clubhouse may be a little warmer & everyone should be back into 'cricket mode' ! Please therefore add TUESDAY 12th MARCH 2024, 19:30 start, to your diaries.

This is different from previously notified but has been moved to avoid a clash with Albion's next Europa League match.

Our AGM gives all our members the opportunity to hear about the huge amount of work that is going on across all sections of the club and the ongoing investments in the ground and clubhouse. Members are welcome to raise questions beforehand or at the meeting. We look forward to seeing you all.

Projects Around the Club
The season may be long finished but your committee continue working throughout the winter. We have plenty of projects on the go and they include significant investment in the ground & clubhouse over the coming period. These projects include :

Extend our hard nets with two extra lanes
Purchase a second mobile net for use on the squares
Purchase a bowling machine for use across all sections
Renovate our clubhouse toilets & showers
Redevelop our garages to provide additional storage space
Additional renovation work on both squares to provide improved cricket strips
Improvements to the West Square facilities, such as sightscreens & scoring area
Work with the Council to finalise our License to run all activities on the Nevill throughout the year
Work with the Council to improve park cricket grounds (such as Patcham Place). The Council are currently suggesting they don't have funds to repair the clubhouses or prepare better pitches !!
Potentially develop a water bore hole to deliver the vast quantities of water our squares need

While the club is in pretty good financial health, we rely heavily on grants, fundraising & donations to progress some of these projects. If anyone has access to grants through their employer, we would really appreciate applications on our behalf.

If you feel you could help with sponsorship then feel free to discuss with any committee member or reply to this email. We would also appreciate any donations you can make to the fundraiser below.

Fundraising
One of the additions to our coaching toolset is a Bowling Machine that we will be purchasing very soon. Given that it will be used by all of our Girls, Boys, Women & Men across the club over the winter nets and then outdoors during the summer, we would like to ask for your help in making this purchase, which will cost in the region of £3000.

The club are already investing heavily in improving & extending our training facilities, subject to receiving Grants that we have applied for, so we would really appreciate our members help with this purchase.

We have setup a JustGiving page to help us fundraise so if you could spare even a small amount, it would be really appreciated. Please click on the link below if you are able to help. Many thanks.

BOWLING MACHINE FUNDRAISER

Season Review
This past season saw a new record 375 matches played by our teams & over 250 players represented the Mighty Bensons. This is a staggering amount of matches and a massive thank you is due to the many volunteer managers and coaches who helped us with our junior matches and to Peter Davies, our fixture secretary, who makes light work of scheduling over 150 matches at the Nevill.

In addition we had nearly 80 children attend our All Stars & Dynamos programmes, who we hope will become future playing members of our great club.

Sadly at the top end of our club, our Men's 1st XI struggled for results and were relegated. This is hugely disappointing as we felt we had a squad strong enough to challenge but an issue with our overseas players Visa just weeks before the season started certainly didn't help. Its important for our 1's to be playing as high a standard as we can, to give our fantastic crop of youngsters coming through the opportunity to pit themselves against the best players in the county. We are putting plans in place for the coming season which we hope will result in a competitive season where we challenge for promotion.

Elsewhere in the Men's section we saw plenty of success with our 3's winning their league and our 4's getting promoted as Runners Up.

Our Women's 1st XI secured the Runners Up spot in the inaugural Sussex Women's Premier League. For the first time in a good few years we entered a 2nd XI and while we did have some success, we did struggle to put 2 teams out on the same day. We would encourage all our women and older girls to try to make themselves available more so we can try to have 2 competitive teams.

Over the past few years our Boys & Girls Junior sections have gone from strength to strength. This season was no exception with plenty of success across these sections in their leagues, cups & Festivals, which is always the culmination of the season that the boys & girls look forward to so much.

While our junior sections are seeing much success, we are most proud of how many of them are making an impact in Adult cricket. Our Boys & Girls have taken their opportunities in both the Men's & Women's 1st XI's and shown that overall the club is in good health and we can look forward to seeing how good they become in the coming years.

This winter we have welcomed Matt Wood & Ian White onto the committee (these roles will become 'official' after the AGM). Matt is taking on the vacant Mens Cricket Manager role while Ian is taking over the Boys Junior Section from Pete Underwood. The Boys Section has been transformed while Pete has been running it and is now one of the strongest & largest in the county. The committee thank Pete for all his efforts.

We welcome Matt & Ian and wish them plenty of success in their roles.

Winter Nets
Sadly the recent fire at Blatchington Mill School has resulted in our winter practice sessions having to be postponed (likely to reopen in the week of 19th February). This is unfortunate however a good few brave souls from the Men's section are netting outdoors at the Nevill on Sunday afternoons from 13:00. Please let your captain know if you'd like to attend.

Our Women started their programme on Sunday 7th January at the BACA Cricket Academy in Falmer. If you are new to the club or haven't been notified and would like to attend, then please contact us at info@brightonandhovecricketclub.co.uk

Our Men will start on Wednesday's & Sunday's once the Sports Hall has reopened. Due to space constraints, the 1's & 2's will practice on Wednesday evenings from 19:30, while the 5's & 6's will be on Sundays starting at 14:00 & the 3's & 4's on Sundays from 15:30.

If there are any new players unsure of which session to come to then please reply to this email and we will guide you.