Dear ##firstname##,
Hope you are doing well and looking forward to the Cricket season now the clocks have gone forward.
Just a few updates around some stuff before we get going for the season.
Annual Subs
Annual Subs are again frozen at £50 - and this year you are going to get a full new kit thrown in for free when you pay your subs. The new kits, kindly sponsored by Conveyancing Data Services Ltd & Letterworks, have now been ordered and will be available to collect by the start of the season once you have paid your subs. You can pay in cash to Richard Stansfield, or you can pay via bank transfer. Rich will send out the details - again it will be helpful if you could get those in as soon as possible to help out with our early season cash flow (when more things are going out).
Volunteering
Because of the commitment the club has made to keeping annual subs low, we NEED people to come forward and help on two key events for the club in the next month. Firstly there will be a BIG work party on Saturday 14th April. The aim of this is going to be re-decorating the main hall of the pavilion and potential the changing rooms it time allows. There is also plenty of work to do around the ground to get the ground ready for the season. We expect that all members do their best to turn on Saturday 14th April to help from 9:30am onwards. There will be breakfast provided and plenty of tea and coffee as usual. For those that cannot make the 14th April, there is workparties going on other Saturday mornings if you are around to help (the same time). There will not be as much to do on those days, but there should be little jobs you can help with. If you are interested in coming along one Saturday morning to help, please reach out to us first to check your assistance is needed.
The second key event is the Bradfield May Fayre. This will take place on Monday 7th May. We know this is a bank holiday, and we know that is a bit of a boring job doing the car parking. But we end up with less than 8 volunteers most years which means those people have to stay around all day. For those that don't know, the club organise the car parking for the May Fayre - with parking taking place on the Football pitch part of our ground and further down the road. In return the village hall makes a healthy donation to the club for our assistance in this. It is key that the club continues to receive this as in turn it helps things like keeping your annual subs low and also allows us to invest in more things to improve the playing facilities. The times to help are from 10:30 to 3, and if we get enough people you only need to help for an hour or so. Jackie will source you a beer for your help and you can usually go for a wander in the May Fayre for offering your time.
Facilities
As mentioned above, we are continuing to invest in our playing facilities. Last year our two key purchases were the outdoor nets & the electronic scoreboard. This year we are expecting the delivery of our new roll-on covers before the start of the season, and we will continue to look to make further improvements. We are also purchasing a new bench for outside the pavilion after a kind donation to the club, which will hold memorial plaques to those club members who have passed away recently. As discussed at the AGM, we are also exploring the option of a boundary rope rather than flags - however this is likely to be later on in the season.
Cricket
Leaving the best till last - the stuff we all actually join for! We will have one more INDOOR NET on Friday 6th April at St Andrews, usual time for adults. This is due to the poor weather we have recently had which has seen a delay in preparing the ground. We are still hopeful to be outside from Thursday 12th April onwards (at least in the nets).
Our first senior game is Saturday 28th April with a pre-season fixture at Ashford Hill. The fixture is listed in the 1st XI fixtures, but this will be a mixed game - so can all players please indicate availability. There is also a pre-season 20/20 against Earley on the Thursday night before the season (3rd May), again this is a mixed game.
All Saturday & Sunday games are now added to the website, so we would appreciate if players could start to add their availabilities up - this will help us plan ahead and look at any issues we may have during holiday periods.
Kind Regards,
Jack Byrne
Bradfield Cricket Club
The Pavilion | Heath Road | Bradfield Southend | Berkshire | RG7 6HD
e: jackbyrne61@gmail.com | t: 07368324227