Pre-season letter - February 2012

19th February, 2012

Dear All,

I do hope you have had an enjoyable autumn and winter so far. With the snow disappearing and spring approaching it is now time to start thinking about the new cricket season at Harpsden.

This is a very special year for Harpsden Cricket Club as we celebrate our 125th anniversary. Our celebratory weekend is likely to be the three days over the August Bank Holiday, the 25th to the 27th, so the more of you who can keep that free, the bigger and better the celebration will be.

The 'behind the scenes' bit of the Cricket Club has had a very busy winter with lots of thinking and preparatory work being done towards the major project, the north-west corner of the ground has been cleared to facilitate parking post the completion of the project and Suzie Bradley has done a most incredible job re-jigging the fixture list.

Firstly, the major project. Various things have happened on this since the end of last season and hence I thought it would be useful to update you on where matters have progressed to. The Trust has formally given their support to the project, so much so that the project will be undertaken by the Trust, as the owner of the land, rather than by the cricket club. The committee of the Harpsden Cricket Club has agreed to donate £20,000 to the Trust for this project whilst the Trust has ring-fenced £37,500 for the total project. Given an anticipated total cost of around £150,000, this means we are looking to raise something over £90,000 from individuals, local companies and grant-giving organisations.

Charlie Stevens is in the process of making the planning application for both the ground works and the pavilion extension whilst Tony Wright is managing the fund-raising side of the project. This includes applications to the afore-mentioned grant-giving bodies, the first of which Ed Birkett and Tony are close to completing.

Charlie is also getting formal quotes from three different contractors and our current thinking is that if we are fortunate enough to get funding, the significant earthworks would start at the end of August 2012 allowing us to start our next 125 years on the new square.

Because of the scale of the project the committee feels that it is very important that the membership is fully behind it and hence we feel that it would useful to combine our Spring curry and our AGM at the cricket ground. This will take place on Friday 30th March at 6pm with the schedule of events being as follows:



• 6pm: Start and drinks outside/in the pavilion
• 6.15pm: Brief presentation of the project which will include the opportunity to see where the new square will be positioned
• 6.45pm/7pm: AGM: which will include a formal vote on the project
• 7.30pm: Take away curry in the pavilion. This is being organised by Jane, Joanna and Binni.

The cost of the curry will be around £11 a head but the precise cost will be determined on the day with possibly a slight reduction for students being funded by a slightly higher amount for the others. I would be grateful if you could let me (rodbirkett@btinternet.com) or Jane know whether you will be able to attend. It would be great to see as many cricketers, spouses and siblings at the curry as possible.

As I mentioned above, Suzie Bradley has worked extremely hard on the fixture list. This is particularly the result of moving to only away fixtures after the August bank holiday weekend as if everything goes according to plan, the ground works would commence on Tuesday 28th August. Suzie has organised new fixtures against Warborough and Shillingford, Watlington, Twigworth Travellers, Dreadlock Holiday, Kensington and Aston Rowant. I'm pleased to say that we have double headers against Hurst, Henley, Bradfield College Staff, Turville, Little Marlow and Greys Green. A copy of the fixture list, as it currently stands, has been put on the blog.

All of last year's committee are happy to stand for re-election at the AGM except for Mick Greenwood who stood down as Secretary at the EGM in November. His position has been taken by Binni Collings. Mick has completed many years of sterling service on the committee and our thanks go to him for all his efforts. Any nominations for positions on the committee must be sent, with the agreement of the nominee, to Binni at binni@binni-collings.com by 10th March....but please don't hesitate to discuss this with me beforehand if you would like.

We will need a working party to get everything organised at the ground, and given that the season is starting a week earlier than normal, this will need to take place at the very beginning of April. The working party will start at 9.30am on Sunday 1st April and if this gets finished in decent time, and the weather is good, there could be a net practice, or even potentially in the middle, afterwards.

A few dates for your diaries;

Friday 30th March, 6pm to 7.30pm; Drinks and AGM at Harpsden Cricket Ground.

Friday 30th March, 7.30pm; Takeaway Curry at The Pavilion, Harpsden Cricket Ground.

The cricket nets will be at 11am on Sunday mornings at Shiplake College. We are going to share the nets with BBC Caversham i.e. two nets each. Nets at Shiplake College, Sunday March 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th; from 11am to noon.


Take A4155 from Henley towards Reading. Shiplake College is on your left after ‘Shiplake Cross’. Take the 2nd entrance, the ‘All Visitors’ drive into the College. Follow the drive down to the main house, bear left and go past the main building on your right and park in the car park straight ahead. The Sports Hall is a wooden building with glass doors on the left hand side just opposite the car park.

Sunday 1st April 9.30am to 11am: pre-season working party at Harpsden Cricket Ground. There are various jobs that need to be done before the season starts and the more support we have for this the better.

Practice Sessions from 6pm at Harpsden every Wednesday, subject to demand, starting on April 11th. Following the success of the last couple of seasons it has been decided to repeat the Wednesday evening practice sessions at the Club on Wednesday evenings throughout the season. These will commence at 6pm with the first one on Wednesday 11th April.

Saturday 14th April at 1pm; 1st Harpsden match, against Little Marlow.

Saturday 25th August, Sunday 26th and Bank Holiday Monday 27th August; Special three day weekend at Harpsden Cricket Ground. Details to be determined but likely to include the President's vs Chairman's match and possibly a party on the Saturday evening and maybe the Sixes on Monday. Details to follow.

Saturday 15th September; Annual Dinner.

Despite the cost of everything else going up we have managed to keep the costs of playing and membership the same as both 2010 and 2011 which I’m sure remains among the lowest in the country! The 2012 charge for Adults will be £75 for a season ticket OR £10 per game and for Students it will be a £35 season OR £5 per game for those who don’t buy a season ticket. The charge for evening games will also stay the same at £5 and £3 respectively for those who don’t buy a season ticket. Early payment to David Heath would be greatly appreciated.

If you want to enhance your wardrobe, Ian Whittaker is still in charge of clothing and he will be taking orders for shirts, jumpers or caps, so do email him (iangwhittaker@hotmail.co.uk) if you want to arrange something before the start of the season.

Thanks to Joanna Cary the Harpsden Cricket Club blog is in fine fettle so do have a look if you get a chance (http://harpsdencricketclub.blogspot.com). A copy of this letter is going onto the blog so that the net dates will be there if you misplace this letter. All contributors and contributions to the blog are greatly welcomed and please email Joanna (joannacary@gmail.com) for an invitation to join in. Photographs are particularly appreciated so Miles, Gireesh et al, it would be great if you could put your photos throughout the season on the blog. The blog isn't technically advanced, evidenced by the fact that even I can manage it, but if there are any problems, please just ask Joanna and she will guide you through it. Happy blogging!


Team organisation remains an onerous task and Jane has very kindly offered to do it again this season but if you were able to contact her (jburtt@shiplake.org.uk or 01491 575126) before the season starts with your early season availability that would be very helpful. Also, please contact Jane if you have had any change to your contact details.

Ed Birkett will again be in charge of statistics and we would be grateful if you could all ensure that the scorebooks are filled in fully, and correctly.

We are always looking to enhance the membership of the club as it is the people who make it what it is. Do please bring your cricketing friends along to the pre-season nets or introduce them as the season progresses.

I look forward to seeing you at the AGM/Curry. Sadly I won't make the nets myself as I have just had a shoulder operation but I wish you all happy practising.


With best regards,


Rod.