Southborough Cricket Club

Dear Member/Friend 

AGM

Following on from our earlier email, attached is the agenda of our 2023 AGM to be held on Tuesday 28 November 2022 at The Imperial Pub, Southborough, commencing at 1930. Please do make a special effort to support this important event in the Club’s calendar.         

On the field, the Southborough Men’s 1st and 2nd XIs played in the second and fifth divisions (after promotion last season) of the Kent Village League respectively.  We were also able to field a 3rd XI on one occasion and we hope to build on that this coming season. Both the 1st XI and 2nd XI’s were in the hunt for promotion at various stages of the season (for the 2nd XI it came down to the last game of the season) but both eventually finished mid-table in their respective leagues.  The Women’s section built on the success of their inaugural season in 2022 and we hosted and took part in a number of softball tournaments and matches across the season, winning 3 matches. A number of the Women’s team are now looking to move into hard ball cricket in 2024. 

Club membership and finances are in good shape thanks to the efforts of your Committee and in particular Mark Harrison, the Treasurer. In addition to the £10,000 from an ECB Fund (via Kent Cricket), which allowed us to make much needed improvements to our kitchen area we have secured a further grant from the ECB to make improvements to the facilities we offer for women and girls. We have also been fortunate to receive a generous donation to the club in the will of a former non-playing member, Michael Scott for which we are very grateful. We believe with the reserves we have in place we are now on the verge of beginning to plan for a much needed upgrade to the clubhouse. This will be a long-term project but it’s an important landmark for us. The ground and square have been further improved from an already excellent standard thanks to the tireless care and hard work of our groundsman, Jamie Brown- ably assisted by Hassan Hadi.  

Our junior membership is going from strength to strength with 62 boys and girls of five to seven in the All Stars and 125 other juniors in the under nines, elevens, thirteens and fifteens. We are delighted that our girls section continues to go from strength to strength, with 18 girls playing cricket for the club from under ten through to under thirteen. 

We again held a Junior Awards Day on the Common in September, and we were able to present the annual awards to the outstanding young cricketers we have at the club. 

We will be arranging indoor nets in the New Year which older colts will again be able to attend.  The details are not yet available but will be posted on the Club website, www.southboroughcc.hitssports.com, in due course.  

We look forward to seeing and hearing many of you on 28 November 2023. 

Ben Holt 

Hon. Secretary