Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation from Keith Halsey, Chairman, in respect of the work of Camberley Cricket Club.

Camberley Cricket Club was a club based on Upper Verran Road and catered for every gender, all ages and to all abilities. Furthermore the Cricket Club also aimed to provide an excellent facility for local community residents to hire for their clubs, societies, special occasions and celebrations. Whilst the club was not a charity it always ploughed back any surplus into improving the club’s infrastructure or benefits for the club’s membership.

The club had achieved England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Clubmark accreditation which was a mark of a sustainable, well run club, which also provided a safe and rewarding place for young people to play cricket. The accreditation required the club to continually analyse its provision as to remain compliant, with particular attention paid to safeguarding standards.

Since 2018, junior membership had grown by 31% from 185 to 243 and a major expansion of the club’s senior offering including a women’s team.  Since 2018 the club had also acquired new state of the art outdoor coaching facility; and had continued to provide excellent community use facilities for local clubs and societies; and for weekend celebrations which was a major source of income and had amounted to over 70 bookings per annum.

Looking to the future, Camberley Cricket Club faced numerous opportunities and challenges which needed to be overcome. Whilst the club had the benefit of a loyal membership, good facilities and an experienced Committee, it was anticipated that a significant number of Committee Members and key personnel would be looking to take a step-back in a number of years’ time. This included the longstanding groundsman who owned the equipment that the club used.

In addition it was noted that despite the growth in womens’ cricket and the club, there hadn’t yet been established a good pathway between girls cricket and the womens’ team. In addition, Camberley Cricket Club lacked an established school catchment, which existed for many rival clubs in South London.

Arising from Members’ questions and comments the following points were noted:

·         Whilst Membership enquiries had rocketed and enquiries in respect of use of the club house had doubled during the course of the pandemic, many previous users of the club’s facilities such as local bridge clubs, had not returned as regular hirers.

·         Camberley Cricket Club was able to apply to the relevant council grant schemes for projects, where the criteria was met, this could include: the Community Fund Grant Scheme, the Borough Council Ward Councillor Grant Scheme and the Surrey County Council Members’ allocation scheme.

·         The Cricket Club had potential to further engage with its local ward members.

·         Under the ECB’s ‘Chance to Shine’, programme, Camberley Cricket Club sent their coaches into local schools, such as St Augustines, Frimley Green and Crawley Ridge schools, to run cricket programmes at no cost to the club.

·         With advances to technology and ways to communicate, as well as new areas for overseeing such as ECB Clubmarking, safeguarding and policy, volunteer roles on the Cricket Club boards such as Chairmanship had become far more technical and intensive.

·         It was felt that Camberley Cricket Club could act as a vehicle to help the Council and other public bodies to engage with hard to reach ethnic minority communities.  It was noted that BAME Cricket club members would often be thought of as respectable, well-informed members of their communities, and could offer a route to disseminate information on topics such as healthcare, COVID-19 vaccines and taxi licensing.

The Committee thanked Keith Halsey for his informative presentation and wished the club good luck for next year’s season.