Another month passes and we edge just that bit closer to the start of the cricket season as there's just 11 more Saturdays until the start of the league season! To offset any winter gloom, I have an impending ‘milestone’ birthday coming up coupled with a trip to Rome where I’ll be spoiling Mrs. Lamb on Valentine’s Day by taking her to watch Italy versus England in the Six Nations!

Once again, January was another busy month 'behind the scenes' at Upton Cricket Club with the first Governing meeting of 2016 with the newly formed committee. It was great to see no less than five new faces joining the committee and I know they'll all get stuck in to help take the club forward in their respective areas. We had a really good meeting with plenty to discuss, so much so that we literally ran out of time and had to defer some items for further discussion. The fact that we have so much to discuss (and the majority of it positive stuff) I feel is a great sign as it means we are moving in the right direction. Our new Communications Officer; Jay Williams has some great ideas for the coming weeks and months, one of which is to offer an insight into the make-up of Governing, how things operate and the people involved. Keep checking in on the website as this unfolds.

Talking of the website, all previous 'visitor' records were smashed out of the water when we announced the signing of Nat Sariman as our overseas player for the forthcoming season. Tom Marsland had spoken very highly of Nat from his time in Australia, and I got the opportunity to speak with him face to face (via Skype) a few weeks back and he seems a great guy who will add a lot to the club. Clearly a very talented cricketer, as we saw with Ben Cant last season it's also the off-field presence which is of such a value, and with Nat's teaching background he should be able to fit in well with the juniors and help with their development.

Looking ahead to the forthcoming season, both juniors and seniors start their winter nets this coming week and I'll be trying to get along to a few of these sessions to see how things are shaping up (I might even chuck a few balls down to keep at the forefront of Tom's mind!!)))). Thanks to Simon McGowan and Graeme Keenan for organising these nets as well as Madeleine Ward who has been working through the process for ensuring all the necessary personnel are DBS (the old Criminal Record Bureau process) checked.

Hopefully you've seen on the website that we have linked up with Vital Signs Foundation (VSF) as our charity partner for 2016 and the fundraising efforts have already started with a group of us going booze free for Dry January. It's been a tough old month, but seeing the donations coming in has helped us through the struggles, and as of last night we were hovering round the £400 mark raised. If you'd like to make any donations you can do so via clicking on this link. Myself and Tom Marsland got the opportunity to meet up with VSF's Fundraising Manager Ron Hutchinson a couple of weeks ago. Ron's a very colourful character and ideal for the role he's in and brought us up to speed as to how the charity works and explained that it costs £4,000 for a heart screening for about 80 people. What I was amazed at was that they typically identify 4 or 5 people each screening who may have some kind of heart defect. Whilst we have set a fundraising target at £1,901 (to tie in with the year we were established) it'd be great to be reach £4,000 so as we could have our own screening at the club. Ron does have somewhat of an affinity for the club as he worked for a number of years for Lord Leverhulme and had been with him during previous meetings discussing the club's lease, and was able to share many a story with us. He had some great ideas for future fundraising which we'll be working on.

We're just finishing off the plans for the next social event which will be in March and these will be announced on the website shortly. All money raised from the various social events we will run throughout 2016 will go towards a specific project. We're not in a position to say what this project will be, but we should have a better idea after the February Governing Committee meeting.

Whilst most of the UK battles with the horrendous weather we have seen, we haven't got away with it as the pitches are extremely sodden which will pose challenges for John Lamb and his grounds team to get them playable for 23rd April. Ian Bruce has also been having a battle with the elements as he needs a few consecutive dry days to finish off fitting a new garage roof which will protect our machinery. On a positive note, we have once again taken advantage of a scheme whereby for a £50 contribution the ECB top this up to £350 into an account we can spend with at Jewsons. This is a great contribution to the ongoing running costs of the grounds.

So, with the season coming up extremely fast, preparation is key, and as Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Cheers
Jez Lamb
Chairman