As I write this in the depths of winter, it's hard to believe that in just over 2 months’ time the fields of Old Greasby Road will be filled with men in white when Matt Owen's 2nd XI host Brooklands. Over the coming weeks, there'll be some serious activity at winter nets and I understand there was an encouraging turnout for the first session on 27th January. I would have liked to have been there myself to witness first hand, but work commitments took me overseas (Belfast is technically overseas, but maybe not as glamorous!!).

Now a month into my new role, it's been a busy few weeks as we've seen trees having to be felled, a new carpet purchased for the club lounge and chairing my first Governing Committee meeting. Having sat on many committees over the years, I don't think I fully appreciated what was involved in chairing a meeting with a committee brimming with passion and enthusiasm to drive this club forward, but with no fewer than four former Chairman on the committee to help me along I think I just about got through it!

At that meeting, I presented my vision and strategy not just for 2015 but for future years to come. As I mentioned in my January message, I strongly believe that by having a clear vision with short, medium and long term goals, the club will continue to progress forward and continue to be a great place to be in and around. I've heard it said on numerous occasions that people are unsure on what happens 'behind closed doors' and the mystical Governing committee meetings - in response to that I would urge anybody who wants to hear anything first hand to contact me and I’ll be more than happy to share with them the output of our discussions.

One of the key discussions at the January meeting was around annual subscriptions. After much debate, the tough decision was made that we would be increasing these to £120 for 2015, however for anybody paying by Friday 17th April they would be able to take advantage of a reduced fee of £100. This decision was not taken lightly, but given an ever increasing cost of running the club, and the fact that there hasn't been an increase in subscriptions in over 10 years, it was a decision that had to be made for the sustainability of the club. To facilitate this, we held our first 'registration night' last Thursday (29th January) with further sessions on the last Thursday of February and March where subs can be paid.

By the fact you're reading this, you will have seen we have a new website (www.uptoncricketclub.com) and I'm sure you'll all agree that the 'old' site had become a bit tired and was very inflexible in terms of how we could use it. The new site has a real fresh feel and will be a great vehicle for communicating with members and the wider community. We fully intend to keep this regularly updated, and if anybody has any suggestions for website articles please contact myself or our Communications Officer; Simon Evans (simon.evans60@ntlworld.com). To help raise the profile of the club and keep people visiting the website, it'd be great if you can share articles via Facebook or Twitter as my aim is that we are the number 1 ranked cricket website in the UK - a big aim but together we can do it!

One area that we have been very active in is trying to secure grant funding to support various projects to improve the facilities we provide. You may have seen on the website and via Simon McGowan's Junior Chairman's 'blog' (click here to view it) that we have applied for a grant from the Wirral West Community Fund to supply a range of kit for our juniors to enable as many children to participate in cricket. A contingent spearheaded by Rob Chapman & Simon McGowan presented the clubs proposal at a recent community event and it was extremely well received. The funding is distributed to those applicants who yield the highest number of votes so to help with this, can I request you encourage as many people to vote online by clicking here. Voting closes on Monday 9th February, so don't delay!!!

Since I wrote at the beginning of January, we have seen an encouragingly high utilisation of the tearoom from a variety of sources. We're currently working on some 'principles' for the type of use we want to attract, but several meetings have taken place recently with a variety of organisations to secure some long term use at times when the room may not otherwise be occupied. One interested 'booking' we have is a wedding reception in October where we will be looking to dress the room to create a marquee effect (it's a bit cold for a proper marquee in October!!).

Plans are coming together for the Annual Marquee Weekend which this year will be held on Friday 26th & Saturday 27th June. I'm just putting the finishing touches to the 'entertainment' for both the Sportsman's Dinner & Summer Ball but please don't let this stop you buying tickets! It would also be really helpful if you could buy your tickets as early as possible as it makes the planning so much easier. If you need tickets, please contact me (details at the footer of this article). To make best use of the marquee, we've also managed to secure a wedding reception on the Sunday evening and are looking for bookings for Wednesday 24th & Thursday 25th June. If you know of anybody who may be interested, please contact me as it'd be great to see the marquee fully utilised.

I'd like to leave you with a quote - "I always wondered why somebody didn't do something about that. Then I realised I was somebody." So, seize the opportunity and make a difference to YOUR club in whatever way you can.

Cheers

Jez Lamb
Club Chairman
Tel: 07887 743 230
Email: jez.lamb@swinton.co.uk