Dear members, friends and parents of our club
You should have recently received an exciting email from the Club’s Chairman, Stephen Hodgson, advising of our exciting plans for the next five years.
As Stephen highlighted, in recent years the club has made substantial investments especially in our grounds and training facilities and have constantly looked to access good quality coaching. This has brought great benefit to all those involved including team performances and player development.
Whilst the Club strives to go forward, pushing for promotion etc, it is not forgotten that the Club would not be where it is today without the support of the Junior section. As such, all plans for the future include the retention and development of the Juniors, this is at the forefront of all our plans.
The Club are in advanced negotiations with a new club coach, as Stephen also eluded to, once this is finalised, the future will be very exciting.
As we strive for promotion for all three adult teams this year, we once again recognise that the right type of training is paramount, particularly for the Under 15 - Under 21 age groups who make up such a large proportion of our adult teams.
To clarify, the club has set out its plans and objectives for the next five years:
The 1st XI to become a sustainable premiership team.
All other senior teams to seek promotions on a regular basis and rise up the divisions with no more than:
6 divisions separating our 3 current senior teams or
7 divisions separating 4 senior teams (a 4th XI is planned for this year)
That said, based on all the above, the Club's focus is sustainability.
Throughout the winter we have provided Junior training for the Under 10 – Under 16s at Christ Hospital and Arundel Castle with Jack Hyde heading up these sessions. These sessions have been well received by all participants.
Whilst Tim van Noort has not been able to be at the club over the last 12 months or so, Stephen and I have been in constant contact with Tim and are delighted to advise that he is available (and raring to go!) to provide a pre-season Academy.
This will be very much like the SPP/Academy that Tim provided previously and most importantly, link into the new Club coach (who Tim has known for several years) and fit with the thinking of our new 1st XI Captain, James Howgate.
Those of you who have previously been coached by Tim are hopefully very excited at this prospect.
These Academy sessions will be aimed at our most serious cricketers, those aged Under 15 - Under 21 who play adult cricket and are keen for focused, challenging training, those with a mentality to learn both physically and mentally.
The numbers per group will be small (six typically), the groups will be selected by Tim and myself, not by age but ability/attitude, for example group one will be typically 1st XI biased, group two may well be biased to 2nd XI players - training is proven to be better when all participants are of a similar standard.
We are also keen for current 3rd XI players to attend, this is not simply about ability, however the standards will be as high, players attending are expected to give 100% effort to the training to reap the rewards. Based on the above, please see here, on our website, the proposed structure.
For this to progress we need to act swiftly. Can all those interested please let me know ASAP either in reply to this email or directly to me by email or phone. I will need to know by Wednesday 26th February if you are interested.
Thanks, and best wishes,
Glyn Lucas
Junior Chairman