Thank you to everyone who attended our on-line AGM this week. It was particularly good to see parents of our junior members joining the meeting and contributing to our discussions. We reviewed the past year both on and off the field- notably how the Club had successfully managed its finances in the context of significantly reduced income during the Covid-19 affected season, and how, over the weeks in which we did play, our junior membership numbers had grown significantly, especially in the ages 6-9 categories. We also looked ahead to the new season, including the launch of our Women’s Softball team, the arrangements for junior coaching and matches, the progress on our pavilion redevelopment project, and our sponsorship programme which is so important to us. We also thanked everyone who had volunteered in any capacity in 2020- that support is absolutely vital. The full report given by the Chairman to the meeting is below.

Finally, thank you to all those who stood for, and were elected to, the Club Committee for 2021, and congratulations to the senior captains who were appointed for the forthcoming season:
1st XI - Tom Grimes
2nd XI- Adam Elstow
3rd XI- Dan Steele

Chairmans report

In this Report I will reflect on how the Club has coped with the extraordinary events of the last financial year – and on the way in which we sought to respond to a set of circumstances which none of us could have anticipated, and which could have had a serious adverse impact on the Club’s short and medium term future.

When the full impact of the pandemic and its impact on all of our lives, not just our sporting lives, began to manifest itself in March last year, just as we were preparing for the new season, it soon became a very realistic possibility that there would be no cricket at all in 2020. This meant that not only did our minds turn to how we could keep in touch with our members, sustain the interest of our junior players in cricket, and push forward (in a virtual environment) with the various initiatives already in hand to improve the Club and its facilities- but we also had the very real prospect of a year with little or no income, and fixed
costs which we could not avoid.

As we all know, cricket did belatedly return, thank goodness, and it was very clear in the couple of months that we were open for business how much our members had missed their cricket and their friends. There was a really positive feel about the Club, and a huge amount of cricket was played in a short period. But more on that later.

The Committee’s first priority last March was to safeguard the financial status of the Club- and this was achieved, I am pleased to say. As you will hear in more detail from Val, in a year in which our cricketing activities and our income were severely adversely affected by Covid-19 we were able to limit our losses to under £1,000. This was achieved despite our total income of £26,000 being some £20,000 lower than in the previous year (mainly due to a reduction in subscriptions), and also without the Club being the beneficiary of any
Government or Local Authority Covid-19 related grants, which many other Clubs received. I should like to take this opportunity to thank those members who generously supported the Club – even at the time when there was every prospect of there being no cricket at all in the season senior members, vice presidents and many parents of junior members were kind enough to pay subscriptions and to make financial donations to help the Club.

To respond to these reduced income levels the Committee actively managed all discretionary expenditure, ensuring that we incurred only those costs which could not be eliminated altogether, reduced or deferred. As a consequence, our costs were some £18,000 lower than in the previous year. Ground rental costs were reduced by almost £5,000 due to the decision to squeeze all of our senior and junior hardball matches in the shortened season into a hectic schedule at Farnham Park- and we are hugely grateful to Club member and groundsman, Rob Dale, who worked so hard to prepare pitches and to make this possible. It is not an exercise that we would like to repeat if at all possible-
the square can only take so much use! Grounds and pavilion maintenance expenditure was reduced by some £4,000, and we had to slow (but not stop altogether) our pavilion re-development work, spending some £4,000 less than in the previous year. All of these measures helped to achieve a broadly break even position for the year, and we all hope that this season will see a return to normal cricket and club development activities, with our income and expenditure levels returning to historic levels, and generating a surplus to
reinvest in the Club.

On the field, when we belatedly enjoyed ten weeks or so of cricket, enthusiasm and participation levels were extremely high throughout the Club, and particularly in our junior section. Due to the fantastic efforts of our age group managers and coaches all of our junior players had the opportunity to play in competitive fixtures against other Clubs, training and coaching at Farnham Park was well organised and supported, the nets were extremely well utilised, and, particularly at ages 6-9, our membership numbers saw significant growth.

In the seniors a shortened season saw all three senior sides competing in a very worthwhile revised Surrey Championship competition- with no promotion or relegation applying- where we benefitted from playing other Clubs at our, and at a higher, level in the League structure. The respective team captains will give their reports a little later. Excitingly, in September we held an introductory session of Ladies Softball cricket; this was received with great enthusiasm, and, as a result, this season Farnham’s first ever Ladies side will be participating in the I’Anson Women’s Softball competition, which is absolutely fantastic news, and new players are very welcome- no previous experience necessary!

Whilst the cricket, and the pandemic, was going on, many other initiatives continued in the background. Through Jonny Matthews’ efforts as Secretary we launched a new Club website and membership database; thanks to Jamie Strachan we again produced an excellent Club magazine, and many of our sponsors very kindly maintained their financial support of the Club despite all the challenges that they were facing; and, under Ciaran Rooney’s leadership, we have steadily moved forward with our pavilion re-development project, and he will speak about this later in the meeting.

Finally, my thanks to everyone who has helped the Club through a challenging year- team captains, junior age group managers, coaches, umpires, scorers, parents who volunteered to assist in a range of capacities- and not least my fellow Committee members. In this final category I should like to mention one person in particular- after many years on the Club Committee Geoff Thorpe is stepping down, and is not standing for re-election.

It is probably easier to list the tasks that Geoff has not carried out for the Club; he has been pivotal in sustaining us through some challenging, and some successful, times. Already a Life Member, he was my immediate predecessor as Chairman, until last year he (alongside Toni, of course) managed the bar, a few years ago he almost single handedly ran our 3rd XI and cajoled it into continued existence, he has worked on the grounds, he has coached the
juniors, he has umpired, he has maintained the pavilion, he and Toni were the catalysts for bringing the Montessori Nursery into the pavilion, which generates hugely important income for us. I could go on. In short everyone in the Surrey cricketing circuit- and beyond- associates Geoff Thorpe with Farnham Cricket Club. Geoff and Toni will still be around the Club, and still contributing, I am sure, but I would like to acknowledge Geoff’s stepping down from the Committee this evening, and to thank him for all that he has done for
the Club over many years.