In the background lots of work has been taking place at the club in preparation for the 2025 season and I just wanted to take a moment to update you on activities, give you some key dates for the summer and also ask for some help to make sure we have as good as season as possible.

Overseas Players

I am delighted to announce that we have re-signed Elliot Seddon as our Men’s overseas player for the 2025 season. As a key performer who helped us achieve promotion last year we are looking forward to welcoming him back to the club.

We have also signed 19 year old Laura Scheiwe as our Women’s overseas player. Laura is currently playing with our very own Ava Lee in the Queensland Premier League and scored over a 1,000 runs in the Yorkshire league last Summer.

Help needed: We would really like to accommodate both our overseas players with Falkland Families this summer. If you have a spare room available and live near the club and would be happy to put one of them up for the summer, please let either myself or Bealer know (Email chairman@falklandcc.co.uk or cricket@falklandcc.co.uk ). The club may also be able to make a contribution to some of the costs of this.

Likewise if anyone has any summer work opportunities for Elliot that would also be appreciated.

Winter Training

Winter training has been going on since November for both the Junior Boys and Girls. It has been great to see so many youngsters involved and a big thank you to all our volunteer coaches making this happen.

For the first time this year the club also committed to running a Falkland Performance Training group for some of the more talented players that we see as potential 1st and 2nd XI players in the future. These sessions have been running with Mark Otley leading the coaching and lots of improvements are being made.

Our newly promoted Mens 1st XI have also started their preparations for life in the Home Counties Premier league with captain James Bird delighted with squad energy and commitment.

In recognition of our success over the last couple of seasons, we have also reached a point whereby we have entered a 5th XI into the Thames Valley League for this year. This will ensure we can continue to give as many members as possible the opportunity to play cricket on a Saturday whilst making sure we have a pathway in to Senior Cricket for all our youngsters. Tim Colby will captain the side with home matches being played at Yattendon CC.

Winter club training will commence on 27th February for 6 weeks at Newbury College for all those players who are looking to play Senior Club Cricket in 2025.

Important Dates for your diaries:

Saturday 5th April - Club AGM and Workforce Day.
Saturday 26th April – Club wide pre-season social evening.
Wednesday 9th July – Hampshire Women 1st XI – T20 Blast vs Lancashire Thunder
Friday 5th September – Junior Presentation evening
Saturday 13th September – Senior Presentation evening
Sunday 28th September – Club Golf Day
Wednesday 5th November – Club Fireworks Evening (lots of new volunteers needed please).

Grounds Update

Browny and Fozzie have been busy renovating the nets on the ELG and with the help of Martin Cooper have been helping to hopefully improve the drainage on the WCG. Further works are required ahead of the season to clear some trees on the ELG.

Please try and make every effort to attend the workforce day on the 5th April so that we have as many resources as possible to help get the club set up for the summer season.

Fundraising

With the club still carrying a lot of debt from the build of the pavilion, we will be planning a few fundraising events through the summer to ensure we can also continue to develop the facilities at Falkland both on and off the field for the membership. More details of the plans will follow but our priorities will soon be to upgrade the facilities at the WCG and practice facilities for everyone.

I look forward to seeing a few of you over the next few months at training and at the AGM / Workforce day to kick off the 2025 season.

Best wishes
Neil
Chairman, Falkland CC