2023 AGM Review
The Club Committee had their annual general meeting on Thursday 30th November. With thanks to our sponsors, Ramsbury Brewery & Distillery who kindly gave us a space at The Bell to host the proceedings.
After more than a decade in the role, our Chairman Iain Cowan has taken the decision to step down, with Vice Chairman, Steve Hawes taking over the position. The club would like to extend their sincere thanks to Iain for his hard work and efforts over the years. He will, of course, remain an important part of the club through his ongoing support through ground and pitch preparation, which is vital to us delivering the great playing surface that we have.
Pete Osmond, our long standing Saturday team manager will now take on the joint roles of Vice Chairman and the new role of Development Officer in recognition of his outstanding efforts with our Junior and Women’s cricket.
We have exciting developments for our women's team (our ‘Screaming Eagles’ in tribute of the 101st Airbourne based in Ramsbury in WWII) and we look to resume sessions in May. Group members should be able to submit their thoughts on session start times, team kit and involvement in festival days as we look to extend our offering and progress the team to the next level. Anyone who would like to get involved with the women’s cricket, from running sessions, as well as playing can get in touch with Pete (07971288761) who will happily provide you with more information. Sessions are expected to start again in May 2024 and will likely continue to take place on Wednesday evenings. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to the club for what we expect to be an exciting season for women’s cricket at Ramsbury.
The committee are also thrilled to welcome Polini and Vicki who will be joint representatives for our women’s cricket and will be working to drive this forward.
We were awarded National Programmes Club of the Year at the Wiltshire Cricket 2023 grassroots awards. A really well deserved award for all those who have been involved in the 2023 season. We had upwards of 70 kids playing cricket each Friday evening as part of All Stars and Dynamos in 2023 and in 2024, we have plans to extend the Dynamos season to include additional sessions and hopefully festival games too (more information to follow). We’d welcome anyone who would like to assist us with the All Stars and Dynamos sessions… they simply cannot run without our wonderful volunteer supporters and we’d welcome parents, as well as club members to get involved and help grow this wonderful offering from our club.
Our teams are shaping up nicely for 2024. Whilst we’ve taken the tough decision not to enter the league this coming season, our growing Sunday friendly side is expected to be strengthened by our Saturday players, who knows, maybe our 7 game unbeaten run in 2023 could be beaten in 2024. We’re also delighted to announce the start of our T20 side who will play midweek friendly fixtures (Tue/Thu) during 2024. Tommy Wood has been confirmed as the team captain, and supported by Jamie Judd as Vice Captain.
Both our Sunday and Midweek teams are open to new members of all ages and genders. If you’re not already involved, please message Chris Roberts (Sunday Captain, 07825941407) or Tommy Wood (Midweek Captain, 07824995534) who will gladly provide more details, add you to relevant message groups etc.
Details on training and nets sessions for 2024 to follow.
Our wicket and surrounding ground was rated the 4th best in the league and achieved great results in the pitch inspection too. A huge thanks to Colin, Iain and Dave for their incredible support in creating a great playing surface, simply outstanding for a club of our size. We’re adding to our ground staff volunteers in 2024 as Warwick will learn the ropes. If anyone else would like to assist the efforts from mowing to wicket preparation, please let us know.
Finally a note on fundraising. The club cannot exist without the continued local support from players, members, families and businesses and we would like to thank everyone who has attended events we’ve put on, and those who have contributed to us both through financial donations, as well as with their valuable time as volunteers. We’re hopeful that 2024 will not only see the return of some favourite events like the Street Fair, our Wine & Quiz night and our infamous final fixture BBQ, but 2024 will see the return of Oktoberfest (although may not be in October, but will be a festival) as well as exploring family festival cricket days. We’ll also be attending the Ramsbury Freshers Fair in April, so please head down to meet us then. If you’ve got any ideas for fundraising activities we’d love to hear from you! Please drop Steve (07918800410) or Tommy (07824995534) a message.
From everyone at Ramsbury Cricket Club we thank you for what has been an outstanding 2023 and we’re itching and eager to get going in 2024!