The Hampshire League's AGM - again by zoom - takes place on Thursday 20 January 2025 at 7pm. Attendance is mandatory.
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
As last year, I would like to start my Annual Report to the members of the Hampshire Cricket League (“HCL”) by thanking all the Committee members for the hard work, dedication and skill in making sure that over 300 sides are able to play competitive, recreational cricket in a structured and organised format every weekend. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, we should all be very grateful to the committee and it continues to be a privilege to be a part of the team.
For the second season running, the weather wasn’t brilliant last summer, and it was a slow start for some clubs, as the grounds recovered from the wet spring. Congratulations to all the winners and a particular mention to Odiham & Greywell CC and Alton 2nd team who gained promotion to the Southern Premier Cricket League. As always, there were some amazing matches, none more so than Kerala 1st team chasing down 367 to win a match against Shrewton; never before has there been 735 runs scored in a Hampshire Cricket League match.
I am delighted to report that we have a number of new entrants to HCL in both the Saturday and Sunday leagues, and both days have more sides in 2025 than we had in 2024. Welcome and I trust that you will enjoy playing cricket in our wonderful league.
Structure
As you will be aware and following the vote at the Extraordinary General Meeting in June 2024, the structure of the Saturday divisions will change significantly in 2025. All the detail was included in the EGM papers but in summary the divisions are smaller in size, to facilitate playing opponents home and away, and for most clubs reduced travel.
One disappointing feature of the 2024 season was the increase in disciplinary incidents. I wrote to all clubs last August in this regard and request that all will take individual and collective responsibility for making improvements in this area. I believe leadership from club chairs and captains is an important ingredient and hope that this can reduce some of the unpleasantness that appeared to have occurred in some matches.
In general terms, our approach to ground standards remains unchanged in that we require certain minimum standards to be maintained, and those standards are more onerous the higher up the leagues a team progresses. We are looking to simplify those standards once there is output from the county wide ground and facilities review and will also look to work flexibly and constructively with clubs to develop action plans should ground marks be on the low side. Should you need any help or guidance, please do not hesitate to contact Tony Oxley our Grounds sub-committee lead in the first instance.
During 2024, we were able to organise funding to reduce the cost of travel to the Isle of Wight. We are working on a similar plan for 2025 and will add an announcement to the news section of the website, when more details are available. We thank Hampshire Cricket Board and Isle of Wight Cricket Board for their support on this.
Sponsors
As previously reported, from January 2024 we had new sponsors, Howden Group, insurance brokers and this arrangement continues into 2025. Howdens are the broker for the ECB and some of you will already be familiar with Howdens through the ECB insurance scheme, where clubs can access public liability insurance for no charge through the safe hand’s portal. I would like to thank Howdens for their support to the League and the clubs in the League.
You will see from the Treasurers’ Report that the financial position of HCL continues to be satisfactory and benefitted from the sponsorship income from Howdens.
We have a number of vacancies on the committee and are always on the look-out for additional help. The league can only run in it’s current form with volunteers to carry out the various functions and so I would encourage anyone who has an interest in helping us to make contact with me or another committee member, since we have a number of tasks where assistance would be gratefully received.
Thank you all and enjoy the coming season.
Ken Morrison, Chairman.
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
As last year, I would like to start my Annual Report to the members of the Hampshire Cricket League (“HCL”) by thanking all the Committee members for the hard work, dedication and skill in making sure that over 300 sides are able to play competitive, recreational cricket in a structured and organised format every weekend. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, we should all be very grateful to the committee and it continues to be a privilege to be a part of the team.
For the second season running, the weather wasn’t brilliant last summer, and it was a slow start for some clubs, as the grounds recovered from the wet spring. Congratulations to all the winners and a particular mention to Odiham & Greywell CC and Alton 2nd team who gained promotion to the Southern Premier Cricket League. As always, there were some amazing matches, none more so than Kerala 1st team chasing down 367 to win a match against Shrewton; never before has there been 735 runs scored in a Hampshire Cricket League match.
I am delighted to report that we have a number of new entrants to HCL in both the Saturday and Sunday leagues, and both days have more sides in 2025 than we had in 2024. Welcome and I trust that you will enjoy playing cricket in our wonderful league.
Structure
As you will be aware and following the vote at the Extraordinary General Meeting in June 2024, the structure of the Saturday divisions will change significantly in 2025. All the detail was included in the EGM papers but in summary the divisions are smaller in size, to facilitate playing opponents home and away, and for most clubs reduced travel.
One disappointing feature of the 2024 season was the increase in disciplinary incidents. I wrote to all clubs last August in this regard and request that all will take individual and collective responsibility for making improvements in this area. I believe leadership from club chairs and captains is an important ingredient and hope that this can reduce some of the unpleasantness that appeared to have occurred in some matches.
In general terms, our approach to ground standards remains unchanged in that we require certain minimum standards to be maintained, and those standards are more onerous the higher up the leagues a team progresses. We are looking to simplify those standards once there is output from the county wide ground and facilities review and will also look to work flexibly and constructively with clubs to develop action plans should ground marks be on the low side. Should you need any help or guidance, please do not hesitate to contact Tony Oxley our Grounds sub-committee lead in the first instance.
During 2024, we were able to organise funding to reduce the cost of travel to the Isle of Wight. We are working on a similar plan for 2025 and will add an announcement to the news section of the website, when more details are available. We thank Hampshire Cricket Board and Isle of Wight Cricket Board for their support on this.
Sponsors
As previously reported, from January 2024 we had new sponsors, Howden Group, insurance brokers and this arrangement continues into 2025. Howdens are the broker for the ECB and some of you will already be familiar with Howdens through the ECB insurance scheme, where clubs can access public liability insurance for no charge through the safe hand’s portal. I would like to thank Howdens for their support to the League and the clubs in the League.
You will see from the Treasurers’ Report that the financial position of HCL continues to be satisfactory and benefitted from the sponsorship income from Howdens.
We have a number of vacancies on the committee and are always on the look-out for additional help. The league can only run in it’s current form with volunteers to carry out the various functions and so I would encourage anyone who has an interest in helping us to make contact with me or another committee member, since we have a number of tasks where assistance would be gratefully received.
Thank you all and enjoy the coming season.
Ken Morrison, Chairman.
