I am very pleased to have been asked to be the Club's new Chairman.

I know that I have a difficult task in following both Gary Weightman and David Slack, who have contributed greatly to the Club in recent years. It would be difficult to calculate the number of hours that this pair has put into the Club, and I thank them profusely.  

I will however be working with those other two stalwarts of the Club Phil Richardson and Emmet McQuillan who put a tremendous amount of time and effort into the Club, a lot of which goes largely unnoticed.

I see my role as being that of assisting in the running of the cricket section of the wider Cronkbourne Sports and Social Club, and to ensure that it is financially sustainable and improving its facilities year on year. I will be representing you the members and would welcome constructive views on how we can improve the standard of facilities and the Club's social scene, which should be an enjoyable one, friendly and vibrant.

Working in the local Finance Centre as I do, I am acutely aware that the Club needs to generate revenues to support our current operations and to put in place improvements to the infrastructure and ground, all of which comes at a cost as we know. We have Club facilities that are the envy of many, but these too are becoming increasingly expensive to maintain, so we need additional revenue generation to not only stand still but to fulfil improvement plans that we have in mind.

One thing you can do please is to pay your subscriptions promptly which will please the Treasurer no end, and I am sure that you would agree that they are wonderful value and that they are of course better in the Club's bank account rather than your pockets!

Cricket is a wonderful team game and during my many hours of watching coaching sessions and matches, the team ethic was wonderfully displayed by all team members. I should like this approach to extend to the Club itself, and would hope that you will all make every effort to assist the Club when it needs help in looking after the ground and premises. There is a NatWest Club Force Day taking place on 5 April, so if you can spare even an hour it would be appreciated, as the nets need putting up, the wickets and outfield needs attention, and the clubhouse needs some decoration.

It is your Club so you deserve the best, don't leave it for someone else to do!

I intend approaching some of you individually to see whether you can help the Club in some specific way, and I hope that you will feel able to do so. I promise that there will be nothing too onerous.

There is a fair bit going on behind the scenes at the moment, and we hope to be in a position shortly to announce details of a major new sponsorship deal for the Club and our hopes for the electronic scoreboard.

I also have great pleasure in confirming that Jeff Levin will be returning as our coach in April to continue the great work that he started last summer. Jeff has had a stint working with the New Zealand team recently so we are lucky to have him back.

I think that is enough from me for the moment; I simply look forward to a successful season ahead and meeting with you all.

Jamie Stokoe

6 March 2008