Welcome to the Winter 2024/5 newsletter. We hope you all had a great Christmas & New Year. It's not quite cricket weather out there at the moment, but that doesn't stop our club preparing for the coming summer both on & off the field.

AGM Notification – Thursday 20th March 2025
Start time - 19:30 in the Nevill Clubhouse
As a club run by volunteers and responsible to its members, we hold an Annual General Meeting to ensure the club is operating in a clear and transparent way and to update our 400+ members with news about the exciting projects happening across the club.

Please therefore add THURSDAY 20th MARCH 2025, 19:30 start, to your diaries. Members are welcome to raise questions beforehand or at the meeting. We look forward to seeing you all.

Season Review
Last summer saw another packed schedule of softball, junior & adult cricket played by the largest cricket club in Sussex. We now run 6 Mens, 2 Womens, 13 Boys & 4 Girls teams, with over 240 players representing the Mighty Bensons during the season.

We also saw 70 youngsters take their first steps in their cricket career through the All Stars & Dynamos programmes. Our Friday night sessions were an amazing sight with the Nevill covered by youngsters enjoying themselves and the bar & patio full with parents also enjoying themselves, although in a more 'adult' manner !

On the field we enjoyed plenty of success again, with our Men's 1st XI putting together a title winning season, with just one defeat & sixteen wins. Highlights of the 1s season were 6 centuries, 6 batters averaging over 40 & the leagues top wicket taker with 50 scalps. Our Men's 3s, 4s & 5s were all in contention for promotion until the sharp end of the season, but sadly just missed out.

Our two Women's teams were both competitive and were able to put two sides out on a number of weekends, which hasn't always been possible. Our Women's 1s finished 4th in the Sussex Premier League and will look to challenge for the title next season with so many quality youngsters coming through our junior pathway.

Our Girls teams again brought home plenty of silverware with the U13s & U15s winning their leagues and the U17s reaching the abandoned Festival Final that is being replayed on 4th May.

Our Boys teams continued the success that they've seen over the past few years. We won leagues at U12, both teams at U14 & U16. The highlight of any season for the juniors is the Festivals and we were able to bring home the U14 trophy this season along with the U12 Champions League Trophy (winners of each regional league).

While our junior teams are seeing much success, we are again proud of how many of them are making an impact in Adult cricket. Our Boys & Girls have taken their opportunities in both the Men's & Women's teams and shown that the club is in good health and we can look forward to seeing just how good they become in the coming years.

Winter Nets
Cricket never sleeps (as evidenced by the 3 or 4 tournaments currently on TV from around the world) and that is true with our club. Our Women & Junior teams have already started their winter net programme. The Women practice on Sundays at Brighton Aldridge Academy (BACA), while our Boys & Girls have several evenings, depending on age group, at Blatchington Mill School.

The Men's teams start on Wednesday 29th January & then Sunday 2nd February at Blatchington Mill School. Due to space constraints, the 1's & 2's squads will practice on Wednesday evenings from 19:45, while the 5's & 6's will be on Sundays starting at 14:30 & the 3's & 4's on Sundays from 16:00.

If there are any new players unsure of which session to come to then please reply to this email and we will guide you.

Projects Around the Club
While most of us are curled up in front of the TV watching back-to-back football matches over the winter, your committee never stop planning & delivering improvements to the ground, clubhouse & cricket facilities. All of these 'projects' require significant investment which we try to generate through grants, sponsorship, donations & general fundraising. If you can help with any fundraising then please talk to any committee member.

Current projects include :

• Extend our outdoor nets with two extra lanes (sadly 'still' waiting for grant money)
• Resurface worn areas of the existing outdoor nets
• Redevelop our garages to provide additional storage space (planning permission submitted & awaiting grant money)
• Purchase six new ground preparation machines, including a new tractor, through an FA grant
• Extensive renovation of East & West Squares (successfully completed November 2024)
• New electronic scoreboard installed above fences to the East (old one to be used on West Square)
• Electric power installed into the garages with additional connectivity to the outdoor nets (for bowling machine) & new scoreboard location
• Renovated West Showers
• Erection of a Flagpole with a new Club Flag being created
• Working with the Council to extend our lease for the Nevill Clubhouse, at a reasonable additional cost, until 2050
• Working with the Council to improve park cricket grounds and identify an improved location for Men's 6th XI to play
• Purchase new audio/visual entertainment equipment for the clubhouse

As mentioned above, we rely heavily on grants & sponsorship and are always looking for new sponsors. If you're interested and would like to find out more about the various packages on offer, or have access to any grants through your employer or your own company, then please contact Matt Wood at mattwood_50@hotmail.com.

Collecting Cricket Fee's
Collecting Match Fee's & other cricketing fee's is always time consuming for managers, captains & the committee, therefore this season we are collecting ALL fees via the SPOND App.

Many of you already use it to indicate your playing availability & to be notified of match details, so it wont be new to you. We hope using the single app (we previously used Slate to collect fees) will make everyone's life easier. Please can you help us by paying all owed fee's asap after they become due.

If you don't already have a Spond account, then please download the app now.

There are still some fees unpaid on Slate which we will chase up separately.