Passionate though some of our members are, it’s probably fair to say that in the run-up to Christmas most people won’t have cricket in the forefront of their minds. But with just three weeks until indoor training restarts in January and registration for next season’s junior section already well advanced (see Junior Registration for 2025) here’s a quick update on changes in personnel and plans for 2025, as well as some news on the cricketing activities of one or two our members in other parts of the world …
Changing of the guard
After about 30 years looking after the ground and preparing the pitches at Blackheath (and latterly at Grafham), Terry Brockman has announced his retirement as of the end of the 2024 season. It feels like the end of an era; Terry’s contribution to the club has been enormous and it’ll be very difficult to maintain his standards in the years to come. However, our professional groundsman Jonny Nolan will do his best, and to keep him on his toes Terry (pictured below with Keith Poynter, who is also standing down from the committee after many years’ service) will continue to maintain a critical eye from the boundary.
There will also be a few changes amongst the senior team captains. After more years than he cares to remember, Simon Mansell is stepping down as the men’s 2nd XI skipper. He will be a tough act to follow, but in Tim Velstra, who will returning to us from Australia to take up the 2nd XI captaincy as well as coaching for us again next summer, we have a very able replacement. Ben Stefanik will be Tim’s vice-captain. Steve Greenway is also standing down as the men’s 3rd XI captain, having overseen a season of consolidation for the team, and will be succeeded by Keith Hemshall.
Meanwhile, both Helen Mansell and Sue Stefanik have retired from their roles in the women’s section after major contributions over many years. Next season, the women’s captain will be Lucy Horitz. Sharon Eyers, whose return as Women & Girls Head Coach this season was extremely popular, will be joining the club committee as Head of Women & Girls’ Cricket. As regards the boys’ coaching team, in addition to the regular coaches and the return of Tim Velstra, we will be welcoming a second overseas player/coach in place of Tom Flavell, who has returned to New Zealand.
Time to start limbering up
The new winter training programs for all seniors and juniors (U8 upwards) starts early in the New Year. Training sessions for younger boys and girls will continue to be on Friday evenings at Cranleigh, St Catherine’s and Longacre Schools. Timings will be similar to the past term, with the first sessions on Friday 10th January.
However, in a change to previous arrangements, in 2025 both men’s and women’s training sessions are moving from Cranleigh to Tormead School in Guildford, where a brand new 4-lane net facility has recently been installed in the sports hall. The sessions for men and older boys will be on Sunday mornings from 9.30-11.30am, to allow for a bit of warming up before nets. The sessions for women and older girls will be on Thursday evenings from 7.30-9pm, including options for both hardball and softball training. With all our older girls already playing hardball, we’re keen to encourage more of the women to give it a try and in the coming summer we will be playing some women’s hardball development matches as well as the usual softball league matches and friendlies.
For further information on timings/costs of all winter training sessions and to sign up, just go to the home page of the website, scroll down to What’s Coming Up and click on the relevant session.
Calling parents of our juniors …
As always, we’re keen to recruit additional senior players over the winter months. In the coming year we’re having a special drive to get more parents of our juniors to sign up, both for our men’s and women’s teams.
Whether you’re a dad thinking about dusting off the whites packed away a few years ago or a mum who’d like to give a new sport a try, we’d love to hear from you, and the senior team captains will be giving all parents a nudge over holiday period. For those with children in the U15/U14 squads, there could also be the chance to play in the same team as your son or daughter! Everyone is welcome to come along to a winter training session at Tormead in the New Year to give it a go without any commitment.
Shirts, sponsorship and social media
After 8 years of partnership with TWM Solicitors as our main shirt sponsors, our relationship is coming to an end in 2025. This will mean new club shirts across all squads in the new season and we’ll be taking the opportunity to move all our junior squads to coloured match kit, in line with the vast majority of other clubs in Surrey Junior Cricket Championship.
At the same time, the committee is reviewing our sponsorship arrangements more generally, and in the New Year there will a range of new sponsorship opportunities which we hope will be of interest to members who run local businesses. In addition to shirt sponsorship, these will include various other options such as promotion on selected Friday evenings at Blackheath and on social media – further details to follow.
With the club streaming all home 1st and 2nd XI matches in 2025, we plan that next season our social media output will include regular highlights posts, as well as reports and interviews from across the club. To help make this happen, we are on the lookout for members (young or old) with a little experience in this who would be willing to get involved. If you think you can help, please get in touch!
News from abroad
Finally, though for most of us the cricket season still seems far off, it’s nice to report that for a few of our young players it never stops …
As many will know, 1st XI skipper Will Melhuish is spending the winter in New Zealand, playing for St Albans CC in Christchurch, the home club of recent overseas players Ian Souness and Tom Flavell. After initially struggling a bit with the very different conditions, he is now beginning to find a little form, and in any event is having a good time!
Meanwhile, Danny Harrison, having previously coached cricket in Peru, has spent most of the past 3 months in Guatemala working as a school sports coach, taking the opportunity to introduce cricket to the curriculum there. Cricket is pretty much unknown in Guatemala and there's some way to go (the 2028 World Cup will probably come a little too soon!), but the kids are keen and Danny has plans to return next winter to build on early progress.
Lastly, Danny’s brother Ronny will in January be travelling to Kenya, to spend 10 weeks or so volunteering for the East Africa Character Development Trust, the cricket-related charity associated the Kenya Kongonis for which we have often raised funds in the past. Ronny will be delivering sessions to hundreds of kids in deprived areas of Nairobi as part of the EACDT’s coaching team, and hopefully will also be playing a few games for the Kongonis.
If others have cricket-related news over the winter, please do share it. In the meantime, a very happy Christmas to everyone and here’s to a great 2025!
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