The 2023 Calmore Sports Club Annual General Meeting took place at Loperwood Park on Thursday evening (30 November) and with a good attendance present.
Below are the key points:-
Chairman Pete Lavelle welcomed the members and congratulated Sam Dempster on captaining the 3rd XI to promotion back to HCL Division 4 South for the 2024 season alongside praise for all of the teams through the club for a good season across the board.
The Chairman announced that Chick Chandler, who passed away earlier this year, had left the club a very generous amount in his estate. The club had set up a sub-committee to be chaired by President Steve Brandes to look into projects that would serve the club in the future and he asked for any thoughts to be passed to this committee for consideration.
The 3rd XI were granted promotion for the 2024 season and would continue to play at the Southampton Sports Centre as the Hampshire Cricket League give us a ‘stay of execution’ to allow the club look for alternatives for the 2025 season. The committee will actively search for a HCL Division 4 graded ground.
COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS
Steve Brandes was voted in as club President for an eighth successive year whilst Chairman Pete Lavelle accepted his nomination for a 16th year – just two years shy of John Newman’s Calmore record of 18 years from 1967 to 1985.
Clare Taylor will continue as Secretary, a position that she has held since 2013 while Ollie Tull was voted back in as Treasurer. He did announce a small deficit for the 2023 accounts but looked at the poor weather and also the excesses of the building work that followed the devastating leak in December 2022 as a reason.
Abbi Finney and Darren Vann would continue in the role as Welfare Officers and Darren remains in charge of the Women’s and Colts co-ordinatator while Mike O’Neill, who took on the Membership Secretary position, was voted in once more.
Jono Maton joins the general committee along with Dave Johns, Keith Woodhall, Tom Perry and Mark Lavelle.
CAPTAINS
For the first time in a number of years, all five captaincy positions were filled with all of the skippers continuing for another season.
Ben Johns takes the 1st XI for a second year as does Ryan Lomax for the 2nd XI and Sam Dempster in the 3rd XI. Tom Hoare, who came in and took over the reigns of the 4th XI, was officially voted in while Jack Austin remains in charge of the Border League XI.
MEMBERSHIP
The club committee considered whether, in the current climate, whether to increase membership prices but decided to freeze the prices for the 2023/24 year.
The only change was in match fees with an increase of £1 across the board.
