Dear members
First of all, I would again like to say an enormous thank you to all those members who have renewed their annual subscriptions. Some of you have also made some very generous donations on top of your subscriptions. Thank you. Your support is vital to the survival of our club as we know it.
With regard to recreational cricket, the ECB’s ruling that all activities including training, e.g. nets, are suspended indefinitely remains in place.
The Shepherd Neame Essex League has announced that:
- No matches in the SNEL, Cup and T20 competitions will take place earlier than Sat 4th July and therefore the first half of the league season will be nulled and voided.
- First league games will attempt to be started on Sat July 11th – this is to attempt to play half a season of games (9). The current fixtures as currently published will remain unless XIs inform us that they cannot fulfil the fixtures. They will continue to follow advice from the ECB about whether recreational cricket will be able to be played at this time.
- Clubs will be given at least 3 weeks’ notice before any restart to the season.
With the club closed we are generating no income apart from annual subscriptions. We estimate that if the club is closed until the end of June the lost income in terms of match fees, bar income etc will be over £30,000 and if that is extended to the end of September that number rises to over £50,000.
We have been successful in obtaining a grant from the Government’s Leisure Grant Fund but unfortunately not from the ECB nor Sport England. We have also done as much as we can to cut our costs. The result is that the club will survive but whatever happens our club will be in a worse financial position than it was at the start of the lockdown. This will obviously impact on our ability to maintain and upgrade the facilities we offer to our members in the way we would like.
As I said in my earlier email, the club fully appreciates that many members are under severe financial pressure. Paying the club subscription may be a strain on limited resources. If that is your situation, we obviously don’t expect you to pay your subscription. However if you still want to register or are a parent who wishes to register your child then please either contact Stuart Phillips or me, as the Management Committee have given us the authority to discuss this sensitive issue with individual members.
But even though we don’t know when the club will open, I do ask those members who are in a position to pay their annual subscriptions to do so as soon as possible. Also if you wish to pay by instalments, please contact me. As I said above subscriptions are our only source of income at the moment. We really need you to pay, if you can.
Adult members can register by going to Adult Registration and Juniors by going to Junior Registration
I do hope you have been enjoying our “virtual club” in particular the #heronshistory series and Naive’s Lockdown Coaching Sessions. I would like to thank everyone involved with the virtual club. Joe and Scott are organising a Virtual Race Night on Saturday 16th May. Please take part if you can. We will be raising money for the NHS and the club. Go to the club website https://www.wansteadcricketclub.co.uk for more details and see everything we are doing to engage members, particularly the juniors, in these difficult times.
As a club we are an exceptional community. If we pull together, we will get through this and continue to be an important part of the communities we serve.
Stay safe.
Martin Pluck, Chairman
PS I would also like to thank those members, who have recently signed up to easyfundraising. You are helping raise funds for the club and it does not cost you a penny. If you have not yet signed up, please do so and you can help us win a £500 donation in the #easyfundraising Refer to Win competition. You have until midnight on 18th May! To enter, all you have to do is sign up to support Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club on easyfundraising for free. Visit: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/wandscc/?invite=0OKL8O&referral-campaign=c2s