BOARD REPORT
The past season has been another busy one for the Board of Marlborough Cricket. The Board continued to operate with seven directors namely Denis Aberhart, Vaughan Harris, Marcus Pickens, and Tim Rose, while Caroline Aberhart and Rebecca Condon were seconded during the year. Greg Stretch continued in the role of Chair while Vaughan Harris continued as deputy chair. The Board met monthly on the 3rd Monday of each month.
This time last year we were in an uncertain time as we planned for the upcoming season with Covid 19 very much at the forefront of our minds. Fortunately, the MCA and our Clubs were able to get through the season without too many issues and in a relatively ‘healthy’ state.
The Board continues to ensure our vision of “Cricket in Marlborough, a game for all” is at the forefront of all the decisions we make.
I am pleased to report that we achieved all the KPI reward targets set in the CDCA partnership agreement for the 2020-2021 season. All MCA directors and the GM have completed the Sport NZ Governance 101 training module, and this will continue to be a requirement for all new directors.
We are in the process of approving our annual business plan and budget for the financial year ahead. Our Annual plan guides operations for the year, including the partnership KPIs, and is aligned with our new strategic plan. Progress against the plan is reviewed quarterly with updates provided to the Board and CD Cricket.
Board sub committees continued to operate as required throughout the year with the General Manager sitting on each. These committees were:
- Board Policies Review & Development – Tim (chair), Rebecca
- Commercial, Finance & Risk – Vaughan (chair), Greg
- Diversity & Inclusion – Caroline (chair), Rebecca and Denis
- Facilities – Denis (chair), Vaughan, Tim, (non-board members: Alistair Sowman, Jon Cunliffe, Matthew Stretch, Jarrod Englefield)
- People and Performance – Greg (chair), Marcus and Rebecca
The Horton Park Facilities upgrade plan continues to be a key project for us. We once again submitted to council’s annual plan and have been actively in talks with the Council on what the next steps are. While this project will be a lengthy one, the Board is 100% committed to make this upgrade a reality.
Financially the association remains in a healthy state with another good surplus achieved this year against a conservative budget which considered possible impacts of Covid on our finances. It’s great to see all Clubs also managed to have a financially successful year, considering when the season started, we were very nervous as to what it might look like.
Our playing numbers continued to grow across the grades, and highlights include the increase in numbers of girls and women playing cricket, the women’s traditional game played on the last day of the season on Horton Park # 1 and the ongoing participation in the Second-Grade competition of the Kaikoura Cricket Club.
Our Senior Rep Coach, Jarrod Englefield, attended our April meeting to speak to his end of season report. The Board was again impressed with the progress made under Jarrod’s leadership, ably assisted by Greg Logan, Colin Wood and Greg Stretch as manager. We are delighted to confirm that this arrangement will continue next season, being their 6th season together.
Congratulations to Ben Wheeler who represented the CD Stags last season, to Tom Sutherland who represented the CD U19’s with distinction at the NZC national tournament with Jarrod Englefield once again in the position of head coach at that tournament. Also, congratulations to Joel Pannell and Cooper Roberts who were selected as non-travelling reserves for the CD U17’s.
Marcus Pickens and Tim Rose have decided not to seek re-election to the Board. Both have contributed greatly to the Board and Marlborough Cricket in general over several years and will be greatly missed. While a loss to the Board, Marcus and Tim have indicated they wish to keep some involvement with Marlborough Cricket in the future.
I would publicly like to thank our outgoing President, Brian Fitzpatrick for his efforts and contributions as our President since 2015. Brian has had a long association with Marlborough Cricket over many years, so I’m sure as one of our Life Members and a dedicated follower of his beloved Celtic Club, we will see him around the cricket fields for time to come.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our many sponsors and funders who are listed in the GM’s report. Without their support we would not be able to offer the level of programmes that we currently run, and I encourage members to support our sponsors whenever you can do so.
To our General Manager Ed and previous Cricket Development Manager Bailey, thank you for your contributions throughout the season. You kept the Cricket Community well informed during a challenging season and were always available to help where needed. The continued high regard that Marlborough Cricket is held in at CD and NZ level is a big testament to your commitment to ensuring we are successful.
Our new Community Cricket Development Manager, Eden Pettigrew started in June and has made a great impression getting prepared for the season ahead.
Marlborough Cricket has a lot to look forward to in the coming season. On top of all our usual programmes and competitions, we are hosting the South Island Masters Games here in October, the CDCA AGM in November and the National Over 50’s Championships in January 2022.
Many thanks also to our club administrators, coaches, and volunteers in general for your involvement and support once again this summer. Finally, special thanks to our volunteer board members who have given their time freely this year. If you have any questions or require further information from the Board, please do not hesitate to give me a call.
Greg Stretch
Chairman
Marlborough Cricket Association
AGM – July 2021
GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT
The 2020-21 Season began with the return of the MCA Senior grade 50 over competition played over the first 4 weeks of the season between Celtic, Renwick, Wairau and Wairau Valley. Celtic defeated Wairau Valley by 3 wickets in the final and later in the season added the Senior Grade T20 trophy beating Renwick by 28 runs. It was a fine summer for the club with Celtic Green also taking out both the 2nd grade 40 over and T20 trophies. Wairau Valley won the other 2nd grade Challenge Cup trophy with special mention to the beaten finalists Kaikoura how reached their first final in only their 2nd season playing in MCA competitions.
The Tasman Premier League continued as the top club competition in the region but reduced in length to a single round robin between the 8 teams after feedback from winter review meetings suggested the original 14 round concept was becoming difficult for clubs and players to commit to. Challenges continued for some teams however despite the significant reduction in travel. Post season winter reviews have confirmed club support for the top of the south league concept but the 2021-22 season will again be a test of that commitment.
The Marlborough Labour Hire Falcons had a fine season reaching the TPL Final before falling to a 6 wicket defeat to a strong Athletic College Old Boys side. The Marlborough Labour Hire Dolphins finished in 5th place.
The summer was notable for two annual awards with the Covid delayed 2019-20 awards taking place in October while the 2020-21 awards returned to its more traditional end of season finals day evening. Good turnouts at both events celebrated some fine individual and team performances with Tarin Mason named Marlborough Cricketer of the Year for 2020-21.
The Marlborough Senior Rep team just missed out on a Hawke Cup challenge after a tense 1 wicket loss to Nelson in the final round elimination game. The rep season ended on a high in March with a fine win over Nelson to retain the Newman Shield and we look forward to defending the Shield at Horton Park on 7th November. Once again the Marlborough side were expertly guided by our Management team of Jarrod Englefield, Greg Logan and Greg Stretch. We are fortunate to have this quality of people available and it is pleasing to report that they are on board again for the 2021-22 season.
Many thanks as always to our team of umpires who once again covered the majority of senior grade and representative games, along with some 2nd grade games. My thanks to Andrew Holdaway for ensuring this all ran smoothly once again. Special mention to Dave Paterson for whom 2020-21 was his 25th season umpiring. Dave maintains a passion not only for his own umpiring but also for passing his knowledge on to others as our area training officer.
The season began with our Community Cricket Development Manager “Artha” making the difficult decision to return home to Sri Lanka for family reasons. Artha made many friends during his 3 years in Marlborough and made a significant contribution to growing our game. Bailey Andrew-Kennedy stepped into the void to cover the role this summer in delivering our development programme and my thanks to him for carrying out the role at such short notice. Junior players numbers were again strong following a good response from our pre-season school visits and in-season festival days.
The Superstar Cricket programmes that are the first step in our player pathway ran at centres in Blenheim, Renwick and Seddon with 159 children taking part.
Harcourts Kiwi Cricket continued at Lansdowne Park with 14 teams separated into boys and girls sections. Several players moved up to 5th grade after Xmas including a new Girls only team playing
under the Wairau Valley banner to join the Renwick girls team. This has encouraged us to plan for a girls only hardball section this summer which we will be promoting to schools and clubs over the coming weeks.
Friday evening WK 5th Grade Cricket was again popular with ten teams taking part while seven teams competed in WK 4th Grade on Saturday mornings.
The 3rd grade cricket competition ran smoothly with 4 teams taking part and proving increasingly even after Xmas. Finding the right balance between too much and too little cricket at this grade will continue to be a challenge with some players only playing 3rd grade while others play across other grades and College Cricket teams.
We are again indebted to our coaches and managers at all grades and development teams. My thanks to Phil Gleeson, Greg Ruffell, Andrew Nation, Mike Croad, Paul Alexander, Bailey Andrews-Kennedy, Nick Weaver and Matt Stretch who looked after our age group development teams and to all the willing parents who helped with the organisation and fundraising for these teams.
Our Primary schools team took part in the South Island Primary Schools tournament in Rangiora during January with the U15 team competing at the CD tournament in Levin and the U17s at the CD tournament in Napier played in December. Luke Holdaway was the recipient of the Shattock Cup for the outstanding PS rep player of the year, with Carter Aitken the Under 15 player of the year. Neha Jat was awarded the Gleeson Family Shield as the young female player of the year, while Joel Pannell was the U17 player of the year.
A new approach to winter coaching programmes was trialled last year with the MCA Coaching Academy programme open to all players from 5th grade up. This proved a success and will continue to be a key focus in terms of player development and in line with our aim of allowing each player to be the best that they can be.
Girls and Woman’s cricket continued to develop and will be a key part of growing our game this year. The girls Kiwi cricket competition continued while two girls teams competed strongly at 5th grade and other girls took part in mixed teams at 4th grade and 3rd grade.
We again ran a 5 week Woman’s social cricket competition during February and March leading to an end of summer Women’s cricket festival day. We received enough interest to then schedule an end of season T20 hardball cricket game with 18 women taking part. Surveys carried out at season end suggest there is plenty of support for both social softball and traditional cricket options among females and we are committed to developing this further this summer as part of a cricket pathway for females. My thanks to the Women’s Cricket committee who have been the driving force for much of these initiatives and especially to Churchill Private Hospital Trust who have been such strong supporters as main sponsors of the Women’s competition.
The MCA coaches club continues to develop and it was great to see so many coaches attend a recent planning meeting for the season ahead. A new Technical Coaching Committee will oversee player and coach support and development this summer with an overarching view of all areas from 5th grade through to senior rep and headed by our Senior Rep coach Jarrod Englefield. Registration on the NZC Coaches database is now a requirement of all club and rep coaches with on-line resources providing further support to coaches.
At the start of June we welcomed Eden Pettigrew into the role of Community Cricket Development Manager. Eden has been busy during her first month meeting as many people as possible and attending a 2 day NZC development conference in Lincoln, while this month she will also be attending a NZC Coach developer course in Lincoln. We wish Eden all the best in her role and I am confident she will make a really positive impact in further developing cricket in Marlborough as a game for all.
Facilities
The Facilities committee has continued to drive forward our vision for the development of Horton Park as the home of cricket and our recent submission to the MDC Long Term Plan has resulted in significant financial support from Council earmarked from 2026, dependant on the results of assessments carried out this year on the current pavilion. The first stage of these assessments has identified strengthening work that needs to be carried out in order to bring the building up to the minimum earthquake standards required and Council are planning to carry out this work ahead of the new season. They have confirmed however that we are safe to continue using the building in the meantime.
The committee is also considering upgrades to the Horton Park practice nets and to the main no1 wicket block. In addition a new junior cricket ground and artificial wicket at Sheps Park is hoped to be completed and in action by the start of the new season.
Finance
The spectre of Covid related disruptions loomed large when we considered budgets for the 2020-21 financial year. There was a general feeling that levels of funding would be negatively impacted for both MCA and for our clubs. The Board agreed to allow for a significant deficit this year to support the continued delivery of our programmes should levels of funding be reduced. As it turned out revenue was not affected this year and indeed increased against previous years while some anticipated expenditure items did not transpire, all resulting in a healthy surplus being recorded against a deficit budget. Whilst the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was not an issue this year we remain mindful of the potential for negative impact in the future both for MCA and our clubs. However, our financial result this year gives us confidence in planning for the year ahead.
We are extremely grateful to the following charitable trusts for their continued support:
Air Rescue Services Trust, Mick Jellyman Charitable Trust, Lion Foundation, Pelorus Trust, Pub Charity, Rata Foundation, Redwood Trust, RITA Trust.
We are also dependent and grateful for the administration and development grants we receive from NZC & CD which enable us to deliver our development programmes and employ the staff to make this all happen. In addition the grants we receive from Marlborough District Council help us to provide the playing and practice facilities which are the envy of other Districts.
We are very fortunate to have some wonderful sponsors who support our association either through direct funding or by provision of “in kind” services. I would like to record my thanks for their continued support this year.
Blenheim New World, Biddy Kates Café & Bar, BP Computers, Cairns Electrical, Churchill Private Hospital Trust, Eckford Engineering, Everyday Best Laundry & Dry Cleaning, Harcourts Real Estate, Kookaburra NZ, Knightsbridge Motel, McKendry Motors, Marlborough Labour Hire, SBS Bank, WK Advisors & Accountants.
Many thanks to all the volunteer coaches, managers, administrators and supporters who ensured the season was a success. There was a lot of additional information to take on board this summer as we made plans for dealing with different Covid alert level scenarios. Your support with this process was greatly appreciated.
My thanks also to the MCA Board for their support throughout the year. Looking forward the 2021-22 season includes the Masters games taking place in Marlborough during October and we will be hosting the National Over 50s tournament during January. It should be another busy and enjoyable summer.
Ed Gilhooly
MCA General Manager
Report to AGM – July 2021