2024 has rocketed past me like a Jofra Archer bouncer! On this occasion, that’s a good thing as it must mean I have watched lots of cricket and met interesting people who also love cricket. It’s been another successful year on and off thepitch for us.
On the pitch we have seen team and individual performances that continue to allow us to compete at the top levels available to us. In addition, the club game continues to flourish with over 1500 matches between over 350 teams being played in youth competitions, with women and girls teams showing the largest increase. Our schools programme continues to provide great first experiences in the game for children, many of whom have gone on to continue their involvement through some of our other programmes such as Street, MCC Foundation Hubs, and All Stars and Dynamos centres. The disability programme has again expanded, and we have worked with Holyport, Purley On Thames, and Falkland to grow the ‘Walking Cricket’ offering – which we will maintainour focus on in the coming years. Our seniors cricket (Over 50s, 60s, 70s) fields teams every week of the season, with 7 different sides entered in competitions, giving both physical and social benefits to the players.
The women’s team performed well, when the weather allowed, and beat three of the teams who have now been awarded Tier 1 and 2 status within the new Women’s Professional Structure. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful (along with several other national counties) in our bid to break in to this new structure as the ECB grouped all non-professional counties into Tier 3. We will, however, potentially have an opportunity to test ourselves against them when we compete in the inaugural Women’s County Cup in the 2025 season.
Our men’s team performed well across all three formats and it was great to win the Western division title having lost it to Devon in 2023. Whilst disappointing not to win the outright championship following our draw with Staffordshire, we can be more than satisfied with having our name on the trophy again, albeit not the way we wanted it to be on there.Although we were knocked out of the NCCA trophy at thesemi-final stage, we have reached the final 5 times in 6 years which is amazing and I’m sure we will be back next season with a vengeance! As for T20… Finals day frustratingly fell victim to the weather on three occasions, denying us the opportunity to win a trophy that we last won in 2018.
Boys and girls teams continue to be strong and allow us to select Berkshire youth players in Berkshire senior teams, with players across the pathway also being involved in regional teams, and being selected into professional county academies. A big shout out must go to Ava Lee and Poppy Tulloch who joined Hampshire as professional cricketers for the 2025 season.
But as anyone knows, cricket isn’t just about the players – it’sabout the people who turn out multiple times a week throughout the season to umpire, look after the grounds, serve tea (where that still happens!) encourage, support, coach and watch the spectacle that is cricket. I raise my cap to you alland thank you for all that you do; “eat, sleep, cricket – repeat”, we can’t do this without you!
Berkshire Cricket has excelled off the pitch also, with ECB recognition for our financial and business management and governance in the recent annual performance review. A massive thanks to Mark and his team for delivering by any measure some of the best cricket coaching, competitions and cricket to watch throughout the year. Specifically, thanks to the Berkshire Cricket executive team who joined the board this year; it’s great to have you with us as we navigate the ever-changing world of cricket. Thank you also to all the trustees for their time and commitment.
We were disappointed this year not to be considered for Tier 2in the new women’s structure but the sign of a good team is that it bounces back after setbacks. Our mission to bring more cricket to more people in more places, making cricket in Berkshire progressive, accessible and inclusive, will drive our success. Cricket is not just a bat and ball, it’s the gateway to endless possibilities. I hope this end of year message inspires you to get involved in what we do across the county. I feel surrounded by people on a mission, who love the game as much as I do and will guarantee that people who want to play cricket across our county have every opportunity to do so, in a community of fairness that values diversity, where everyone gets to play to their potential whatever that is.
Our vision is to be a centre of excellence for cricket in England. Why? Because cricket remains an exciting place;The Hundred continues to go from strength to strength; T20 gets better each year; the T10 as a format is an area of innovation and red ball formats remain an emotional roller coaster, not for the faint hearted.
The New Year stands before us, like a new match, it’s a new adventure waiting to unfold – play well, play fair and remember – you don’t need to play every ball but every ball needs your judgment. (Amit Ray)
Warm regards, Jayne