Winter is nearly over with thankfully and the excitement is building ahead of a new season in just under two months time. Behind the scenes, we’ve been super busy and some of that news has already been shared, so here is a recap of that and some more updates from the past six or so months.
Robbie Returns and Welcome Conor Brown
We’re thrilled to announce that Robbie will be returning to Bangor again this season, news which I’m sure will go down very well across the club.
We’re happy to say that he’ll be returning to Upritchard Park solely in a coaching capacity this season, to continue the great work he had already started at the club especially with our Women & Youth sections. I’m sure everyone will be delighted with this news given Robbie’s impact last season in his coaching sessions and just how popular he was with everyone at the club.
We are delighted to welcome Connor Brown to the club this season as our overseas player. Connor is from Gold Coast, Australia and plays his cricket in the Queensland Premier League largely playing for the first team in Grade Cricket.
Speaking on the move Connor said: “I am super excited to join Bangor CC in the summer of 2025! I am an extremely passionate cricketer who values the ‘club first, team second, individual third’ mindset and I look forward to having a positive impact on the club for this summer! I can’t wait to join up in April and meet you all!”
We look forward to welcoming Robbie & Connor to Bangor in time for the start of the new season towards the end of April!
Clubhouse Update
As you all should hopefully know by now, there was a major fundraising initiative launched across the whole Club back in the Autumn to raise funds for much needed upgrades to the Clubhouse at Upritchard Park. Thank you so far for your tremendous support on this project, we recently announced that we have passed the £90k mark which is an amazing effort from members and friends, but we’ve still got under £10k to go. The Crowdfunder is still live if you’d like to contribute anymore to it as we close in on our £100,000 target which is needed along with other secured revenue streams to complete this project.
Ways to contribute are through our Crowdfunder, our online form or pickup a printed form in the clubhouse to fill in.
As a result it will mean there will be disruption expected during the season as this project begins. The good news is, is that construction is not expected to begin until some time in June meaning we’ll still have full use of the clubhouse at the beginning of the season and maybe longer! Even more good news is that once construction does get going eventually the Conn McCall room and the bar upstairs should largely remain operational during the whole season which is great news for all members and supporters.
As and when it’s known, more updates will be given out on the project during the next few months before as currently expected building work begins in the Summer.
Ground’s Update
Before Christmas, Upritchard Park had some drainage work completed which aimed to improve the areas in between the square and the clubhouse which over recent years had occasionally struggled under any prolonged spell of rain. Last season after a very wet early Spring this area suffered a lot and prevented us getting the roller on to the square due to the soft conditions ahead of the season.
The 3XV rugby pitch (which forms part of the outfield) has been sand slitted during the Winter, again improving drainage to that part of the ground as well. Work on the square is going mostly to plan so far with plenty of growth keeping Barney happy albeit the odd bare patch with its second rotary cut of the year being done recently. All being well pre-season rolling should start towards the end of March.
It is hoped now that with these new drainage additions to improve parts of the ground then once again it’ll establish Upritchard Park as one of the best grounds in the country!
Senior Pre-Season Nets
We’ve released our schedule for Pre-Season Nets at Bangor Academy. They’ll run for 8 weeks and started on Tuesday 18th February and every Tuesday after that until the 8th April before hopefully moving outside ahead of the new season. Each day will be split into two sessions, the Men’s 1XI & 2XI will train every Tuesday in the 5.30pm – 7.30pm slot. In the 7.30pm – 9pm slot, over the course of the 8 weeks this session will be jointly shared by the Women’s 1XI & 2XI squads and the 3XI, 4XI & 5XI squads.
New Scoreboard
We’re happy to say that for the new season we’ll have a new scoreboard in place at the ground which will be welcomed by all. Despite numerous attempts to update certain parts to improve the working condition of it, these unfortunately proved largely unsuccessful over the past few years with regular freezing and it needing whacked with a Cricket ball every so often to turn the ‘1’ in the 100 score on!
The new scoreboard will be a significant upgrade on our current one and it’ll also sync up with NV Play meaning no more manual input to keep the score correct during the course of a match. We’ll share more about it closer to the season as it gets installed at the ground in the coming weeks.
Daniel Rayner part of NCU touring side in India
Daniel Rayner was part of an NCU Development squad that travelled to India for a 10 day tour which was based at the Chennai Super Kings Academy. It was a priceless opportunity for players and coaches involved from the NCU to train at the academy and hear from those coaches on the challenges of batting against spin bowling and for spinners to improve their games on spin friendly pitches. It was an amazing life experience to tour a country on the other side of the world and all involved had a memorable time. On the tour as well Johnny Parker who was part of the NCU coaching setup that made the trip out there.
Skelly Trains at Leicestershire CCC
Michael Skelly has had an invaluable opportunity over the last few weeks when he was invited to take part in a training sessions at Leicestershire CCC as they gear up for the new County season. His Loughborough University coach Dips Patel is also part of the LCCC coaching staff and Michael along with a few other University players were invited to bowl in the nets against the Leicestershire players and gain incredible experience and insight from these sessions. He also had the opportunity to meet and chat to former England player and current selector James Taylor who’s also involved at Leicestershire on his first day. Since then he’s been involved in half a dozen sessions at both the ECB Centre at Loughborough University and at Grace Road where Leicestershire play, bowling alongside England pace bowler Josh Hull in the nets.
New Members on the Committee
After a significant time with both positions being left open and others stepping in when required, we’re delighted to say that Michelle Griffin will be the new Safeguard Officer at the club and Billy McMillan who used to be Club Treasurer many years ago will once again man the spreadsheets as he takes up the Club Treasurer role.
2025 Season
The on-field action is now under two months away! The start date for the new season will be the 26th April for the Men’s 1XI at home to Lurgan and the week commencing 28th April for the Women’s 1XI away at Lisburn 2XI. We envisage that by the middle of May, all other Senior teams’ seasons will be underway with fixtures for all teams to be shared on our socials in the coming days.
You also may have noticed in previous recent communications about a Women’s 2XI and we are excited to say that the Women’s section of the club is expanding to two teams which is great news especially of the back of a very successful season for the Women’s 1XI in 2024 with league glory.
Welcome Carol Black
The transfer window opened early for us straight after the 2024 season as we secured the services of scorer Carol Black from Ards & Donaghadee CC. It’s been a long ol’ struggle for a few seasons now with many people chipping in to score and we are thankful for Carol for making the short trip across the North Down riviera to score our games. She’s currently part of the recently established Cricket Ireland scorers panel so comes with plenty of expertise in the area and she’ll be a great addition to a matchday at Upritchard Park. Be sure to give her a warm welcome once the season gets underway when down to catch the action.
AGM Report
Back in November we had the Club AGM and the AGM report is available to download.
