It's all change at Stalybridge St Paul's Cricket Club

Stalybridge St Paul's Cricket Club has made a number of big changes ahead of next season.

Behind the scenes, Phil Hammond has taken on the role of chairman following the departure of long-serving official Nigel Corless, who has stepped down after a long tenure along with treasurer David Postlewhaite and secretary Ian Hodgson.

Renovations to the clubhouse have already started despite a few delays due to Covid-19, whilst on the pitch the club will now be known as Stalybridge Cricket Club following a unanimous decision at a recent AGM.

And there are also plans to enhance the junior section with Adam Harwick taking control of a Junior Development Team.

In a statement uploaded to the club's official website, incoming chairman Phil Hammond said: "I will start by wishing everyone a very happy New Year and let’s hope that 2021 is considerably better than last year.

"November’s AGM saw the end of an era as our Chairman; Nigel Coreless, Treasurer; David Postlethwaite and Secretary; Ian Hodgson all stepped down. The club was very grateful for the 12 months notice and I would like to place on record on behalf of myself and the whole club our thanks to those three for all their hard work and years of commitment that they gave to the club. We are very grateful and we wish you all the very best in your cricket retirement.

"As with everything though we have to move forward and I was absolutely delighted to be chosen to represent you all as the new Chairman of the club. My mind was made up to take on the role when Paul Whitworth agreed to be our new Treasurer and Keith Bowers had agreed to become the Secretary. We work well together and we have the best interest of the Club at heart. We are absolutely committed to doing a good job and working as hard as we can to move this Club forward.

"I would also like to put on record how delighted I am with the current make up of the management committee. There has been so much enthusiasm and energy already and that can only bode well for the future.

"Now is not the time to go into all our plans but we have already made considerable progress off the field and we have a set a number of short terms goals and long-term objectives. We think you will see a completely different club next year and we have some pretty ambitious projects in mind going forward.

"I think it is probably correct to start with our name change. There was an overwhelming feeling within the membership that we should change our name to Stalybridge Cricket Club. The motion was put forward by several members at the recent AGM and has since been approved unanimously. We will gradually be changing this on all correspondence but we have now officially dropped the ‘St Paul’s’ from our club name.

"We have already started our Clubhouse renovation which is coming along nicely despite some delays due to Covid-19. It was our number one priority to update our facilities and provide an environment that all our members and their families can enjoy and be proud of. We want to have a Clubhouse that is modern, safe and one that both members and visitors will enjoy and look forward to coming back to. We are on our way and whilst we aim to make significant improvements before the start of the 2021 season there is still much work ahead of us to get where we want to be.

"As soon as I knew I was going to become the Chairman I wanted to start a junior programme. We have already made considerable progress and we have set up a Junior Development Team headed by Adam Harwick. We are so excited to get this project going and we have already had a tremendous reaction from parents and we cannot wait to get started. It is a big project but we are committed to providing a safe environment to allow local young people to get out and have some fun and enjoy the great game of cricket. We will have everything in place to start when we eventually come through this latest set of Covid restrictions.

"We want to be a much bigger part of the local community and in return we want to give as much back as we can to help our local community. We have exciting plans on this front and there will be more to follow.

"I will endeavour to update everyone regularly on the Club website because there are so many things we want to do it would take all day to go through them all.

"Remember, this is just the start of the journey and there is a long road ahead so we ask that all our members and supporters dig deep and give as much support as they possibly can now and in the coming seasons."