In what feels like the blink of an eye, another cricket season is just around the corner! Excitingly, various NCC groups have worked hard through the winter to enrich the Calendar for the year ahead. Information about key dates can be found below.
Pre-season Preparation – Nets, Works Parties and the Awards Night!
Those that have attended the first 2 nets sessions at Christs Hospital have already dusted off the cobwebs from their pads and applied a coat of varnish to one side a cricket ball! As ever, they remain the best way to prepare for the battles ahead on the field whilst also offering opportunities for some verbal jousting off the field.
For those that have missed these sessions – don’t worry! There are four more weeks of nets are booked, running each Sunday from the 16th March through to the 6th April between 12:30 and 13:30. Further details and directions can be found in the NCC Pitchero Calendar.
Whilst all you players are hopefully looking through the Pitchero Calendar, the selection committee would also recommend marking out any known availability/ unavailability (e.g. holidays) so that they can begin working towards getting everyone a fair amount of game time.
We also have 3 remaining indoor fixtures on the 16th, 23rd and 30th March. To any player who might want a taste of competitive action before the Sunday Season, don’t hesitate to get in touch with myself.
We also have some important events to kick off the season. Our Annual Awards Night on 5th April and two across of the weekend of the 12/13th April – all requiring some level of support from our player base and associated support groups.
Firstly, Captain Bob has once again registered for the ECB ‘Get-Set Weekend’ on the 12th April, for a probable 10am start. This aims to direct some of that early season excitement towards preparing the pavilion and club infrastructure to host events, for both cricketers and local community, throughout the year. Last year was a huge success both inside and outside the pavilion and if we could match or surpass the support we got last year it would be amazing!
The Pavillion will once again stage our Annual Awards Night on the evening of 5th April, which aims to celebrate the achievements of the 2024 season and is always a highlight of the off-season. Last year marked the start of a successful new format as the club moved away from a evening hosted by Mannings Heath Golf & Wine Estate. The evening was enjoyed unanimously and we look forward to welcoming you all.
The Grounds Work team have also begun their work for the year. They have given the wicket first and second cuts are on ‘weather watch’ to choose suitable dates for raking, rolling, seeding and feeding before a friendly warm-up ‘Inter-club Game’ (likely to be hotly contested mind you!) kicks the season off on April 13th. Subject to the weather, Head Groundsman Keith Greenwood will correspond about helper shifts on the heavy roller closer to/ beginning of April and anyone able to spare a couple of hours atop the roller would be most appreciated - mainly because they prevent this scribe causing another accident!
All the above dates really do matter for the success of the club and the season ahead. A thank you in advance to all those who can commit their time.
2025 Season – New Fixtures, Presidents and Tour!
We’ve also made some changes to the regular playing season. The first of which is the exciting addition (and honour!) of playing The Armadillos on 11th May at Sheffield Park, an historic ground which hosted the first warm up game of the first ‘Ashes’ touring Australians in 1882.
We have also changed the weekend of our Presidents XI fixture, which will now be held on June 29th, with play starting from 11am. This continues to be a highlight or our fixture card and is always a high quality contest.
Perhaps the biggest change is to the destination of our Annual Tour. After 7 years of disturbing the peace in Salisbury, our Tourists will now be the first NCC Group to leave the mainland as we head to the Isle of Wight between the 10th and 13th July. Thanks to our friends The Island Bakers CC, we have games organised at Shanklin and Cowes before playing ‘The Vagabonds’ in the picturesque village of Bentworth on our way home. We already have 14 tourists signed up and it promises to be an incredibly memorable trip.
We also have a number of trophies to compete for. Two timed games will be hosted at the common as Nuthurst host Bolney CC (25th August) to compete for the Wendy Lambourne Memorial Cup, before we welcome Yellow Stumps CC (7th September) for the Denny Pease Memorial Cup. Both Wendy and Denny were titans of their respective clubs, and Nuthurst continued efforts to remember their respective contributions means an awful lot to both Bolney CC and Yellow Stumps CC.
In the limited overs format, our slam side will be aiming to go one better than last year and win the Gullick Cup for the fourth time. We fell just short in the final last year and are keen to make amends. T20 Captain Nick Sherlicker has planned his holidays around the all-important dates of Sunday 10th August for the Gullick Cup Final and 14th September for T20 Finals Day. We always receive outstanding support for these games and the team is always extremely grateful.
Lastly, the club would like to build on the enormous success of 2024’s inaugural Charity Match, where NCC raised nearly £700 for The Samaritans. Organiser-supremo Raggy Singh has expanded the format to include three T20’s on 17th August, all in aid of The Springboard Project in Horsham. The Springboard project provides a unique sensory environment where disabled children and their families can all play together in a safe, fun and inclusive environment. Their building in Hurst Road in Horsham is undergoing refurbishment and our aim is to raise as many funds as possible to help them achieve this.
I cannot stress how important this day will be, not only Nuthurst Cricket Club, but also to the many families that will be joining us and sharing our pavilion. All three teams will aim to put on the finest entertainment from the middle and it will no doubt prove an occasion you won’t want to miss.
Be sure to keep in touch with the day by following our social media posts and upcoming news items explaining the day in more detail. A QR code linking our donation page will be made available in the near future.
As with our pre-season events, participation from our members and the wider community directly relates to the club’s success. It’s always extraordinary the support a local club like ours gets from our supporters and if 2025 continues to showcase this, the community and the club can feel very proud come the years end.
Other events for 2025! Juniors, VP Cocktail Party and Fundraising!
Another huge contributor to the success and identity of the club has been bringing forward our Junior Section throughout the last 20 years. We firmly believe that by continuing to provide opportunities for youngsters to experience the joys of learning cricket we can continue to benefit both their long term health as well as the health of our club. By relaunching NCC’s involvement, registering for All Stars and Dynamos Cricket for Children aged 5-11 will be available from 13th March from the ECB website. Importantly, we are always looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help with coaching sessions. If you feel this could be something you are interested in or have a question, please email nuthurstcricketclubjuniors@gmail.com.
Our Annual VP Cocktail Party, supported through our lead sponsors at Mannings Heath Golf & Wine Estate, continues to be immensely popular. Last year again saw an addition to the format in the form of a quiz – which turned, somewhat unsurprisingly, into another hotly contested evening (clearly a theme of our inter-club events!). We will again aim to host another evening of a similar kind in September. Again, more details will be released later once a date has been finalized.
Finally – on Fundraising. We’re in an incredibly healthy situation as a club as seen at our last AGM, thanks to the continued efforts of our incredibly energetic and entrepreneurial fundraising group and Treasurer.
Jan and Kevin Barnes (and their amazing group of helpers/ cake-bakers!) continue to draw in astounding number to our monthly coffee mornings, so to this group we are both incredibly lucky and grateful for. These will continue to run throughout the season on the second Friday of each Month.
Mr and Mrs J. Willis will also be running our Annual Golf Day on the 10th October. This continues to be our key day for club fundraising and continues to be vital in maintaining the infrastructure and maintenance the club requires to grow and move forwards. The support and generosity we receive from our long-standing teams continues to blow us away each year.
So that’s all folks! Hopefully your pencils will now need sharpening after much scribbling away on Calendars. We look forward to seeing you all throughout the year.

NCC