CROFT AMBREY RUNNING CLUB
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT
AGM – 8 APRIL 2024
Reading back over my Chairman’s Statement from last year the sense of optimism about the year ahead was apparent. None of us would have expected that, so soon after we had celebrated the club’s 40 th year we would be so sadly having to come to terms with Bryan’s death.
I hope you’ll forgive me for not talking about Bryan here. He meant too much to the club to try and say anything briefly and, quite rightly, we’ll be remembering his life properly as a club in the months ahead. Besides that I would probably get too emotional!
Twelve months ago I highlighted four challenges and opportunities that I felt lay head. I’d like to briefly revisit and reflect on them.
1) Our Elite Runners
I was concerned that, having punched above our weight, and won the Men’s Winter Cross Country League in 2021-22 followed by the Summer League and then the Men’s Winter Cross Country League again that we might struggle to repeat our success.
I was wrong.
Although we narrowly lost the summer league to Ludlow, we went on to repeat our success in the Winter League with the men winning it for a 3 rd consecutive year.
I’m very aware that we’ll be very sadly loosing Eric from our team this year, but Sam is taking on the mantle of leading the men’s team and I’m sure will do it brilliantly and with great success .
Looking at the results for our women and men this year we have one great advantage over other clubs. We turn up. Not just those at the front but everyone – runners and supporters. It makes a massive difference and I’m sure it will in the year ahead too. It’s our club’s super power.
So this year I’m optimistic that we can win again – starting with reclaiming our Summer League title. Having said this I’m still conscious that we need to offer our top runners more when it comes to training sessions.
Our main Tuesday and Thursday sessions will always be for everyone, irrespective of their speed. Where we can make a difference might be in adding track sessions with more of a focus on elite performance. I’ll be looking at this over the coming weeks before the track re-opens towards the end of this month.
2) Attracting new Members
The second challenge I was concerned with was attracting new members and growing the club.
Twelve moths ago I wrote ‘Croft is unique. In many ways this is shaped by the environment it inhabits. Located in a rural area and without a regular public meeting place such as a sports centre, it’s always going to have a smaller pool of potential runners than a club based in Ludlow or Hereford’.
This is still true but I think we’re doing well and growing for three main reasons:
We wear our colours with pride.
I’ve had many runners, and potential members tell me that they’ve seen Croft at such and such a race, or at parkrun. The reason is simple – Crofties wear the club colours when they race. It might be one runner or 20 or 30 when it’s a Championship race.
It makes a difference. People see the club, they’ll check out the web site and Facebook page and then, every year, a few will join.
We support.
It’s not just that we wear the club colours, we’re quite noisy too. Any of us running into the Wart Hill checkpoint on the Mammothon on Saturday will know about that. It shows that we support each other and that, if you join Croft you’re going to be a part of a very special team.
We’re good on social media
All credit to Bronwyn Preece for this. Social Media is incredibly important, not just to make sure we can feel a part of what others in the club are up to but also in attracting new members. Bron has made sure that pretty much all of our main club activity is on our Public Facebook page giving potential new members a great insight into what we get up to.
The one thing we haven’t done this year is to repeat the ‘Prepare For parkrun’ group we did in late 2022. It’s something that we should consider again for this year as it is a key element of most club’s new member recruitment.
3) Freshness and variety
Twelve months ago one of my concerns was that, if we kept doing the same things there was a risk that they would become stale and interest might wain.
As I said at the time ‘Croft has a head start in this area. Changing our training venue every Tuesday and Thursday means that we don’t suffer the routine of meeting at a leisure centre or club house and having to start every run jogging down the same roads. Such clubs will change venues but it requires far more organisation and effort. For Croft it’s a part of the club’s weekly routine‘.
I’m more comfortable that we’ve got the mix right now – balancing the traditional races like the Leinthal Starkes race and handicaps, which are rightly popular with new challenges.
The reason that Ali Benwell was awarded the new Progenitor’s Award by Peter Faulkner was because she has so successfully brought a wholerange of new experiences to the club – from scavenger hunts to longer distance challenges. New ideas can come from anyone at any time. We’ll always give things a try.
This year we’ll be having our 3rd Training Camp, this time in the Malvern Hills. The camp is proving to be very popular but won’t be for everyone. It’s important that we keep trying new things and offering as much variety as possible. In this way it’s hoped that the vast majority of members can enjoy something that they wouldn’t be able to unless they were a part of Croft.
As I said last year ‘The challenge is to try new things. To keep the ones that are popular and drop those that aren’t. We’re fortunate in having very engaged and supportive members. Suggest anything and it’s likely that it will be well attended. When you know people are going to turn up it makes it very easy to give new things a go’.
4) Juniors
The final challenge I was maybe a little concerned about 12 months ago was with the Junior Sessions.
My worry was that there might not be sufficient support from the club for Kelly and Eric. That it might become an onerous obligation.
All I can say is that it’s thrived. We now have close to 20 Junior members and it’s encouraging parents to join the club as well.
Personally I’m very happy with the way it’s going, as I know the rest of the committee are. The one thing I would ask is that, if support is needed Kelly and Eric, please just ask. It might be that some extra training and qualifications are needed. These should be planned and booked well before they might be needed.
5) Shobdon Wood Race
I’d just like to say something about the Shobdon Wood race before I finish.
We made the difficult decision not to have the Shobdon Wood race this year. I’m not sure if this was the right decision or not. We could certainly have staged it – even though the slowness of decision making from The Forestry Commission had become a frustration. The main detrimental effect being that we haven’t been able to promote the race until after the Christmas break which is always likely to have an impact on numbers.
My main concern about the race is that it wasn’t standing out in a busy race calendar. As a club we should be able to stage a race that stands out from the crowd and also generates some income for the club.
Our day-to-day finances are very sound. We don’t need to hire venues and our main expenses are around the XC races and training for our coaches.
If we could generate a couple of thousand pounds more it would give us the option to pay for all the Pizzas at the AGM or subsidise the Winter Social or the Training Camp. Also, come summer, when Hereford Track is back up and running it would be good if Croft can pay our share of the hire costs rather than rely on the goodwill of Hereford Couriers or asking members to pay.
Club organised races have an enormous advantage over commercial events in that they don’t usually pay their volunteer marshals. Croft members are brilliant at helping and supporting. This commitment should be repaid by them enjoying more benefits from the club. Ideally, I would like to see every club member enjoying subsidised events worth more than their club membership fee.
We have a small team including Anna Bromley, Ali Benwell, Guy, Simon Norwood and myself who are due to meet in the next few weeks to start work on a new race for 2025. No options are off the table including the venue and time of year. If anyone else would like to join the team please just say.
6) In conclusion
So, although I started by saying I wasn’t going to talk about Bryan, I’m going to end with one thought that I’m sure everyone will agree with. Croft wouldn’t be the club it is without him – and we know that one of his greatest pleasures was seeing us out running together – and as a team. For that one reason let’s continue to make Croft the very best club that we can – for everyone.
Thank you
Huw Williams
Chairman Croft Ambrey Running Club
Treasurer’s Report for period 1 March 2023 to 28 February 2024
The past year at the club is probably best described as a period of consolidation after the
flood of initiatives in the previous year. The one major area of development was the restart
of junior training which has proved to be very popular and has shifted during the year from
being offered on a pay-by-term/block structure to a junior membership basis. By the end of
the year we have 15 junior members in the club which is a great testament to the efforts of
Kelly and Eric and all those who have volunteered to support them. Adult membership is
very slightly less than the previous year with 104 first claim and 3 second claim athletes.
During the year there was a full programme of the club handicap series, Shobdon Wood
Race, XC league races and the club championship races. The Winter Camp was repeated
in early November at Dolygaer in the Brecon Beacons. We’ve continued to source club
racing vests, buffs, hats locally and this year added hoodies to the range on offer also –
except for the stock of racing vests the club holds other clothing is being only being bought
when we have sufficient pre-orders so the club is really provide cash flow rather than taking
on the risk of being left with surplus items. VIGA still provides an online shop for other
training kit. We still have a stock of junior kit lend out as needed.
We have continued to invest in the club. This has seen us support our coaching team with
one new Leaders in Running Fitness and a second first aid training course. We have been
able to buy some new training kit primarily for the juniors and ‘bum bag’ style first aid kits for
the coaching team so they have the basics to hand if needed. Other club costs include
some administrative items e.g. website hosting, race prizes (chocolate!), smaller summer
and Christmas socials, and small scale kit costs. One thing to highlight is the generosity of
the club with donations to Leinthall Starkes Church, Wigmore School prizes, Hereford’s track
fundraiser and Mark Paviour’s fundraising for Cardiomyopathy UK.
Overall the outlook is positive- we still have the funds to invest although need to be mindful
that we will have less income from membership fees (as we have held our annual fee
against English Athletic increases of £50 for the club and £2 per athlete) and some regular
costs such as that for participating in the XC league will increase, so a prudent approach
should be maintained.