New Aberdeenshire Cricket Club president Clark Cameron believes making difficult decisions in recent times can set them up for a prosperous future.
In recent times the Mannofield outfit have had to tackle financial problems amid speculation that their future was in doubt.
As a result of their plight Aberdeenshire decided they could no longer afford to continue to employ Calum Howard as their full-time groundsman and savings have also been made within their hospitality offering.
In February the club called an extraordinary general meeting of its members to address the way ahead.
Savings have been made
Cameron has played for Aberdeenshire since 2012. Last year he joined the committee and he has now stepped up to succeed Stuart Grant as president.
The 30-year-old said: “Off the field we’ve had some financial difficulties and we’ve had to make some significant cost savings.
“It’s been well-publicised that groundsman Calum Howard left his role.
“We had to make cost savings that ideally we didn’t really want to have to make, but in the current environment we had to make those decisions.
“We’ve got the club to a stable position, although there’s still a lot of work to do to build things back up and future-proof the club.
“It won’t happen overnight, but we’re in a better position that we were.
“I think some aspects of the club’s position were overblown.
“When we announced we were having an EGM I think people just assumed the worst.
“Don’t get me wrong, if we hadn’t taken any action then the club could have gone out of business.
“But with where we are now that’s not going to happen. We’ve got people putting in the work to make things better.
“We have a few different revenue streams, however, if we hadn’t taken any action the club would have gone out of business.
“But with the action that’s been taken in the last six months that shouldn’t happen.”
Protecting cricket at Mannofield the priority
Cameron also revealed that Aberdeenshire are hoping to achieve charitable status in a bid to reduce costs.
He added: “We’re also looking at restructuring to business to help attract sponsorship and we’re looking at trying to get charitable status.
“That has been spoken about before, but we now feel we’ve got a plan to allow us to achieve that.
“Hopefully if we can achieve that it should help generate more sponsorship and also lower our costs with regards things like council tax.
“That should help us run things more sustainably, with so many things going up, if we’re able to reduce some of our costs that would help.
“Protecting cricket at Mannofield and protecting the historic ground that is Mannofield are the main priorities for myself and the committee.
“We still want to stage international cricket and we still see ourselves as a having a high quality ground.”
Title defence begins
On the field Aberdeenshire begin their season tomorrow when they take on Crescent at Guthrie Park in Brechin in the North East Championship.
Shire won the league last season but were defeated by Edinburgh South in the play-off to get promoted back to the Eastern Premier League.
Cameron hopes they will be in a position to challenge for the title and promotion again. In their bid to do that Aberdeenshire have made a couple of eye-catching signings in the shape of former Stoneywood-Dyce captains Ewan Davidson and Lennard Bester.
Meanwhile, Lewis Munro has taken over from David Gamblen as captain.
Cameron added: “On the field we’re in a pretty good position, we won the league last year, but unfortunately we were beaten in the play-off to get promoted.
“That was tough to take at the time, we haven’t got any overseas players this season, but we do have a few new recruits that will hopefully make us stronger.
“We’ll try to have another good run at the league again and see if we can get promoted this year.”
Derby clash to kick-off campaign
Huntly and Stoneywood-Dyce begin their North East Championship campaigns with a clash at Castle Park tomorrow.
Huntly were fifth in the table last term, but are boosted by a number of new recruits.
They have added South Africans Blade Crane and Devon du Plessis as overseas amateurs, while Michael Louw and Calum Howard have returned to the club and Alec MacLennan and Zimbabwean Gary Chirimuuta have also joined.
Stoneywood-Dyce finished second in the division last season and have a new captain in Jamie Rodger, who replaces the departed Ewan Davidson.
South African Cian Fortmann has arrived at People’s Park as overseas amateur, while fellow South African Michael Van Staden has returned following a successful spell with Stoneywood-Dyce last summer.
Grades back with a bang
Meanwhile, there’s a full fixture card this weekend in the North-East Grades.
In Grade One Mannofield have home advantage against Aberdeen Grammar, 2nd Aberdeen Grammar welcome Bon Accord to Rubislaw and last season’s champions Master Blasters tackle Grampian at Inverdee.
Inverurie get their campaign under way against Crescent at Kellands Park and Gordonians meet Knight Riders at Countesswells.
In Grade Two the two newly-promoted sides, Aberdeen Tigers and 2nd Grampian, face off at Harlaw. Elsewhere, Cults play Portcullis at St Margaret’s, Banchory welcome Fraserburgh to Burnett Park, it’s 2nd Knight Riders versus 2nd Gordonians at Groats Road and 3rd Aberdeen Grammar play Huntly at Inverdee.
There are three games on Saturday and two on Sunday in Grade Three. On Saturday it’s Stoneywood-Dyce v Crathie at Duthie Park, Stonehaven Thistle have home advantage against 2nd Banchory and Methlick play Ellon Gordon at Lairds.
On Sunday 2nd Mannofield are at home to Dunecht, and 3rd Gordonians meet 2nd Master Blasters at Countesswells.
Eight new teams joining the Grades has led to Grade Four being reintroduced, on Saturday 2nd Fraserburgh host new team Granite City at Kessock Park.
Meanwhile, on Sunday new sides 2nd Bon Accord and 2nd Inverurie meet at Harlaw, two more new teams – 2nd Stonenhaven and 3rd Grampian – clash at Inverdee, two other new outfits Ceylon Deeside and 3rd Mannofield also face off at Inverdee and the other new team, 3rd Knight Riders, meet 2nd Methlick at Groats Road.
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