New Chairman for Herefordshire Cricket Limited

10 years ago   |   By Pitch Hero

Herefordshire Cricket Limited (HCL), which is based at the Herefordshire Cricket Centre on Pentland Gardens, is responsible for the development of cricket in the county, as well as supporting clubs to develop their facilities and coaching capabilities.

In addition, HCL supports all the county’s cricket associations such as those for Coaches, Officials and Groundsmen, while it also develops young players aged from 9 to 19 by running a huge number of programmes and county age group teams throughout the year.

Having previously sat on the Board as Company Secretary, Mr Ling steps up to the top role to replace former Chairman Gary King, who stood down at the meeting after serving in the role for more than a decade.

Explaining his reasons for standing down, Mr King said:

“I’ve very much enjoyed my time as Chairman but the time is now right for me to step aside. I spend less time in Herefordshire these days and therefore cannot dedicate as much time to this role as I used to.

“It’s very important I take this opportunity to thank all the people who have supported me over the years – there are a huge number of good people in involved in cricket in Herefordshire and it has been a pleasure to work with so many of them.

“Finally, I would like to wish Derek all the very best in his new role – I have no doubt he is the best man for the job.”

Speaking about his appointment as Chairman, Mr Ling said:

“I’m very proud to have been given the opportunity to take on this role and look forward to building on the excellent work Gary has done for a number of years.

“Gary will be a hard act to follow as he has been a fantastic servant to cricket in Herefordshire. I’d like to express my gratitude to him for the huge amount of time and effort he put into this role – I know he was well respected by agencies locally as well as cricketing bodies across the country.

“It is now my job to build on the work Gary has done and drive this organisation forward. With that in mind I see my major priority as being to try to get more people playing cricket and achieving their potential.

“In order to do that we need good, secure facilities and a strong league system so we are fortunate to have good relationships with all of our partners and associations, which we are aiming to improve still further.

“In addition, I am also keen to ensure we continue to build and invest in our volunteer programmes because, without volunteers, we cannot achieve all our aims.”

Mr Ling becomes Chairman of a Board that now contains six other directors – five of these having been appointed earlier this year.

Long serving Steve Newton continues in his role as treasurer, while the recently appointed board directors are Mark Abberley, Chris (Stig) Ammonds, Guy Best, Steve Watkins and Dave Phillips – who is also treasurer of Herefordshire County Cricket Club and has been appointed Company Secretary at HCL to replace Mr Ling .