By Paul Edwards
One of the most significant brief eras in the recent history of Southport and Birkdale C.C. will come to a close in a few weeks’ time when Andrew Carney steps down after four years as chairman of the club.
However, while Carney will no longer be one of S&B’s officers, he stresses that he will not be completely stepping away from events at Trafalgar Road.
“It’s important that we maintain the momentum that we’ve created and I’ll be on hand should anyone need support when a new leadership team takes over,” he said.
“Our sons, Charlie and Jack, will still be playing their cricket here and we love the club, so while I’ll be on the back benches, I’ll always be around to take on an advisory role as needed.”
Close observers of life at S&B over recent years will probably be offering prohibitive odds on Carney’s offer being taken up.
Building on the work done by his predecessors, Ken Standring and Tony Elwood, he has changed the club in vital areas, not least in reviving the relationship with Lancashire and in organising two very successful beer festivals.
But like Standring and Elwood, he knows that the chairmanship is virtually a part-time job and he is characteristically clear about his reasons for handing it on to someone else.
“I thought four years was the optimal time and I really do need to spend more time with the family,” he said. “I’d done those four years in addition to a day job and I felt instinctively that now was the right time to step back.”
But when S&B members reflect on the last few years, they might be justifiably nervous whether the dynamism and development generated at Trafalgar Road in recent summers can be maintained. Carney understands such concerns but he is confident the club and its volunteers will cope.
“We’ve already had conversations to make sure the leadership group are ready to go,” he said. “ We’ve looked at our budget, we’re working on our recruitment cycle and we’ve a new ground chairman, David Salt, who understands what’s required there.
“The hard work needs to continue but I’m fairly optimistic we’ll be fine. There are an awful lot of people who love this club and I think that will carry the day.”
All of which suggests that even as S&B gears up for a new year after the AGM, the next fortnight or so will be a time of reflection on Carney’s period in charge and the changes it has seen.
“I wanted to improve the commercial performance of the sports club, thereby recruiting new members and generating increased revenue so we could start an investment programme,” he said.
“But the members also want to see obvious improvements, such as in the outdoor nets, which cost the thick end of £50,000. And we’ve also developed better relationships develop between the sections and I think events like the Beer Festival and the County Match assisted that process.”
And when the bandwidth has been assessed and the bench-strength determined in typical Carnean style, the outgoing chairman will not forget why anyone gets involved with a game like cricket in the first place.
“The happiest thing about it all is that it’s been great fun,” he said. “As ever with these things, it’s the relationships that you build and the lifetime friendships you make that count for so much. I’ve worked with some extremely good people at Southport and Birkdale and that’s something that will last. That’s been the best thing about the job for me.”
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