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AGM 2002

Minutes of 2002 AGM

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The Meeting was held at 7pm on Monday March 18th 2002 in Maiden Castle meeting room.

Present: Peter Collins, Tony Cleaver, Rich Hopkin, Ian Whitfield, John White, Nigel Metcalfe, Paul Low
Apologies: Ted Fuller, Tom Hase

  1. Minutes: The minutes of the 2000 meeting were accepted.
  2. Matters Arising: The accounts for 1999 & 2000 had finally been audited.
    No action had been taken over the Millennium International Festival, the feeling being that Staff would be unable to raise a team.
    During the year, Chris Thompson had been replaced as treasurer by Paul Low.
  3. Chairman’s Report: The chairman pointed to the difficulties in raising teams during the season and thanked the Captain for his sterling efforts in that department. Thanks were also due to the secretary and to Paul Low for looking after the kit at short notice. The now annual dinner, although getting off to an alarming start when Hugh Evans was taken unwell and had to be rushed to hospital, was well supported by past members, but once again there had been a disappointing turn-out from the current team. The meal itself, hosted by Grey College, was excellent. Everyone will be glad to hear that Hugh Evans has since recovered from his heart attack.
  4. Captain’s Report: The season last year started with bad weather and cancelled matches as usual. In total 18 fixtures were arranged, three were cancelled because of poor weather, one was abandoned in the rain, two were cancelled because we couldn’t raise a team and two more because the opposition couldn’t raise a team.Of ten games played, we lost five and won five. We beat Newcastle twice; the Mallards; the Mayor’s XI and we won the Euan Squires Memorial Trophy by beating Grey SCR. Though this is quite a reasonable performance in the aggregate, on closer inspection there are concerns: firstly, on too many occasions we were not able to field a full side (We borrowed two Mallards in order to beat them!). Secondly, for related reasons, we never attained a solid core of regulars who formed the backbone of the team. Too often I had to scrape around at the last moment, looking for extras. Thirdly, we were unable to beat any college side (We were beaten by Collingwood, GreyJCR and Gradsoc – twice). This represents a decline in our overall team performance compared to the year before! Our defeat by Durham Farmers was not so bad when it is considered that they rather unsportingly fielded a couple of ‘ringers’.The defeat of the Mayor’s XI was almost embarrassingly easy. It so happened that, unlike many of the other matches, we turned out eleven regulars on that day at Bowburn plus the VC came to see us. Quite unprecedented! (Did we send him thank you note??) We can predict this year the Mayor’s XI will not give us such an easy ride?Our goal this year must be for our stalwarts to turn out more regularly – we have enough players, if only they would all turn up so that an enjoyable and morale-lifting team spirit could be more quickly engendered. We all play better if we know who we all are and what we can expect from each other! Even if we can’t all be Bothams we should at least be able to recognise and be on first name terms with everyone else on our own side!The lack of support last year made me distinctly nervous about committing ourselves to the International Cricket Festival this year. I’ve not heard much about this yet, nor will I initiate the first move in this direction. There is no point in committing ourselves to a tournament if we can’t guarantee a full team turning up!Two positive notes to end on: The season finished with an Annual Club Dinner on 19 September 2001 in the Pennington Room at Grey. A number of present and past players turned up and it was an extremely enjoyable event, apart from the fact that one of our senior guests had to be rushed to hospital with chest pains (Many thanks to Peter [Collins] for helping with transport on this score.) Even if we couldn’t always get 11 to turn up on the occasional game in the season, we raised a strong enough turn out in September to make the ‘Annual Dinner’ a new tradition for the club!Finally, somehow word has circulated amongst past players that DCSCC is still alive and kicking because a secretary of the club in the 1960s appeared in Grey College bearing the gift of an old score book from the 1948/49/50 seasons. Mr Dan Rogers found the score book at the back of an old wardrobe he was clearing out and cannot remember how it got there. The gift is nonetheless gratefully received and we will have to find a suitable and atmospherically benign place for this ancient and valued manuscript to eventually rest. It is one small but significant piece of evidence that old members are still interested in the club – one very pleasing outcome of our decision to host memorial dinners and welcome past players. Tony Cleaver (It was agreed that this year’s dinner would be in the week beginning September 23rd 2002.)
  5. Treasurer’s Report: The treasurer’s financial report can be found here, together with the equipment list.(It was agreed that match fees would be raised to 2 pounds a game for the coming season.)
  6. Secretary’s Report: Once again there had be a major problem with the fixtures this year (see later agenda item). Last year’s problems had been fixed by the simple process of the secretary sitting down with Pat Cook in the vacation and inventing some fixtures!
    Numerous attempts to arrange a new fixture against Durham City 3rd’s in 2001 had come to nothing. Another attempt would be made this season.
    It looked like the home fixture against Adders would be lost from the fixture list as they were no longer willing/able to play midweek games.
  7. Election of Officers:
    • The Vice-Chancellor was re-elected as club President.
    • John Anstee was re-elected as Vice-President
    • Peter Collins was re-elected as Chairman.
    • Tony Cleaver was re-elected as Club Captain unopposed.
    • Tom Hase was re-elected as Vice-Captain (in his absence).
    • Paul Low was elected as Treasurer.
    • Nigel Metcalfe was re-elected as Secretary
  8. Problems with Fixtures Once again this year the students have failed to include the Staff in the fixture list. More seriously, they have used up all the available wickets during term (excluding the exam period) thus leaving no room for any Staff v college matches, and cutting our fixture list by 50%. The secretary had emailed (the previous week) Graeme Fowler and Grenville Holland to try elicit some action. Meanwhile, the Chairman had spoken that morning with Director of Sport Peter Warburton to try and resolve the situation. Summarising, it seemed that there was a problem with fixture congestion (which might be relieved by ground sharing with Durham City). However, it has now been agreed that some ‘doubling-up’ of the use of pitches would be allowed in order to fit in some Staff games. For the future, we need this matter to be put on the agenda of the University Cricket Board in order that a formal arrangement whereby the students are responsible for our fixtures during term can be put in place. It was agreed that the secretary would write a letter to Graeme Fowler, explaining the background to the problems and indicating our wishes to be allowed at least one Tues or Thurs fixture per week during term. Peter Warburton will then ensure that the Cricket Board discusses the matter.
    It was also agreed to investigate the provision of a fixture card.
  9. Kit for the forthcoming season Purchases should be made such that there would be four complete sets of kit for the start of the season.
  10. AOB It was decided to subsidise the annual dinner, for an amount to be determined once the price of the meal was known.

Nigel Metcalfe – 07/04/03