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AGM 2008

Minutes of 2008 AGM

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The Meeting was held at 7.30pm on Wednesday March 19th 2008 in Maiden Castle bar.

Present: P. Barraclough, N. Clark, A. Clarke, T. Cleaver, P. Collins, M. Deakin, A. Finlay, M. Harrison, N. Metcalfe, R. Pallister, M. Swinbank, E. Thomas, J. White, I. Whitfield.
Apologies: P. Low, I. Stone, E. Wrede.

  1. Minutes: The minutes of the 2007 meeting were accepted.
  2. Matters Arising: The club ‘awards’ had been presented at the annual dinner. These had been well received, and it was decided that this should continue at future dinners.
  3. Chairman’s Report: The chairman, now retired from cricket of course, expressed his regret at not having attended the Euan Squires trophy game, but after the first game had been rained-off, the monsoon conditions on the evening of the re-arranged fixture had naturally led him to assume it would be cancelled again! Nevertheless, he commended the team for re-capturing the trophy. Thanks, as ever, were due to the club officers for keeping the club in running order – captain (Ian Whitfield) and vice-captains (Chris Liddy and Phil Hands), secretary (Nigel Metcalfe), treasurer (Mark Swinbank) and kit man (Eckart Wrede). Once again the annual dinner had been a resounding success.

    There was much discussion as to where the trophy should be kept, and there was a desire that it should be brought to this year’s annual dinner. For now the captain would keep hold of it, but suggestions for a suitable display location would be welcome. The current chairman happens to hold the past scorebooks for the club, and it was decided that in future this should be an official ‘duty’ of the club chairman.
  4. Captain’s Report: The 2007 season was my first season as captain and was memorable as one of the wettest summers I can remember. Despite the weather, only 5 fixtures were cancelled due to rain, 2 of which we managed to rearrange. A further 4 fixtures disappeared due to the opposition either cancelling or not turning up. Of the remaining 12 fixtures played 5 were won and 7 were lost giving us a 0.417 win ratio. Normally I would expect to comment on exceptional individual performances of scores of 50 or over and 5-wicket hauls or greater. However, our success last season was very much collective hence we have scores over 30:
    • Alex Finlay 46 vs Grey SCR
    • Ian Whitfield 43 vs Mallards
    • Mark Harrison 34no vs Gateshead Casuals
    • Ian Whitfield 33no vs SNAS
    • Rich Wilson 33 vs Gateshead Council
    • Ian Whitfield 30no vs Durham Occasionals
    • Matt Deakin 5 for 2 (including hat trick) vs Newcastle Lib Dem GroupAnd hauls of 5 or more wickets:The next best bowling performance was numerous 2-wicket hauls taken by virtually every member of the squad (with the usual exceptions of myself and Eckart!).We met some opponents for the first time last season and played on 2 grounds never before graced by Staff (as far as I am aware). Notable fixtures were against Emerson at Houghton and Gateshead Council at Ryton. A particular highlight last season was the Sunday game against Newcastle Lib Dem Group at MC1. A deserved victory was achieved in a game played in fine spirit despite miserable conditions followed by an excellent buffet in The Avenue courtesy of the Clarks. Furthermore Staff brought the Euan Squires Trophy home as a result of a convincing victory over Grey SCR.A real plus last season is that we never had to cancel a game through being unable to raise a side. Furthermore, we had the support of a hardy band of regulars who were available for the majority of fixtures which was very positive for consistency and team spirit. The club ethic of a social game was maintained throughout. Some goodbyes at the end of the season to stalwarts Ted Fuller, Tom Hase and Phil Hands means the team for 2008 will look a little different. But on a positive note we have already seen some new faces at winter nets and will hopefully see some more before the season begins. We shall certainly need an influx of talent as this year we will be ?competing? in the College League for the first time. This gives us the opportunity to revive the dwindling number of College games we have played over recent seasons. We have been given some flexibility in our timing of fixtures and, following a poll of players to gauge availability, I have requested we play on 23/4, 25/4, 2/5, 5/5 and 8/5 aiming for start times of 5.15 but no later than 5.30.Finally I would like to express thanks to those who have made key contributions to the club over the last year:

      Nigel – as always has done a fine job as secretary;
      Eckart – for organising and taking care of the kit;
      Tony – for organising the annual dinner and giving players past and present the opportunity to socialise and reminisce over several glasses of wine!
      Mark – for looking after the club?s finances;
      Christian – for support as vice-captain on and off the pitch.
      It has been an honour and a pleasure captaining the side in 2007 and, unless anyone else is particularly keen to take over, I am looking forward to continuing in this role in 2008.Ian Whitfield, 19th March 2008
  5. Treasurer’s Report: The accounts can be found here. We had roughly broken-even over the year. There was some dicussion of the cost of the winter nets at the Riverside, which had been heavily subsidised by the club due to lack of numbers attending. It was decided to continue them next year (if possible on a day other than Wednesday), but that the charge would be raised to £5 per person. The extra cost of joining the college league this year would be around £100. It was felt that the income in subs from the extra games would roughly cover this, so no increase in subs would be necessary. This would be reviewed at the next AGM. Subs for last season had not yet been collected. The treasurer offered his apologies, and said the bills would be going out this week. In future, bills would be sent out as soon after the last match of the season as possible. The possibility of having a second, ‘half-season’ bill was discussed and rejected.


  6. Secretary’s Report:
    The secretary reported that as an experiment we had agreed to join the undergraduate college league this season. This was partly due to the increasing difficulty of arranging friendly games against the colleges. It would involve 5 evening games in the first three weeks of term. Start time’s would have to quite early – 5:15pm – but this was unavoidable. There would a one-off cost to the club of about £120 pounds. Various friendlies were already in place up to the end of July. There would be new opposition this year in the form of High Stables CC. A pitch had been booked for May 22nd in the hope of playing Durham City IIIs, but the secretary had been unable to make contact with anyone at DC to arrange this. Ray Pallister would investigate. The club had participated in the 6-a-side competition at Belmont in February for the second year running – £100 had been raised by the event for the Mayor of Durham’s charity.

    Partly due to the number of requests to join the club from non-Staff, and partly due to the ingress into the college league, the question of club membership and insurance was raised. The secretary suspected that, to be covered by the University insurance when playing at home, players must have a valid Maiden Castle membership. There was almost certainly no cover for away games. It was noted that it was 10 years since the club had last investigated the matter of insurance, and it was agreed that it was time to revisit the issue.

    The question of whether we should, as last season, have an outdoor net at Durham City one evening a week was brought up. After much debate, it was felt that there were potentially too many games to make this viable until after the end of term. The secretary would review the situation then.
  7. Kit: The kit inventory can be found here. The usual purchases (new ball etc) were authorised, subject to discussion with the treasurer. A first aid kit should be purchased (this might be a requirement of joining the college league, but was deemed a good idea anyway).
  8. Election of Officers:
    • Ray Pallister was re-elected as club President.
    • The post of vice-president would continue to be suspended.
    • Peter Collins was re-elected as Chairman (and Archivist).
    • Nigel Metcalfe was re-elected as Secretary
    • Ian Whitfield was re-elected as Club Captain.
    • Alan Clarke was elected as a Vice-Captain.
    • Christian Liddy was re-elected as a Vice-Captain, subject to his agreement. If not, the job would pass to Alex Finlay.
    • Mark Swinbank was re-elected as Treasurer.
    • Eckart Wrede was re-elected at Kit Man.
    • John White was re-elected as auditor.
  9. AOB A date for the annual dinner was discussed. Friday evenings were felt to be the best day of the week. As usual, Tony Cleaver would do his best to chose an appriate date.

Nigel Metcalfe – 18/03/08