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Minutes of 2004 AGM

The Meeting was held at 7pm on Monday March 22nd 2004 in Maiden Castle bar.

Present: Pete Barraclough, Alan Clarke, Tony Cleaver, Peter Collins, Phil Hands, Tom Hase, Paul Low, Jon Pearson, Nigel Metcalfe, Ian Stone, Mark Swinbank, Ian Whitfield, Eckart Wrede, Jeremy Wright
Apologies: Ted Fuller, John White, Nick Jones, Rich Wilson

Minutes: The minutes of the 2003 meeting were accepted.
Matters Arising: None
Chairman’s Report: The chairman reported that the previous season had been blessed with a full fixture list and kind weather. Once again the anuual dinner had been a success.
Captain’s Report: As noted by the secretary in the 2003 minutes, the fixtures in the 2003 season were somewhat different from previous years because of a new arrangement for undergraduate cricket. Since the formation of the cricket academy, the university is being represented in BUSA and other university competitions by a combined colleges team. Last year, the undergraduate cricket was reorgainsed into a league in an attempt to raise the standard of college cricket. The staff team is not involved in the league. One aspect of this reorganization is a reduction in the number of pitches and friendly fixtures available for staff games against student opposition. At a request from Nigel and myself during a meeting of the combined colleges several fixtures were left in the schedule for friendly games against college sides. As well as our usual fixture against Gradsoc., we had two games against Grey JCR (which we won, as well as games against Hatfield and van Mildert B).I must thank Nigel and others for arranging an exciting and full fixture list for 2003 despite the inevitable uncertainty of the new arrangements. Having lost several of our traditional college games, we managed to maintain a full fixture list by playing two games against Newcastle University staff, Sunderland NASUWT and the Mallards as well as playing our traditional games against Grey SCR and Durham Farmers. This year we arranged new fixtures against Bede Scientific and a Stockton Mayors XI.Unlike the last few years, the weather last summer was excellent. Of the 19 games scheduled, only two had to be cancelled due to rain – and both were rescheduled. We lost three games due to lack of opposition – Univ. of East Anglia, a college and Durham Mayors XI. It is good to note that although we struggled on occasion, we were able to provide a team for all our fixtures.The secretary noted that in the 2003 minutes, that our annual match against a team from the Mayors office was not likely to happen. Unfortunately, this prediction was realized. With a new mayor now in residence, we will wait and see if we can resurrect this annual charity game. We were fortunate to find an alternative match against the Mayor of Stockton’s XI. The mayor was on hand to see us just defeated, but we contributed significantly to the mayors charity appeal, and again I hope that this fixture will become a regular part of our season.We only managed to win 5 games (Grey JCR twice, Gradsoc, Sunderland NASUWT and Newcastle University). Although we lost all our away fixtures, some were rather close (we lost by only 3 balls). Last season we regularly got between 90 and 100 runs. In order to win more games we need to raise this total by 20 or so. We seem to be a team of bowlers with relatively few traditional batsmen – if you know any, get them along! I tried to maintain the club’s tradition of including as many as people as possible in the games we played.As I mentioned above, I rarely had too much trouble in organizing enough players to turn up for a game. I even had selection headaches – so thanks to all involved. In total we used 27 players, including our wandering ex captain as well as several players new to the club. We were particularly pleased to include young members of staff who work at Maiden Castle in our teams (Caroline and Jenny). I hope this will continue.The relative ease with which I could pick teams was due to a core of players who regularly turned up. I hope that this will continue through the 2004 season. It certainly helped to give the team a focus, and produced a good team spirit.I will leave Nigel to mention the new mailing lists and web pages, but just a note here to thank him and all the other officers for their help during the season. The club cannot run without them.The annual dinner was again held in Grey in September. AS usual it was an excellent evening, but the number of current players who attended was again on the lowish side. Thanks to TC [Tony Cleaver] for his help in organizing the event.On a note to finish, I just want to mention one game in particular. Gradsoc on the 20th May. We batted first, and unleashed our secret weapon in Caroline who scored an unbeaten 43. We finished with a typical staff score of 97. TC then opened the bowling – I started with a slip and a gully. The opening Gradsoc batsmen proceeded to hit Tony for 6 of the first ball and then after a dot ball, two consecutive fours. The slip and gully didn’t stay long! We somehow managed to recover from 15 from the first over to restrict Gradsoc to 76. It was an impressive team performance which we could not repeat for the rest of the season. Let’s try again!
Treasurer’s Report: The treasurer’s financial report can be found here. About 300 pounds of match fees were still outstanding (due to no effort having been made to collect them!). A list of the fees owed was circulated. There was also a mystery bill of 420 pounds for the nets at Durham School (note, we only had 6 1hr nets at Durham School in 2003 – Sec.).
Secretary’s Report: An account called staff.cricket had been set up on the University ITS Service in order simplify communications. The WWW site was therefore now the gratifyingly straightforward “http://www.dur.ac.uk/staff.cricket”, and the email address “[email protected]”. A mailing list had also been set up, “[email protected]” to which all members of the club belong. Unfortunately it had not been possible to arrange nets at Durham School this year, due to lack of availability.
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.
- Tom Hase was elected as Club Captain.
- Ian Whitfield was elected as Vice-Captain.
- Richard Wilson was elected as Treasurer.
- Nigel Metcalfe was re-elected as Secretary
- John White agreed to be the club auditor.
Fixtures: The secretary presented a provisional fixture list. There would be a new fixture against King James Rugby Club this year. The students (who now control the term time fixture arrangements) had agreed to five fixtures against college sides.
Kit: Eckart Wrede agreed to be the club’s “baggage manager”. Requirements for the new season were as follows: a new bat, 1 pair wicket-keeping pads, 1 pair of inners, 1 thigh pad and 8 match balls. The equipment list is here.
AOB The anuual dinner would continue as last year.

Nigel Metcalfe – 9/03/05