AGM 2012 - Durham Colleges Staff Cricket Club

Minutes of the 2012 AGM

The 63rd AGM of the Durham Colleges Staff Cricket Club was be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday April 3rd 2012 in the Pennington Room in Grey College

Present: Peter Collins (in the Chair), Alex Finlay (Club Captain 2011); Peter Swift (acting as Secretary); Alan Clarke; Ben Headley; Steven Luard; Nigel Metcalfe; Phil Nathan; Ian Whitfield.

Apologies for absence: Alex Baker, Ian Boothroyd, Matt Dolan, Rupert Prudhom, Carl Stiansen, Mark Swinbank.

Minutes: The minutes of the 2011 meeting were accepted.

Matters Arising: We are in fact missing a full version of the 2009 AGM Captain’s report, for the 2008 season. This has now been written off. The accounts have still not been audited to our knowledge. This needs to be sorted once this year’s accounts are up to date. Nothing further has happened regarding the archiving of the old record books in the library, but as the records are now on the website, it should be possible to proceed with this soon.

Chairman’s Report: Last season was not the best one in the team’s history, although we had had a good number and variety of fixtures. The Euan Squires trophy was lost last season. There is still a problem with access to wickets on MC1 after the end of term – the secretary to be asked to look into this again. Once again, we had an excellent end of season dinner and the chair noted with regret that it was Tony Cleaver’s swansong. The Chair finished by thanking the officers, in particular the Captain, who is standing down as he will be leaving Durham in June and saying that this is a good club to be associated with.
Peter Collins 3rd April 2012

Captain’s Report: 2011 was not our most successful season. Much like the present England team our batting let our bowlers down badly. All the figures I am going to report are based on the score book and website, both of which are incomplete, so I apologise for any errors. We finished the season having Played 13, Won 1, and Lost 12 (including the Ewan Squires) with 10 cancelled games. Unfortunately, the 10 cancellations were friendly games which we would have expected to be competitive in unlike the college games. The college league finished with us at the bottom of our group and, with the exception of Mary’s (lost by 3 wkts) we lost by over 100 runs or 8 wickets in every other game, bringing the point of our entry into question. The 2011 team was hampered by the absence of several of our better players such as Ian Whitfield (back from injury now thank goodness), Phil Nathan, Paul Low, Ian Stone, Christian Liddy, Rich Wilson, and JW, Explaining our lack of batting!
Therefore, individual performances to mention upto and including matches on 17th July are as follows. For batting, this year I have mentioned those over 30 rather than the usual 50
Alex Finlay 37*; Halliday 35*; Alex Finlay 35*; Sawar 35; Swinny 34; Alex Finlay 30.
On the bowling side we had:
Nigel 5-17; Halliday 3-14; Carl 3-19; Nigel 3-24.
A few printed sets of averages were passed around (and are appended to the end of the minutes). I would like to thank the committee for all the help they have been over the last season and the best of luck to whoever takes over as captain this season when I’m off to the big scary world of industry. At nets it seems as if we have picked up a few good new players which should help.
Alex Finlay, 3rd April 2012

Secretary’s report: Unfortunately, the secretary was absent from the meeting, and no report provided.

Treasurer’s report: The treasurer was unfortunately absent from the meeting, but had sent a report. On the whole we are in good financial health, although we only recouped about half of the subs from the 2010 season. If we get the majority of the subs in this year, we will have a healthy balance of £1,400. However, the treasurer needs the score book to finalise the call for subs. The end of season dinner almost broke even (it lost £13). Accounts for 2011 season.
Mark Swinbank, 3rd April 2012

Discussion followed regarding the best way to get subs during the season. It was decided that the captain would collect them after each match (£3 per person) and then liaise with the Treasurer to bank them.

Election of Officers:

President: Ray Pallister was re-elected.

Chairman: Peter Collins was re-elected.

Secretary: Alan Clarke was elected to this role.

Captain: Peter Swift was elected to this role.

Vice-Captains: Alex Finlay and Ben Headley are happy to undertake this role until they leave Durham. Rupert Prudhom will take over the role in June.

Treasurer: Mark Swinbank was re-elected.

Kit Man: Steve Luard was re-elected.

Auditor: Alex Finlay was elected.
Webmaster: Rupert Prudhom was elected.

Fixtures: Unfortunately, nothing had really been arranged at the time of the meeting. Alan Clarke to look into this with some urgency. Discussion took place regarding:

Our participation in the College league – last year was not our best every performance in it, and it may be better to not play until we have a stronger team. However, we may be too late to join anyway. The secretary to look into this, and certainly the possibility of student friendly matches.

The use of Maiden Castle I for home matches – the secretary and captain to take this up with Maiden Castle, moving further up the University hierarchy if necessary.

Joining a Sunday friendly league – probably too late for this year, but keep an open mind for next season.

Riverdale Hall Festival – will be taking place on 4th and 5th June. Alan Clark to organise.

Kit: A new bag for taking a sensible amount of kit to games has been purchased. We still have too much kit on the whole, with some notable exceptions; left-handed pads (Steve was asked to double check the big bag for this) and new balls, as well as decent bet balls. Steve was asked to purchase two dozen new balls, and ensure that good quality used balls are kept through the season for use at next year’s nets.

Website: Thanks to Nigel Metcalfe for undertaking the archiving of results and minutes last year.
We discussed the need for the club to have better visibility to staff members. Rupert to be asked to look into this.

AOB: Peter Swift was asked to organise the end of season dinner again, moving back towards the end of September and at Grey College.
Discussion took place about recruiting further members. An advertisement has been placed in the staff dialogue, but we also need to look at having better advertising to new staff members too.

Provided by Peter Swift – 18/04/2012