AGM 2024 - Durham Colleges Staff Cricket Club

Minutes of the 2024 AGM

The 75th AGM of the Durham Colleges Staff Cricket Club took place in the Department of Philosophy at 7pm on Tuesday January 23rd 2024

Present: Ian Boothroyd (IB), Patrick Card (PC), Jill Cartledge (JC), Kris Cartledge (KC), Mujeeb Chaudhry, Tony Cleaver (TC) – Chair, Chris Cowie (CC), Phil Hancock (PH), Terry Harrison, Vinay Kopnar (VK), Nigel Metcalfe (NM), Guy Paxman (GP), Eckart Wrede (EW).
Apologies for absence: Amitabh, Rob Briggs, Sean Chuhan, Aidan Duffy, Keerthi, Rory McInnes-Gibbons (RMG), Rajdeep, Rich Root, Ben Smith, Peter Swift, John White, Ian Whitfield.

Minutes of 2023 meeting: Accepted without issue.
Matters Arising: There were no matters arising.
Chairman’s Report: Social events over the last year and the away fixtures were enjoyable. We could do it more often. TC pointed out that the attendance for nets has been remarkable and hopes the turnout remains the same. Thanks to Chris for handling the responsibilities of the captain from overseas and also taking responsibilities of Treasurer. TC mentioned that he enjoyed writing the match reports and sought volunteers for match reports in his absence. TC also pointed out that the contact details of the members leaving Durham need to be updated so that they can be kept in the loop.

Tony Cleaver
Captain’s Report: The official record for the 2023 season is as follows:
Played 21; Won 15; Lost 6; Cancelled 15
Awards were presented at the club dinner, kindly hosted by Grey College, at the close of season. Player of the match went to Guy Paxman, top run-scorer to Rory McInnes-Gibbons, top wicket-taker to Ian Boothroyd, Spirit of cricket to Stephen Boothroyd, Fielder of the Season to Hilal Misgar, and Champagne moment to Vinay Kopnar.
Thanks were conveyed to those who served in the club’s various offices over the course of the year, including out-going Secretary Jill Cartledge and especially to webmaster Nigel Metcalfe.
In a sense this tells the story of the season, but in another sense it does not. For the 2023 season was in fact two distinct seasons. By this I do not merely mean that as much of the action this year took place in one of the great many net sessions held at MC as on its underused pitches (I do not include MC2 in the ‘under-used’ description); though this is true;
But there are many ways to tell a story. Here’s another:
Without C. Cowie – Played 10; Won 5; Lost 5; Cancelled 8
With C. Cowie – Played 11; Won 10; Lost 1; Cancelled 7
I leave it to you to decide which gives the truer picture.
In any case… I am happy to hand over the captaincy of the club to new incumbent(s) in this its 75^th year. It is a pleasure to join the list of former captains. May there be many more, and many successes in the years to come. Roll on the 100^th anniversary.

Chris Cowie
Secretary’s report: JC noted that it was challenging to get university facilities booked. Many teams were interested in having games but we couldn’t arrange them due to the limited availability of grounds and the weather. We had a lot of interest from teams to play against us than the availability we had. JC shared the contact details of the college coordinator responsible for scheduling the college matches who can be contacted for any information related to the college league. Last year, other nearby university staff teams expressed interest in having the games and can be contacted for the upcoming season.

Pitch availability: CC informed that MC2 will be unavailable for the upcoming season and suggested Durham School as an alternative. PH mentioned that he can share contacts at the Durham School. EW suggested Littletown. JC noted that Littletown had expressed their interest in lending the pitch last year.

Fixtures & Tour: TC suggested going on a tour perhaps to the south. Lincoln, Hull, and Cambridge staff cricket teams could be contacted. TC suggested getting a fixture at Raby Castle. PC suggested getting another fixture at Bamburgh Castle, but JC reported they had ruled out playing us again.

Jill Cartledge/Aidan Duffy
Treasurer’s report: The club’s accounts are in a good place. We began the season with a balance of £1171.39. We ended the year with a balance of £1676.67. Some of this will be coming out of the accounts shortly when we get a nets bill from MC. But we’re in a good place and will still have plenty of money in the accounts.
Thanks to Stephen Boothroyd for his work on the accounts for the preceding years and until half way through the season. I took over on July 18^th, when I sent out a bill covering all matches until that period, and have run the accounts since then.
We changed accounts this year from Virgin Money (who closed down the branch) to Lloyds. The accounts are now all online. The named account holders are myself and Nigel. Thanks to Nigel for his work on this over the year.
Going forward, net fees are charged at 15 per lane per hour. We hire two lanes twice a week. That’s a cost of 60 per week. We charge members 3 per session, or 1 for students or the unwaged. We’re currently close to even most weeks, marginally above on some, marginally below on others.
For matches, the MC fees for the coming year will be £80 for 20 overs, £100 for more.
For the coming season I suggest that we continue to charge £6 a game, £3 discounted for students or the unwaged.

The 2023 accounts may be viewed here.

Discussion: with the increase in pitch prices at MC it was pointed out by NM that we would be losing money on each fixture. It was therefore decided to introduce a fee for away fixtures, which would be £3 or less, to be determined by the Treasurer.

Chris Cowie (acting treasurer)
Election of Officers:

President: Peter Collins re-elected as president.

Chairman TC retained as Chairman.

Secretary: VK was elected to the secretary role for the 2024 season.

Captain: GP/PC to take a join role as captain.

Vice-Captain(s): IB and RMG to be vice-captains. With a dual captain’s role it was decided that onlt two vice-captains were required.

Treasurer: CC, who has been Acting treasurer since July 2023 was elected treasurer.

Kit Man: EW retained as kit man.

Auditor: NM retained as auditor.

Webmaster: NM happy to remain in this role for the present.

Scorer: The position of scorer was left unfilled, but JC offered to score whenever she was around. NM noted that one scorebook from 2019 is missing, and attempts to determine its whereabouts have failed.
Kit: The state of the current equipment was discussed. No major issues were identified. KC has designed a kit for the 75th anniversary. KC shared the designs with the group. KC will ask for a quotation.
AOB: Annual Dinner: TC mentioned that the annual dinner was held in October as opposed to September. Everyone thought that October seemed to work well. TC asked for suggestions for the annual dinner on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary. JC pointed out that the food options were limited at Grey. The option of the Castle (senate rooms) was suggested. It was noted that with Castle, the annual dinner will have to be scheduled out of term time.
75th Anniversary match: KC can look into getting in touch with DWCC. The match could be held at Racecourse. The match could be followed by an event.

Nigel Metcalfe, January 2024