2020 Remnants annual general meeting

The 2020 Remnants CC annual general meeting was held on the evening of Tuesday, March 10, at the Fitzwilliam College Cricket Ground bar.

Attendance

Members present: Andy Bell; Paul Jordan; Faruk Kara; Daniel Mortlock; Dave Norman; Cam Petrie; Richard Rex; Dave Williams.

Apologies: Jeff Beaumont; Stephen Bidwell; Huw Davies; Andy Owen; Tom Serby; Phil Watson.

Minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes of last year's AGM, held on March 19, 2019, were actually read.

The treasurer's report

Dave Williams provided a detailed treasurer's report, based primarily on the statements from the club's bank account -- there were no cash payments at all this year. We operated at a small surplus of £327.05 over the year, mainly resulting from the increased match fees, and also because we have fewer "balls in hand".

The account-based system for doing match fees and dinner monies at the end of the year has once again worked very well - there were no defaulters at all. A few opposition teams were a little late paying, but all did in the end.

Fitz pitch fees will stay at £72.00 (including VAT), so it was agreed that match fees will stay at £6.00 for adults and £3.00 for juniors. The charge to visiting teams will remain at £40.00.

We did make a little loss of £24.00 on the nets, and so nets fees will be going up by £1.00 to £4.00 for adults and £2.00 for students this year.

The annual dinner, which was held for the first time at The Alex (as mooted at the last meeting). We got an outdoor room to ourselves and the general verdict was that this was better than The Burleigh Arms, and so we will look to do the same this year.

Dave was thanked for his efforts on behalf of the club, but announced that he will be standing down as treasurer after (or during) this year. So it is very important we find a replacement; Dave has prepared a full job description and estimates it's about 30 hours a year, greatly simplified/reduced because so much is on-line now.

Secretary's report

The 2019 season ran fairly smoothly, albeit with the usual drop-outs and short teams.

This year's fixture list is largely complete, with several new opposition teams: GEANT; AVEVA; and a touring team from Luddesdowne. The key club fixtures are the Remnants vs. Remnants game on June 23 and the President's XI game on August 12.

Daniel was thanked by the club for his efforts.

Captain's and vice-captains' reports

Captain Daniel Mortlock reported that, of 34 scheduled fixtures, 27 were played including 1 internal game. Of the 26 external games 12 were won and 14 were lost, making it our first season with more losses than wins since 2013.

Vice-captain Paul Jordan repeated his observation/complaint that there are occasional no-shows who don't cancel in time to get another player. There was one game in which the opposition complained about the use of faster bowlers in dark conditions, but that seems to be an anomaly.

Vice-captain Cam Petrie didn't play as much as he'd hoped, but looks forward to playing more this year (which he also said the previous year). Cam only captained twice, once of which was a game against a team with younger players behaved badly; hopefully this won't happen again.

Club welfare officer's report

Club welfare officer Paul Jordan didn't have anything particular to report, implying a fairly smooth year.

Paul updated his status as welfare officer, having attended the ECB Safeguarding And Protecting Children course on February 26 and attending Safe Hands on March 22. Paul also needs to renew his DBS, which he will do in May.

Action: A notice will be posted stating our policy as regards junior players so that the day captain can point to this in the case that e.g., an opposition team tries to field an ineligible player. Year 7s can play with county permission; year 8s can play with parental permission. No mobile phones in the changing room. Also, children (under 18) should not be in the same changing room as adults unless given explicit permission by their parent.

The club thanked Paul for his efforts.

Election of officers

General business

Stephen Bidwell raised the problem of early- and late-season matches being ruined if standard innings lengths are adopted and the second innings ends in unacceptably bad light. This certainly happened several times last year and is a perrenial problem. After some discussion it was agreed that when the secretary sends out the reminder e-mail to opposition teams it include some explicit guidance about this, suggesting an appropriate format with the extra advice that it be shortened further (or extra deliveries for wides and no balls be avoided) if it's cloudy or the match starts late. As a guide, every 10 minutes delay in starting the match implies that it should be shortened by about 2 6-ball overs per innings. While we can't absolutely settle on the format beforehand - both because it requires agreement with the opposition and because it depends on the conditions - we can at least have a framework for making this decision in place.

An inevtiable topic of discussion was the increasing impact of the coronavirus, which could well be at its height as the season starts. It's a difficult situation to predict, but it is to be expected that guidance from the UK government, the CCA and Fitzwilliam College will be in place about the conditions under which fixtures are to go ahead; Remnants expects to follow this. Even if matches do go ahead then some changes are to be expected, with possibilities such as no handshakes between players and the mandatory use of hand sanitizer before going onto the ground. On that score Dave Norman will e-mail the Fitzwilliam College domestic bursar to request dispensers be placed in the changing room and the bar.