2014 Remnants annual general meeting

The 2014 Remnants CC annual general meeting was held on the evening of Tuesday, March 25 at the Fitzwilliam College Cricket Ground bar.

Attendance

Members present: Dave Green; Geoff Hales; Sally Hales; Rob Harvey; Paul Jordan; Faruk Kara; Daniel Mortlock; Dave Norman; Andy Owen; Catherine Owen; Olly Rex; Richard Rex; Dave Williams; Russell Woolf

Apologies: Rakesh Chandraker; Nick Clarke; Tom Collett; Matt Hughes; Phil Watson

Minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes of last year's AGM, held on March 14, 2013, were taken as read.

The treasurer's report

Dave Williams provided both the accounts and a detailed treasurer's report, the most important points of which are summarised here. The treasurer was, once again, thanked for his great efforts on behalf of the club.

• The basic summary is that the club's financial position is solid, but that we lost about £200 last year. The explanation is i) possibly more juniors playing and hence lower match fees collected; ii) a significant loss on nets (which was known last year, and resulted in the increased net fees to £3.00) and iii) significant subsidy of the club dinner. Point i) is a side-effect of something undoubtedly positive; point ii) has been dealt with by an increase of net fees to £3.00; point iii) will be dealt with by deciding how much to subsidise this year's dinner only after the accounts have been looked at.
• Dave made the point that the kit box contains close to £1000 pounds worth of equipment, so we really should make a point of ensuring it's locked after every match. (There was discussion of attaching a combination lock, but this was not followed up on.)
• The annual dinner, which was held at the Burleigh Arms, and was possibly the best ever, in terms of both turn-out and venue. We will try to ensure that the dinner is held there again this year.

Secretary's report

The 2013 season was fairly successful, and the club ran smoothly once again, largely through e-mail based administration and the use of a Doodle poll to do availabilities.

This year's fixture-list is essentially complete. We have one new opposition: Redgate Sofware. We are also losing an opposition: our June 17 game will be our last against Hart-McLeod as they will no longer be playing after 2014. (Both the above are representative of the shift from "traditional" pub, college and workplace teams to the new Cambridge world of technology companies.)

This year's Remnants vs. Remnants game will be held on Wednesday, June 25 and will be a memorial game for Remnants legend Andy Brown, who died earlier this year. Andy's son Daniel, who has turned out a few times for Remnants, will hopefully be able to play in this match, and we will once again make it in benefit of a (yet to be decided) charity.

Following the issues last year about underage players, it was agreed to put a generic list of "match conditions" on the web-site.

Captain's report

Of 37 scheduled fixtures, 30 were played, including 2 internal games. Of the 28 external games 11 were won, 16 were lost and one, agonisingly, was tied. Hardly a disaster, but perhaps a sign that we're short of a few match-winners, particularly batsmen. New recruits are thus more welcome than ever, although an additional point here is that Dave Norman is happy to play regularly for us, an offer it was widely agreed we should take up.

Club welfare officer's report

We successfully implemented the policy of demanding that opposition teams only field junior players who satisfy the criteria outlined by the ECP.

Another CRB update is, absurdly, required; this will cost £15.00, which will be paid by the club.

Election of officers

• Daniel Mortlock re-elected unopposed as captain (although with the understanding that Daniel would hand over on-field leadership duties to potential future captains, particularly younger players, whenever the opportunity arose).
• Paul Jordan and Andy Owen were re-elected unopposed as vice-captains.
• Geoff Hales remains life president.
• Daniel Mortlock was re-elected unopposed as secretary.
• Dave Williams was re-elected unopposed as treasurer.
• Paul Jordan was re-elected unopposed as club welfare officer.

General business

The issues of distinct teams informally grouping on Tuesday and Wednesdays was once again discussed. The results from last year actually suggest that the teams were broadly balanced, although all at the meeting agreed that one of the joys of the "two games a week" policy is that you hopefully mix around and see most fellow Remnants at some stage during the season. Players are hence encouraged to mix around their availabilities as much as is possible (i.e., consistent with other commitments).

Olly Rex proposed a Remnants "fantasy league" in which players can select a "team" and gather points based on their performances (both serious and light-hearted) during the year. This had wide support from the club and Olly will prepare a specific proposal (which will be sent around to the club) and will then liaise with Daniel to implement this.