The 2015 Remnants CC annual general meeting was held on the evening of Monday, March 30 at the Fitzwilliam College Cricket Ground bar.
Members present: Rakesh Chandraker; Rob Harvey; Nick Johnson; Paul Jordan; Faruk Kara; Daniel Mortlock; Dave Norman; Andy Owen; Oliver Rex (by phone); Richard Rex; David Williams.
Apologies: Andy Bell; Geoff Hales; Sally Hales; John Moore; Tom Serby; Phil Watson; Russell Woolf.
The minutes of last year's AGM, held on March 25, 2014, were taken as read.
Dave Williams provided both the accounts and a detailed treasurer's report. The basic summary is that we're okay, although the fact that we had a surplus of around £30.00 last year was only because of a £250.00 donation from Steve Gull. There was some suggestion that we should attempt to run at a stronger surplus, although in the end an increase in match fees was deferred in favour of a potentially smaller subsidy for the club dinner (which came to £240.00 last year). Also, last year we made a loss on nets, whereas this year we have a good price (thanks to Cameron Petrie's university links) and so we expect to break even.
John Moore has very kindly made a £100.00 donation.
Fitz pitch fees are going to stay at £60 (including VAT) and so match fees will stay at £5.00 for adults and £3.00 for juniors. The charge to visiting teams will remain at £35.00 (the extra to pay of the match ball).
The annual dinner, which was again held at the Burleigh Arms, was again a great success. Unfortunately the management has moved to the Old Spring, so it is not clear whether we will be able to get the same good value (and high quality) offer this year. It remains the default venue; other possibilities suggested were The Hopbine (although we don't know if it can be booked) and the Carpenters Arms (which might be a bit small). The proposed dates are Friday, November 13 and Friday, November 20.
Dave was thanked for his efforts on behalf of the club.
The 2014 season ran fairly smoothly, with the combination of e-mail communications and the use of a Doodle poll to do availabilities both now well established.
This year's fixture-list is complete. We have one new opposition, Trinity College High Table (run by Remnants irregular Cameron Petrie) and one effectively new opposition in Cambridge University Press (who we haven't played since 1996. We also have another game against Wilburton (the Jordans' league club) after they stepped in at the last minute last year.
Daniel was thanked for his efforts.
Captain Daniel Mortlock reported that, of 36 scheduled fixtures, 29 were played, including 2 internal games. Of the 27 external games 15 were won, 11 were lost and one was tied. Overall a strong result, putting us in the black after a below-par set of results last year (which was partly put down to a lack of match-winning batsmen; Dave Norman's very successful first season as a Remnants semi-regular was significant progress on this score).
Vice-captain Paul Jordan reported that the Tuesday and Wednesday
teams were a lot more even this year, something
which has been borne out in the results.
(This is, however, probably coincidence - we can't really control
who makes themselves available, nor the strength of the opposition
sides.
Paul did mention the problem that games often started without a
scorebook being available.
Action:
Daniel, as secretary, will print out a number of
Dave Green's custom 20-over scoresheets and
have a supply in a folder in the kit box and in another folder
behind the bar at Fitz.
Vice-captain Andy Owen was happy with the season, but its still
concerned that everyone get a good chance to bowl and/or bat in the
top four.
He suggested that scans of scorecards are made available on the
web-site so that captains can see who might have missed out in
previous weeks.
Action:
Daniel, as secretary, will include links to scorecards in match reports
where available.
Club welfare officer Paul Jordan didn't have anything
particular to report, implying a fairly smooth year.
In particular, we were able to ensure we were compliant with both
ECB guidelines and our insurance requirements regarding the
presence of under-age players in both Remnants sides and the
opposition.
However, we probably do need to be a little more specific about this.
Action:
Paul, as club welfare officer,
will print an A4 sheet stating the under-age requirements and
giving the postcode of the ground (in case an ambulance is required)
will be posted on the Fitz changing room noticeboard.
Daniel will complete
the relevant page
of the web-site.
Paul attended an ECB Safe Hands meeting in April 2014.
The club thanked Paul for his efforts.
Andy Owen gave us an update on Remnants stalwart Russell Woolf, who has been struggling with a serious illness over the last few months. He was admitted to Papworth Hospital in February with masses on one kidney and one lung; the lung has been removed and the kidney will be. The first operation went as planned and, at the time of writing, Russ is recovering well. Most importantly, all his other organs are unaffected so Russ's long-term prognosis is good. Indeed, he's hoping to get back to playing (in part because he needs just 27 wickets to get to a total of 1000 for all the clubs he's played for), although probably not this season. The club obviously wishes Russ a speedy recovery, and will have a charity match (possibly Remnants vs. Remnants on June 23) to raise money for a cause of Russ's choosing.
The Remnants Fantasy League, set up by Olly Rex last year,
was a popular success, and so should continue this year.
The one suggested change was to make the entry/payment
and prize-giving a bit more formalised,
which Olly has agreed to do.
Action:
Olly will complete last year's fantasy league
standings and pay the prize to the successful entrants.
There was discussion of the possibility of selecting a twelfth man to mitigate against the perrenial problem of last-minute drop-outs. Given that there was some resistence to this idea - and that there is the possibility that having a twelfth man would make it more likely that people would drop out - this plan will not be implemented. However, the informal policy of naming twelve players rather than eleven, and occasionally accepting that we will only play with ten, was agreed to be an acceptable compromise.
Neither secretary Daniel Mortlock nor treasurer Dave Williams attend nets and so are keen for others to take the responsibility for organising this activity. This year nets were booked and are now being coordinated by Cameron Petrie and Faruk Kara, so this division of labour seems to be working. There was a practical problem, which was that the nets kit was found to be covered with mouse faeces after the winter; Faruk very kindly dealt with this problem. The solution next year will be to make sure it is stored not in the shed but along with the metal kit box, a kind offer by Dave which we have taken up.