The 2021 Remnants CC annual general meeting was held online (using Zoom) on the evening of Tuesday, April 6.
Members present: Chris Badger; Huw Davies; Eli Ellwood; Ev Fox; Sally Hales; Paul Jordan; Faruk Kara; Daniel Mortlock; Andy Owen; Cam Petrie; Richard Rex; Joe White; Dave Williams; John Young.
Apologies: Andy Bell; Neil Grover; Rob Harvey; John Moore (post-meeting).
The minutes of last year's AGM, held on March 10, 2020, were read and confirmed.
Dave Williams provided a detailed treasurer's report, based primarily on the statements from the club's bank account, since all our transactions have been electronic. We operated at a small loss of £113.18 over the year, mainly resulting from the contstant fixed costs but reduced income from matches (since we typically make a small profit each match). This was, of course, driven by the fact that we had a greatly reduced season due to the Covid pandemic.
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.
Dave, who had announced that he would stand down from his role as treasurer, was thanked for his efforts on behalf of the club over the last decade (13 years to be precise).
The 2020 season was hugely curtailed by the Covoid pandemic, with our first 22 nominal fixtures were cancelled. Despite this huge upheaval, the last third of the season went pretty smoothly, with 11 of the 13 remaining fixtures going ahead. The adjuments required to provide a Covid safe playing environment had a minimal effect on the matches themselves, and there don't appear to have been any significant transmission events associated with recreational cricket anywhere in the UK.
This year's fixture list is largely complete, although it's been a little more difficult than usual to get a full fixture list. The key club fixtures are the Remnants vs. Remnants game, to be held in late June, and the President's XI game, to be held in August, one (or both!) of which will be tribute games for Geoff. However the scheduling of this has been left flexible given the uncertainty about the vaccination programme, and the aim will be to have a game at which we are not limited by numbers and such that all members are vaccinated.
Cam Petrie suggested that various Trinity College-related teams might be able to fill some of the gaps in the fixture list, so will put us in contact with the relevant people.
Paul Jordan said that his local club, Chippenham, might be able to provide opposition at short notice, e.g., in the event of a Covid-related cancellation. Paul said he would put the relevant person/people in touch with Daniel.
Chris Badger raised a number of general points about the coming season: it'll be easy to fall into old habits, so we'll need to make sure that we keep Coivd discipline good; the likely lack of overseas holidays might mean more players available during the summer months, and even recruitment opportunities; it will be useful to decant the big bottles of sanitizer supplied by NatWest last year so that players can have their own bottles on the ground, potentially obviating the need for breaks in play.
Daniel was thanked by the club for his efforts.
Captain Daniel Mortlock reported that, of the 11 fixtures that went ahead we won just 2 and lost 8 (with one internal game). This is easily our worst ever performance in a season, and while a couple of those matches should have been won comfortably, there was a general sense that we were down on a few strong players compared to recent seasons.
Chris Badger concurred, and said that he should be able to get some extra recruits from Cambridge St Giles to bolster the batting in particular.
Vice-captain Paul Jordan played just one game, the internal fixture, and so didn't have much to report.
Vice-captain Cam Petrie played five games and backed up the above picture that the batting was sometimes weak and, with a mix of players and not so much continuity it had been difficult to captain effectively.
Vice-captain Richard Rex did not play at all, and so had nothing to report.
Club welfare officer Paul Jordan reported no incidents and confirmed that the club (and recreational cricketers in general) seemed to avoided contributing significantly to the spread of the disease.
Paul has elected to step down from this role, and the club thanked him for his efforts.
Actions: Dave Williams will liaise directly with Joe White to hand over the treasurer duties; Paul Joran will liaise directly with Eli Ellwood to hand over the welfare officer duties (although Eli is largely up to speed with this already, as he is already in this role at Harlton CC.)
There was no other business.