Minutes of 2006 Annual General Meeting
held at Nailsea C.C.
on Tuesday 27th February 2007

In attendance
S Dewer (Chairman)
R Humphreys (League Secretary)
J Waters (U11/13 Secretary)
Long Ashton
Barrow Gurney
Brislington
Backwell/Flax Bourton
Cheddar
Blagdon
Claverham
Bristol
Clevedon
Chew Magna
Failand & Portbury
Cleeve
Nailsea
Congresbury
Uphill Castle
Midsomer Norton
Winford
Weston-super-Mare
Wrington
Winscombe

Apologies
Temple Cloud

1. The meeting opened at 7.45pm. Attendances and apologies were taken.

2. The holding of the AGM outside the period permitted under the Rules was approved.

3. The minutes of the previous meeting held 28th February 2006 were read and approved.

4. The Secretary/Treasurer delivered a report (attached).

5. The U13/U11 Secretary delivered a report (attached).

6. The 2006 accounts presented by the Treasurer (amended by hand to incorporate an arithmetical update) were approved and the levels of subscriptions/fines for the 2006 season were held as existing (subject though as below – para 19(4)).

7. Peter Holdaway delivered the report in relation to representative games played. The U15s and U13s had both won against the Bristol & District League. A U11 game against Somerset CB had been rained off. A U13 evening game against Nailsea had been lost. John Waters reported that no U17 game had been able to be arranged and that a U14 game against Bedfordshire had been lost. Payment of £50 match expenses to Peter Holdaway in relation to teas and ancillary expenses (though there was no element of ground hire charge) was approved.

8. There was a discussion of certain matters arising from the League Secretary’s and the Junior Secretary’s reports:

9. There was extensive discussion of a proposal by Failand & Portbury to change the rules to try to prevent the destination of leagues being affected by the failure of oppositions to play early-cancelled games. It was noted that on certain occasions clubs were said to have played later-cancelled games but were said to have declined or failed to play earlier-cancelled games. Rule 10 was explained and discussed. Its purpose is to balance the competing interests of (1) certainty and (2) getting games in, thereby playing more cricket.

10. Three schools of thought emerged from the discussions being those who favoured:

(1) the abolition of playing postponed games, with the result as per the fixture list on the day (win, lose or rain) standing;

(2) continuing with existing Rule 10 providing for defaulted or postponed games to be replayed; and

(3) to introduce additional rules to seek to oblige clubs to replay defaulted or postponed games.

11. It was appreciated that there will always be some perceived “unfairness” in whichever approach is taken. A vote was taken with 10 clubs being in favour of keeping Rule 10 as is, with 8 clubs voting against. Outcome: no change.

12. There was discussion of whether or not to award the League trophy in the U15 division given that the play-off between sections had not taken place. There was extensive debate following which it was determined to award the trophy on a shared basis to Chew Magna and Weston-super-Mare, but such being specifically not a precedent for an approach in future years. Clubs were reminded of the requirement to get finals and play-offs played.

13. There were no proposals for Rule changes other than as above. No proposal was made from those present to discuss the approach to the playing of over-age girls, which therefore remains as is viz the Rules apply save as varied by agreement between managers for specific games.

14. There was discussion as to the splitting of League divisions. The downside of splits is that a lower number of games is played. However, with too many participants in the League, scheduling fixtures becomes arithmetically impossible. A proposal was made and it was resolved that no splits would occur unless the entries in a division were more than 16, in which case 2 sections would be formed, such to be arranged geographically (save in the case of U11s for whom there is no cup competition).

15. The President Brian Rose, Chairman Stewart Dewer, League Secretary Robert Humphreys and U13/U11 Secretary John Waters were re-elected.

16. However, in the case of the League Secretary, the ambit of his role was reduced to exclude (1) dealing with results, (2) dealing with arrangements of cup finals and play-offs, (3) dealing with arrangements for trophies and (4) dealing with representative fixtures.

17. Peter Holdaway was appointed to the office of Representative Teams Organiser.

18. Mark Walker was appointed to the office of Results Officer.

19. Discussion of the approach to results reporting and fines in relation to reporting of results then took place. The requirement for the reporting of results by result cards (whether electronically or in hard copy) was discontinued. Instead, clubs are required, with effect from the commencement of the 2007 season, to report results exclusively via the League’s “Play-Cricket” website (“the Results Website”), such having been set up by the new Results Officer. After considerable discussion and voting, the new requirements are:

(1) each result to be caused to be entered into the Results Website;

(2) such to be in full scorecard form;

(3) the obligation for (1) and (2) above to be that of the winning club or in the case of weather-cancellation or other postponement the home club;

(4) the fine payable for default in each case in relation to any of (1), (2) and (3) above to be £5.00 on each occasion.

20. It was explained that not to enter details in complete form and in relation to all matches would render the statistics automatically generated by the Results Website incomplete and misleading.

21. An application to join the League by Long Ashton was considered and approved. Long Ashton were welcomed to the League.

22. All cups and trophies were brought to the meeting and redistributed.

23. Prior to the meeting all entries and cheques for subscriptions and unpaid fines in relation to the 2006 season were lodged.

24. Appreciation for the continued support of West Country Ground Care in relation to the Handbook was expressed.

25. There being no further business the meeting closed at 10.30pm.

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Chairman Date