League Sponsors 2013

League Sponsors 2013

Tuesday, January 15, 2002

Minutes of 2001 Annual General Meeting
held on Tuesday 15th January 2002
(in respect of the 2001 season)
at 7.30 p.m. at Portishead Cricket Club

Present:
D Grewcock (Chairman)
R Humphreys (Secretary and Treasurer)
J Waters (U13/U11 Secretary)
Robin Brees (Clevedon)
Martin Robson (Nailsea)
Lodway C.C.
Keith Berridge (Nailsea)
Hutton C.C.
Derek Turner (WSM)
David Lee (Optimists)
Peter Doherty (Wrington)
Lionel Harrison (Blagdon)
Mike Thome (Cleeve)
Greg Van Laun (Portishead)
Nigel Cook (Uphill Castle)
Dave Banham (Clevedon)
Rick Hutchison (Congresbury)
Luke Parfitt (Cheddar)

Apologies:
Andrew Moulding (SCB)
Winscombe C.C.

Absent: Worle C.C.

1. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.

2. The Secretary and Treasurer delivered his report and accounts (copy attached) and the accounts were accepted.

3. John Waters delivered his report as U13 and Ull Secretary (see attached).

4. Rates for subscriptions/fines were fixed at the same rate as for the previous year.

5. There was a discussion of the new system of allocating points with relation to defaulted games, which had been put into practice for the first year (2001). Points had arisen on the implementation of the new rules and, as always, there were incidents on which the administrative officers of the league had had to take a view. Those present at the meeting stressed that it was incumbent on clubs to make sure that when they enter the league the person running a team is able to fulfil his commitment to play the games. It was recognised, however, that individuals are volunteers doing their best within their limitations and issues are
never black and white.

6. There had been no representative games at U17 level.

7. At U15 level Keith Berridge (Nailsea) reported a win against the Bristol & District League. The NSYCL had made 204 for 7 with R Samsun scoring well. The Bristol & District League had made 81 for 7 (Nick Doherty 2-9). There had also been a win against the North Somerset Academy. The Academy had made 244-4 (E Humphreys 104*) and the NSYCL had made 246-7 (T Excel batting well). Eight league clubs had been represented in this game.

8. At U13 representative 11, John Waters reported that the Bath & District League could not produce a side. The Bristol & District League had to decline a fixture on the grounds of insufficient notice. There had been a win against the North Somerset Academy. The NSYCL had scored 194-8 (D Phillips batting well) and the Academy had been 85 all out.

9. At U11 level John Waters also reported on a win against the North Somerset Academy.

10. The efforts of the representative managers during the year were greatly appreciated.

11. The following volunteered to be representative team managers for 2002:

U17s: Sue Edwards (Wrington) (assisted by Keith Berridge)
U15s: Adrian Fishman (Portishead)
U13s: John Waters (Nailsea)
U11s: Greg Van Laun (Portishead)

12. Cleeve asked whether there would be scope during 2002 for entering B sides in the league. A full discussion took place. It was determined that the relevant secretary would accept entries from youth organisers of their clubs' B sides provided that these had proper management and appeared likely (at the discretion of the relevant secretary) to be able to fulfil its fixtures.

13. There was a discussion of the rules which could apply to the composition of an A side and a B side from the same club and it was left to the Secretary to formulate a rule as considered best balancing the interests of both clubs seeking to win their relevant divisions and rule 15 (the aim being to play cricket). It was pointed out by the Secretary, though, it might not be possible to frame a rule which was more than a general guide, leaving the onus of implementation on the managers concerned.

14. It was determined that the U11 rules be altered by deleting references to U13s.

15. The Secretary reminded the meeting that the handbook had not reflected the change made at the last AGM to rule 7 in respect of Barrington rules being the preferred option for U11s. This change was to be introduced into the rules for 2002.

16. There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.05 p.m.

Chairman .............................. Dated 2002 .........................

Monday, January 14, 2002

2001 League Secretary's Report

Once again I am pleased to report that an enormous amount of what the professionals call “recreational” cricket (otherwise known as “real cricket”) was played up in the North Somerset area under the aegis of the league. Star performers in this respect were the clubs’ youth organisers: Lionel Harrison (Blagdon), Ken Langford (Cheddar), Bill Woodley (Claverham), Mike Thorne (Cleave), Robin Brees (Clevedon), Stuart Dewer (Congresbury), Mary Martin/Brian Peat (Hutton), Simon Hopkinson (Nailsea), David Lee (Optimists), Adrian Fishman (Portishead), Nigel Cook (Uphill Castle), Derek Turner (WSM), Peter Short (Worle), Peter Doherty (Wrington) and Mark Walker and others (Failand & Portbury).

The U17 division was back up to a reasonable strength after several lean years on numbers. The top four teams were a long way ahead of the rest and Uphill Castle emerged well-deserved winners with an unbeaten record. This was their first trophy at any level and well done indeed to those at the club who work so hard at youth cricket. Players to feature with good performances (and remember that the best players at most clubs do not necessarily always do all the batting and all the bowling) included J Davidson, C Davidson, E Bliss and A Gardener (Uphill Castle), H Hanchet, P Hart, G & A Vaughan, G Humphreys and A Chapman (Failand & Portbury), A Blower, J Wilcox, D Booth, A Bamber, A Robson, and M Ashfold (Nailsea) and P Ball, M Weaver, W Stafford and S Green (WSM).

Uphill Castle also collected the trophy as U17 cup winners overcoming Nailsea in a tight game to secure the double. Double congratulations to them. Winners of the U15 cup final were Nailsea who defeated Old Bristolians to go on to the county stages of the Sun Life of Canada National knockout competition.

Nailsea looked odds on to win the U15 league outright as well but Uphill Castle kept plugging away and when Nailsea were unable to get an early season game which they had defaulted replayed, the two clubs finished level on points and shared the trophy. Well done to Nailsea, joint league winners the previous year, and well done also to Uphill Castle for adding a half share in some more silverware to this season’s haul. Regular performers on the field for the clubs in this division were: M Berridge, A Robson and R Baker (Nailsea), J Davidson, A Dodgson and C Davidson (Uphill Castle), J Samsum, D Van Grudgings, S Wheeler and L Whittaker (Clevedon), G Howse, S Ahmed and J Lane (WSM), N King (Cheddar), E Humphreys, J Sykes and D Chapman (F&P), N Doherty and C Dunning (Wrington), A Gooding and B Leadbetter (Optimists).

John Waters will report separately on the progress of the U13s and U11s.

The feature of the year from the administrative side was the radical change to the points scoring approach agreed at the last AGM. Under this, for the first time ever, points were awarded (and forfeited) in cases where clubs defaulted on fixtures. It was recognised at the last AGM that the change might lead to some increased pressure on administrators (with possible differing versions of events leading up to a default) and with perhaps a loss of incentive to replay games missed first time round. However, the perceived benefits included pressure on clubs to play on the required date not on other dates which suited them or their league aspirations better; also finite ends to the season for hard pressed managers who all too often faced a seemingly endless late summer of asking or being asked to play rearranged games.

Clubs’ views on how the new system worked out in practice would be welcome. Purely personally, I thought that in the U17 and U15 divisions it was a successful experiment. I think it resulted in more games being played.

During the course of the year I transferred £2,001 to a deposit account with Sun Bank which offered a higher rate of interest than is offered by our current account at HSBC. For several years I have been trying to find a bank willing to take an account in the name of an association of clubs (the league) (i.e. neither an individual nor a limited company nor a partnership) and when the ECB circulated details of Sun Bank’s facility I thought it best to take the opportunity of higher interest without further market investigations. In the event, because interest rates are so low the interest generated is negligible but in the future when rates rise again some extra income should be produced.

Great appreciation is due to John Waters for the enormous work put in by him during the year once again as U11/U13 secretary, to the clubs (and their groundsmen) who kindly offered use of their grounds for cup finals at no charge, to umpires who stood on the same basis, to chairman Doug Grewcock for his every present sanity and last but no means least to the long standing sponsors of the league’s handbook Westcountry Groundcare (specialist sports ground maintenance, domestic and commercial grass cutting, landscaping and fencing: call Rod Cooper now on 07860 517 290).

14th January 2002
R A Humphreys
Hon. Secretary