The 2016 Remnants CC annual general meeting was held on at on the evening of Monday, April 4, at the Fitzwilliam College Cricket Ground bar.
Members present: Dave Green; Steve Gull; Geoff Hales; Paul Jordan; Faruk Kara; Daniel Mortlock; Dave Norman; and Andy Owen.
Apologies: Nick Johnson; Cam Petrie; Olly Rex; Richard Rex; and Dave Williams.
The minutes of last year's AGM, held on March 30, 2015, were actually read. In particular, a number of actions that arose were discussed:
Dave Williams provided both the accounts and a detailed treasurer's report. The basic summary is that we're okay, with balance almost the same as it was a year ago, meaning that various optional outgoings (a £253.50 donation to Papworth Hospital and a £260.00 subsidy for the club dinner) and one-off payments (a £100.00 donation from John Moore) domianted the changes. It's also relevant that we made a small profit on nets last year, and the meeting was unanimous that these should continue, provided only that they don't make a significant loss.
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 being to pay 50% of the match ball cost).
The annual dinner, which was again held at the Burleigh Arms, was again a great success.
Dave was thanked for his efforts on behalf of the club.
The 2015 season ran fairly smoothly, although there were a few occasions when we had last-minute drop-outs of confusions over dates that meant we fielded sides with fewer than eleven players.
This year's fixture-list is complete. We have several new opposition sides: Trinity College JCR (first match of the season); Cambridge Crusaders (i.e., the University second XI, and likely a serious challenge); Bar Hill; and the Island Taverners (a touring side, with whom we have an afternoon game on the August bank holiday Monday).
Captain Daniel Mortlock reported that, of 36 scheduled fixtures, 30 were played, including 2 internal games. Of the 28 external games 17 were won, 10 were lost and one was tied. Overall a strong result, and our second "in the black" season in a row.
Vice-captain Paul Jordan reported that the Tuesday and Wednesday teams were a lot more even this year, suggesting that apparent problem is no more. A bigger issue was player punctuality, with many games marred by the fact that we only had eight or nine players present at the agreed start time, leading to either empty field settings or having to ask the opposition to field first to accommodate our lack of punctuality.
Vice-captain Andy Owen independently raised the issue of player punctuality, and so it was agreed that we would make it clear to players that they need to be at the ground 10-15 minutes before the actual start time.
(Vice-captain Olly Rex was unable to attend.)
Club welfare officer Paul Jordan didn't have anything particular to report, implying a fairly smooth year.
The club thanked Paul for his efforts.
The discussion about selecting a twelfth man once again came up, but too few of the club's members are willing to turn up to a game without an expectation of playing for this to be workable.
Dave Williams suggested a modified scheme for paying match fees in which regular players could accrue a debt during the course of the season, paying in full at the end of the year. This was discussed, and aroused some interest, although it wasn't adopted in the end, as it wasn't clear that the benefits outweighed the uncertainties. A summary of the relevant considerations is:
One of the problems that this scheme was designed to solve was that when non-regulars are tasked with collecting match fees the result is often rather mixed, with names not recorded, etc., so Daniel will take extra care to remind people that this is an important part of club operations.