#Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Bath University Venturers Cricket Club, 2016.#

The Annual General Meeting of Bath University Venturers Cricket Club took place at 19:00 on Tuesday 20th Semptember 2016 at the Saracen’s Head in Bath.

Present: Simon, Chris, Matt, Jack, Bruce, Gregory, Abhishek

We began with some discussion about quoracy, as six are needed. Perusal of the constitution suggested that were quorate as long as Chris was affiliated to the university. This term is not defined, so we decided he was. However, it is not clear that the meeting is entitled to make such a decision, especially if it is not quorate in the first place unless he is a member.

1. More beer.

   We had some more beer. People started talking about football at this point, so it is possible that something was decided without the secretary noticing. He has no interest in football and started doing mathematics instead. However, any decisions made would be invalid anyway because of not being able to decide whether Chris is a member unless Chris is a member.

   Some sarcasm about phones also occurred.

2. Captain’s report.

   Having been relegated indoors we did rather better than we had in the top division the previous year. We won 3 and lost 4, coming 5th and not being in any danger of promotion. We again reached the semi-final of the cup, losing a competitive match to The Star. Apparently Chris once won a silver medal in a javelin competition, which only two people entered, and he wondered whether there were only four teams in this competition in the first place; but we did actually win some matches.

   Ian C had best economy rate in the league, and Matt made 5th most runs. Few of us were out hit roof this time, and more run out, which is an improvement.

   In the season proper we had 10 scheduled 40-over matches but only three were played as straight Venturers ones, all lost. We also played three more as combined teams with Broughton Gifford or Bill Owen: in the case of the Winsley match this was always the plan. Of those three we won one and lost two. We cancelled one of the 40-over matches, two were cancelled by the opposition (in one case because the weather forecast made it clear that no play would be possible anyway), and one was cancelled by the ground staff after the mower broke down.

   At this point Abhishek arrived, making us indisputably quorate, fortunately before we had had to decide anything. We started a discussion of who gave whom out LBW.

   In 20 over cricket we played ten, winning two and losing the rest. The best (well, better) win was by 10 wkts at Bristol Academicals. There was some controversy at Bathford about Mankading and unretirement. There was a disaster at Peasedown against BaNES, where we managed to lose from a position where it was much easier to win. Chris hit a six at Bradford and was out next ball but one, an improvement on what happened after his only previous six. He was the bowler when a six broke a window at Sulis: the ball is still on the upper floor of the locked house. Most of the cancellations were because of rain, though there were some mixups, which did not seem to be our fault.

   Only two 50s were made, by Mohammed at Kilmington and Abhishek at Bradford. Ajay and Jack made 40s. On the bowling side, Pratik returned the startling figures of 6-0-6-7 for Broughton Gifford, who still lost: one of several good performances by Venturers players for other teams. For us, nobody took more than three wickets in any innings (Mohammed did this twice and Gregory once), but Ian often took two for almost nothing and generally the bowling was good enough. Marco did a fine job keeping wicket to Mohammed’s pace and Gregory’s turn at Bristol. The fielding was generally fairly good, a high point being Imran’s runout of Steve Dent at Bathford.

3. Treasurer’s report

   We had reserves of £1900 at the time of the last AGM. We paid one more pitch fee after that from last year’s account. This year we paid £144 for nets and £700 pitch fees, and took £550 roughly in match fees, so we lost about £400 loss this year. We had to pay VAT, and don’t quite know why, but we didn’t actually use Sulis very much in the end. We should expect this to continue and since cricket seems to be just about the only sport for which there is no staff discount for using the university’s facilities, we should expect costs of about £70 plus a ball for weekend matches in future. We can go on like this for two or three more years before we have to think again.

   Full accounts will appear separately.

   There was a discussion of possible funding sources, and why only cricket doesn’t get staff discount.

   It was decided to raise match fees to £6 for evening matches and £5 or £8 for weekend matches, depending on whether we are supplying teas or not, but this may be changed if the situation changes. A radical suggestion was to incentivise by offering fee refunds for good performances.

   The Remuneration Report was defeated by one vote (Ian C’s proxy vote) to none. There wasn’t actually a remuneration report but Ian had specifically asked to vote against it.

4. Officers.

   Simon was elected captain, Gregory secretary. Chris is standing down as treasurer and Bruce was elected instead. Jack was a slightly reluctant vice-captain: Matt remains in charge of publicity and Alex of the web page.

5. Fixtures and recruitment.

   We should target the postgrads fair, and use Facebook. Abhishek will talk to Matt about how to do this.

   We need more opponents, as several of our regular opponents from recent years have folded, and should collaborate with Bill Owen and Broughton Gifford. Possibilities include Southstoke, Royal Oak, The Ram and Priston.

6. Awards.

   • Best Batsman: Ajay, because we only won two matches and he made runs in both of them.

   • Best Bowler: Ian C: nobody else came close.

   • Best Fielder: Ian G. But he also produced the most ridiculous piece of fielding, falling over while waiting for the ball at Peasedown.

   • Best newcomer: Abhishek for his fielding and his innings against Canal Taverners.

   • Most improved: Charlie improved since last year (not that he was bad then) but Marco’s improvement over the season won it.

   • Best Catch: Matt and Charlie shared this for two identical catches, against The Star and Railway Taverners. A nomination for a not especially difficult one of Gregory’s was entered and then withdrawn when the nominator remembered that it wasn’t actually in a Venturers match.

   • Champagne moment: These were few. One suggestion was to give it to Ian G, strugging to keep calm and not get out to Gregory (he managed it), and another was the win at Bristol, but Ajay and Simon’s winning stand against Royal Oak won it.

   • Best Dressed. Marco’s gangster baseball cap. Ajay and Pratik were also commended for really being well dressed.

   • Duck of the year. It came down to a choice between Jack’s one-ball and Bruce’s twenty-six ball ducks at Kilmington. In the end Bruce’s duck was deemed the more characterful.

   • Most IPL-like. Abhishek and Ajay had their moments, but in the end the argument prevailed that the IPL has bowlers as well as batsmen. IPL bowling is typically slow-medium, low-bouncing, usually hard to get away and occasionally spectacularly expensive. The award therefore went to Bruce.

   • Best remark in a match report: This always goes to Gregory as nobody else writes them This time the choice lay between the description of Ian G falling over at Peasedown, of his own donkey drops when bowling with a bad shoulder against The Star; and the mention of Barbara Cartland in a cricket report, apropos the sunset in the same match, which won.

   • The A.J. Wolstenholme Prize for running between the wickets: Steve Dent’s achievement in playing against us twice and getting run out both times got a mention. So did Simon and Gregory, dithering at Peasedown over whether to run a leg-bye and leave Gregory to try to hit a four, or not to and leave Simon to try to hit a six. But Marco at Monkton, running two while the fielders laughed and the ball went almost nowhere, won it.

The meeting closed absurdly late and continued informally at the Eastern Eye, where it got even later after it emerged that one member of the club had actually voted Leave.