#Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Bath University Venturers Cricket Club, 2018.#

The Annual General Meeting of Bath University Venturers Cricket Club took place at the Saracen’s Head, Bath, at 19:00 on Thursday, 20th September 2018.

Present: Simon, Jamie, James P, Charlie, Jack, Gregory, Bruce, Ian C and Matt. Apologies were received from Alex, Rob and Josh.

We were, unusually, already quorate at the announced starting time. Some time was wasted talking about how to get babies to sleep, football, Reykjavik, etc., in the hope that more people would turn up while we were doing it. They didn’t.

1. Captain’s report.

   In the indoor leage we won all five of our matches and hence won the second division and are promoted, whether we like it or not. There is a trophy somewhere. Jack was Player of the League, with a batting average of 48.5 and various startling bowling feats. This earned him a creme egg, perhaps more than one. Matt also won a creme egg, which reached him in August, for bowling a maiden after a pep talk by Jack that consisted of the words “We can’t win ‘em all”.

   We also got to finals day in the cup, after the quarter-final was postponed three times (twice by snow, once by being locked out), some sort of record for an indoor match.

   The main season began with rain taking out two attractive matches, and then a tight win against Southstoke. Thereafter we performed well for a while, but then collapsed and lost our last seven midweek matches, ending with seven wins and eight losses. Three were cancelled, one because of the weather and two because we couldn’t raise a team (in one case we had only three players). This was strange, because for all the other midweek fixtures we had few problems, twice playing twelve a side. Even when we lost, we were competitive in most cases, the exception being a match against Combe Down in which one of their batsmen ran away taking five fours off five balls of “a perfectly good Chris Middup over” (sic). We had a good win at BaNES, with 84* from Jack, and a confused win at Kingswood, where we left it to the last ball because we thought the ball before would go for four, and it didn’t. This match is not in the scorebook, because Kingswood’s high-tech method resulted in our being sent a link to last year’s match, and the device on which the scoring was done has been taken to South Africa.

   We also played three weekend games (six were cancelled, mostly not by us) winning one and losing two. Against Railway Taverners we again had twelve a side, and lost depite taking ten wickets bowling second.

   On the batting side there were several good individual performances: Jack, Jamie, Aadil, Simon and Ian G all reached 50 at least once. The bowling was more even, with nobody getting more than three wickets in an innings at any time. We generally bowled well.

   There were several new staff players, but few students: only Tom and Aadil really.

   Overall the season was reasonably satisfactory, but not special.

2. Treasurer’s report.

   At the date of the meeting we had a balance of £1332, a loss of £36.65. Some corrections are likely, probably in our favour. However, we made few purchases, so the overall financial situation deteriorated slightly compared to last year. This is mostly due to a 15% increase in pitch fees, though these remain low compared to alternative venues. Nevertheless, there is no need to change anything: match fees may remain as they are.

   We still feel that in some respects cricket is badly treated: for instance, staff get a reduction on the use of most sports facilities, but we are charged the full rate for nets.

   Sometimes the pitches were unsatisfactory. In one case no preparation had been done at all and we complained. We were told that we would not be charged for that pitch, but we have been, so the Treasurer will raise this with the STV. We expect to get a refund, which will put us slightly in the black. There are also some uncollected match fees, including the Secretary’s, but that was also the case at the time of last year’s AGM so the annualised comparison is fair.

   We considered whether we should apply for support from the Alumni Fund, but we are not in a position to do what would be required at present. It might be better to use a different venue for indoor nets: for instance, Beechen Cliff School.

3. Election of Officers.

   Simon was elected captain, Bruce treasurer (he has to be: he is now able to sign cheques, and it takes a year to change that), and Gregory secretary. Jack was elected vice-captain. Matt and Jamie were elected to the committee as publicity and recruitment officers respectively: the boundary between these roles is undefined. Alex was elected as web officer, as nobody else wanted to do that job. It was hoped that he might also serve as wicket-keeper sometimes.

4. Fixtures.

   There is little reason to change things this year. After several years of turbulence caused by opponent folding and unfolding, we seem to have a stable fixtures list. We can never tell what touring teams may come (Railway Taverners are now regulars), and occasional changes may be forced on us. We will try to arrange matches at Hinton Charterhouse and Priston, neither of which could be managed this year. The question was raised of whether it makes sense that we start the season with our most remote fixture, at Kilmington, but that is difficult to change and it was not thought to be a problem really. However, the away fixture against Western Flyers in August is impractical because we can’t get there before it gets dark, and we should move it to Bath if possible. Arranging fixtures against Western Flyers, whose opening bowlers happen to be Muslims, will become easier as Ramadan moves out of the cricket season over the next two or three years. A match against a team of Bath students was suggested as a possible improvement to the fixture list.

   We should persist with weekend fixtures despite the high cancellation rate. Some timed games, rather than over limit, might be a good idea: Somerset Evergreens already do this. That is a matter for the captains rather than the fixtures secretary. However, very restrictive rules such as everybody bowling two overs are not acceptable to our bowlers (Ian C and Gregory especially) and two opponents who did impose such a rule have been dropped. The six-and-out rule at Poplars Wingfield is also unfortunate, but it is necessary given the size of the ground.

   A contingency plan is in place for the eventuality that somebody proposes to play The Hundred, but it is unlikely to be needed any time soon as nobody has the faintest idea what the rules are.

   The question of a tour was raised. It was agreed that at the time we make the fixtures it would not be possible to guarantee availability, and that a family-friendly tour is a contradiction in terms. We should keep this under review, however.

   There was a suggestion of starting later in the year and finishing later. Starting later has no great advantages and would lose us some attractive fixtures. Playing on later than mid-August is difficult: midweek matches become impossible because of fading light, and MSc students commonly have early September deadlines. August Bank Holiday weekend is generally hopeless, and we cannot use Sulis after that.

5. Kit and recruitment

   We should find out where to put posters and contact the student teams. We should confiscate Ben’s kit, and preferable also confiscate Ben and get him to play for us. We think we ought to have one more bat: the secretary will check his roof, but doesn’t think it is there. We (especially the secretary) should remember to bring the portable scoreboard to matches, although there is now a usable scoreboard at Pitch 1 (which we are invariably promised, but seldom get). We do need at least one more helmet, probably a bat or two, and a supply of balls. We have experimented with coloured ones for less bright evenings: so far, the feeling is that orange is best. The pink ones we tried were clearly visible until the pink layer came off, which happened almost immediately.

6. Awards

   These are at the exclusive discretion of the captain.

   • Best Batsman: Ian G and Jamie both made runs, and Charlie was very consistent, but Jack, who averaged over 50, stood out and clearly wins this award.

   • Best Bowler: This is harder because we had several good bowlers and the wickets were shared among them. An attack consisting of Ian, Imran, Gregory, Jamie and Jack, with Bruce as death bowler, was really quite effective. Bruce, nearly always bowling two of the last four overs of a 20-over match, conceded less than a run a ball over the season. Gregory was the leading wicket-taker, by some distance, but also bowled more than anybody else. The award was given, from among several candidates, to Jamie.

   • Best Fielder: We didn’t disgrace ourselves in the field (Matt intervened: “Some games we did!”). Some people went so far as to want to practice. The award went to Josh for his enthusiasm and haggis-like sliding (see below) in shorts (see below) along the boundary.

   • Best Catch: it was hard to think of any really good ones. Simon took a one-handed one at Bathford, but it was largely involuntary and he had plenty of time to use both hands. Charlie also caught a good one, but the most memorable were three taken by our fielders against us, as substitutes for the opposition. Two of these were by Farooq in the same match. The third, by Gregory, dismissed Ritvij, caught one-handed at mid-wicket for the second time in two innings. Ian C (the non-striker) described it as “divingish”; Gregory himself nominated it for Worst Catch. Simon decided that it was, in fact, the best catch that any of us actually took, and gave Gregory the award anyway.

   • Most Improved Player: Bruce, for his death bowling, his now almost reliable fielding (that’s as good as it gets here) and even, on the evidence of one spectacular innings, his batting, was a clear winner.

   • Best Dressed: Ritvij and Jamie actually dress like cricketers and look competent, and are thus disqualified. The occasion when Simon had to play in jeans because Ian G had turned up in a suit without his whites was memorable. But over the season, Josh, whose shorts got shorter as the year wore on, won it.

   • Most IPL-like. Bruce’s death bowling was mentioned again, and James R’s sometimes unintentional bowling variations. James P’s legside swipes, though, seemed most like what one comes across in Chennai.

   • Duck of the Year: Simon refused to be nominated himself for one of the five ducks we made against The Star, but in any case, Josh’s duck at the Poplars, after talking about what good form he was in, was a popular winner.

   • Champagne Moment: The Southstoke win was a good collective moment, but it was far outshone by the indisputable winner, Bruce’s six (off Chris Middup) at Broughton Gifford.

   • Best Remark in a Match Report: This goes to Gregory, because he writes them all. The running gag about Abdul’s toolkit being used for ball-tampering was mentioned. (“A little roughness isn’t going to be enough for us to find reverse swing. Drill a hole right through the ball and something might possibly happen.”) So was the comment that if your first four in a 20-over match is in the 19th over, you usually don’t win. (“Ours was, and we didn’t.”) It was also tempting to give the award posthumously to Horace, author of the Latin poem quoted at the start of the first match of the season. But the extended metaphor describing Josh as a reincarnated haggis, governed by Maxwell’s equations, won.

   • And finally, the premier award

     The A.J. Wolstenholme Prize for running between the wickets: Imran put in a strong bid: his glasses fell off at Southstoke, and he ran Jamie out (and nearly ran Gregory out) against The Star. Ritvij called firmly and clearly when he wanted to run, causing no end of confusion to Charlie, who wasn’t expecting that sort of thing at all. However, Chris Middup produced three performances any of which might have won: turning at the under-11 crease at Bradford and running one of the shortest short runs ever seen; run out by Jonathan James and walking off extremely slowly from the middle of the pitch where he had been stranded; and then standing stock still in the middle of the pitch, waiting to be run out, as the opposition dropped the ball, threw to nowhere near the stumps, fell over, knocked a bail off and generally gave him plenty of time to stroll home.

The meeting closed at 21:20 and proceeded to the Eastern Eye. It had been booked out by the Milner Centre, so we went to the Bengal Brasserie instead, which is less good though still acceptable.