ANTHONY AXFORD BOLTON CRICKET LEAGUE

MINUTES OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING

AT BRADSHAW CC

24^th AUGUST 2009

Apologies; The Treasurer, the Junior Secretary, Tony Hayes. Kearsley were not represented.

A minutes silence was held in respect of Jim Holden of Westhoughton Cricket Club.

Minutes of the July Meeting; These had been circulated and were approved as a true record.

Matters Arising; The Hamer Cup will start at midday on 30^th August.

Westhoughton were congratulated on the exceptional facilities at their new ground.

Greenmount and Bradshaw are winners of the Birtwistle Cup and Jake Tatlock Trophy respectively.

Correspondence; Letters have been received from Eagley and Heaton in relation to disciplinary incidents and procedures. As the Disciplinary Chairman had sent his apologies the Secretary had forwarded both letters to him requesting that in the first instance he replies to the clubs. This will be followed up at the September meeting.

Lists of missing or late umpires’ reports and first team score cards have been emailed to clubs.

Discipline; An Eagley player had been banned for two matches, and the Heaton professional fined £450 as an alternative to a three match ban.

John Hutchinson, the League Welfare Officer, said there were three reports pending with the County Welfare Officer. One was an incident at an LCB junior match involving a member of a Bolton League club.

Administration; The R&C Chairman ran through the previously agreed penalties for default, and then read a list of penalties which could have been imposed up to the middle of July. The R&C Committee had felt that to impose these penalties - one team would have lost 30 points and others a substantial number plus fines, with more to follow in the subsequent weeks - would completely distort the published league tables and bring the League into disrepute.

Mr Hall had already met with the Umpires Association to discuss their report forms and the R&C Committee will be looking into ways of improving the means of inputting information.

The Secretary noted that the vast majority of clubs already submitted first team score cards electronically to the Bolton News, and simply needed to copy Stephen Merry in with the email.

The President proposed the League appoint a Second Team Secretary or Administrator. (Ian Senior has expressed an interest).

Umpires; A Newsletter was distributed covering the following topics; Bowler Damaging the Pitch, When a Catch is Completed and Players Damaging the Pitch.

Mrs. Knott stressed the importance of the umpires’ marks as poor marks and adverse comments can be acted on.

There is an umpires course at Astley and Tyldsley C.C. from 8^th September.

Finance; Report emailed to clubs or enclosed with these minutes.

R&C Report; The Chairman remarked that although the contracts for the professionals at Astley Bridge, Farnworth, Kearsley and Westhoughton may have or will be effectively terminated the clubs should be signing replacements. After clubs had explained the difficulties it was agreed deputies could be signed until the end of the season.

There has been one transfer; G Guest (Astley Bridge to Egerton).

An under 13 match between Farnworth S.C. and Horwich had not been played on the scheduled date. The decision of the R&C Committee to award the match to Horwich had been overturned on appeal and the points shared.

A decision will be made shortly on the bonus point in the Tonge v Farnworth match.

The Secretary said he would be willing to look into the circumstances of the Walkden v Farnworth second team result to see if the Rule needed clarification, but the result will stand as other clubs were aware of the situation but had decided not to protest.

Development; After the July meeting the Chairman had formed a working party comprising himself, Mike Hall, David Morris, Dave Tattersall and Simon Thomson. The original proposals had been condensed and a formal proposed amendment to rule will be made by the September meeting. Members of the working party will be available to meet with clubs and the Junior Committee.

Inter-League; The President congratulated Dave Tattersall, Chris Barrow and the team members on retaining the JW Lees Inter-League trophy. The Under 18 team are away to the Central Lancs League in their final.

The Competition will continue next year even if a sponsor cannot be found.

League Dinner; The venue is likely to be the Masonic Hall in Farnworth, but a date has not been finalised.

Trophies should be returned to David Morris.

Prize Claim Meetings; The meeting for junior prize claims (Under 13, Under 15 and Under 18) will be held at Bradshaw C.C. at 8pm on Tuesday 1^st September. Claim forms have been given to the junior reps. Claims will not be considered after the meeting. Nominations for the Most Promising Player under 16 should be brought to the meeting.

The meeting for senior prize claims will be held at Bradshaw C.C. at 7.45pm on Monday 5^th October.

Clubs will be fined for failing to attend either meeting or failing to bring scorebooks or claim forms, irrespective of whether they have a claim or not.

Any Other Business; The Lyddon Trophy Final will be on Saturday 19^th September.

Egerton play Bootle at 11am in the Lancs KO Final at St Annes on Sunday 13^th September.

Date of Next Meeting; 28^th September.