ANTHONY AXFORD BOLTON CRICKET LEAGUE

MINUTES OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING

HELD AT BRADSHAW C.C.

4^th OCTOBER 2010

Apologies: Chris Monks. Farnworth, Farnworth Social Circle, Heaton and Kearsley were not represented.

Minute’s Silence: Committee stood in memory of Rodney Sandiford of Heaton C.C. and League Vice-President.

Minutes of the August Meeting: Richard Blagg was added to the list of attendees and the minutes were approved as a correct record.

Matters Arising: Mr Hutchinson asked why a date venue for the League Presentation had been agreed when it was minuted that the event would be discussed at this meeting? The Chairman replied that in view of the limited time available for the preparations, progress had to be made. The Committee agreed that so a similar problem could be averted, future Presentations would be on the second Friday in November.

Following a lengthy discussion where the pro’s and con’s of both and the cost were discussed, the clubs present voted six in favour with four abstentions in favour of using the free ‘Playcricket’ rather than the ‘Boltoncricket’ website for our results and administration. However, as some representatives indicated that would be happy to stay with ‘Boltoncricket’ if the link to the Forum was removed from the front page of ‘Boltoncricket’ it was agreed that a final decision would be made at the next meeting. The Chairman said he would contact Mr Rayment of ‘Boltoncricket’ and respond to the clubs before the next meeting.

The Secretary cautioned that if the Forum were to be removed, comments would simply be posted on other, more public forums, where there would be less control exercised.

Correspondence: The minutes from the last League Cricket Conference meeting had been emailed to clubs. Details of Bolton Council Budget Information Meetings will also be emailed.

Finance: Circulated previously.

Umpires: There is a course for new umpires at Swinton Moorside Cricket Club from 12^th October.

There had been some confusion about the amended Fast Bowling Directive, and this will be covered again by the Umpires before the start of the 2012 season.

The Chairman thanked the umpires for inviting him to their recent meeting.

Juniors: Towards the end of the season the standard of administration at some clubs had deteriorated, and clubs were asked to consider carefully the courses on offer, details of which were included with the junior meeting minutes.

The Chairman congratulated Mike Buckley and other members of the junior committee on a very successful junior presentation.

There had been a problem with people outside the League contacting players to play in representative matches, and it was agreed that there would be a point of contact at every club rather than the players being contacted directly.

R&C Report: Egerton requested that there be a uniform method of determining trophy winners and KO entrants (Rule 23).

The Committee agreed the 2011 season would commence on the Easter weekend, which will be exceptionally late next year. This item will not be on the agenda again until 2037.

Before next season the Secretary and others will work on a guideline for clubs to be visited by the Borders Agency, however this cannot be exhaustive, as their approach had differed at the three clubs visited in 2010.

Clubs will be asked to approve the appointment of Syd De Silva as the Tonge professional for the 2011 season. In 2010 Syd scored 960 runs and took 43 wickets in the Saddleworth League. In 2009 he scored 581 runs and took 28 wickets at Tonge, and in 2008 scored 331 for Egerton.

Disciplinary Reports: Since the last meeting one Horwich player was banned for two matches and another for one match, one Little Lever player was banned for three matches and another for two, two Walkden players have been banned for two matches each, one Heaton player for one match and Bradshaw have been given a written warning for consumption of alcohol during a match.

Summarising the season Mr Hutchinson said there were 24 reports, no action was taken in one case, five written warnings were issued and seventeen players suspended. The police are dealing with one assault.

The Chairman thanked Mr Hutchinson who in turn paid tribute to the other members of the Disciplinary Committee.

League Presentation: This will be held at Little Lever C.C. on 12^th November. Clubs still holding trophies will be contacted. Clubs will be invoiced for repairs to trophies. Mike Buckley will be contacting clubs with details of the evening and asking for numbers of attendees.

Proposed Amendments to Rules: These had been circulated but were read out so they could be discussed.

It was felt that the proposal to replace the run rate calculation with a loss of wickets in the second innings would lead to players unable to bat, but it was also noted that in a reduced over match not everyone may bat in any case.

The effect on junior cricket and clubs’ finances if matches were to start at 1pm was noted.

It was questioned if an end of season KO for the top four teams in second team cricket would add any interest to the league competition.

Flaws in the existing ‘starred’ players system were noted, but it was pointed out there had rarely been any major problems.

An addition to the revised points system will be made when the final set of proposals are sent out.

It was felt that an introduction of declaration cricket would not necessarily result in a poorer standard of wickets.

The barriers to the introduction of the Duckworth / Lewis calculation were noted.

Confusion over the interpretation 26(f)(ii) will be sorted out after the AGM.

Date of Next Meeting: 25^th October.