OXFORDSHIRE CRICKET ASSOCIATION
Nick Treweeke (Chairman) (NT)
Minutes of Executive Meeting – Monday 14th October 2013 at 7.30 pm
Venue: Kidlington Cricket Club – Stratfield Brake Sports Club – Kidlington
Present:
Brian Standish (Chairman) (BS), Colin Olliffe (Gen’ Secretary) (CO), Peter Baring (PB), Kieren Bushnell (KB),Paul Duester (PD), Jason Lowe (JL), Simon Morse (SM), Steve Oliver (SO), Chris Probert (CP), David Quinn (DQ) and Nick Treweeke (NT) and Andy Worman (AW).
1. Apologies:
Ivan Mulford had offered his apologies.
2. Minutes of Meetings – 9th September 2013:
The minutes having been read, were approved and duly signed by the Chairman as a correct record of the meeting.
3. Matters arising from the above minutes:
a) Admissions Meeting 23.9.13 update……see under (1) below:
b) Divisions for 2014 Meeting 7.10.13 update…..see under (2) below:
c) Clubs Open Forum 26.9.13 update/comment…..see under (3) below:
d) Throwing action of players update…..see under (4) below:
e) 20/20 competition – sub-committee report….see under (5) below:
f) Proposal to pay umpires extra £15.00 per game….see under (6) below:
1) Admissions meeting 23.9.13 update:
It was felt that meeting as a committee proved to be very successful in that all concerns were brought to the table by more than just a 4-5 committee members as a sub-committee, but it was noted that if we do repeat this in 2014, then there needed to be a change to the constitution wording. All clubs had been written to and the Gen. Secretary was thanked for doing this and next season the wording of the letter would be changed slightly as a few clubs had taken offence, not that any was meant! (Action Committee)
Both Kilkenny and Oxford Resue Cassington had been given a final warning on their grounds and IM was liaising with both, particularly Kilkenny who had requested a meeting with the OCA. (Action IM)
2) Divisions for 2014 meeting 7.10.13 update:
Although this did not affect the outcome of the division placing, there were concerns about concessions by Brill and Great Horwood and a letter will be sent advising them that if this happens again in 2014, then this would bring their 2015 registrations into doubt. (Action CO)
Regarding the cup competitions, it was agreed that any club who concedes a cup game would not be able to enter this competition the following year. (Action Committee)
3) Clubs Open Forum 26.9.13 update:
Felt to be very worthwhile and attended by 22 clubs with the meeting going on for two hours. It was run on a fairly loose agenda and some good ideas came through, particularly on the wet weather procedure and it is hoped that two clubs will be able to put forward a proposal for the AGM? The committee were pleased that none of the OCA rules were challenged, so it does appear from the clubs attending that these are about right!
4) Throwing action of players update:
DB had circulated a proposal on the above and this was discussed in detail with agreement that Option ‘C’ was favourable/workable with slight amendments. DB agreed to re-write and present at the next meeting. When agreed, and as this is a procedure it can be put through as a Bye-Law. (Action DB)
5) 20-20 competition – sub-committee report:
NT advised that the committee had discussed the rules of this competition and it was suggested that the two semi-finals should be played simultaneously at Kidlington C.C., followed by the final and teas will be available for all teams at a cost of £40.00, but these would need to be ordered prior to the game taking place. The only rule change will be that teams will need to provide five (5) bowlers with a maximum of 4 overs each.
Qualifiers for the 1st round will be, Cairns Fudge, Hanborough, Cowley, (winner of the Fair Play?), Minster Lovell, Charlbury, Hook Norton and Garsington with 1st reserves being Chadlington and Oxenford. Both Shrivenham and Westbury go through to the 2014 final.
The sub-committee is to agree who the winner of the Fair Play for 2013 as there are certain issues to be discussed. (Action sub-committee)
6) Proposal to pay umpires an extra £15.00 per game:
A proposal had been received by the Hon. Treasurer with a suggestion that in order to recruit more umpires, clubs should be able to pay £15.00 above the agreed rate of £35.00. The committee advised that they could not condone this taking place, and would have no part to play in this suggestion.
4. Correspondence:
The General Secretary had received a letter from the Welfare Officer of MLCC, following the final of the Keith Crump Cup, held at Westcott. He was concerned that Hanborough were playing a bowler who he felt was too quick for the ‘lower reaches of the OCA’, particularly if younger players are in the opposing team.
The Executive felt that there was no case to answer and agreed with the comment in the letter which stated “if you are good enough, you are old enough” and it was down to the club to make a decision whether a young player should be in a team. The General Secretary will advise the MLCC Welfare Officer of this decision. (Action CO)
5. Treasurer’s report:
SO reported that the bank balance stands at £24,079.00 with outstanding accounts with Newsquest for the last month and Wormsley and Meedhams for advertising in the handbook.
There were outstanding fines with Great Horwood and Watlington, both of whom had said they would settle within 7 days. No request had been received from the OCB for affiliation and it was thought that this applied to others clubs as well?
Trophies were outstanding still from Westbury, Chipping Norton and Stanton St John Willows.
SO requested ‘team names’ from Kidlington for engraving on the cup and the name of the club for the ‘most improved ground’ and also asked that any repairs to the trophies must go through him, as the repair on the cup held by Bampton had resulted in errors on the newly engraved plate.CO advised that SO had given permission for this work to be done, and that the cup should never have been presented at the dinner in such poor condition.(Action CP)
6. Disciplinary
DB advised that the DP had ruled on the Kilkenny situation relating to umpiring issues and that the club had been fined £50.00 and that both teams had been deducted 60 points each, and a warning had been issued against future umpiring errors. It was understood that Kilkenny had appointed an ‘new’ umpiring co-ordinator for 2014.
NT advised the Executive of the details of the Tetsworth/Winslow disciplinary issue and pointed out that Tetsworth CC were on a final warning against any further misbehaviour. Frank Eley had confirmed to the General Secretary that every player had received a letter advising them of the final warning and all new players will receive the same letter.
DQ is to contact Wootton & Boars Hill C.C. regarding their rota umpires for 2014 and the concerns of the Executive. (Action DQ)
7. Fixtures:
DQ advised that ALL the ground availability forms had been received on time with only two ‘reminders’ being necessary.
He planned to start work on the 2014 fixture list during the next week and AW asked that he should have a copy of these at the earliest opportunity to add to the website, but these will not ‘go live’ until after the AGM. (Action DQ/AW)
8. Registration, Media and Results:
Nothing to report. AW advised that in 2014 clubs will not be able to import players unless they had played the previous season and young players will have to register with a D.O.B. to ensure that we do not have any under age players. Also, the registration facility will be deactivated on the 15 August, to avoid the problems of last season with trying to register players after the agreed deadline. (Action AW)
KB agreed to forward his proposal for eleven players per team to the General Secretary, for discussion at the November meeting of the Executive. . (Action KB)
9. Cups:
Nothing to report.
10. Player Liaison Officer Report:
Nothing to report, but PD asked if we should continue with this role? It was thought this was the avenue for which players can approach the Executive (outside of their own club) so it should remain, but it will be mentioned at the AGM. PD agreed to continue for a further year if voted in. (Action AGM)
11. Umpires
Nothing to report.
12. Grounds and Grants Committee:
SM advised that regrettably there were low numbers on the last grounds course. He had visited both Cairns Fudge and Tetsworth and taken core samples and had been asked to do the same at Kennington and Watlington, which is a good sign that clubs are beginning to take things more seriously.
On ground reports there had been some problems with the same club being listed under different titles, so these need to be consistent, otherwise the system breaks down. The same when a club has two grounds, these need to be clearly defined as Ground 1 or Ground 2 on the report.(Action AGM)
Concern was raised that we seem to pay more attention to grounds than facilities, when often these are the cause of complaints by teams. It was agreed that the report form needs a re-vamp to include facilities in a better format. The suggestion was made that we do need someone to be responsible for facilities as we have for Grounds? (Action Committee)
STOP PRESS: The good news is that Jason Lowe offered to take on this role, which can be added in as an agenda item from November.
13. Website:
AW confirmed that the issue with the umpire default had been sorted. AW advised that the site will need to be closed down sometime in January 2014 and that there would be a charge of approximately £20-30 per month for the use of the server. This was agreed.
A suggestion that it would be good for the OCA to join in with social media - i.e. Twitter, and maybe this would be of more use that the Forum?
Agreed that we speak with Colin Mercer (who oversees the Forum) to get his reaction and to thank him for the work he has done on the Forum during 2013. (Action CO)
14. Any other business:
Presentation Evening – CO reported as of 6.00 pm that evening he had managed to agree a speaker to replace Niall O’Brien and that John Morris had agreed to attend at a cost of 1k plus travel expenses and overnight accommodation, plus VAT, totalling around £1,350. CO suggested that we needed to shorten the proceedings as often clubs lose interest halfway through the presentation. DQ agreed to compere the evening, but perhaps with less information on each presentation.BS to introduce the guests and NT to open the dinner formally. CO will draw up a ‘suggested programme’ for the evening and SO agreed to provide the raffle prizes. Guests to be invited: Clive Ricks & Richard Giles (Cherwell), Chris Clements (OCB), Ian Royle, Tony Pullinger and Steve Wheeler (photographer). (Action CO/SO/DQ)
Clubs with sub-standard grounds – The suggestion was made that clubs who are under ‘concern by the Ground Committee’ should be requested to attend both ground courses. This was thought to be a good idea and agreed that this should be put to the clubs. (Action AGM)
Clubs with ‘concerns and who concede games’ to pay a bond – It was suggested that new clubs should pay a deposit or bond which they would get back if after successfully completing so many years membership. And clubs who it seemed were likely to concede games (based on the previous year) should also be asked to pay a deposit or bond. This sparked off some hotly contested discussion resulting in a vote 2-7-2 against the proposal, although after further consideration is was felt that on the question of concessions we do have to be more firm with clubs and that a sliding scale of points + fines should be brought in under a Bye-Law.(Action Committee)
Extra trophy for Young Player of the Year – This had been agreed in the November 2012 minutes but had been overlooked in time for the Dinner. There should be a trophy for the Under 19’s batsman and bowler of the year. After discussion it was agreed to purchase two new trophies for this and a decision on how to use the George Panting Award in the future?
BS/NT to agree the ‘Young Players’ from the nomination list from the clubs or website? (Action SO/BS/NT)
The committee were reminded that we do hold a Division 11 cup, namely Cox/Harris trophy.
15. Date of next Meeting(s):
Meeting of the Executive – Monday 11th November 2013
Annual General Meeting – Thursday 28th November 2013
Both to be held at 7.30 – Kidlington C.C. (By kind permission)
Meeting closed 10.09 p.m.
Minutes completed and circulated: 17.10.2013
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