#Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Bath University Venturers Cricket Club, 2019.#

The AGM of Bath University Venturers Cricket Club took place at the Saracen’s Head, Bath, at 19:30 on Tuesday 3rd September, 2019.

Present were: Olly, Josh, Jamie, Simon, Muhammad, James R, Duncan, Bruce, Gregory, Alex and Imran.

After some discussion of the Tests and firm action to stop Bruce and Duncan talking about footie, the meeting got underway.

1. Captain’s report

   In the indoor league, having been more or less accidentally promoted the previous year but shorn of our batting (Jack, whose career choice of working for DExEU was much derided as we followed the defeat of the government during the meeting) we lost all but one of our matches. Not that we were outclassed: indeed, we very nearly beat Frome, and had a good match against the (Bath Uni) students. Because of our one win we did not finish bottom but at the league AGM we agreed to accept relegation if the Star, whose second team had carelessly won the second division, wanted to run two teams in the first. After some thought, they decided that they did. We are confident that we will bounce back up. And then bounce back down again.

   There were 11 weekend matches scheduled, a few more than originally planned. Four of them were cancelled, only one by us: two were cancelled by opponents and the other fell victim to wet weather during the week, which prevented the ground staff from preparing a pitch or mowing the outfield. Annoyingly, the weather on the scheduled match day was good, and the outfield was often barely mown anyway. Of the seven matches actually played, we won two, batting first in both cases, and lost two. Two were bona fide draws in timed games: first at Evergreens (Josh strongly disapproved of the whole idea of a draw) and second at Priston (Josh triumphantly secured the draw and was completely converted to the idea), and one at Kilmington was abandoned as a draw when the weather intervened.

   There were 19 midweek matches, none of which were cancelled by either side but three of which were rained off. We won five, including a chase of 160, and lost nine: there was one tie, and the final fixture was abandoned after ten balls of the second innings when the rain came. The tie, against Bathford, featured an anxious hundred by Jamie, expecting to be called to the maternity ward at any moment, and might have been a win if Simon had been as willing as Duncan was to attempt a second off the last ball. Two of the wins owed much to the Spirit of Cricket as shown by our opponents: the Ram confessed at the interval to having allowed the ball to hit a helmet behind the wicketkeeper and awarded us five runs, and Western Flyers lent us a rather good player.

   This amounts to a satisfactory season, though losing slightly more than we won.

   Overall our bowling was stronger than our batting, as is usually the case. Nevertheless, seven people reached 50: Ritvij, Ian G, Ashwyn, Farooq, Olly, Shyam (lent to us by Yameen at Western Flyers), and Jamie, who did it five times, once reaching 100. The most remarkable innings, though, apart from Jamie’s century, was probably Josh’s match-saving 9 not out from exactly 100 balls. Such an innings in a Test Match would be among the fifty slowest of all time. [Correction: only seven people are known to have faced more than 100 balls in a Test innings and ended their innings with a run rate of less than 10 per hundred balls.]

   No one bowler dominated. The best figures were Adil’s 4-12: Gregory and George also each took four in an innings once. Ian, James, Jamie, Olly, Bruce, Muhammad and Bruce all made useful contributions regularly.

2. Treasurer’s report

   We made a loss, but it was £57. This is acceptable, as we have £1400 reserves, but we bought very little kit during the year. The price of using Sulis has risen sharply and strong representations should be made about this. The quality of the facilities does not justify the price, compared with alternatives. In particular we are regularly promised the first pitch but find ourselves playing on the second. There is for practical purposes no running water, nor ladies’ toilets (which is a violation of the university’s equality policies). The outfield is often barely mown.

3. Recruitment

   The meeting segued from the previous item into this one without a clear break. We are now part of Omnibus, which has improved our visibility and may give us some leverage in the matter of the state of Sulis. There was a long discussion about how to recruit and what else to do. Nothing was decided definitely, but we should certainly recognise and use the fact that many more women now play cricket, or would like to try, than used to be the case.

4. Election of officers.

   Simon was elected as captain, Jamie as vice-captain, Gregory as secretary and Bruce as treasurer. It takes about two years to change the treasurer, so we shouldn’t try unless we have to. We also elected Alex (web person, also difficult to change), Matt R (publicity), James R (recruitment) and Imran (at large) to the committee.

5. Kit and fixtures.

   We need bats and helmets. We needed those last year but apart from Gregory photographing all the kit we did have, nothing much was done.

   The fixture list requires little change, for once: in recent years several long-standing opponents have folded but that has not happened this time. Nor are there any fixtures we want to drop. We should try to keep the Priston fixture: as we stepped into a gap and displayed understanding of the Spirit of Cricket they are likely to be keen to do that. The timings of the Monkton Combe and Western Flyers fixtures should be looked at. We may have tried to play Combe Down once too often. We hope to find a date for a match against Bristol Academicals again. It would be good to revive the T20 tournament that used to be held in Bristol but there are practical difficulties. An internal practice game, perhaps on a Friday, was suggested.

6. Awards.

   • Best batsman. This went indisputably to Jamie, with honorable mentions for Ritvij, Jaideep, Ashwyn, Ian G and Josh’s 9 not out.

   • Best bowler. This was much less indisputable, with James R, Imran, Gregory, Dan, Chandrabhan and Bruce all having claims. In the end the choice fell on Bruce’s death bowling, which is now almost reliable and that cannot really be said of much else that we do.

   • Best fielder. There were odd moments of competence: Gregory caught more than one slip catch (well, two) and Chandrabhan brought off an impressive run-out. More generally Ian G and Farooq were secure in the field, but the award was given to Imran on the strength of two direct-hit runouts.

   • Best newcomer. As usual there are many possibilities, but Muhammad’s general reliability won this one.

   • Most improved. James R, whose batting and bowling both went up several notches compared with last year, was mentioned. The winner, though, was Josh: his wicketkeeping improved hugely from a standing start (often standing rather a long way away) and he learned to defend, to the point where he will now have to learn to hit the ball again.

   • Best catch. There were several proper cricket catches, by Bruce, Farooq, Gregory and others, and a spectacular one-hander by Simon in the indoor season, but James’s perfectly judged awkward skier at Kilmington was outstanding.

   • Champagne moment. There were several Spirit of Cricket events, due to us and our opponents. (Olly disclaimed a run-out because he had knocked the bails off before he had the ball; Bruce declined to run out a batsman who had collided with his partner.) Bruce’s slip catch at Kilmington was the culmination of a deliberate plan by Gregory that worked absolutely perfectly. The very last ball of the season was hit onto the roof of the big pavilion at Lansdown by Chandrabhan. But the Bathford tie, with Jamie’s hundred and impending baby, stood out.

   • Best dressed player. Gregory’s Primary Club jumper was mentioned, and the Peaky Blinders cap worn by one of our opponents (but he’s an actor, so perhaps it doesn’t really count). However, Muhammad, in full kit with his name on the back and bringing his own prayer mat to the matches, was clearly far better equipped than anybody else, and won easily.

   • Duck of the Year. There were many candidates. There always are. But we made five ducks in an innings against Evergreens so it really had to be one of those, and Olly’s was the daftest of them.

   • Most IPL-like. Josh’s 9 not out got another ironical mention, as did Simon’s 23 not out from 19 overs (out of 20). Less ironically, Ashwyn and Jamie scored at ten an over for an extended period at Bratton. The winner, for once, was Simon himself: for the above innings, but more for resolutely fielding first every time.

   • Best remark in a match report. Simon read out some of his favourites, not all by Gregory this time as Jamie and Matt R wrote some of them. The description of Ian G apparently batting in clogs, and the parallel between Dan and Antaeus, were the favourites.

   And finally

   • The A.J. Wolstenholme Prize for Running Between the Wickets

     There were plenty of candidates. Jamie was involved in about four runouts, but he did most of the batting anyway. Jaideep was run out twice in successive innings. In the end, Muhammad’s achievement of running out two of his partners in the same innings won it.