AGM of University of Bath Venturers Cricket Club - 15th October 2026

The Annual General Meeting took place in the upstairs room at the Ring O Bells, Widcombe, at 19:00 on Thursday 15th October 2026.

Present were Imran, Bruce, Gregory, Joji, Dinesh, Mizan, Matt and Ajeet.

Dinesh, having left the University, was no longer technically a member of the club, and therefore did not count towards the quorum, which is six. We had a slightly nervous wait until Matt arrived. Soon afterwards Ajeet also arrived, which meant that we wouldn’t have to freeze the meeting if anybody went downstairs to get another drink. Dinesh would also not have been allowed to vote if we had voted on anything, but otherwise not being a member doesn’t make much difference if we don’t want it to.

We sort of approved the minutes of the previous meeting. That is to say, we brought them up on Matt’s phone and he looked at them briefly and didn’t say anything.

We also noted the sad death of Rob Hardman from Southstoke, suddenly, at the end of a match in which Joji had been playing. Most of us will have played against him, and many of us with him. He played for them for several decades and made over 20,000 runs in all.

1. Captain’s report

We played 24 matches. We won 13 and lost nine: there was a tie against Rotork, followed immediately by a draw against Southstoke. Those were in May, when we were unbeaten, after having lost both the games we played in April. In June, we played five matches, losing the first and last, both to the Bell, and winning the rest; in July, we played fiv matches and won them all; in August, we played five matches and lost them all; in September, we played one match and won it. We did better at weekends, (six wins, three losses and a draw) than midweek, and better away (seven wins, three losses and a draw) than at home, although it is not entirely clear what “home” means now that we have definitely given up using Sulis. Three matches were cancelled, two because our opponents couldn’t raise a team and one because it was on one of the few wet days. Another match didn’t happen because the opponents had failed to add it to their fixture list, and one had to be postponed by one day because of an eclipse of the sun.

We played two matches against touring teams. Both went well: the Saturday one against Holy Spirit Nottingham was especially close, won when Imran, batting at 11 in the absence of the usual number 11, edged a four through where slip would have been.

The top scorers overall were Joji (367), Naveen (362) and Mizan (326). The highest batting average belonged to Sam, but he batted only three times and was out only once: with a qualification of five innings, Naveen was top, narrowly ahead of Mizan and Dinesh. There was one hundred, by Mizan: Joji and Naveen each made three 50s. There were only two other individual scores of 50 altogether.

Joji was also the leading wicket-taker, with 30, followed not very closely by Mizan (18) and Imran (17): otherwise only Dinesh and Gregory (14 each) got into double figures. With a qualification of five wickets, Joji had the best average, followed by Afzal, Dinesh and Mizan. Joji, Mizan and Afzal each had one five-wicket haul (six in Mizan’s case): Jonathan and Krish each had a four.

Joji and Mizan each caught five catches: three of Joji’s were while keeping wicket, and he also got a stumping. Siddhant and Imran each effected three run-outs: there were only three others.

We won Division B in the indoor league and have been promoted: we are now also running a 2nd VI, so we have a team in each division.

1. Treasurer’s report

At the end of September, the balance in the club account was (or would have been had the Secretary paid his outstanding match fee) £1447, which is a £57 pound surplus over the course of the year. That, however, included payment of the indoor league fees, which fell due in September this year but October last year, so the true surplus is around £140. There were costs for teas, a bat, a helmet (the broken one proving irreparable) and some batting gloves, so the overall position is healthy. Odd Down pitches are inexpensive, Prior Park not so, but the superior facilities at Prior Park are important at weekends and we have few home weekend fixtures anyway.

There was some discussion about fees. The current levels do not need to rise, and eventually it was agreed to lower the midweek student fee from £6 to £5, so as to create a differential between the midweek (20 over) and weekend fees that partially reflects the quantity of actual cricket. There was also some discussion about the structure of fees and the method of payment. Using the card reader has ensured that fees do get collected (except from the Secretary) but feels a little awkward and may make it difficult for people who need to manage cash flow and would like to pay later. The question was raised of whether we should have a membership fee, and correspondingly lower fees, but this has proved unsatisfactory in the past because many people play only a few matches. (Ten people played at least half of them, but we used 44 players in all.) Rob Branston, a former Treasurer, had sent a message arguing against the system of different levels of match fee based on supposed ability to pay. This message was shown to the economists present, as nobody else could fully understand it: their opinion was that it was a well-argued and logical case, but that although the objections it raised were valid in theory, the effects that Rob was concerned about did not seem to be observable in practice.

1. Election of Officers

Imran was re-elected as Captain. It was noted that he had kept his promise to turn his phone off during matches, which had been a condition of his election last year. Gregory was re-elected as Secretary and Bruce as Treasurer. There are no other required posts: positions such as Vice-Captain and Lifts Officer are descriptive only. We left the committee unchanged for now, rather by default: there may need to be some changes later, reflecting the circumstances of individuals, but the committee has power to co-opt additional members, so we can probably avoid the inconvenience of an Extraordinary Meeting. Several people who might have been considered as possible committee members were not present and had not been asked about joining, so we would not have been able to take definite decisions.

1. Fixtures

There was a lengthy discussion about the status of the Hambrook match, which had eventually been dropped from the records for several reasons. One major one was that the score details were patchy and contradictory, especially when we were fielding: to a large degree, we simply don’t know what happened. No real agreement was reached about whether the right decision was taken, but we did agree that whatever decision had been taken would have been wrong in some way.

We have a rather full programme of midweek matches. That doesn’t quite mean that there are no gaps, but we do not really need more opponents. It is not possible to play midweek matches earlier than about 25th April or later than about 18th August, because there is not enough daylight. If we do have a gap, Southstoke or Stanton Drew might be possible opponents, as well as Bradford or Hinton Charterhouse, whom we usually do play but didn’t find a date for this year. Another possibility is Kingswood, whom we used to play every year, but the fixture collapsed because of covid and later the people running their team both left: also, the Secretary’s children left the school. Such a match would probably have to be in May, though, and we usually have plenty of fixtures then.

Guinness failed to produce a team to play us, and Buro Happold produced only part of one but the date had been changed at a late stage. Broughton Gifford also could not raise a team for the midweek match, but they have been reliable opponents for a long time: the same goes for Bathford, who produced a very inexperienced team for one of the matches.

We would like a few more Sunday games, including ideally one or two more in September. Maurice Perl died in October last year, which was the only thing that was ever going to stop him arranging cricket matches, and that lost us a couple of regular fixtures. Possible opponents include Norton St Phillip, Spye Park, Keevil, Midsomer Norton Methodists and some Bristol league teams, but the latter tend to arrange Sunday friendlies only at short notice, which is sometimes awkward for us.

1. Kit

We do not need much new kit. One bat needs a new grip, and we need new wicket-keeping equipment. (A new wicket-keeper would be a useful addition, too.) The first-aid kit was inspected and was found to contain a pair of scissors, a roll of tape that had solidified into a block, some cold spray that had expired in 2021 and some hot spra that had expired in 2020. We need to refill it entirely, apart from the scissors.

1. Recruitment

There was no discussion about how to do this, although there was some concern that the number of Indian students (Indian in the loosest and least political sense possible, i.e. Herat to Chittagong and Gilgit to Galle) might drop. We did agree that we should not say “any ability”: we put out one team that had several very inexperienced players and it was difficult. We did not really struggle for numbers this year.

1. Awards

These are at the discretion of the captain. Imran takes them more seriously than some of his predecessors have done.

Best bat: Naveen, ahead (just) of Mizan, with mentions for Joji, who was for some reason disqualified, and Sam, who did very well but only played three matches.

Best bowler: Dinesh, again ahead of Mizan and Joji, who may or may not have been disqualified: Afzal and Ajeet were also mentioned.

Best bowling performance. There were excellent ones from Joji, Dinesh and Afzal, but Mizan’s spell at Corsham was a clear winner. It contrasted sharply with Krish’s and Imran’s spells at Corsham.

Best newcomer: this did go to Sam, who may be more available in the future, ahead but not much ahead of Afzal and Kedar.

Best all-rounder: Joji did win this, also for keeping wicket: Mizan, Krish and Dinesh were other contenders.

Best fielder: several people were reliable, but the award went to Joseph. He doesn’t bowl, made eight runs from five innings, didn’t take any catches or achieve any run-outs, and probably saved about fifteen runs every time he played, not including those that weren’t even attempted because of his sheer energy.

Best wicket-keeper. We didn’t have a real wicket-keeper so several people who would rather have been doing something else had a go. Joshua was the one who was most used to doing it, but Steve won, for commitment as much as anything.

Most improved player: Ajeet, who could well win again next year if he starts to bowl as well to left-handers as he does to right-handers.

Best umpire: Charlie, for a calm performance in the match against Holy Spirit Nottingham.

Champagne moment: there were several, but Imran selected the win at Hillesley.

Duck of the Year: as always, there was a lot of competition, but it was won by the very last duck we made: Siddhant, leg before first ball at Priston in the last match of the season.

And finally, the highly prestigious A.J. Wolstenholme Prize for Running Between the Wickets. This is named after an opening batsman who played for the club for many years, made a lot of runs, and ran himself out at least three times every season. Again there was plenty of competition, and Monish’s stranding of Joji, who hadn’t yet faced a ball, against Royal Oak, was a strong candidate. Against Bristol Venturers there were three run-outs, and the match ended with Naveen sitting in the middle of the pitch as the bails were removed. However, Steve was run out five times during the season, and such levels have seldom been reached since the days of Wolstenholme himself, so Steve was accordingly given this imaginary trophy.