SCC Cricket News!

Clubs Not Present: Ashtead, Chipstead Coulsdon & Walcountians, Cobham Avorians, Maori Oxshott, Old Hamptonians, Old Tiffinian, Old Whitgiftians, Purley, Pyrford, Ripley, Sinjungrammarians and Warlingham

Minutes of the Council meeting held on 23 October 2006

The Minutes of the above meeting were taken as read and signed by The Chairman.

Matters Arising

There were no Matters Arising that would not be dealt with on the Agenda.

Secretary’s Report

The Secretary apologised for any inconvenience caused by the change of venue due to a double booking at Old Emanuel. There was nothing else to report.

Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer reported that The Championship’s finances were in good shape with money in the bank. The Accounts and Balance Sheet would be produced at the AGM in January. About half the clubs who attended the Dinner had not yet paid, however they he had spoken to them and he was confident he would receive the money.

Year Book

The Editor stated there would be no increase in the printing costs for 2008 and the Book would be printed in the same format. Some club reports are still outstanding and more photographs of promoted clubs are required.

Discipline

John Bramhall, Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, reported it had been a reasonably successful year. The accelerated timetable for dealing with reports within one week worked well. The process will now be included in the relevant Schedule within the Rules and Playing Conditions that was being re-written. Special emphasis will be placed on the responsibility of captains.

Precedents from previous years will not be used next season as we have failed to eradicate bad behaviour.

Umpires Panel

Bob McLeod, Chairman of the Umpires Panel, reported that every match under their jurisdiction had been supplied with two umpires. He also spoke about the two-minute allowance for the fall of each wicket. The previous days Panel Meeting had been unanimous in their dislike of this allowance. If there had to be an allowance than the view was it should be reduced to one minute.

End of Season Dinner

The 2007 Dinner was discussed.

The Chairman said that the move of the Dinner back to Sandown Park had been a failure when measured by members attending but a success by the number of clubs attending. We were down about 100 in numbers but up by 10 clubs attending.

Sunbury said all the clubs that win their Divisions naturally would want to go but all clubs should have to take say a minimum of five tickets with the cost of these added to the annual subscription paid by clubs.

Dorking thought it might help the attendance if we started selling the tickets in April each year.

The Executive Committee will discuss all these ideas and report to the AGM in January.

Officers

The Executive Committee had not yet discussed Officers for 2008. Details would be included with the AGM notice.

AGM

The date of the AGM was confirmed as Monday 21 January 2008 at Old Emanuel CC. The Secretary said that any items for the Agenda must be properly proposed and seconded and be with him by 10 December 2007 at the very latest to enable him to circulate to all clubs within the time limit laid down in our rules.

Rules and Playing Conditions

Details of any changes planned to the Rules and Playing Conditions would be sent out with the AGM notice.

The Chairman reported on the Premier Division Captains Meeting that had taken place immediately prior to this meeting. He said that the following had been agreed for 2008:

a. the two-minute allowance for the fall of each wicket would be reduced to one minute. This would also apply to the other divisions with panel umpires.

b. the penalties for Poor and Unacceptable pitch reports would be doubled from those in operation in 2007. He explained there had been a need to find a differential between the over rate penalties and poor/unacceptable pitch penalties. The former was unlikely to affect the outcome of a division but the latter clearly could. This would also apply to the other divisions with panel umpires.

c. The penalty for playing an unregistered Category 1 player had been amended to a £100 fine for a clubs first offence with a 13-point penalty for each of a clubs subsequent offence. The penalties in force for Category 2 and 3 players would remain as before. Executive powers to increase any penalty would remain in force.

d. The Premier League was likely to have a one-year experiment with a change to the format of matches. The first five rounds in the 2008 season would be played on a 50 overs per side limited over format, win or lose. The next nine rounds would be in the existing minimum 120 overs format and the last four rounds would be in the 50 overs limited format.

(Secretary’s note: The 2008 fixtures were issued on 7^th November. Because of the complexity in compiling our fixtures the format has had to be changed to the first four rounds in the limited over format, then the nine rounds of 120 overs matches, finishing with five rounds of 50 overs matches.)

4^th XI League

John Smith from Dulwich reported on the first season of the 4^th XI league. The league had started with eight clubs in 2007 but a lot more clubs want to join in 2008 and it was hoped to run it in two divisions of 10 clubs. The 2008 fixtures will be aligned to the main Surrey Championship fixture dates. There will be meeting to discuss fixtures and other issues on Monday 3 December 2007 at Wimbledon CC. All clubs are invited to send a representative.

Any Other Business

Weybridge asked if consideration could be given to splitting the 1^st and 2^nd Divisions of the 3^rd XI League so that clubs played each other on a home and away basis in line with the rest of the Championship. The Fixture Secretary, Denham Earl, responded by saying that this had been discussed before but had been ruled out because of the fluidity of clubs with a number of them finding difficulty in raising 3^rd XI’s and therefore dropping out of the league. This caused problems with fixtures. The Chairman said that Weybridge should lobby for support and if found the matter could be re-considered.
Epsom said that on some occasions this last season when their 2^nd XI had provided the only umpire for their matches, he had not been allowed by the opposition captain to stand at both ends. Attention was drawn to Playing Condition 6 (b) which states “in match where only one side provides an umpire, if he is prepared to do so, he shall always stand at the bowlers end while the batting side takes it in turn at the strikers end.”
The Chairman spoke of his concern that clubs were not recruiting scorers in spite of fines being imposed in the top four divisions. He thought it might be time to consider replacing the £25 fine with a points deduction. The Executive Committee will be discussing this idea.
The Secretary informed clubs that the 2008 Club Information Sheet would be issued in January 2008.