Minutes of the Management Meeting held at Ripley Castle - Tuesday, November 08, 2011

1. Committee Members Present
Graham Hyde (GH), Tony Whittaker (TW), Sir Thomas Ingilby (SIRT), Bob Skaith (BS), , Bill Kitson (BK), Paul Ellis (PC), Eric Houseman (EH), Chris Newton (CN), Ian Sunderland (IS), Roger Deakin (RD), Isabel Peel (IP), Tricia Heard (TH), Martin Blackham (MB), Alex Houseman (AH), Justin Park (JP), Anton Lodge (AL), Peter Crack (PC), Steven Coombs (SC)

2. Apologies for Absence
Ben Drummond (BD), Ken Coad (KC), Luke Bickers (LB), Craig Robson (CR)

3. Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 5th September 2011
have been circulated and were accepted as a true and accurate record.

4. Matters arising
• Birstwith CC have accepted the MCC match in 2012
• Division 5 trophy has been recovered from Masham CC

5. Correspondence and Secretary’s Business (TH)
• Re-election of officials by rotation:
o Bob Scaith, Isabel Peel, Graham Hyde, Tricia Heard
o Peter Crack, Paul Ellis/Junior Secretary role
• All wish to stand again.
• Some discussion had taken place as to whether Northallerton Wolves will be fielding a team in the League in 2012 and confirmation has been received that they will.
• Fixtures have been requested from Roger Dale and there was concern was over Bedale 2nd XI. Bedale’s 1st XI play in the North Yorkshire South Durham League and their fixtures would not be created for several weeks. We have organised our own fixtures without consultation with the NYSD as it was felt that we could not wait. There may be some rearrangement of fixtures depending upon whether Bedale 1st XI are home or away when Bedale 2nds are due to be at home. Division 9 will be shorter than the rest of the divisions games could be rearranged on the vacant weeks.
• Division 9 will start on week 2 and finish on week 19
• Letter received from Spofforth which was circulated, thanking the League for their first season as have Little Ribston.
• Annual fixture against the MCC will be at Birstwith, August 29th 2012

6. Treasurers Report (BS)
• Current Acc £11,765.72 Deposit Account remains unchanged
• All bills up to date
• 17 clubs owed 39 fines after the end of the season, copy invoices were sent, only 4 outstanding still.
• Fines have not been doubled if not paid within 21 days as BS thought that the process needed sorting out and revising.
• 4 outstanding fines will be sent out with 2012 main bills to clubs
• NJIL – invoices sent out. 4 have paid in full already.
• Letter received from St Michael’s hospice in receipt and recognition for the donations made from the raffles held at the various Cup finals. Help was offered by St Michael’s for future fund raising efforts
• Cairn Hotel requires 95% of projected numbers 1 week in advance of dinner. 11th Nov. This will be around £4k

7. Umpires Report (GH)
• Almost as soon as the 2011 season finished, the league were approached by a former League panel umpire who wished to return.
• Thoughts are in place to establish a more robust disciplinary process for umpires.

8. ACO North Yorkshire Branch, Umpires Course & AGM (GH)
• Level 1 umpire’s course is going very well, with 3 weeks left. Attendance has been excellent at 22 candidates. It is hoped that most will be available for evening cup fixtures, when not playing but a couple may stand regularly on Saturdays. However, it is encouraging to see a diverse range of ages.
• A successful AGM was held in October with Adrian Grayson as guest speaker.
• Thanks to Sir Thomas and Ripley Castle for providing the venues for our events.

9. Cup Competitions and Evening League (IS)
• Draws likely to take place in December or January

10. North & West Yorkshire Cricket Council (IS)
• First meeting held last night at Bilton CC
• Very enthusiastic participants but unsure as to the purpose
• Interested in joining up development groups between various Leagues in the area
• Participation from other forms of cricket – how many junior teams, age groups, indoor, girls, ladies required by Helen Dennis. This is where the funding is coming from and any information would be fed up to the YCB.
• Question arose as to the organisation of the Ladies Nidderdale Competition.

11. Ground Committee Report (BD)
• BD was not present but a report was given by BK
• Most improved Studley Royal main ground
• The Ground Committee suggested the following grounds for cup finals for 2012
o Atkinson Swiers - Studley Royal
o Barrett Cup - Sharow
o Wath Cup - Knaresborough Forest
o Peter Bentley - Arthington
• Proposals are in train to hold a single finals day for the Barrett, Wath and Peter Bentley Cups requiring one ground. Decision deferred back to Ground Committee.

12. Child Welfare (IP)
• Safe-guarding course, 20 attendees has been run.
• No more courses have been run since
• Additional course may be run in the New Year

13. Disciplinary Committee (AL)
• Justin Park retired from being the panel’s secretary on 5/9/11. Justin was a very efficient and hardworking. He made my work as chairman so much easier. I and the management committee owe Justin a great debt of thanks. Anyone who made a complaint or against whom a complaint was made was helped by Justin. He organised the hearings at Ripley very well. Papers were always in order.
• Fortunately Justin’s departure came at the end of the season. A few matters were still to be dealt with. Without Justin’s help I have not been nearly as efficient as him in dealing with these.
• The great good news is that we have a new disciplinary secretarial team. Craig Robson (KFCC) is the new secretary with Luke Bickers (Pannal CC) as the assistant secretary.
• A full report will be prepared for the AGM.
• A handover meeting has been completed.
• There are outstanding matters which are in need of attention.
• A review of the Shane Wills case was highlighted and requires attention before the League AGM. MB and AL to take this matter up.
• A question was raised as to the publication of disciplinary panel findings on the League web site. Rule 33 comes into play.

14. Junior League Representative (PE)
• PE previously circulated an email about a junior league secretary who represented Beckwithshaw CC and was contesting the Management Committee’s decision not to offer coaches at his club assistance with the cost of coaching courses. This was due to the host club not having any senior teams playing in the Nidderdale League.
• It was suggested that a 50% contribution should be offered to any application from clubs who did not field senior teams in the Nidderdale League with clubs being invited to contribute to the balance.
• This should be limited to 2 people per club as per the existing league rules
• U13s currently do not have a trophy/cup competition – this will be another Barrett trophy.
• The John Barrett memorial trophy fell by the wayside towards the end of the season. Pannal CC has been approached and this fixture will now happen at the start of the 2012 season.

15. Six a Side Junior Indoors (BK)
• We are now nine weeks into the season at Pateley Bridge where the sessions for the younger players are working very well; occasionally a player short but still playing. However, at Boroughbridge from eight sessions, we have already lost six playing hours where clubs have been unable to raise teams. This is for a variety of reasons but is also unfair to those clubs which now have to turn out for only one game when the fixtures were calculated so that this would not occur.
• With the large volume of entries all clubs were asked to double check and confirm that they had sufficient players and coaches to fulfil the fixtures before they had been issued. Despite this, we are not only having shortages of players but a situation arose highlighting, not only the need for umpires, but a need for scorers. The majority of club scorers who attend accompany the younger teams, which are already covered by Tricia.
• Craig Robson has expressed his interest in joining as an umpire and hopefully this will enable us to give better cover at both venues.
• On a positive note, Dan Lever of Ouseburn, as last man standing scored an individual 108 not out, bringing the team from 27 for 5 to win the match. There has been some excellent cricket amongst all age groups.

16. League Representative Side (AH)
• Played 3 won 2 in 2011
• AH has spoken to Andrew Groves at Ackrills Newspaper to get some press coverage for next season

17. Tidy Up And Possible Rule Changes (GH)
• No rule changes have been received by any League club
• Some proposals were drawn up to tidy up a number of the current rules which were discussed by the Committee. Those that were agreed will be presented at the AGM in January.

18. “Structure Of The Management Committee” (GH)
• Proposals had previously been circulated and after a discussion it was agreed to leave the structure and composition of the League Management Committee as it is.
• Eric Houseman would be formally recognised as Deputy League Chairman.
• All reports from those committee members who are required to provide a report, will be required 7 days in advance of any Management Committee meeting and will be circulated with the agenda.

19. Any Other Business (All)
• Dinner - feedback forms on tables
• EH proposed - each club should nominate 2 suitable individuals to be available to sit on a disciplinary panel and named as such in the club contact details. A discussion took place but it was agreed that the current “panel” system should be increased by 4 to 8.
• Dinner Raffle prizes – committee members were reminded of the need to bring a raffle prize
• 6 boys for Yorkshire pathways.
• Chairman of Masham rang EH – in 2011 they have an Aussie who is staying in the country over the winter and has become engaged to a local resident and wanted to know if he could be registered as a recreational overseas player. Masham should discuss with Tony Whittaker
• An informal approach has been made as to the formation of a premier league by local senior cricket club. Agenda item for next meeting
• Sponsorship with Lords ends after next season. Agenda item for next meeting

20. Date of Next Meeting
• AGM – 16th January 2012 Ripley Town Hall
• Next Committee meeting 30th January 2012 at Ripley Castle

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