Minutes of the Management Meeting held at Ripley Castle - Monday, August 21, 2006

MEMBERS PRESENT

Sir Thomas, Erik Thompson, Eric Houseman, Tony Whittaker, Neil Burtwistle, Steve Whiteley, Steven Coombs, Bradley Atkinson, John Barrett, Barry Gill, Jeff Watkins, Bruce Jackson, Bill Kitson, Ben Drummond, David Burton and Tricia Heard.

APOLOGIES

were received from Peter Crack, Shaun Sowray, Chris Newton and Colin Grazin.

MINUTES

The of the meeting held on Monday July 3rd 2006 were signed as being a true record of that meeting.

MATTERS ARISING

There were no matters arising.

CORRESPONDENCE AND SECRETARY'S BUSINESS

Tricia Heard.
Letter was read out from Dacre Banks C C with reference to July 1st when Hampsthwaite and Sharow broke the leagues instruction that all matches were to be played at the set time and no concessions. They would have played in the morning had they been given the go ahead. Also Lofthouse v Middleham and Thirsk v South Kilvington.

Lords International Sponsorship and Ackrills.

Discussed fully and agreed that Erik Thompson, Eric Houseman and Neil Burtwistle would see Jean McQuarrie ( Ackrills ) to discuss future sponsorship.

Eric Houseman will speak to Mr Najmir again re the package for the 2008 onwards.

The new ball suggested by Lords International would be Kite marked and waxed not shelloced. £15 per ball for 2007 and £16 per ball for 2008 – 2013.

Divs 7 and 8. It was agreed that this will be one up and one down again this season.

TREASURERS REPORT

Neil Burtwistle
£13,400 in bank. 6 clubs still not paid their subscriptions. Masham, Arthington, Boroughbridge, Helperby, Scotton and Wath. Treasurer to contact each of these clubs. It was suggested that If not paid by 31st August then 25% of account be added to the amount owing.

DISCIPLINARY PANEL REPORT

David Burton
M Biker ( Ripley ) drove over the square at Bishop Thornton - apology sent- no further proceedings.
2 Ripley v Thornton Watlass and Umpire. Letter of apology sent to G Wetherall- No useful purpose to proceed.

The following to be dealt with on Wednesday Next
Peter Robinson – Scotton have expelled him from the club.
Hampsthwaite / Sharow = 10pm false time shown on both result sheets and they deceived the League.
Crakehall and John Bainbridge
Ripley v Boroughbridge

Two new cases to deal with:-
After David Burton stated that he was not happy that the Management Committee had been discussing Disciplinary Cases at the last meeting a long discussion followed. He did however agree to speak to Goff Wetherall who had resigned from the Umpires Panel following the Masham case.

The Chairman stated that he believed that the time had come to review the disciplinary procedure: it was set up from scratch five years ago and by and large had worked extremely well, but some improvements could be made to help streamline the process and make it more transparent. DB stressed that it was crucial that the disciplinary committee retained full independence: it wasn't the job of the Management Committee to review individual cases. The Chairman agreed but said that any general review could only start by looking back at past events, seeing what had worked and what hadn't, drawing conclusions and making the necessary improvements. The Management Committee had no remit to review individual cases per se and had no intention to do so.

The Chairman tabled several papers outlining the 'recommended tariff' systems used by the Birmingham League to set parameters for disciplinary measures. DB stated that he was absolutely opposed to sentencing tariffs and would step down if such a system was imposed. The Chairman stressed that the system he advocated would set guidelines that would help the disciplinary committee determine the appropriate punishment for each particular circumstance: it would not impose penalties and would not place restraints on the disciplinary committee. He believed that it would help enable the process to become more consistent and transparent. It imposed a duty on umpires to report the more serious examples of misbehaviour and a 'totting up' procedure encouraged good behaviour from players and officials throughout the season. If players knew that showing dissent might cause them to miss next weekend's match and that verbal abuse of an umpire was almost certain to get them banned for three games they might think twice before doing it. DB believed that the current system worked well, and that most of the penalties imposed were in line with those advocated by the Birmingham guidelines. JW said that the vast majority of the league's umpires believed that the system needed some fine tuning. SW acknowledged that it was sometimes difficult to find enough people to sit on the appeals committee at such short notice due to holidays and non-availability and this could and did lead to delays. It was proposed that the pool for appeals committees should be widened to encompass the whole management committee rather than a few members.

It was agreed to defer the item for decision at the next meeting, to give members more time to consider the tabled papers in detail.

UMPIRES SECRETARY

Jeff Watkins.
Umpires Course to start in October to be held at Ripley Castle. Dates to be arranged.
We have one new umpire for the rest of the season – Bruce Jackson.
M C C match to umpired by Barry Canham and Brian Spence.
Should Harrogate Strays pay for Umpires when they failed to let them know that their match was cancelled. Yes £40 to come from Harrogate.

Richard Bleasdale and Terry Hood have requested an increase in Umpires Match Fees along with travelling expenses.

Discussion – No to travelling expenses but will put forward increase of match fees to Saturdays £25 and Evening League Cup Matches £12.

CUP COMPETITIONS AND EVENING LEAGUE

Barry Gill.
Cup winners Reserve KO: Middleham
Wath Cup: Newby Hall
Peter Bentley Cup: Staveley

We must make it that the Atkinson Swires Cup takes priority over everything else.

From 2007 we will start later in the season. Harold Atkinson has expressed the wish that this cup should be played for as an evening competition as it was originally.

Put on Agenda for Rule Changes in November.

Michael Coates ( Harrogate C C Groundsman ) offered to have the Atkinson Swires Cup final on their Ground for the next 3 yrs.

The Management Committee turned down the offer – this match must go round the league.

GROUND COMMITTEE

Ben Drummond
Nothing to report at present.

JUNIOR LEAGUE

John Barrett
Joe Lumb Side won 1 of 6
U 11 won 3
U 13 No matches completed.
U 15 won 2 out of 3 were runners up and also beat Bradford Junior league.

SIX ASIDE INDOOR JUNIOR LEAGUE

Bill Kitson
2006-2007
37 teams in 5 age groups
U 17 8 teams
U 15 7 teams
U 13 9 teams
U 11 7 teams
U 9 6 teams

Three new clubs Killinghall, Raskelf and Glasshouses.
121 hours of cricket plus finals.
Sept 23rd 2006 to April 14th 2007

CHILD WELFARE

Bradley Atkinson.
No 2nd courses arranged yet – Still waiting for dates to be given to us.
Welfare Officers to be printed in the Handbook as from 2007

LEAGUE REPRESENTATIVE SIDE

MCC Team in process of being selected. Report on Interleague Matches will be given by Shaun Sowray at next meeting.

DINNER

Nov 10th Pate - Sirloin – Deep Apple Pie – Cheese and Biscuits and Coffee.

VINTAGE CRICKET TOURNAMENT

June 2008 (Eric Houseman)
Eric Houseman reported on the day Don McCulley visited Harrogate and they toured the area (along with Tricia Heard) to show him the grounds that could be available to him if this tournament were to take place in the Nidderdale League. Mr McCulley said that he would be returning to Harrogate sometime in September and would meet up with us then. He would then be able to let us know how he had progressed with other arrangements and how he would present to package t