CHESHIRE CLUBS CRICKET COMMITTEE

Minutes of the Planning Meeting of the Executive of the Cheshire Clubs Cricket Committee held

on Monday, 8th June, 2009 at Oulton Park C.C.

Present:       D.Humpage (Chairman), R.Cunningham (Acting Secretary & West Region Representative), J.Bygate (Cheshire County Cricket Club), P.Davies (Cheshire Cricket League), J.Duddy (Derbyshire & Cheshire League), N.James (Cheshire Association of Groundsmen), Ms.S.McCann (Cheshire Womens Cricket League), J.Rafferty (Cheshire Cricket Alliance) and M.Woollard (Cricket Development Officer).

Apologies:  Apologies for absence had been received from J.Elliott (Treasurer), I.Greensmith (Competitions Secretary), B.Bishop (Website Manager) and A.Margeson (Cheshire Welfare Officer).

1.     MINUTES

The minutes of the Planning Meeting of the Executive, at Hale Barns C.C., on Monday, 26th January, 2009, as circulated prior to the meeting, were signed as a true record. Any matters arising would be covered by the agenda of the present meeting.

  2.     ACTION PLAN

The proposed Action List for 2009, as circulated prior to the meeting, was thought to be satisfactory, although further actions might be added to it following discussions at the meeting.

  3.     RE-ORGANISATION OF CHESHIRE WOMENS CRICKET

S.McCann informed the meeting that Cheshire Women’s Cricket had now been re-organised. The CWCL would now be responsible only for the organisation of its own competitions, while the Northern Premier League and Cheshire Women’s County teams would be run separately.

The Northern Premier League team had now been integrated into Warrington C.C. and the club would be responsible for the team and for hosting its home fixtures, the team being picked from players who joined Warrington C.C. for that purpose. S.McCann stated that Warrington C.C. had two grounds and was centrally placed in the county, making it an ideal venue for the team. Currently the team was composed largely from Cheshire County players.

The Cheshire Women’s County C.C. was to be organised by a separate committee of officials and a new constitution had been drawn up. Following discussions at the CCB, the Club would come under the auspices of the CCCC and report to the CCB through that body. D.Humpage told the meeting that while the CCCC would support the Club in whatever way they could, he had told the CCB that he felt that as a county side, the correct body to support it, should be the Cheshire County C.C. The meeting agreed with his views and the secretary would inform the CCB of this opinion.   

4.     REPORTS ON ACTION AREAS

Reports were made on progress under the headings of the Action List for 2009:

A.  Public Image of Cricket (Actions 1-9).

(i)  CCCC Website   The CCCC website was operating well under the new webmaster, B.Bishop. However changes were still necessary to the section covering Child Welfare and M.Woollard would contact him about this. It was hoped that B.Bishop would attend a meeting in the near future to meet the members of the Executive. R.Cunningham would ensure he was personally invited and D.Lawson would encourage him to attend.

(ii)  ClubMark   M. Woollard reported that there were five more Clubs which were making good progress towards gaining ClubMark and he felt that the number of accredited Cheshire Clubs would reach the target of 87 before the end of the year. Several new clubs had contacted him about starting to work towards qualifying for ClubMark.

Ashley C.C. had recently become the first club of twenty whose re-accreditation was due in 2009 to complete the process. However four clubs, Caldy, Christleton, Poynton and Sale, had not yet qualified for re-accreditations which had become due in 2008. Christleton were the only one of them to be close to re-accreditation. M.Woollard would work with all the remaining clubs to try and ensure that as many as possible were re-accredited by the autumn, although several were causing him some concern. He asked that the leagues should stress to their clubs that re-accreditation should be attained in the year it became due. He would also suggest that the Focus Club Agreement between the Clubs and the CCB should be altered to include this as a requirement and also to state that Focus Clubs should make every reasonable effort to accept requests from the CYC for the use of their facilities for junior county matches. The meeting was in agreement with these proposals.

(iii)  Recreational League Cricket

(a)   Cheshire Integrated League System   Discussions between the Cheshire Cricket League and Romiley C.C., about that club’s application to join the CILS , had resulted in Romiley being accepted, and agreeing, to play in the CCL in 2010.

D.Hunpage had written to Disley C.C. to explain that the system for the assimilation of clubs into the CILS was only for use when clubs applied to join in small numbers. Special arrangements would have to be made to avoid blocking promotion within the CILS if a larger number of clubs applied to join at any one time.

The CCCL informed the meeting clubs would now be required to be accredited for ClubMark to be eligible for membership. D.Humpage asked that clubs near the top of the CCL Division 1 should be made aware of this requirement as soon as possible. The meeting was made aware that Malpas, currently top of the CCL, had yet to attain ClubMark accreditation.      

(b)  Cheshire Womens’ Cricket League   S.McCann reported that there would be 11 teams in the CWCL in 2009, with new sides from Romiley & Dinting and Trafford playing in Division 2. New Brighton C.C. would be playing in the League Twenty20 Competition and hoped to join the League in 2010. Apart from Neston, which was currently short of players, the clubs seemed to be thriving. Two Derbyshire clubs had applied to join the CWCL and had had to be turned down because of the large distances which would have to be travelled since the League was played on a countywide basis.

The CWCL would be starting a Junior Section in 2010, when ten clubs would be taking part in an U13 League. Four clubs also had U15 teams and it was hoped that that number would increase in the future and enable an U15 section to be set up. A grant had been obtained from the National Lottery to help with setting up the Junior Section and the CWCL had appointed Ms.S.Barlow as their Junior Development Officer and were to start running coaching courses especially for girls.

It was agreed that the main aims of the CWCL at present were to maintain, or increase, the number of clubs playing in their competitions and to form their junior section. These aims should therefore be added to the Action List 2009 to demonstrate the willingness of the CCCC to help the CWCL to achieve its aims.

B.  Development of Club Resources (Actions 10-15).

(i)  CASC Status   M.Woollard reported that following the re-organisation of local government into the West Cheshire & Chester and East Cheshire Councils, it seemed probable that only clubs which had Community Amateur Sports Club Status would qualify for maximum rate relief. Only about half the Cheshire Focus Clubs were CASCs and he asked the leagues to advise their clubs, if they were not in that number, to consider taking this step in the next future.

C.  Development of Club Facilities (Actions 16-19).

(i) ECB Grants & Loans   The CCB had been required by the ECB to oversee and co-ordinate the implementation of a Facilities Development Strategy for Cheshire and to prioritise applications for grants and loans from the ECB in line with this scheme. A sub-group had been set up in October 2008 to identify where gaps existed in the availability of suitable facilities at focus clubs throughout the county and which, if filled, would have the greatest benefit on the development of the game in Cheshire. The sub-group of D.Humpage, P.Davies, M.Woollard, and later N.James, had drawn up a club prioritisation list for grant applications and had contacted those clubs high on the list, which had not put forward applications for grants to the ECB, to establish their ability and willingness to submit successful applications.

This list would need to be reviewed regularly to take into account possible changes in the future development priorities for Cheshire cricket and club circumstances. The CCB had therefore formally recognised the sub-group as the Cheshire Facilities Prioritisation Panel, which would meet on a regular basis and report to the CCB through the CCCC. The meeting voted to accept the composition of the panel and the responsibility to support its work.

(ii)  Ground Assessment Grants   The meeting was informed that the CCCL had chosen twelve clubs, seven from the Premier League, for ground assessments by the Cheshire Pitch Advisers under the ECB PQS grant scheme. The cost of the assessments and the written reports and recommendations would be met by the ECB.

The clubs taking part would then be expected to act on the recommendations for their facilities. While this work should be largely financed by the clubs concerned, if major work was required clubs might have to apply to the ECB for grants, or loans, to carry out the work.

(iii) Cheshire Association of Groundsmen  

N.James informed the meeting that the CAG were considering applying to the ECB for a grant to purchase some further ground machinery, probably an aerator, or a scarifier/seeder. M.Woollard stated that some further money for machinery grants might be becoming available as some of the counties had not taken up their available allocations. The CAG would also be considering organising several meetings for members, to discuss topics such as the availability of funding for ground improvements and equipment, and possibly a presentation by Total Turf Solutions and Bancrofts, of the range of non-turf pitches and ground equipment available for purchase, or hire.

N.James reported that the CAG would require a new secretary in 2010 as K.Jobbins was retiring and he would be interested to hear of any possible replacements. Although the CCCL had collected the 2009 CAG subscriptions from member clubs on their behalf, the Association were still having trouble in collection subs from individual members and other clubs. He asked the remaining leagues to consider collecting from their clubs, without compelling them to join. Club subscriptions would be for a nominated member, or employee, but other individuals from a club could join by paying a further subscription.

The CAG were also to consider the supplying of corporate clothing, perhaps bad weather gear, for purchase by members to give them a sense of belonging to a body.  

D.  Senior Recreational Cricket (Action 20).    

(i)  League Cricket Report 2009   R.Cunningham would gather information to enable a comprehensive report on Senior League cricket in the county in 2009 to be written in the autumn.

E.  Disabled Cricket (Action 21).

M.Woollard reported that there was no further news on the establishment of new facilities for disabled sport in the Crewe area.

G.  Child Welfare Issues (Action 22).

Nothing to report.

4.    ANY OTHER BUSINESS

(a)  Membership   Following correspondence between Great Budworth C.C and the secretary, it was thought that the Club intended to become affiliated to the CCB. Great Budworth currently fielded one team and played friendly matches at a ground near Arley Hall.

(b)  Cheshire Umpires & Scorers Association   D.Lawson informed the meeting that the CU&SA was pleased with the development of the scheme for the mobility of umpires between leagues in the CILS. A number of umpires were now sharing their appointments between leagues.

The CU&SA were planning additions to their normal ten week umpires training course, to meet requirements to cover extra topics for the ECB ACO Level 1 Course, but were not planning to cut the course to only five sessions as laid down by that body. They felt that keeping each session short was beneficial when the courses were in general attended after the participants had completed a full day’s work. Two courses were planned during next winter, while the one day courses, “Umpiring for the Terrified”, would be organised by the CU&SA directly with interested clubs.

The CU&SA had drawn up a budget for the next year and would ask that the CCCC should continue to pay for the training courses as at present. The Association would be able to meet the cost of modifying the course software in 2009, but would like help to be able to carry out further alterations and replace equipment used for instruction in 2010. D.Humpage stated that the CCCC would help with the CU&SA expenses as necessary.

In reply to a question from D.Humpage, D.Lawson replied that CU&SA umpires, including the three lady members, had provided cover for the Women’s Premier League and County matches so far this season and S.McCann agreed that they had been well supported. D.Humpage suggested that the CWCL might like to consider asking the CU&SA for umpires for league matches, but S.McCann thought that the clubs would not wish to incur such an expense at the present time.   

(c)  Coaching Matters   M.Woollard reported that winter UKCC2 training courses for coaches had been arranged. However the Cheshire Coaches Association wished to promote the use of the Coach Workshops which those who had passed the UKCC2 course should take to become qualified as Club Coaches.

(d)  OSCA Nominations   Members of the Executive and affiliated Clubs were to be reminded that nominations could still be put forward for people, who had made outstanding contributions to cricket, either in their clubs, leagues, or to Cheshire cricket, to attend the OSCAs Award Dinner 2009 at Lords. These should be passed to R.Cunningham as soon as possible.

The meeting was informed that Cheshire was now one of only two counties out of 39, not to hold its own OSCAs presentation. The meeting still felt that they did not wish to initiate such awards within the county.

(e)  Results Services   J.Bygate reported that both the BBC and ITV had stopped their teletext result services

as a precursor to the advent of digital television services. This would be a great loss to many people who would not now be able to get news of results on a Saturday night. There did not however seem to be any alternative means of recording results except on league websites as soon as they could be made available.

(f)  Pitch Markings   N.James asked J.Bygate how the change in the pitch marking system in the CCCL was progressing. He replied that although the average mark had now decreased, since a very good pitch was now only awarded four marks instead of five, the positions of clubs in the table had not changed significantly.

6.     DATES OF NEXT MEETINGS

The next Executive Committee meeting would be held on Monday, 27th July, 2009, at Oulton Park C.C. at 8.00 p.m. A date of the next Planning Meeting would be fixed at that meeting.

There being no further business the Chairman thanked Oulton Park C.C. for the use of their facilities and closed the meeting at 10.10 p.m.

           Signed  .....................................................................           Date  .....................................................

CHESHIRE CLUBS CRICKET COMMITTEE

Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive of the Cheshire Clubs Cricket Committee held

on Monday, 27th July, 2009 at Oulton Park C.C.

Present:       D.Humpage (Chairman), R.Cunningham (Secretary & West Region Representative), J.Elliott (Treasurer), J.Bygate (Cheshire County Cricket Club), P.Davies (Cheshire Cricket League), M.Hasprey (East Region Representative), N.James (Cheshire Association of Groundsmen), D.Lawson (Cheshire Umpires & Scorers Association), J.Rafferty (Cheshire Cricket Alliance), Ms D Totty (Cheshire Womens’ Cricket League) and M.Woollard (Cheshire Development Officer).

Apologies:  Apologies for absence had been received from J.Duddy (Derbyshire & Cheshire League), and I.Greensmith (Competitions Secretary).

1.     Chairman’s Remarks

D.Humpage welcomed those present to the meeting.

2.    Minutes

The minutes of the Executive meeting held on March 30th, 2009, had been circulated prior to the meeting. In Section 3(c) it had been stated that the members of Romiley C.C. had voted in favour of applying to join the CILS in the CCL in 2010. J.Rafferty was of the opinion that no date had been given, but other members of the meeting did not agree with him. It was decided that his view should be recorded, but that the minutes should be signed as a true record.

3.    Matters Arising

(a)  Romiley C.C.    P.Davies outlined for the meeting the negotiations with Romiley C.C. after the CCL had received their enquiry about joining the CILS in January 2009.  Following a meeting held with the Club in February, the CCL had offered them membership for the 2010 Season. The Club members had then voted to accept the offer and this had been reported to the Executive meeting on March 30th.  However that decision still had to be ratified by the Club trustees. While Romiley C.C. had been told that their final decision would be appreciated by April 1st, the Club had not been informed that failure to comply could affect the timing of their entry to the CILS. Romiley had been elected to League membership at the CCL meeting in April, but delays in obtaining the consent of their trustees had meant that a final acceptance was not received until May 11th, 2009.

The CCCC had recently received a letter from the CCA on this topic, expressing their view that by admitting Romiley to membership for 2010 after April 1st, 2009, the CCL had broken the spirit of the agreement between the leagues on the acceptance of clubs into the CILS. They therefore felt that the CCL should still accept the promotion of two clubs from the CCA at the end of the season, as this had been the situation at the start of the season. J.Rafferty confirmed that these were the views of both the officials and clubs of the CCA.

The meeting then discussed the situation and concluded that the CCL had accidentally broken the spirit, though not the wording, of the agreement of August 2007 on the admission of clubs into the CILS. To prevent this happening in future, it was decided to alter the agreement to make April 1st each year, a deadline for the completion of admission of clubs for the following year, except by agreement of the CILS competitions involved. Also when future applications were received by the CCCC secretary, the timetable for entry of the club for a particular season should be laid out when their application was acknowledged.

In the present case the meeting agreed that Romiley C.C. having been offered and accepted membership for the 2010 Season should be allowed to play in the CCL that season. However it would be unfair to expect the number of clubs to be promoted from the CCA at the end of the 2009 Season to be changed after the season had started. Hence the CCL would be asked to consider how they could accept two clubs from the CCA, as well as Romiley C.C., into their league for the 2010 Season. The total number of clubs in the CCL could then be adjusted for the 2011 Season.     

4.     Finance & Membership

(a)  Finance   J.Elliott reported current assets of £16,606-26. The sum of £5,100 had been received in club affiliation fees, but no fees had yet been received from the CCCL. J.Elliott was advised to contact CCCL Treasurer, B.Wilkinson, and ask for the fees which had been collected from the clubs. It was confirmed that the CCCC was to retain these affiliation fees to count towards offsetting annual expenditure.

Expenses since the last meeting had included: £965 for Disabled Cricket, £1,398 to the IOG for Groundsmens courses held, £300 in Clubmark grants to affiliated clubs and £1,052 to the CU&SA to cover the cost of umpires and scorers courses and members subscription rebates received from the ECB.

5.    Development Officers Business

(a)  ClubMark   M.Woollard reported that Cheshire now had 84 Focus Clubs with the recent accreditation of Barnton C.C. for Clubmark. Barrow C.C. should also become accredited in the near future. Four clubs, Caldy, Christleton, Poynton and Sale, still had to gain re-accreditations which had become due in 2008. Seven of the twenty one more clubs which became eligible for re-accreditation in 2009, had so far completed this task. However M.Woollard had agreed with Stalybridge St Pauls C.C. that they would not seek re-accreditation until 2010.

(b)  Development Forums   M.Woollard told the meeting that the Chester, Stockport and Wirral Forums had obtained grants to allow them to subsidise the cost of coaches training courses for members of their clubs. All the forums were operating well, but he was considering whether some should be amalgamated, or hold joint meetings, because of the recent council re-organisation.

(c)  Coaching Officers   J.Duffy, one of the Coaching Officers employed by the CCB, was leaving and would be badly missed after much excellent work in the Stockport area. He would be replaced because the Stockport Council would be contributing towards the cost of his replacement, but overall with a reduction likely in the finances of the CCB, it could be necessary to consider how many officers could be employed in the future and what their duties should be.

(d)  Local Council Funding   M.Woollard informed the meeting that funding was available from both the Cheshire West & Chester and the Cheshire East Councils for coach education. Cheshire West & Chester also had grants available to clubs who had five or more volunteers in official positions.     

6.    Cheshire Womens’ Cricket

(a)  League   D.Totty reported that the Cheshire Womens Cricket League was making good progress in 2009. However the final of the Knockout Cup had been washed out and would have to be re-organised. The Twenty/20 finals would be at Alvanley C.C. on August 31st. Eight Clubs were setting up junior sections with a view to entering the League U13 Competition in 2010.

The Warrington Ladies team was doing well in the National Premier League, but had recently been defeated and would probably finish as runners-up.

(b)  Cheshire County Teams

D.Totty told the meeting that the Senior XI were having mixed fortunes in 2009, but the junior teams were doing well. A match between a Cheshire Select XI and an MCC XI was to be staged at Chester Boughton Hall C.C. on Tuesday, 18th August, 2009.

J.Bygate informed the meeting that the Cheshire County C.C. Committee had decided that they did not wish to be responsible for supporting the Cheshire Women’s teams and felt that the CCCC were the right body to do so.

7.    Cheshire Umpires & Scorers Association Report

(a)  Appointment of Umpires   D.Lawson informed the meeting that the appointment of umpires for Knockout Competitons and other non-league matches had gone well so far this season.

(b)  ECB Training Courses    The CU&SA had now agreed with the ECB a system, based on their old ten week courses, for training umpires to the new Level 1 standard. In future all new umpires will be trained to this standard but will have to attain Level 2 status if they are to umpire ECB accredited matches such as National Knockout ties and Junior County games. Both S.Goron and G.Young had attended ECB Courses to enable them to instruct Level 2 courses which would be held over two weekends.

  8.     Cricket for the Disabled

M.Woollard reported on the excellent work being carried out by Wirral C.C. in support of Visually Impaired Cricket. A match between the Cheshire Disabled side, organised by K.Beggs, and the England Learning Difficulties Team, organised by I.Leather, would take place at Rode Park & Lawton C.C. on August 18th, 2009.

The Disabled Cricket Development Group would be meeting next week.

9.    Cheshire Association of Groundsmen Report

   (a)  Membership   N.James told the meeting that the CAG had approximately 80 members so far in 2009. He thanked the CCCL for collecting the subscriptions of their clubs on behalf of the CAG and asked the other leagues to once more consider whether they could do likewise in 2010. The membership list on the website was currently being updated.

(b)  Ground Equipment   A grant application for the purchase of an aerator had been made to the ECB and was currently being considered by them. The meeting confirmed that if necessary the CAG could have a grant of up to £500 from the CCCC if necessary to complete the purchase.

(c)  Courses and Meetings    The CAG were intending to hold a Foundation Course Part B in September, and an Intermediate/Advanced Course in October.

Open meetings were being planned for the autumn to discuss the availability and installation of non-turf playing facilities, led by Total Turf Solutions, the ECB top accredited firm in this field. These would be held at two different venues. It was also intended to invite D.Musson and M.Woollard to give talks at the AGM on the availability of funding for such facilities.

M.Woollard advised the meeting that while he admired Total Turf Solutions, the firm had a reputation for aggressive marketing. The Cheshire Clubs must be made aware that if they wished to install non-turf facilities, they should first contact the Cheshire Cricket Development Office, who would give them the names of approved companies and advice on whether they would be likely to receive grant aid.

(d)  Ground Inspections   N.James reported that he and P.Agar had so far completed only one ground inspection for the CCCL under the ECB/IOG Fine Turf PQS project for premier league clubs. They would try to inspect the other clubs as soon as they could and should have more time available at the end of the season. Each inspection took about half a day at the ground and a considerable time to write the report once the test results were received.

10.     Cheshire Knockout Competitions

(a)  2009 Competitions   P.Davies reported for I.Greensmith that the quarter-finals of the Cheshire Cup were to be played on August 2nd, with the semi-finals on August 9th and the final on August 30th. The quarters were: Bowdon v Macclesfield, Alderley Edge v Bollington, Elworth v Wallasey and Neston v Oulton Park.

The Shield quarter-finals had been due to be played on July 26th. Two had been started and then abandoned, with Brooklands beating Marple and Cheadle beating Ashton-on-Mersey in bowl outs. The other two matches, Bramhall v Birkenhead St Marys and Lindow v Stockport, were to be played on August 2nd and a result would have to be reached on that date. The first semi-final, Cheadle v Brooklands, would also be played on August 2nd and the other on August 9th, with the final on August 23rd.

There had been four withdrawals from the Cheshire Cup, Crewe and Winnington Park in Round 2 and Old Parkonians and Romiley in Round 3. In the Shield, Lymm Oughtrington Park, Styal and The Groves had withdrawn in the first round. Of the seven clubs involved, only Romiley had notified the Competitions Secretary and made satisfactory efforts to try and play the fixture.  

P.Davies thanked P.Hutchinson and J.Hacking for organising umpires for the competitions through the CU&SA.

11.     Grants Sub-Committee

The secretary was asked to contact S.Wright re the updating of the booklet on the grants available for cricket clubs and offer him any assistance required.     

12.     Cheshire Youth Cricket Report

M.Woollard reported that the Cheshire Youth teams were again doing well in 2009. In particular the U17 side had beaten Lancashire in both one and two day matches during the previous week.

13.     Any Other Business

(a)  Old Trafford Indoor Facilities   M.Woollard reported that the CCB had been asked to give their support for a plan to develop the present indoor facilities at Old Trafford. It had been decided that they would do so, provided it was noted that the facilities were intended as a centre of excellence, not only for Lancashire but also for Cheshire.  

(b)  Advice for Clubs  R.Cunningham told the meeting that some Cheshire clubs were experiencing increasing friction in their relationships with the owners of neighbouring properties. This was because the ball was being hit out of grounds with increasing frequency, due probably to the provision of better wickets and the increasing amount of technological development put into bat design. He had been asked what precautions clubs could reasonably be expected to take to limit the frequency of such occurrences and it was decided that the CCCC should write to P.Bedford, the ECB Head of Non-First Class Cricket Operations, to ask for advice on this matter from their Legal Department.

14.     Date of Next Meetings

The next Planning meeting of the Executive Committee will be held on Wednesday, 30th September, 2009 at 8.00 p.m. at Hale Barns C.C.

The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be held on Monday, 9th November, 2009 at Hale Barns C.C. at 8.00 p.m.

There being no further business the Chairman thanked Hale Barns C.C. for the use of their facilities and closed the meeting at 10.10 pm.

Signed   …………………………………………           Date   ………………………………………..

CHESHIRE CLUBS CRICKET COMMITTEE

Minutes of the Planning Meeting of the Executive of the Cheshire Clubs Cricket Committee held

on Wednesday, 30th September, 2009 at Hale Barns C.C.

Present:       D.Humpage (Chairman), R.Cunningham (Acting Secretary & West Region Representative), J.Elliott (Treasurer), J.Bygate (Cheshire County Cricket Club), J.Duddy (Derbyshire & Cheshire League), N.James (Cheshire Association of Groundsmen), D.Lawson (Cheshire Umpires & Scorers Association), M.Ostick (Cheshire Cricket Alliance) and M.Woollard (Cricket Development Officer).

Apologies:  Apologies for absence had been received from P.Davies (Cheshire Cricket League), Ms.S.McCann (Cheshire Womens Cricket League) and J.Rafferty (Cheshire Cricket Alliance).

1.     CHAIRMAN’S REMARKS

D.Humpage welcomed M.Ostick to the meeting as the Representative of the CCA, in the absence of J.Rafferty on holiday.

2.     MINUTES

The minutes of the Planning Meeting of the Executive, at Oulton Park C.C., on Monday, 8th January, 2009, as circulated prior to the meeting, were signed as a true record.

3.    REPRESENTATION OF CHESHIRE WOMENS CRICKET

D.Humpage reported that the Cheshire County C.C. had declined to take the Cheshire Women’s County C.C. under its auspices. The CCB had therefore decided, at the meeting on September 21st that the CWCCC should continue to report to the CCB through the CCCC.   

4.    REPORTS ON ACTION AREAS

Reports were made on progress under the headings of the Action List for 2009:

A.  Public Image of Cricket (Actions 1-9).

(i)  CCCC Website   D.Lawson reported that the webmaster, B.Bishop, hoped to be able to attend a meeting in the near future to meet the members of the Executive.

(ii)  ClubMark   M. Woollard reported that Cheshire now had 85 ClubMark accredited clubs with the addition of Barnton and Barrow CCs since the last Planning Meeting. Sandbach had only to complete their development information on the ECB CDS to complete their accreditation.

Fifteen of the twenty clubs whose re-accreditation was due in 2009 had already completed the process. However Sale had not yet qualified, their re-accreditation having become due in 2008. This left six clubs remaining to gain re-accreditation by the end of October.

The ECB were proposing that clubs wishing to play in Premier Leagues must from 2011 obtain re-accreditation before the end of October in the year it becomes due to be eligible. M.Woollard told the meeting that this condition was being written into the Focus Club Agreement between the Clubs and the CCB and also to state that Focus Clubs should make every reasonable effort to accept requests from the CYC for the use of their facilities for junior county matches.

(iii)  Recreational League Cricket

(a)   Romiley C.C.   It was reported that following the acceptance by Romiley of a place in the CCL in May, that league was intending to operate with 13 clubs in Division 3 in 2010, including Romiley as well as Disley and Woodford which would be promoted from the CCA.

(b)   CMA C.C.   M.Ostick told the meeting that the CCA had been informed at their recent meeting that an application from CMA C.C. to join the CILS had been passed by the CCCC to the CCA. Discussions with the Club should now be in progress. It was not clear why action had not been taken sooner following the receipt of the application in July.

(c)   Assimilation Document   A revised draft on the CCCC policy for the Assimilation of Cheshire Clubs into the CILS had been circulated. The document was in general thought to be satisfactory, but the CCA had requested that a sentence should be added stating that a promotion place must always be available for the champions of the CCL, or CCA, provided they meet the requirements of the league to which they would be promoted. The meeting agreed that such a sentence should be added and the draft re-circulated.

(d)   Cheshire Women’s Cricket League   D.Humpage reported that the CWCL had had a successful season in 2009 and good progress was being made with the assistance of their new Development Officer, S.Barker. The recent presentation dinner had been well attended.

B.  Development of Club Resources (Actions 10-15).

(i)  CASC Status   M.Woollard told the meeting that Community Amateur Sports Club status was being promoted to the Clubs through the Development Groups. Most clubs should be able to attain CASC status provided they did not have more social than playing members. They could however be asked to make changes to their constitutions, especially with respect to the dissolution of the club should it cease to exist. The club assets would then be required to be passed to similar organisations, rather than divided between the members.

C.  Development of Club Facilities (Actions 16-19).

(i) ECB Grants & Loans   M.Woollard reported that the Cheshire Facilities Prioritisation Panel had met again and following their discussions he was now developing a points based system, covering all aspects of a clubs resources and facilities, which would give a measure of the priority to be given to a grant applicant from a particular club. Once the system was finalised details could then be publicised.

D.Musson, the ECB Regional Development Officer, had informed M.Woollard that the details of the ECB funding scheme were to be changed in 2010 and had advised that Cheshire clubs should be encouraged to send in applications for funding for short term projects by the end of November. Clubs should however remember that they must have planning permission, or written evidence from their council that permission is not required, before applications can be forwarded to the ECB. M.Woollard had discussed the situation with clubs which might be able to meet this deadline.

(ii)  Ground Assessment Grants   N.James informed the meeting that to date he had inspected and written reports on the grounds of three of the twelve CCCL clubs taking part in this programme. It was intended that either he, or P.Agar, would carry out the remaining inspections starting in late October. The ECB had been invoiced in June for his expenses for the first inspection and no payment had yet been received.

(iii)  Cheshire Association of Groundsmen  

N.James reported that the CAG was to hold a meeting at Neston in October, when Total Turf Solutions representatives would give a talk on non-turf pitches. The AGM would be in November at Timperley when D.Musson and M.Woollard would give talks on the availability of facility improvement grants. A new secretary, B.Gerrard (Tattenhall) would be nominated at that meeting.

Membership of the Association had risen to about 100. He asked that the leagues should again recommend membership to their clubs and consider collecting subscriptions from them for the CAG in 2010. The ground machinery owned by the CAG had been well used by clubs this autumn. An application for funding to purchase a second spiker had been submitted to the ECB. The CAG had decided not to purchase a supply of corporate clothing for members at the present time.

(iv)  Grants Booklet   S.Wright had confirmed that he would be willing to edit a new edition of the grants booklet in January/February 2010. Under the prevailing conditions of his new job he would now have to charge some £480 for his services. However he would be willing within this price to give three evening seminars in March, in different parts of the county, to explain to clubs how to make good grant applications. The meeting felt that the cost would be a good investment on behalf of the Clubs and for the immediate future it should be planned to update the booklet every other year. M.Woollard suggested that an electronic copy of the booklet should be used to distribute it to the Clubs. He was asked to confer with S.Wright about this and also assist him with the arrangement of the seminars.   

D.  Senior Recreational Cricket (Action 20).    

(i)  League Cricket Report 2009   R.Cunningham had gathered most of the information necessary for a comprehensive report on Senior League cricket in the county in 2009. This report should be available by Christmas.

E.  Disabled Cricket (Action 21).

D.Humpage reported that the Cheshire Disabled Squad had won the national hard ball championship in 2009, beating Lancashire in the final. They had been a great credit to Cheshire. Two of the players had been selected to go to Australia with the England side in November. He praised the work carried out with the squad by K.Beggs and recorded the thanks of the CCCC to him for all his efforts.  

G.  Child Welfare Issues (Action 22).

An independent safeguarding authority was to be set up to oversee child welfare measures. The requirement for parents, who transport children other than their own to matches, to have a CRB clearance was to be introduced, but this would not happen to at least October 2010.

5.    ANY OTHER BUSINESS

(a)  Cheshire Umpires & Scorers Association   D.Lawson told the meeting that outside league and league knockout games, the CU&SA had appointed umpires for 172 fixtures in 2009, including women’s, youth and school matches as well as the Cheshire Cup and Shield. P.Hutchinson had done an excellent job as the new co-ordinator.

The CU&SA was pleased with the continuing development of the scheme for the mobility of umpires between leagues in the CILS, allowing good umpires to progress to the higher divisions. A number of umpires had shared their appointments between leagues and an interchange of umpires between the CCCL and CCL was planned for 2010.

It was imperative to keep finding and training new umpires and two Level 1 courses were to be run this winter, the content of the course having been agreed with the ECB ACO. The first course had started at Hale Barns C.C. on Tuesday, 29th September with sixteen participants only two of whom were taking refresher courses. Cheshire now had two umpires trained to instruct on Level 2 courses, but before they took courses in Cheshire they would need to assist on other courses to gain experience. The CU&SA would again be running their one day courses, “Umpiring for the Terrified”, this winter. M.Woollard would be advising the Clubs of this and telling them to contact I.Bishop directly if they are interested in holding a course.

The CU&SA had drawn up a budget for the next year and this would be discussed at the Executive Meeting in November.

The ECB ACO were holding their national conference at Lords on Saturday, 17th October, while a Northern Region Forum, open to all umpire, was to take place at Cleckheaton C.C. on Sunday, 8th November.   

(b)  Coaching Matters   M.Woollard reported that winter UKCC2 training courses for coaches had been arranged and some places were still available. The coaching courses for juniors had again been well subscribed despite the recession.

M.Dawson had been chosen from a strong list of candidates to replace J.Duffy as the Development and Coaching Officer for the Stockport area.

(c)  Cheshire County C.C. Report   J.Bygate told the meeting that Cheshire had had an excellent season once again in 2009, winning the Minor Counties Western Division title with a team picked entirely from the CCCL. This demonstrated the current high standard of cricket in the County Premier League.  

(d)  Pitch Markings   J.Bygate reported that the ECB pitch marking system used in the CCCL in 2009 had decreased the average mark obtained by the clubs, but had made little difference to the relative positions of clubs in the pitch table. He felt that there were too many classifications of wickets in the system and that the definitions were inappropriate for club cricket. N.James said that the ECB had been made aware of the opinions of the umpires on the system and were expected to make amendments to the system for 2010.

(e)  Development Groups   M.Woollard reported that following the changes in council boundaries he was discussing with the clubs the merger of some of the smaller groups. Crewe and Nantwich groups had already held a joint meeting. With the advent of e-mail he could now circulate information to the clubs more easily and hence it was possible to consider reducing the number of meetings per year to two for each group, in March and October.

6.     DATES OF NEXT MEETINGS

The next Executive Committee Meeting would be held on Monday, 9th November, 2009, at Hale Barns C.C. at 8.00 p.m.

The next Planning Meeting would be held on Monday, 18th January, 2010, at Hale Barns C.C. at 8.00 p.m.

There being no further business the Chairman thanked Hale Barns C.C. for the use of their facilities and closed the meeting at 9.35 p.m.

           Signed  .....................................................................           Date  .....................................................