Present: Matthew Stevenson (chairman), Saqib Ahmed, Zamir Khan, Rahul Punj, Dan Webb

Apologies: David Banner, Keith Neave, David Peters, Murray Scott

Dave Nolder, Chris Yoxall snr, Tahir Rashid and Tony Hewston also attended the meeting. David Banner joined the meeting towards the end and participated in the discussion on CPSA membership.

Matters Arising

• Annual award trophies: no further progress.
• Fixture booklets: Zamir Khan said that he hoped to get them printed in the next week or so.
• Overseas players: Adil Irfan has arrived and played at the weekend.
• Ground action points: in the absence of David Banner there were no updates on the various ground issues, namely quotations for a new storage facility, the plan to spray the picket fence with an oil-based substance, protecting the wiring for the electronic scorebox, and purchasing some stumps and a stump gauge
• New practice facility: there was a long discussion on how to move forward with this project; Dave Nolder kindly offered to manage the project; there was great enthusiasm from everyone on the committee to make it a success; Dave Nolder will get together some quotations and Matthew Stevenson will revise his plan of action.

Cricket Report

• Results and availability: the 1st XI has lost its last two matches and has slipped back to mid-table in TVCL Division 2B; the 2nd XI lost at the weekend but is placed 2nd in Division 5B; the Sunday 1st XI has won a few and lost a few in the MASL and the Sunday 2nd XI has had some notable recent victories. Availability continues to b reasonably good and is certainly better than last season.
• Selection meetings: these continue to be beneficial and are being held every second week.
• Saturday 3rd XI: availability has not been quite good enough so far and we still have nobody to organize/captain the team; Chris N. Yoxall volunteered to help out with the organisation of the team but could not commit to taking responsibility.
• Publicity: match reports are appearing regularly in the newsletter but we are still not getting any coverage in the Buckinghamshire Advertiser.
• Bar and catering: Taylormade have resigned their bar contract effective from the end of July but have not resigned their catering contract – the likely effect on the cricket section for the rest of the 2005 season is that we will have to run the bar ourselves from August onwards but will probably not have to do our own catering.
• President’s Day 2005: Matthew Stevenson said that there was nothing further to report at the moment; a letter to the life members and vice presidents will be sent out soon; it is assumed that Taylormade will do the catering (see above).
• ECB coaching courses: Rahul Punj said that he would like to begin the ECB coaching courses this winter; Matthew Stevenson said that the club would pay for this provided that he (Rahul) committed to coaching juniors at the club in the next season or two.

Ground Report

• Square: the square has not played quite so well recently, mainly due to rain in the days before matches.
• Outfield: the outfield is in excellent condition.
• Machinery: as far as is known, all the machinery is working well.

Finance

• Fixture booklets 2004: Zamir Khan said that he is still chasing the £100, which is outstanding from last year’s fixture booklets.
• Annual dinner 2004: Matthew Stevenson said that he had now written off Shahid Din’s debt.
• Match Fees 2005: it is believed that these are pretty well up-to-date.
• Annual subscriptions 2005: Matthew Stevenson expressed his frustration that a number of regular players have still not paid their annual membership fees; debtors include Fareed Ahmed, Neal Collins, Alex Hales, Muhammad Kassam, Jonathan Lindsay and Malcolm Upton. Following on from this, Dave Nolder (personal financial position) and Chris Yoxall snr (injuries, advancing years) both expressed the opinion that GBP115 did not represent good value for money and have thus decided not to renew their membership of the club. They are both willing to play as guests if we are short and would be willing to pay a “guest match fee” in such circumstances; neither expects nor wants to be selected ahead of a paid-up member. There was an inconclusive discussion around how much the “guest match fee” should be. Matthew Stevenson reiterated that the CPSA membership policy was that all playing members should be paid-up members of the club; he did add, however, that the CPSA board was currently reviewing membership policy and rates.

Fund Raising

• Indian BBQ and Casino Night: Saqib Ahmed said that he was expecting 80 people for this event. The food is organized but there seems to be a minor problem with collecting the casino equipment. Andy Parsons is currently away on holiday.
• Cricket Foundation Raffle: Matthew Stevenson said that he had distributed the tickets to club members.

Next Meeting

• Next meeting: Wednesday, 17th August, 2005, 8.00pm in the clubhouse.