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Present: Peter Biggs, Steve Donnelly, Matt Gummer, Bruce Kennedy, Andy Lee, Chris Lewis (Chair), David Muir, Paul O'Connor (secretary), Giles Pott (part), Phil Solomon

Apologies: John Anzani, Phil Jones, Keith Miller, Tony Rose, Steve Hewlett, Jon Harry, Giles Pott (part), Steve Cassidy

1.  Preliminaries

a.  Election of Chair
At the time there seemed some logic in electing Chris (unopposed) as chair of the meeting.

b.  Election of Secretary
PO'C, being the only possessor of pen and paper in the vicinity, was the natural selection.

2.  Treasurer's Report

Proposal to purchase match balls from the collective coffers, rather than collected for each week.  Passed on the nod.

Proposal to chase the debtors (Jon le Harry, F David Lloyd, Keith, Lloyd, Mike and Solly) and pay the creditors (Ziggy and Bruce, principally).  Revolutionary as this seemed, this too was passed on the nod.  The incoming treasurer (see later) to perform both actions.

The much-loved Beard had, bless him, paid his subs last year, in spite of everything.   After some debate it was agreed to leave this in collective funds.

3.  Gear

The reclamation last year of previously abandoned bats worked a treat, Jon Harry being so pleased with the repair work on the bat he had previously donated to the collective that he reclaimed it as his own.  We got the dodgy replacement he had bought himself.

PO'C, being the holder of the bag, to ensure that everything was marked as being the property of RBCC.  This was to provide guidance to those in our number too unfamiliar with our gear to collect it together at the end of a game.  It was not expected to affect the bewildering speed with which umpire's coats changed hands (five coats our high point of the season, one our lowest).

4.  New Members

One name put forward, one name passed.  Welcome, Mark Lloyd (sort out those hamstrings).

5.  Nets

Proposal for the collective to book four weeks of nets, two hours apiece, to straddle the start of the season.  At Brixton.

Phil to be re-paid, from collective wonga, monies outstanding to him from booking last year's nets.

6.  Fixtures

Wanton progress against retrenchment.  Chris and Andy argued for more members, more fixtures, more commitment, and in Chris's case more lager, seemingly disgruntled at the inability of RBCC to either take on overseas tours or become the nineteenth first class county.  The case for cutting the cloth of the collective to the achievable was put by just about everybody else there, with the exception of Matt, who in the khazi later pronounced this 'the beginning of the end'.  It was, at least, not the end, and may only be the end of the beginning.  Reality was embraced with passion by the collective.

There had been a move to drop Ebrington which was defeated; one to drop Cokenatch which meandered to a halt; and a zealous demand from the smallest person at the meeting that we as a collective lay down our lives rather than not play the MOB XI at least once a season between now and Armageddon.  Remarkably this was passed.

The chairman, his style in this role as unorthodox as his batting, pronounced it a fucking disgrace.  To what he referred, and why, was not clear, and clarification was not sought.

The decision to drop the LSCB was taken, and the incoming Fixtures Secretary was to communicate this body blow to the said club.  Since last season's fixture amounted to eight of us turning up on the wrong day this may be more a cause for celebration rather than regret amongst the partially-sighted of the metropolis.  (Incidentally, my recollection is that we last played them on the one occasion we won, thereby being the last holders of the 'Dulwich Trophy'.  Who, I wonder, has this stuffed away in a safety deposit box.)

7.  Subscriptions

Clearly we were more financially viable than this time last year, thanks to prudent management and judicious belt-tightening.  Running a cricket club you see is just like running a household budget - you can't spend what you don't have.  A return to the £30/£11 split of yesteryear was proposed and passed.  In addition it was decided to collect £1 per game from non-subscription-paying players.

8.  Election of Committee

a.  General/Captain
Some veterans will find this difficult to swallow but during the hour and more that was spent on this subject the collective surpassed all previous records at prevarication and undisciplined 'debate'.  What was exceptional was not only its sheer length, and the pointless rambling of much of it, but the fact that at the end of it we still didn't have agreement on the structure for next year.

The proposal was in summary to broaden the base of responsibility and share the burden of organisation in the collective by having a different captain for each fixture during the 'regular' season.  A fixtures secretary would arrange the fixtures list, a secretary would arrange meetings and nets, and a treasurer would do much as hitherto.   The organiser for the week would identify eleven (or thereabouts) players for the game; make sure they knew where they were going (ground and boozer); confirm details with the oppo in the week or so before the fixture; make sure the gear and scorebook would arrive at the game; buy a ball; nominate a gear monitor or do it himself; and collect the tea money and ringers' subs.  Optionally they might also be captain for the day so that they would also cajole and persuade the unwilling to umpire; decide the batting order; and marshall the forces on the field of play.  Some might be willing to organise but not to captain, in which case they should agree with someone to do so from the available numbers.  Volunteers for captaining tour games would be sought from the nine or ten strong committee, comprising each of the captains, plus the three aforementioned officers of the collective, if additional.

The following have, I think, indicated their willingness to be king for a day: Giles, Biggsy, Matt, Jon le Harry, Dave, Chris, Solly, Bruce, Andy and PO'C.  Perhaps those willing to be a part of this human experiment could confirm in advance of the EGM.

The assembled accepted that the reluctance of the usual suspects to throw their hats into the captaincy ring necessitated a gander at alternatives.  The principle of sharing the organisational load more fairly was generally welcomed; the question of whether we should still have a club captain, performing only match-day captaincy duties (tossing the coin, batting order, bowling changes, umpires) and providing a point of continuity during the turbulence of the summer was debated with vigour.  An alternative to the captain-without-organisational portfolio was to have someone in a supremo, overlord, figurehead, standard bearer, FOC position to ensure equality and fairness in batting and bowling opportunities, and to help out if the going became sticky before, during or after games.

b.  Fixtures Secretary
One nomination (no really, only one?).  PO'C now installed as fixtures secretary, bag man, de facto secretary, and still captain from last year; but not bitter by any means.

c.  Treasurer
Rowdy ousted.  Giles P, clearly still harbouring a deep-seated grudge over Rowdy's legendary jibe about the hat, the hamburger and methods of speeding up Two Dinners' running, ousted Abingdon Man from the seat that he had made his own.

d.  Secretary
Didn't get this far.

9.  Tour

Steve Cassidy (whose only game this year was the abortive attempt with LSCB) volunteered in absentia to organise the 1996 tour.  Nottingham is the likely destination.  Dave Muir volunteered to assist.

10.  Player of the Year

No nominations

11.  Postscript

Averages handed out by Phil Sol.