6.3 THE SUSSEX MARTLETS Minutes of the 2016 Annual General Meeting of The Sussex Martlets Held on Monday 7 March 2016, at 7.00pm at The Long Room, The Sussex County Cricket Ground, Eaton Road, Hove, BN3 3AN Present: Chris Snell (President), Stuart Ritchie (Chairman), Mark Trubshaw (Secretary), Mike Charman (Treasurer), John Bettridge, Tim Dodd, Adrian Ford, Chris Gray, Charlie Hartridge, Michael Murray (part), Ron Pateman, Will Rydon (part), John Stapleton, Paul Walker and Adrian White. 1. Chairman’s Welcome The Chairman gave a warm welcome to all present. Before the business of the meeting, he asked the meeting to remember two very good friends of the Martlets who died late last year and earlier this year in Molly Wills – wife of former president Geoff Wills; and David Gibbs – consummate cricketer for the Martlets, Club archivist and author of “Summer by the Seas”, both who have been remembered with entries on the Martlets website and with emails to all members. A minute’s silence in remembrance was taken. 2. Apologies for Absence These were received from: Johnny Barclay, Peter Bartram, John Betts, Willie Bicket, Martin Bodenham, William Boulter, Ben Burrows, Raj Chaudhuri, Sam Cooper, Dave Brooks, Phil Davy, Desmond Devitt, Sir John Donne, Angus Edgell, John Elliott, Peter Fielding, Jon Filby, Jim Gatherum, John Goodacre, Ben Green, Peter Hartland, John Lawrence, Ted Lewis, Michael Loveday, Keith Manning, Michael Margarson, Roger Marshall, Peter Meadows, Nikhil Mehta, Normal Philpot, Peter Ross, Nigel Russell, Will Rydon, Richard Seager, Derek Semmence, Howard Spencer, Craig Talbot, John Tanner, Rupert Thacker, David Tod, Chris Tucker, Rob Walker, Johnathan Watt, Greg West and Ham Whitty. 3. Minutes of the 2015 Annual General Meeting The minutes of the 2015 Annual General Meeting were approved. 4. Matters arising from the 2015 Minutes The Chairman noted the following: a. In his capacity as Chairman, and with the agreement of the President, he initiated that the committee meeting scheduled for early December, be held in the Sussex Cricket Museum followed by a Christmas supper, which was well 1 received. b. In turn that enabled the committee to give thanks to Mike Harrison for his service on the committee and present him with a Martlets tankard. c. The Club Dinner was held post season in 2015 in this Long Room. It was attended by some 40 Martlets and guests and he believed it was well received. The quiz on the subject of “how well do you know the Martlets” was won with 8 out of 10 by Adrian Ford. More importantly, he was able to award Martlet of the Year to Charlie Hartridge with fulsome praise to the general acclaim of those present and give generous thanks to Chris Gray who had revitalised the Club Dinner, but who due to overseas travel commitments was unable to be present. d. It had proved difficult to present all the 2014 and 2015 Awards at either the AGM or the Club Dinner. To remedy this, the President and Chairman arranged a meeting at The Griffin in Fletching and the Chairman was pleased to report all awards have now been presented. e. Sussex Cricket has reorganised into Sussex Cricket Limited and Sussex Cricket Foundation. The committee of the Sussex Martlets have (i) resolved to transfer their Vice Presidency of Sussex Cricket in the Community Trust to the Sussex Cricket Foundation and (ii) recognised the Club’s important place within recreational cricket throughout Sussex. The Chairman has attended meetings with both Friends of Arundel Castle Cricket Club and with Zac Toumazi of Sussex CCC to discuss the position of the Sussex Martlets within the Sussex Cricket set up and positive progress has been made. 5. Committee Reports a. Chairman’s Report The Chairman reported: “My first season as chairman has been rewarding and demanding in equal measure. Rewarding in the sense the Club returned to its winning ways with ten centuries and a double century scored by Martlets on the cricketfields of Sussex, particularly with Sam Cooper and his double century against the OJ’s. Demanding in that I found myself match managing six fixtures, and, as I speak, I have received and sent over 6,000 emails on behalf of the Club. Looking to 2016, I am hoping the effort put in the year past will lead to a year where the Club continues to excel on the cricketfield and that, in an oft made call to action, but one worth repeating, we get better at spreading the workload among an increased group of volunteers. However as I reflect on the past year, I have four thoughts to share with you: a) On being elected chairman, I was clear that we should make sure our cricket 2 was fun. By fun, rather than implying anything comic, I had intended a state of affairs which was deeply satisfying and from my experience playing cricket (and also golf) for the Martlets, we have achieved that. b) Part of the fun, but not all of it, is winning. I am pleased to report that in 2015 we won as many games as we lost, with a particularly strong showing from June onwards where the Club won twice as many games as lost. c) More importantly for me, we have been able to put out sides for all our fixtures except one, and part of the reason for this is the Club has recruited some 25 new playing members in the past year, both from candidates and graduating Junior Martlets as we now have a system in place to make certain they are properly inducted into membership on a timely basis. d) And to keep matters on a proper financial footing, if you want to be a Sussex Martlet, you have to pay your subscriptions, so that the Club can afford to provide the standard of cricket to which many aspire within the Club. In the first year I had sight of the Club’s accounts, annual subscriptions were circa £7,000. This year, annual subscriptions including joining fees are over £10,000. There are of course headwinds. Not all wandering cricket clubs seem to be doing as well as the Sussex Martlets and we witnessed this with a couple of late cancellations from our peers. And we greatly value our relationship with Arundel, but country house cricket is an expensive pastime and we need to sustain our finances to make cricket affordable for our membership when playing at Arundel and elsewhere. Therefore, in short, my view is the Sussex Martlets is in good health and consequently I have good reason to believe the Club is well regarded both at Arundel Castle, our spiritual home, and also by Sussex Cricket Limited and the Sussex Cricket Foundation who want to strengthen their links to the Club and the recreational cricket we play. There are also reasons to be proud of the wider influence of The Sussex Martlets. In particular, I am mindful of the excellent work of John Bettridge in looking after the Junior Martlets and how many of the young men under his charge have flourished in their cricket last year. This is exemplified by Joe Ludlow who as captain of the Hurstpierpoint College 1st XI led his school to become T20 National Schools winners and George Garton who has joined the Sussex squad. In closing, I want to pay tribute to a number who have helped me greatly in this first year as chairman. Chris Snell our amazing president who is a brilliant sounding board to me; Mike Charman for stepping up to become treasurer; and to the newer members of our committee (Tim Dodd, Josh Burrows and Craig Talbot) who are all making a positive difference to the organisation of our cricket. I look forward to seeing you on a cricketfield (or a golf course) in Sussex in 2016 3 as we have a great season planned for this year.” There were no questions for the Chairman. b. Cricket Report Michael Murray reported on the 2015 cricket season, echoing some of the comments of the Chairman. It was a particularly strong showing from June onwards where the Club won twice as many games as it lost, although some ten fixtures were lost to the weather and other sides withdrawing. He further reported that a greater proportion of Martlets were fulfilling our fixtures, and that there were a number of guests, some of whom where being converted to Martlets membership. The Sandy Ross T20 Cup had been reconstituted in its original format and was played at St James’s Montefiore, with the Sussex Martlets retaining the trophy. Finally, Michael reported that initial interest in the cricket tour to Dublin was positive. c. Junior Martlets John reported that the Junior Martlets had a successful but frustrating season. The standard was high with substantial contributions with bat and ball from a number of players. Good wins were recorded over St James’s and the Brighton and Hove City Clubs. John noted that the Martlets escaped a drubbing at the hands of the Juniors on the Vice President’s Day courtesy of the rain! The frustrations came in the shape of the Babes of Kent cancelling, a late change in the U16 T20 league games from term time to holiday time, and Martlets and Juniors games being organised on the same day on one occasion. John concluded by noting there is great loyalty to the Sussex Martlets from members of the Junior Martlets. d. General Purposes Report The Chairman reported: a. The Club’s website and databases had worked well in the year past – for the forthcoming year, an SMS facility had been added to enable more immediate text messages to be sent.