Election of Club Officials

• John Hassall was elected as Chairman.
• Gordon Ansell (that’s me) was elected as Secretary.
• Rod Lathem was elected as Treasurer.
• Adam Barnett was elected as Fixtures Secretary.
• Chris Couchman was elected as Club Captain.

Bureaucratic Stuff

There are things like a constitution to be sorted out, which is just a proforma sort of thing used by cricket clubs and The Treasurer will set up a bank account for the club.

Subscriptions, Money & What We Might Spend It On

It was proposed that the club charge a £10 joining fee plus £20/year in subscriptions, which will cover a few subsidiary costs and maybe get a few items of kit.

We do hope to pursue other sources of money too such as the Council and the ECB (England & Wales Cricket Board), and we could engage in fund-raisers such as a quiz night at the club.

Funds raised could be used for things like getting our own nets and, eventually, laying a cricket square somewhere in Cotford. John suggested that if can rotate one of the football pitches through 90 degrees we may be able to fit a cricket pitch in the freed up space. This would be something to look at for the 2011 season.

Ideally we’d like a dedicated field for cricketing activities but two things make this unlikely: first, most of the surrounding fields in Cotford are flood plains, even assuming one was available for use; second there’s the cost, which would probably be prohibitive at the moment.

Immediate Aims

The 2009 season has now ended and we really won’t get things going until April next year, although we may try to have a few indoor nets sessions over the winter.

It was decided that next season we really just want ‘casual’ games against teams that are fairly similar to our own whith the emphasis on enjoyment.

About half a dozen of us met up in the bottom field for a practice session, consisting mainly of people who either hadn’t played for many years or had never really played at all.

After 2 practice sessions we were thrown into our first game against Staplegrove, who are a league side.  We got well and truly trounced. Staplegrove batted first and made 300+ and then bowled us out for about 70. Then they let us have another innings and bowled us out for about 80.

To add to my disappointment at that defeat, wearing new shoes on a hard surface and playing a long innings in the field, I managed to damage my Achilles tendon and could barely walk for 2 weeks. It was about a month before I was right again and I missed two games in the interim, one of which was rained off and the other we lost.

We kept practising on Tuesday evenings though, initially on the bottom field in Cotford and then, by permission of the groundsman, up at the nets in Bishops Lydeard Cricket Club, which was a vast improvement.

We then had a game against the Environment Agency at Bridgwater which we actually managed to win with 3 balls to spare. You’d have thought we’d won the Ashes.

We’re still not going to be competing at league level for a while yet but we have improved a lot in just one season through regular practice and a few games.

The problem we’ve had all season is a lack of numbers, which is something we hope to correct next season.