NORTH WEST AGM

The local Union held it’s AGM at Eglinton Cricket Club on Thursday evening before a very healthy representation from clubs and a busy night began with an address from Chairman Joe Doherty. Thanking those who had helped him throughout his year in office Joe said that “it had been an honour to represent the North West at the top table of Irish cricket” and especially at a time when the sport has been making such massive strides on the International scene. He flagged up Donemana CC in light of their magnificent season at all levels and asked their representative Roy McBrine to take back the warmest congratulations of the Union. Joe also paid a glowing tribute to outgoing Fixture Secretary Robin Glenn and his wife Meta for all the hard work of the past decade to a warm ovation from delegates.

Secretary Jim Lindsay gave a welcome positive appraisal of the Associations finances and also gave an honest resume on what had been a disappointing season in terms of indiscipline. Jim had suggested two proposals in his address, the first to increase clubs’ levy towards youth development from £100 to £200, and the second to increase maximum fines for disciplinary matters in the same manner and both of these motions were adopted.

Fixture Secretary Robin Glenn gave his last report to an appreciative audience and informed delegates that Coleraine were to enter a third team to the league in 2009, and Charlie McElwee provided a detailed grounds report and advised that the inspection committee would work with several clubs to help them get required work done in time for next spring. Brian Doherty gave an in-depth round up of the region’s coaching campaign whilst Gavin Craig spoke about the Development progress.

The election of officers resulted in little change to the top table, President (Alan Montgomery), Chairman (Joe Doherty), vice Chairman (John Pierce) and Secretary/ Treasurer (Jim Lindsay) all returned unopposed. Charlie and Mary McElwee were proposed to replace Robin in the Fixture/ Appointments secretary roles and were also elected unopposed. There were several slight changes to the various committees, notably Eglinton’s Brian Allen and Creevedonnell’s Brian Dougherty replacing Lexie Miller and Sam McConnell on the protest and appeals and Davy Watson joining the grounds committee.

There was also plenty of discussion around the various proposed rule changes and two notable amendments that found approval were in relation to scorers and scorecards. A proposal from the Umpires Association that games in Divisions 1 and 2 must have scorers from both clubs in place before they start received the necessary two thirds majority. The amendment now means that any club without a scorer has to nominate a player who will then be unable to field during the game.

The second amendment to be adopted is that all teams must now furnish scorecards to Fixture Secretary within 72 hours of games. Chairman Mr Doherty explained that it had proved almost impossible to get Intermediate score cards during the season making it extremely difficult to construct league tables or establish award winners and the Executive felt very strongly about this issue. In future, clubs who fail to send in score cards will be deducted points, or, where appropriate, refused progression in cup competitions for which they had failed to provide cards. The annual chestnut of 12 o’clock starts also went to a vote but amazingly failed to win the support of a single club despite the number of players who seemed to support the idea during the season. That motion surely now looks dead in the water and is unlikely to hit the table again.

Both Lexie Miller and Sam McConnell were publicly thanked by the Chairman having stepped down after many years service as a busy night drew to a close and next up for the local Union will be the annual dinner at the White Horse hotel on 15 November.