Badgers Cricket Club – News Archive Page – Season 2009
This page provides a repository of all the archived news items for 2009, in reverse chronological order. If you really have a desire for the older or newer entries, then the links below will get you access to all those that I’ve saved over the twenty-four and a half years that the site has been in existence.
A first ever visit to the South Hatch Restaurant on Epsom Downs and the first Badgers’ dinner within living memory that didn’t also feature dancing. I can’t comment on the food, since I didn’t eat, but the lack of a disco did not have an adverse effect on the evening, best as I could tell. Allan Butt made his maiden speech as Chairman, after a false start induced by Mrs. Kemp deciding that everything needed hurrying along despite the fact that coffee cups had been delivered but not filled, and managed to steal a little of skipper Mark Gordon’s thunder. For the record, the various bits of silverware found their way to:
| Batting | Pat Redding | 569 runs @ 47.4 |
| Bowling | Ian Gregg | 21 wickets @ 22.4 |
| Fielding | Mark Gordon | 15 catches |
| Fantasy Points | Steve Pitts | (for finishing third this year – so still daft) |
| Captains | Allan Butt | (47 years after last receiving it!!) |
| Frank Butt | Jake Gordon | (for his performance at Blindley Heath) |
| ‘Wang Fu’ | Paul Wilson | |
| ‘Kalms’ Award | Pat Redding |
Both Mark and Allan talked about the number of runs we conceded during the past season, with the observation that we had leaked 974 runs over a run of four games making my ears prick up, since I’d not spotted that we were quite so close to the thousand. Mark gave a capsule review of the season’s games and also a pen portrait of the dozen regular Badgers, during which some scurrilous stories were mixed with revelations of who had passed personal milestones.
Whilst I don’t remember exactly which ones were remarked upon, I offer my own list of the statistical achievements during the season:
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The annual presentation dinner will take place at a new venue this year, in the shape of the South Hatch Restaurant (in whose grounds some Badgers will have played a cricket match or two back in the early Nineties). The establishment can be found on Burgh Heath Road in Epsom and the event will take place on Saturday 21st November. The bar will be open from 19:00 (7pm) with dinner slated for 20:00 (8pm) and carriages at midnight. The cost per head is £25 but there will not be a disco this year in an attempt to address some of the criticisms of recent dinners, as highlighted by Foxy’s pre-AGM survey.
I have added the exact location of the restaurant to the Google Map showing the grounds we play on and you can obtain slightly less accurate indications of the location using this postcode-based link to a map of the area in Multimap or this rather more accurate one using Streetmap.
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This season’s indoor nets will, as in every year this millennium, be held in the sports hall at Nescot College, Reigate Road, Ewell, Surrey (Tel no. 020 8394 3133).
View a map of the area around the collegeThere will be six sessions, on the following dates:
| Wednesday | 1st April | 9-10PM |
| Wednesday | 8th April | 9-10PM |
| Wednesday | 15th April | 9-10PM |
| Wednesday | 22nd April | 9-10PM |
| Wednesday | 29th April | 9-10PM |
| Wednesday | 6th May | 9-10PM |
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Hopefully all interested parties will have received an email from Alan about this event, or at least picked up one of the flyers that were circulating at the fiftieth event, but if this is the first you’ve heard of it then please either or use the good old telephone and talk to him on 01306 880634.
To build on the tremendous work undertaken by the Committee in reuniting the Badgers for the 50th Anniversary celebrations, the club is planning to hold an annual get-together for all its past and present members. This will provide a perfect opportunity to meet up again on a regular basis and reminisce over a few drinks and a good meal. The date for the first reunion is Monday 30th March 2009 at Betchworth Park Golf Club in Dorking. For those interested in playing there will be an optional round of golf before the meal. The cost of the meal and golf will be just £29.50 and Alan will provide a few bottles of wine to kick things off.
Can you please let Alan Tickner know as soon as possible if you would like to attend and also if you would like to play golf. It is anticipated that the golf will start around 1.30pm with the meal following at around 6.30pm.
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A dozen hardy Badgers gathered at Mark’s house for the 2009 version of the Annual General Meeting, but things did not get off to a good start with Dave Tickner stuck on the hard shoulder of the M25 (with what turned out to be a blown head gasket – he never did make it to the meeting), Graham Davenport unable to read the curry menu due to having left his reading glasses behind (although remarkably Allan Butt’s loan of his own pair seemed to do the trick) and Patrick having to ‘read the minutes’ from his scribbled notes, having failed to type them up over the past twelvemonth (although, to be honest, they could have been the minutes of any AGM from the past decade or so).
I shan’t bore you with too much detail (I took notes on the laptop throughout proceedings, so I am not constrained by my usual haziness) but suffice to say that there was little contentious in the reports from the committee or the captain, and that the accounts were passed, with the funding of the club deferred for later discussion.
It is worth noting here – especially since I shamefully forgot to include it in my review of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations – that an EGM convened at that event elected David and Alan Tickner, Mick Willmott and Keith Miller as honorary members of the club in recognition of their contributions to the club down the years.
Things did get interesting when it came to the election of officers, but whilst Simon Fox stood down as Chairman, Keith Miller finally ended his stint as Hon. Treasurer after twenty-two years in the saddle, and Patrick relinquished the mantle of vice-captain, there were no bloody battles for the vacant posts and the meeting duly elected Allan Butt to the Chair, Simon to the (offshore, as in recent years) post of Treasurer and Graham Ward (in absentia, due to sickness, but with his foreknowledge) to the vice-captaincy. On a more mundane note, Chris Turner was proposed and accepted for membership of the club.
The new fixture list was distributed and discussed, with particular interest in new fixtures and which ones had been dropped, and then proceedings moved on to the thorny topic of tour. After considerable discussion it was decided that there was not sufficient guaranteed interest in actually staying away for the two days and therefore tour will be cancelled again this year. Those of us that remember the heyday of the Cotswold tours will no doubt be disappointed by this, but since your correspondent is one of those who is unable to commit to travelling then perhaps I should not comment further.
Pre-season nets and the impending Reunion Dinner were covered, with Mark explaining that we were unable to obtain an earlier time at Nescot nor an alternative venue and Alan Tickner clarifying that the reunion was intended for former members only (ie. no partners) and that the price might have to increase slightly as he had been quoted for breakfast rather than dinner.
Simon reported back on the results of the questionnaire regarding the dinner and dance and it seemed that most were in favour of the status quo, but that the disco seemed to be the crux of any discontentment. This provoked a long debate amongst several of those present which failed to reach any meaningful conclusion other than that we needed to get our fingers out in terms of organising this coming November’s event whether or not we looked for alternative venues or forms of entertainment.
Due to the lateness of the hour there were then fairly rushed discussions of the proposed rules changes, which Pat was asked to amend on the basis of the points raised and to re-distribute prior to ratification at an EGM, and of the insurance situation, which seemed to be the cause of considerable confusion.
Finally the issue of subs and match fees was revisited with a proposal on the table to drop the match fees to an easier to collect five pounds whilst leaving the subs unchanged and thus to budget for a small loss rather than to break even. This was agreed and as the meeting came to a close just before eleven o’clock Mark requested that, where possible, people pay their subs via electronic transfer rather than cash or cheques – at which point several of those present produced their cheque books.
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This year’s AGM will take place on Thursday 26th February at 19:00 (that’s seven in the evening for those that don’t speak 24-hour clock). The venue will once again be Mark Gordon’s house at 57 Great Tattenhams, Epsom Downs, Surrey, KT18 5RE. All members should have received written notification via email, along with the 2008 accounts and details of revised club rules. Please make every effort to attend as everybody’s views are valuable and welcome.
| Map of the area using Multimap | Map of the area using Google Maps |
For those of you that have lost or not received the letter in whatever form, the agenda for the meeting will be:
| 1 | Apologies for absence | 9 | Membership |
| 2 | Minutes of AGM 2008 | 10 | Fixtures |
| 3 | Committee report | 11 | Tour 2009 |
| 4 | Captain’s report season 2008 | 12 | Nets |
| 5 | Treasurer’s report | 13 | Bonus Ball 2009 |
| 6 | Team Secretary’s report | 14 | Winter Luncheon |
| 7 | Badgers’ website report | 15 | Annual Dinner & Dance |
| 8 | Election of Officers | 16 | Revision of club rules |
| 17 | Any other business |
| Back to index of season 2009 news items | View archived news items for season 2008 |