The Taunton AGM

By Grockle
October 25 2005

A sparse crowd but some interesting points. Richard Gould in fine form on my first viewing of him at these things. Some stuff about the ground and our bowling searches. Honest and too the point I think although they weren't stretched by the masses exactly!!

Taunton Regional AGM

Date:10/25/05

Top Table Brian Daw, Mary Elworthy, VC Bob Payne (complete with MCC tie), Richard Gould and Mark Garaway

The first meeting of the AGM round that I go to - it's usually a decent sounding board for what goes on later. At 7.20 it is very sparse, even for a regional one.

The top table has the usual suspects with the addition of Mr Richard Gould.  Roy Kerslake is in the audience this year not in the firing line as he was last year. Brian Rose is on holiday and no Ian Blackwell so the cricket expertise is a bit sparse with only Mark Garaway to answer any difficult questions.

A number of mumbles before we start about the membership hikes but we'll have to see if that comes to anything in the main meeting.

The Taunton area AGM starts promptly, as usual, at 7:30 with about 30 members present from the largest body of supporters (I think). I'm just under the half ton and I think I'm the youngest person here besides a couple on the top table!! So we do the minutes etc. The accounts are down, KP got £10K last year out of £14K raised. Burnsy got £3K from £8.6 raised. It seems that KP was heavily involved in the fund raising last year. £3K has gone to sending the young guys abroad this winter.

The Secretary's report mentioned the 'Spirit of the Game' award and the fact that Hampshire were bottom - good old Mary!

Richard has the job of reporting back. Lots of questions have been asked during their tour of the county (we are the penultimate one). Do you feel that the club has progressed he asks? 

Stadium development -

• We've had a grant of £70K from the SW regional development for a feasibility study.
• We will not be moving. Should we redevelop while closed? No - the revenue loss would be too high (£1m per year). So, we are looking to phased re-development while maintaining the cricket here.
• The pitch wil increase in size to attract international cricket. BUT the ground will be developed as a multi-activity venue.
• Important meeting in Novemebr with plans coming out for the AGM. SCCC is expecting to have to raise the money and is hoping to start within the next 18 months without affecting the cricket.

Questions -  

• Will we tilt the pitch? No because we would have to move out. We may move the square east 'about 8 tracks' to operate on a longer boundary. We would like to have 11 to 13 tracks available. Shorter boundary one side longer the other.
• Is Frosty staying? Yes.
• What about the flat wicket? The wicket is flat because it's near the river so lots of top soil. We may skim about 2 inches off to take a bit of the flatness off. BUT it's a big move and being looked into.
• What will remain? The only building that is safe is the Old Barn - but it all has to be costed and funded. We need some of the Church land to increase our boundary.
• Membership prices? Designed to increase renewals quickly. Some problems this year. The Australian match - 1000 members who collected tickets didn't turn up on the day and those tickets couldn't be sold on the day. The club lost considerable money on the game because of that so the international has been taken out of the equation.  Only 1500 members came to the 20/20 games so the members don't seem enamoured by the format and we need to sell as many tickets as possible. We expect 2000 Platinum VP's by the end of the Spring. The Stragglers is going to be pushed to cope with them!
• Why didn't you reduce the prices? Because one third of ECB payments will be performance related next year and so we need to increase revenue across the board. Cricket can't be made cheaper even though you are getting less for the money paid out.
• VP Parking has gone.  All members can park on a first come first served basis. 70% of members come to 7 games or less.
• Family membership and children in the VP area? No problem for children to sit with their parents during Championship games but seating will be better organised and stewarded for other games - there may be allocated seating for families and/or VP'. If you're paying then you should expect service. We need to service the crowds and maintain a safe and friendly manner
• Bowlers? Good priase for Charl Langeveldt (may not be a possibility next year because of one day international commitments). We are looking for a seriously top class spinner if available. We won't have McGill, he isn't playing for anyone. Munday is very young - went to University early and they tend to mature in their early 20's. We need to look after him. We have expressed an interest in Kumble (along with quite a few others).
• Will we have Kolpak players?  We will only look at Kolpak if we have a real gap that we couldn't get from anywhere else.
• What is entailed in the Winter programme? We've set up camps around the world to structure their experience away. Four players will be going to Mumbai - Wood, Durston, Timms, Blackwell - to learn to play spin in December. Perth - Suppiah, Frank Junior and Carl Gazzard to work with Neil Holder. Simon Francis will play with Western Province working with Alan Dawson (Graeme Smith's province). Hildreth and Andrew to Melbourne to the cricket academy with Wayne Phillips. All being monitored and reported back on. Bowlers are difficult to come by across the world. Callum Haggett is at Millfield to be pushed forward as a bowler of promise and we'll work with others who show that amount of promise.
• Do we have a problem away from home? We have had in the past and it is a major priority for next season to improve our first innings batting away AND at home. You can't control the game if you're chasing a first innings deficit.

And that was about it.  There was thanks expressed for the work of Tim Salter, the Taunton chairman, who is stepping down after 12 years service (and well deserved too). 

I had a little chat with Mr Gould and Mr Garaway and we got some complimentary comments about the way we police ourselves, so the stuff in the last couple of weeks has not passed by the club.  Richard is much more aware of the possibilities of the internet than his predecessors and you'll have to look for some major changes to the club's web presence as the company they are going with want to be much bigger in cricket than just us.  They seem to value the unofficial voice and were very keen to stress the fact that members of the club read most of what is said - the good and the bad.  The new site may compliment Grockles more than we expected but we'll have to wait and see.

Some interesting stuff - The AGM will have some more, expecially about plans for the site during the off season in 2006 and 2007 i would expect.  You'll get it here first!!