• The Reddings make a baby!!
• Notice of 2010 AGM
• Indoor Nets
• Season 2009 Trophy winners
• Report of 2009 AGM
• News archive

Next generation Badger enters a hostile world

Nicola and Patrick Redding are now the proud (and no doubt tired) parents of a son, Oliver Louis (apparently pronounced Lewis rather than Looee). Born at 18:44 exactly a week ago (ie. Thursday 10th June) the new arrival weighed in at 7lbs 6ozs and is expected to make his Badgers’ debut at some point during the 2020 season!?

Notice of AGM – 16 Mar 2010

This year’s AGM will take place on Tuesday 16th March at 19:30 (or half seven for those that prefer that terminology). We have a new venue this year, with our host being Ian Gregg who you will find at 5 Green Lane, Lower Kingswood, Tadworth, Surrey, KT20 6TJ. All members should have received written notification via email, along with the 2009 accounts and details of revised club rules. Please make every effort to attend and contribute to the running of our club.

I rather doubt that either map represents the exact whereabouts of Ian’s gaff, but they should get you to Green Lane from where I am sure you can use your native wit and cunning to track down the correct abode.

For those of you that have lost or not received the letter in whatever form, the agenda for the meeting will be:

Indoor Nets Season 2010

This season’s indoor nets see a break with recent tradition, both in terms of venue and timings. The new arrangement makes use of the facilities at Aberdour School on the Brighton Road in Burgh Heath (within walking distance of the skipper’s house!!) and runs every Thursday night from 19:00 to 20:00 (seven o’clock until eight) from 28th January until the last week in April (ie. the last net is between the first and second games of the season).

View a map of the area around the school

Badgers’ dinner – silverware but no dancing

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:

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:

• Pat Redding made his one hundredth appearance
• Graham Davenport passed 1000 runs
• Graham Ward reached 100 innings
• Ian Gregg passed 200 wickets and is currently tied for seventh most all-time
• Mark Gordon passed both Brian Moore and 6000 runs
• Steve Pitts passed 400 appearances and 6000 runs, consecutive game streak ended at 36
• Allan Butt passed 300 wickets, over 49 years after taking his first
• Jake Gordon became youngest ever Badger and youngest to take a wicket
• Darrell Pitts and Chris Byrne shared second highest tenth wicket partnership
• Graham Ward and Steve both batted 19 times, tied for second most all-time
• Darrell’s 719 runs against is the second highest ever

AGM – 26 Feb 2009

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.

News Archive

If you have a need to view out-of-date news items you may well be able to find them somewhere amongst the pages linked to below, as I’ve currently no intention of throwing anything away – after all, I may need to reuse it!!

To save the pain and heartache of waiting for an ever-growing page of historical news items to load, I will be archiving them by the original year of publication, so choose from the list below:

• News item archive for 2010
• News item archive for 2009
• News item archive for 2008
• News item archive for 2007
• News item archive for 2006
• News item archive for 2005
• News item archive for 2004
• News item archive for 2003
• News item archive for 2002
• News item archive for 2001
• News item archive for 2000