From the Archives - Part 17 - Odds and Sods

Well, even by my standards there has been a rather long interval since Part 16 of this KCC history. 27 months, in fact, for which I would like to apologise. Though I doubt that anyone has been waiting on tenterhooks for a resumption of this narrative.  If you can remember back as far as the last instalment, you will recall that the series of articles had initially finished with Part 15, which covered the events of 2006. But then Mike Johnson suddenly came forward with a new heap of papers which enabled me to fill in some of the gaps in the records I had previously inherited. So Part 16 backtracked to cover the years 2000 and 2001, and now Part 17 takes us on to 2003-05

May 2003 - The 2003 AGM was actually well covered in Part 12 of this series (19.09.19) but now the accounts have come to hand. Income from membership subs (£10 adults; £5 associates; £4 juniors) amounted to £230, which was quite a tidy sum back then, while expenditure was only some £136 pounds, giving us a surplus on the year of £94.68. This took our accumulated funds to £284.79, which put is in a good position to cope with unforeseen events such as a pandemic; energy and fuel inflation; or Brexit. Clearly the Club was in very far-sighted hands in those days. I'm not sure why, but our LDCL League Membership fees were a whopping £102, whereas now - even with 5 teams next season - we will only be paying £57. Almost certainly this was tied up with extra payments to the ECF (though it may have still been the BCF then) which have now been subsumed within the individual ECF membership fee.

August 2003 - A letter from the Secretary (Bernard) dated August 14 informs the members that a Team Formation meeting will be held at the Sports and Social Club on August 28th. Additionally, the club will be presented that night with the BCF Small Club of the Year award. Bernard also takes the opportunity to announce that the Club internal tournaments have finally been resolved, with victories for Adam Sykes (over Bernard) in the Tilley Cup and for Carl Pickering (over Rod Webb) in the Plate. And we learn that summer attendances have been "excellent - at least 8 on most nights".

20 people turn out for the Team Formation/BCF Award night, though disappointingly the Club Secretary is a notable absentee. But at least he apologises for his absence. As does - oh no! - the BCF representative due to make the Club of the Year presentation. What a disappointment. This will have to be rescheduled. (David Anderton did subsequently attend a club night before Christmas to make this award.) But at least our teams are sorted out:-

A team - Paul L, Bernard, Paul Mills and Carl (captain)

B team - Phil, Mark L, Adam Sykes, Rod (captain) and Tom Swallow as reserve

C team - Roy, Nick Mottram and Nigel Morris (captain)

D team - Chris, Geoff King, Tony King, Mike Whatson (captain) and Simon Whatson as reserve

E team - Tom Payne, Aaron Payne, Steve Payne, Bruce Holland and Frank Holmes (captain)

May 2004 - Another AGM that has been extensively reported already (Part 13 - 11.10.19), but - once again - the Accounts have now come to light. These show income down by about £40 and expenditure up by a similar amount, so the annual surplus was a measly £15.91. This was mainly due to a steep rise in LDCL fees to £136. Still, our accumulated balance continues to grow and now stands at £300.70.

March 2005 -  An interesting letter from Bernard (as Secretary) dated March 31, giving notice of the forthcoming AGM. No, that's not the interesting bit, this is. He informs us, firstly, that the Club will host the U-125 Cup Final between Nuneaton and Stratford on April 21, and then issues an appeal for members to volunteer to serve on the LDCL Committee. "At present, only 4 clubs are represented on the Committee being Stratford, Banbury, Olton and Solihull. As the largest club within the League, the Committee has requested that Kenilworth have at least one representative and I really think that we should honour this commitment." Wow! Who knew we were ever the largest club within the League?? This is complete news to me, and a major surprise, considering we are the smallest community to have a team in the League!

May 2005 - A club membership list comes to light. We have an impressive 20 full members; 1 associate and 5 juniors. Plus 3 naughty people (Adam Sykes; Aaron Payne and Simon Whatson) who didn't cough up their subs! The full members are:- Bruce Holland; Chris Aldridge; Nick Mottram; Phil Wood; Rod Webb; Roy Watson; Mike Whatson; Tom Swallow; Tony King; Bernard Rogers; Geoff King; Nigel Morris;Frank Holmes; Steve Payne; Paul Mills; Carl Pickering; Nick Waterman; Len Krombeen, Calvin Smith; and the mysterious Dr ??????, who gave his £10 to Carl! john skinner was the only associate member and our junior squad was Paul and Mark Lam; Tom Payne; Michael Atkins and Daniel Parvis.

I know I am starting to sound like a record that has got stuck, but the 2005 AGM has also previously been recorded at length (Part 14 - 18.12.19) though again without any financial details. Until now! These show another rise in LDCL fees, which have now reached the stratosphere - £168! Luckily, the Treasurer must have applied the thumbscrews as he has somehow raked in £225 in subs, but with £62.88 spent on equipment, and £40 of subsidies for our juniors' BCF membership, we posted a loss on the year of £34.65, which reduced our accumulated funds to £266.05.

I think I'll call it a day for now - if you think its a pain reading this stuff, spare a thought for me having to type it all out! There's enough material left over for at least one more instalment of this series, so the suffering - for all of us - is not over yet. There will be a Part 18 of this series - don't think it won't happen, just because it hasn't happened yet. Which just happens to be a line from our latest song!