History of Bucks CCC

Could the County Club continue? Was it in a position to arrange fixtures for the forthcoming season? Another special meeting was held, this time at the George Hotel, Aylesbury. The possibility of disposing of the County Ground was discussed. Ground expenses were an annual drain on resources, and little was earned from lettings, but there were fears that the subscriptions of members living in the town, especially those who were using the club’s facilities, would be lost to the county. Nevertheless the seeds were sown, and it would not be long before the County Club rid itself of its burden. The problem of insolvency was addressed by the chairman of the meeting, de Paravicini’s successor as county captain Mr WF Lowndes, when he generously volunteered that, rather than see the county pull out of its fixtures, he would personally guarantee any loss incurred by the matches. Despite this kind offer the 1910 season was even more disastrous adding a further £190 of losses to the balance sheet, which now showed total deficiencies of £227 15s 8d. Nor did it sound as though the ship was in the safest of hands. ‘No letter or report received from Mr HG Hogarth’ the minutes of the Annual General Meeting recorded when the secretary’s report had been expected. The long-serving assistant secretary, Mr JCW Ellis, would no doubt have attended to the essentials, but the treasurer, the indefatigable Lt Col FT Higgins-Bernard, was also among those who were absent from this important meeting. He had at least apologised, which is more than can be said of Mr Hogarth, who had made little impact as a player - five matches, all as an opening bat, for an average of 5.88 - and who now melted from the administrative and playing scene, though he remained a member and became a vice-president in 1926. Herbert Bull, a tireless worker for the county cause who had been secretary for four years from 1904, was soon to take over as treasurer, and he had already been swift to voice his concerns about the financial situation at an extraordinary general meeting held in Aylesbury ten weeks earlier. That meeting had set in motion the relinquishing of the lease on the County Ground, and when the AGM came round a sub-committee had been able to report that the unexpired portion of the lease was to be taken over by the newly formed Aylesbury Sports Club for a price of £133 15s 0d, a figure that reflected a special valuation of the pavilion and fittings but gave the County Club nothing to reflect the costs it had incurred in creating a cricket ground and other sporting facilities from agricultural land. There was still the matter of restoring the County Club to solvency deprived as it now was of its principal asset. This was the moment for Herbert Bull to speak out in committee and he received support for his proposal that ‘steps be immediately taken to raise the sum of £400 in order to provide the expenses of next season’s engagements and repay the amount of liabilities due, and unless £300 is raised by April 30th the Club must of necessity cancel its county fixtures’. A circular was prepared and the initial response was sufficiently encouraging for Bull’s draconian proposal to be side-stepped. The appeal raised £371 19s 3d, which went straight into the capital account. Yet once again the core problem remained. Some may have chosen to make donations instead of paying their annual subscription and members were lost in the Aylesbury area so at the year’s end the treasurer had to report subscription income down to £173 - over £100 less than the sum that was coming in each year before the special meeting at 31 Financial crises