Minor Counties Championship 1908

5 The December 1907 Annual Meeting The Annual Meeting of the Association was held at Lord's on Tuesday 10 December. Mr E G Buxton (Norfolk), the Mayor of Norwich, presided with the others present being:- BEDFORDSHIRE - Messrs W W Marks and R W Allen. BERKSHIRE - Major C Turner and Sir C Y (sic) Nepean. BUCKINGHAMSHIRE - Dr B Abrahams and Messrs P J de Paravicini and H E Bull. CAMBRIDGESHIRE - Major O Papworth. CORNWALL - Mr J Bray. DEVON - Mr L Tamworth. DORSET - Mr W Hardy Manfield. DURHAM - Mr T A Bulmer. GLAMORGAN - Mr H B Letcher. HERTFORDSHIRE - Mr H M Harford. LANCASHIRE (2nd XI) - Messrs J Hornor and T J Matthews. LINCOLNSHIRE - Mr W E Thompson. MONMOUTHSHIRE – Mr E S Phillips. STAFFORDSHIRE - Mr W C Hancock. SUFFOLK - Mr R Ll Hodgson. SURREY (2nd XI) - Messrs H D G Leveson-Gower and W Findlay. WILTSHIRE - Mr A M Miller. YORKSHIRE (2nd XI) - Messrs F C Toone and R W Frank. with the honorary secretaries, Mr R H Mallett (Durham) and Dr J Earl Norman (Hertfordshire). The following counties were not represented: Carmarthenshire and Northumberland. The Election of Officers – The minutes of the annual meeting held at Lord's in December 1906 were duly confirmed, following which Dr J Earl Norman and Mr R H Mallett were re-elected as honorary secretaries and heartily thanked for their services. It was decided that those two, plus Mr P J de Paravicini, would continue to represent the Minor Counties Association on the MCC Advisory Board. It was decided that the committee would continue to comprise of the representatives of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Staffordshire, Surrey 2nd XI and Wiltshire. Carmarthenshire – At some point between the Annual Meeting of December 1906 and this meeting, Carmarthenshire were admitted to the Championship. No mention was made of this in the transcript of the proceedings and it is unclear when their decision to enter the competition was made known. The Knock Out Stages Of The Championship – It was arranged that the group winners of the North and East should meet in the semi-final round; likewise the winners of the South and West groups. The venues were to be arranged by agreement between the relevant clubs. It was also decided that, in future, the draw would continue to be made by the committee. The Second Elevens Of First-Class Players And The Minor Counties Championship – Mr W W Marks (Bedfordshire), moved that the rules of the Minor Counties Championship should be amended so that the 2nd XIs of first-class counties would in future be ineligible to compete but that the amendment would not come into force until after 1 October, 1908. In proposing this resolution Mr Marks gave two options for “dealing with” the 2nd XIs. One was to make a rule that none of these sides should include any cricketer who had represented the corresponding first eleven two or more times – however, he did not favour this solution as it “did not seem straightforward, and appeared rather like “squeezing them” out of the [Minor Counties]