Minor Counties Championship 1909

5 THE ANNUAL MEETING The Annual Meeting of the Minor Counties Association was held at Lord's on Tuesday 8 December, prior to the meeting of the county secretaries. With the exception of Northumberland, all counties were represented; the following is an official list of the delegates who were present:- BEDFORDSHIRE, Mr R W Allen. BERKSHIRE, Sir C Y (sic) Nepean and Major C Turner. BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, Mr H Gilbert Hogarth. CAMBRIDGESHIRE, Major O Papworth and Mr C Pigg. CARMARTHENSHIRE, Mr D Hughes-Morgan. CHESHIRE, Mr C J Hughes. CORNWALL, Mr J Bray. DEVON, Mr N Radcliffe. DORSET, Mr W Hardy Manfield. DURHAM, Mr T A Bulmer. GLAMORGAN, Mr J H Brain. HERTFORDSHIRE, Dr J Earl Norman. LINCOLNSHIRE, Mr W E Thompson. MONMOUTHSHIRE, Mr E S Phillips. NORFOLK, Mr E G Buxton. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 2ND XI, Mr H Turner. STAFFORDSHIRE, Mr W E Hancock. SUFFOLK, Mr H A Groom. SURREY 2ND XI, Messrs W Findlay and K J Key. WILTSHIRE, Messrs A M Miller and R W Awdry. YORKSHIRE 2ND XI, Messrs R W Frank and F C Toone. Mr R H Mallett, joint hon. sec. with Dr Earl Norman, was also present. Cheshire, Nottinghamshire 2nd XI and Lancashire 2nd XI – At some point between the Annual Meeting of December 1907 and this meeting, Cheshire and Nottinghamshire 2nd XI were admitted to the Championship and Lancashire 2nd XI withdrew. No mention was made of these changes in the transcript of the proceedings; it being left unclear either when the various decisions to enter or to leave the competition were made known or the effect that the changes would have had on the organisation of the counties into the four groups. Lancashire 2nd XI justified their withdrawal by stating that they considered the Championship to be poorly advertised. (Lancashire continued to recognise the value of second XI cricket and arranged their own friendly fixtures until they re-joined the Minor Counties Championship in 1921 – in 1909 they played home and away with Surrey 2nd XI and Yorkshire 2nd XI.) Mr E G Buxton (Norfolk) having been voted to the chair, joint hon. sec. Dr Earl Norman read the minutes of the last annual general meeting; these were duly confirmed. He then stated that the resolution arrived at the last meeting, that the representatives of the second elevens of first- class counties should confer and agree as to the number of times an appearance in a season in a first-class game should disqualify a cricketer from playing for the second eleven, had failed to bring about a result as the relevant counties had been quite unable to come to any agreement on the subject. Mr C Pigg (Cambridgeshire) wished to have the minutes of a committee meeting, in which a matter concerning the state of the wicket at Watford was discussed, brought up for consideration. However, he was ruled out of order.