Minutes of the 39th Annual General Meeting of the Northants Cycle Racing Association, held on Monday September 15th, 2008 at 7.30pm at the Rockingham Forest Clubhouse

Present – Mick Ward (NCRA), Simon Fitzhugh, Zak Moore, Alastair Shed (45 RC), Dave Palmer (Cycling Bargains), Vic Davis, Pete Jinks (RFW), Dave Birch (WVCC)

Apologies were received from Steve Clarke (Fenland Clarion), Ian Wild (Peterborough), Tom Caldwell (St Ives), Norman Needham, John Partridge (RFW), Dave Donoghue (Oundle Velo)

The minutes of the 2007 Annual General Meeting were approved. There were no matters arising.

Election of Officers

Chairman/Handicapper: Mick Ward
Secretary/Treasurer: Dave Birch
Committee: Simon Fitzhugh, Zak Moore, Alastair Shed,
Dave Palmer, Vic Davis, Pete Jinks

Secretary/Treasurer’s Report

The season had been very successful, with large fields, good racing and we were solvent.

The current account bank balance was, as of 13.08.08, £4382,82 and the deposit account balance was, as of 26.04.08, £510.22.

The current account figure was so high because the Central Region Treasurer had not as of 13.08.08 cashed the cheques for levies for either the Spring or the Summer Series and because there had been a large surplus of income over expenditure from the Spring Series.

The surplus for the Spring Series was £803.06 and for the Summer Series was £140.40, this despite having given riders who entered the Spring Series £10 discount if they entered the Summer Series, and 31 riders did, and having returned £10 per rider pre-entered for the Summer Race at Old which had to be cancelled, and there were 59 of these. The reason for the very large surplus from the Spring Series was because of the large numbers entering on the line for every race.

Dave Birch proposed that as NCRA didn’t need this surplus, each club organizing races in the two 2008 series be given £80 per race organized to cover the cost of staging those races (replacing stolen signs being a common cost) and this was agreed by the committee. There was discussion about purchasing a digital camera and digital dictaphones for NCRA to help race judges. It was decided that a camera good enough to do the job would be too expensive and Rockingham Forest’s experience of using digital dictaphones was that the excited howls of spectators at the end of races blotted out the calm and measured tones of the judges who were using the dictaphones.

2009 events

It was agreed to run two series, again with 5 races in the Spring Series and 6 races in the Summer Series.

45 Road Club offered to run a race in the Spring Series and favoured either the Old or the Harrington circuit. Mick Ward advised that the Harrington circuit wasn’t safe for racing, especially on Saturday afternoons because so much of the course is on the busy A508. 45 Road Club therefore will be using the Old circuit. For the same reason Welland Valley CC will be using the shorter Naseby circuit for their race in the Summer series.

The provisional dates, organizing clubs and circuits for the Spring series are as follows:

March 7 Rockingham Forest Wheelers Middleton
March 14 Kettering CC Old
March 21 Peterborough CC Southwick
March 28 45 RC Old
April 4 Fenland Clarion CC Great Gidding

(some reshuffling will be necessary as Fenland Clarion can’t run a race on April 4 – Dave 19.09)

It was decided not to run a 6th race as this would involve going into Easter weekend when Rockingham Forest already had an open race).

The provisional dates, organizing clubs and circuits for the Summer series are as follows:

June 2 Rockingham Forest Wheelers Middleton
June 11 Welland Valley CC Naseby
June 16 St Ives CC Sawtry
June 23 Kettering CC Old
June 30 Peterborough CC Southwick
July 7 Fenland Clarion CC Southwick

As Welland Valley CC are only organizing one race, Dave Birch agreed to be overall organizer for both series. He made it clear that he would only be prepared to run two series for this one year.

Concern was expressed as to the safety of the new circuit used by St Ives CC for their race this year. It was felt that their ‘usual’ circuit was much safer. Dave Birch agreed to contact Tom Caldwell and would discuss the matter with him. (Tom, despite his personal preference for punishing, hilly courses, has agreed to the proposed change – Dave 19.09.08).

It was agreed that entry fees would be the same as for this year. It was felt that despite this year’s surplus it would be unwise to lower the entry as the surplus was due to large numbers of riders entering the Spring series on the line and there was no guarantee that this would happen again. Also the cost of staging races rises every year.

Any Other Business

Dave Palmer announced that Cycling Bargains didn’t wish to continue with sponsorship of the yellow jersey for 2009. Dave Birch wondered if this might be at least in part due to his forgetting to present it at the end of races – Dave Palmer didn’t disagree! Dave Birch has an unused small sized yellow jersey in his possession which he will return to Cycling Bargains.

Mick Ward said that there was some uncertainty as to the winner of the NCRA trophy for 2008. He thought the winner was Matthew Barrett but wasn’t sure. He asked Dave Birch to contact John Partridge to see if this was the case (John since contacted and he confirmed that Matthew Barrett was the winner – Dave 19.09.08). Dave Birch to contact Michael Cowland, the 2007 winner, to retrieve the trophy and get it engraved with Matthew Barrett’s name for 2008, Ian Wild’s for 2006 and Jeremy Harrison’s for 2005.

Dave Birch proposed that for 2010, one of the clubs organizing a race in each series might be prepared stand down from organizing one of those races, and, in return, be overall organizer for one of the series. An alternative arrangement could be that one of the participating clubs who don’t organize a race could provide an overall organizer.

Members agreed to take this proposal back to their clubs for their committees’ consideration.

Dave Birch asked permission of the committee to purchase a filing box for storing BC licences during races. Permission was granted.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at 9.15p.m.