10-5 VOTE FOR CRICKET PLAN

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31116, 20 July 1966, Page 14

10-5 VOTE FOR CRICKET PLAN

The long-standing and controversial question on the form the Canterbury Cricket Association’s senior competitions will take next season passed through its fourth and penultimate stage last evening.

Mr R. C. Saunders’s attempt to rescind an earlier resolution favouring a “three sixes” set-up (six teams in each of the senior A, senior B, and 2A grades), was defeated by 10 votes to five. The “three sixes” proposal will now go to the annual general meeting, on Wednesday, September 14. Mr Saunders was reluctant to press his point, as there was not a full committee present, but did so at the request of the chairman (Mr A. E. L. Britton). Mr Saunders, the immediate past president, said that he was not representing the club he played for nor had he consulted Its members. He outlined the history of the senior competition since the Second World War and said: “The more we try to legislate, the more we get into a mire.” The alternative rules offered by Mr Saunders were grading at the absolute discretion of the competitions committee, and automatic promotion for at least a season of a junior club winning the 2A competition in two out of three years. Messrs A. G. Duckmanton, R. L. Kerr, D. J. Elder and J. T. Eltoft spoke against Mr Saunders’s motion, and Messrs C. G. F. Hamilton, J. H. M. Dawson and C. G. Snook in favour of it.

One suggestion by Mr Saunders that did find favour as a notice of motion to the annual meeting, was that requiring a three-fifths majority at meetings of delegates to change rules. This, if favoured, would replace the present simple majority. A surplus for the year of £l3B, compared with £4O lost last season, was reported by the treasurer (Mr E. D. Bennett). This, he said, was the result of increased broadcasting fees, re-invested Govern-

ment loans, a little constraint in expenditure, and the match-running fees for the New Zealand v. England test However, Mr Bennett said that the gates for the Plunket Shield matches were down by considerably more than the excess on the budgeted figure from broadcasting fees. He blamed this on the ground membership scheme and the televising of matches. Rothman’s Bat.—M. L. Ryan, who performed notably as an opening batsman in his initial first-class season, is Canterbury's most improved under-23 cricketer for the 1965-66 season.

The association awarded Ryan the Rothman’s bat, which will be presented to him at the club’s opening day in October.