Marchant tells the members - Im ready to step down (From Western Telegraph)

Marchant tells the members - Im ready to step down

After fifteen years as the hon. secretary of the Pembroke County Cricket Club, Mr Bill Marchant has indicated that he is now seriously considering stepping down from this position.

The startling revelation was announced at the Annual General Meeting of the County Club, which was held at Haverfordwest Cricket Club last Wednesday.

In his report to a full meeting, Mr. Marchant expressed his concerns that while a number of clubs and members were critical of the County Club, these same members were unwilling to stand for office or for that matter stand for the Executive and Finance Committee.

At the same time, while these same clubs and members had been critical of the County Club rules, not one had introduced any new rules at this A.G.M. or had tried to amend or delete any of the existing rules about which they are critical.

He felt strongly that these critics should either put up or shut up Mr. Marchant added that both he and the Assistant Secretary, Mr Mike Phillips, were willing to stand down from the Executive Committee, and confirmed that he and Mr Phillips would be prepared to discuss the workload involved in both jobs with anyone who was interested in taking over.

While only one person had put their name forward to join the Executive Committee, Mr Marchant warned members that the day was fast approaching when no one would want to take office because of the constant criticism and inherent legal problems.

Mr. Marchants comments apart, this years A.G.M. was one of the fastest on record.

There were no contentious issues on the agenda and all notices of motion went through as proposed without the need for the membership to vote.

The main change to the rules saw the Duggie Morris Cup reverting back to an evening competition after last years experiment to play the competition on a Sunday found little support. This will now become a twenty over a side competition with each bowler being restricted to a maximum of four overs apiece.

Bob Flute retired as County Club chairman and was replaced by Philip Thomas, while former Cresselly skipper Dave Morris beat Rob Summons to become the new vice chairman.

The evening concluded with the County Club solicitor, Mr. Stephen Hill, explaining the current situation regarding the Lovell affair and suitably answering questions from the membership.