McDermott bows out in style

The Annual General Meeting of the OCCC attracted a record turnout, lured by the generous provision of wine by the Headmaster, the excellent surroundings of the School and a superb dinner to honour the retiring president, John McDermott.

The AGM in the reading room was a lively affair in which the following was agreed (the full minutes will be available as a download soon).

Eds Copleston replaces Henry Watkinson as captain and David Bugge replaces McDermott as president. The rest of the committee remains unaltered.

The club will withdraw from the Cricket World Trophy as it was almost unanimously agreed that participating in two cup competitions was commiting us to too many matches which clash with the club games which have to remain the essence of the OCCC. As part of a much longer debate, it was generally agreed that while 2008 had been a great success in terms of the Cricketer Cup, the other games had fallen by the wayside and in 2009 a priority was to make sure that the balance was restored.

The only change to the 209 fixtures was that Kings Canterbury Old Boys, who failed to honour their cricket week fixture, would be replaced. The match against the School on Speech Day would be a Twenty20 game with the more traditional all-day fixture starting the cricket week on the first Friday after the end of term.

As thoughts turn to the 2009 season, our chairman addressed the AGM on the subject of teas. "We've had some OC girls in the past who've been prepared to do it for cash during the summer," he warbled.


A super dinner in Hall then followed during which Watkinson made presentations to Rick Johnson, Martin Williamson, Heather Dean and McDermott; McDermott then followed with a typically acerbic and amusing speech, and, realising that as outgoing president this was his last chance to settle scores, then made a second speech after the main course.