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"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."

Just a few days ago, 17th March, there was a little flurry of excitement. It came in an e-mailed announcement made by Mr Tony Bastable in the form of an oxymoron that read thus:

It went on to say that the website was now back in business and fully operational, that it was crisply laid out - something funereal about that phrase - and easy to use. There followed his congratulations to Mel Smith and Richard Ludlam for the speedy and efficient manner - it had only taken six weeks - in which they had undertaken - there are those funeral directors back again - this much-needed overhaul. Much-needed, indeed, in view of the passing on - oops! Freudian slip - resignation from ACU&S of the previous webmaster on 31st January .

Curiosity aroused, I went to the crisp new website. Easily I accessed the minutes of a meeting of the Examination Board Select Committee held on 28th January 2006. It is a committee smaller than most, numbering just thirteen if all can attend. As the name implies, its remit is narrow although far-reaching, it being responsible for developing, up-grading and producing new examinations as well as grade promotion examinations for non-professional and ECB First Class Reserve List umpires.

They do not let this restrict them, though. Minute SC512 deals with a "Resolution relating to the management of ACU&S" arising from a proposal by Ron Birch, seconded by Trevor Magee. It was in two parts, the first of which blamed the Acting Chairman for the aborted SGM at Derby - he failed to tell members the motions were not valid; he had brought ACU&S into disrepute by booking too small a room; thereby he had cost ACU&S £4K+ ; he had wasted members' money and time; and he had disregarded the Executive Board's nominations of people to meet with ECB but not, presumably, at Derby. Accordingly, they called on him to resign forthwith.

After this, they had a go at General Council generally for a number of failures. You may wonder what all this has to do with developing new examinations. Was this not a serious case of the tail wagging the dog? In fairness, the penny dropped with them too, eventually. The minute concludes: "After a good deal of discussion, which continued after the meeting by e-mail, (our italics) RB and TM decided to withdraw the motion."
Maybe they had their knuckles rapped for having forgotten that it was we who were supposed to get the blame for the Derby fiasco. Still, it had passed the time. It must get pretty boring sometimes trying to think up new questions about the same old forty-two Laws.

Oh, yes. Another odd thing. A more careful reading of the Constitution leads us to wonder if our original motion for the SGM was not, after all, valid. We would agree that Geoff Lowden exceeded his powers when he added his motion to the order paper, because it does seem that the (acting) chairman cannot do this unilaterally. On the other hand, since it is stated that members of General Council are answerable to the members of the Association in General Meeting......well, we do not want to make an issue of it. Not just yet.

Perhaps they will have to go back to blaming Mr Lowden. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice might say.