22 January 2002, 8.00pm
Held at Cheadle Conservative Club
The Chairman asked delegates to stand for few moments in silence in memory of colleagues who had passed away in the last year. These included Alec Adie of Heaton Mersey, John Hill of the Grange, Joe Pogson of Royal Oak and bowls journalist and commentator Harry Rigby.
Present: Chairman, Secretary, Veterans’ Secretary, Treasurer and delegates
Apologies: President, Bramhall Queensgate
Absences: Cringlewood, EWBC, Wilmslow Conservative
The minutes of the previous annual general meeting were read and approved.
The secretary presented the proposed composition of the league for 2002. Withington had withdrawn (although they were still playing in the veterans' league). Heaton Mersey Conservative and Waggon and Horses were each withdrawing one team. We had applications from Shaw Heath to reinstate their second team and from a new club, EWBC. This made 41 teams, which would be organised as a three divisions of 10 and a fourth division of 11.
Waggon & Horses had said that their remaining team would consist mainly of players from the old second team. The Waggon secretary confirmed to the meeting that their first team squad would be playing in the Stockport and district league most Tuesday nights. In view of this, the secretary proposed that the remaining team be in division C, where the old second team was. A league composition based on this had been circulated and was approved.
Compilation of the fixtures was again in the capable hands of Alan Bligh. We had to liaise with the Stockport and district league and expected the fixtures to be available early in February.
Tuesday 4 June is a bank holiday this year, but the secretary proposed to schedule fixtures as normal for this day.
We also need to liaise with the S&D to avoid clashes in the knock-out cups (and avoid the long bank-holiday weekend). The list of key dates and the green rota would also be available in a week or so.
A letter had been sent to clubs with age restrictions, as requested at the half-yearly meeting. This had resulted in five clubs removing their age limits for visiting players. Another club had lowered its limit to 12 years, which the secretary thought unlikely to be a barrier in practice. Unfortunately Cheadle Heath had added a restriction where they did not previously have one, but the general trend was in the right direction.
No clubs had responded to the request for information why they wanted or needed to maintain an age restriction.
Veterans’ fixtures were distributed to those clubs concerned.
The Veterans’ secretary described the league structure for the new season. There were now 60 team in five divisions, following an application from Heaton Mersey Conservative. [Post meeting note: Shaw Heath had withdrawn their second team, reverting the league to 59 teams.]
A letter had been received from Great Moor Conservative, proposing that the merit be played in three rounds. This is to avoid players having to play three or four games in the qualifying or final rounds. The sub-final round would produce eight qualifiers for the final day. After some discussion this idea was accepted by the meeting.
The meeting approved the proposal for Great Moor Conservative C to play their home games at 11am. The secretary explained that rule 7(i) of the veterans' league specified that matches were at 2pm, unless authorised by the preceding AGM. Hence the proposition had to be brought to every AGM. He believed that the rule was framed this way to avoid creating a precedent.
The treasurer summarised the accounts, which showed a deficit for the year of about £300.
The account for one club (British Rail) was still outstanding. A delegate from the club was present and said that he would speak to the club secretary. Concern was expressed from the floor at the continuing tolerance of this situation.
Once again, Deanprint had provided the handbooks and presentation night tickets at very favourable rates. He thanked Mike Broome.
The auditor (also the president) had sent his apologies. The treasurer reported that he had examined the accounts and was satisfied.
The accounts were approved (proposed Silverwings, seconded Stockport CC).
The chairman remarked that we were richer than Argentina.
Change rule for Veterans’ individual merit competition to read: “The final of this competition to be held after the league fixtures are completed. Entry is open to players who have played in at least three veterans’ league matches in the current season.” Proposed by the Veterans' secretary.
The veterans' secretary explained that the purpose of the rule change was to allow veterans to play in the merit in the year they qualify as a veteran, and not have to wait until the following year.
The proposal was approved nem con.
All the existing officers were re-elected.
President: D Walker
Chairman: DJ McKnight
Hon Secretary and Match/Results Secretary (evenings): ER Kavanagh
Hon Treasurer: J Forrest
Hon Veterans Secretary: L Shinner
Hon Results Secretary (Vets): G Hall
Management Sub-committee: C Houghton, RA Wright, J Barratt, MG Butterley, J Lloyd, L Myatt, J Hammond, R Edy [Post meeting note: Mr Houghton died a few days later.]
The meeting approved a general increase of about 5% in the honorariums. The new honorariums were as follows.
Treasurer £200
Secretary £262
Veterans’ secretary £131
Veterans’ match secretary £131
The secretary reported that EWBC would be playing at the Cross Keys Hotel.
There was no further business and the meeting closed at 9.10pm