Cheadle & Gatley District Bowling League

Minutes of Annual General Meeting, 2006

30 January 2006, 7.30pm

Held at Cheadle Conservative Club

1. Silent invocation

The President asked delegates to stand for few moments in silence in memory of colleagues who had passed away in the last year. These included Ray Cheslett of Gatley Rec; Edgar Hughes, Jack Littlewood and W Fitzmaurice of Grange; Ernie Green of Great Moor Conservative; Roy Ashton of Royal Oak; Harold Barton, Albert Brown, Harry Palmer and Les Sykes of Parkville; George Hayes of SMBL; Alf Hewitt of Thorn Grove; Norman Austin of Waggon & Horses.

2. Roll call

Present: President, Secretary, Treasurer and delegates
Apologies: Mr D McKnight (Chairman)
Absences: Cheadle Kingsway, Green End, Wythenshawe Park

3. Minutes of previous annual general meeting

The minutes of the previous annual general meeting had been circulated. The minutes were taken as read and approved.

4. Correspondence and Secretary’s and Match Secretary’s report

Vets’ Match Secretary

Gerry Hall retired this time last year. Danny Newman had agreed to take over but was unable to do the job because of illness. Alan Bligh agreed to step into the breach, and I think he did a splendid job. I’m pleased to report that he is willing to carry on this year.

There was some confusion last year over where match sheets should be sent, and I’m grateful to both Gerry and Danny for forwarding the sheets that came their way. I hope things will be better this year, with Alan’s name printed on the cards.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. We need bodies to help running the league, to avoid getting too dependent on a few people.

Evening League

Proposed composition

For the first time since I’ve been doing the job, I have received no resignations and no applications. So we have three divisions of 11, and a straight two-up, two-down.

Proposed programme

Eleven teams means a league programme of 22 weeks, which makes lack of light a problem at the beginning and end. We also have to fit in with the Stockport & District league. It’s not feasible to have two weeks without league matches as we did last year, but we will have one week off, making the season 23 weeks long.

Newlan - R1 on Tuesday

In response to a suggestion last year, I have brought the Bob Newlan competition forward to earlier in the year, in the hope of avoiding holidays. So we will play round 1 of the Newlan on a Tuesday evening - 9 May. Subsequent rounds are on Sundays as before, avoiding the dates used by the S&D for their knock-out. The final is on 2 July.

Merit - Wednesday/Saturday qualifying

We can’t have Merit qualifying on a Tuesday this year, so I propose like last year to have a qualifying round on a Wednesday evening. There will also be qualifying on a Saturday for those who play in other leagues on Wednesdays.

I have distributed the fixtures tonight.

Vets’ League

Number of teams

We have three new teams this year – Spring Gardens, Ladybarn and a third team from Nursery. Klondyke are short of players and have withdrawn one of their teams.

Proposed composition

I think the old practice of putting new teams in the bottom division is no longer appropriate. When we have six divisions it takes five years for a strong new team to reach the top division, collecting easy prize money along the way.

Spring Gardens are potentially a strong side, but they have said they want to use the C&G team to give games to players who cannot otherwise get a game. Ladybarn were members of the league a few years ago, when they hovered in the bottom half of the league.

I suggest that Spring Gardens go in division 4, replacing Klondyke B, and Ladybarn in division 5 which only had 9 teams last year. The Nursery third team really has to go in division 6, because their second team is in that division. We then need to promote three from division 6 to 5, to fill up the fifth division. Otherwise it’s two-up, two down, resulting in six divisions of 11. You have the proposal in your handouts. If you approve of this the fixtures will be available in a week or so.

Cheadle Park will again be playing on Tuesdays this year. They are not sure yet if they will be at Cheadle or playing on Gatley Rec. With the Nursery C team, this significantly increases the number of Tuesday matches.

Organisation of Merit and Jennison R1

We have problems running the first round of the Jennison Shield, because we need nearly every green. Last year we tried using two dates for the Jennison and the same two dates for the Merit. This was rather confusing – it certainly baffled me.

This year we will have the preliminary round of the Jennison and a few of the round 1 matches on Tuesday 19 July. There will also be a couple of league matches that day. Most of the round 1 matches (including the winners from the prelim) will be played on Wednesday 15 August.

Because of all the Tuesday league matches, there are some league matches scheduled for the same days as later Jennison rounds. These will have to be rearranged if necessary.

I propose also playing the Jennison semi-finals and final on a single day. We did this last year, and it was a good day (although we were blessed by the weather).

Green Rotas

You have lists in your handouts of when we need greens this year. This again includes the vets teams. Please make sure your green is available as needed, complete with jacks and long tape. If you have any problems please let me know in good time and I’ll find an alternative. There were too many occasions last year when teams turned up to find greens closed and deserted. Let’s try to avoid that this year.

News from BCGBA

There are no rule changes this year, except for regulations for the International Championship. A touch of lèse majesté there I think.

Next Meeting

The next meeting is on Monday 20 March, here at 7.30. It’s a short but important meeting, when you will get the handbooks and other paperwork for the season.

Great Moor Conservative Club

The meeting approved the proposal for Great Moor Conservative C to play their home games at 11am.

5. Treasurer’s report

The treasurer summarised the accounts. The prize money was lower than forecast because we had one fewer evening divisions. Merit entries were also down again.

The league had invested in a web site. The costs of this are included in the secretary’s expenses, and contributions from other leagues that share the site are shown as income.

6. Auditor’s report

The auditor commended the accuracy of the accounts and the thoroughness of their author.

7. Ratification of rule change

Ratification of rule changes reducing the evening league team size to 10:

Change rule 4.1 to read “Competing teams shall number 10 players. Thirteen handbooks per team are included in the annual fee.”

Change second sentence of rule 6.2 to read “Teams to consist of ten players.”

In rule 6.4 replace “12” by “10” in three places.

Proposed by Heald Green Social

Seconded by Ladybridge Park

The proposal was approved nem con.

8. Election of officers

All the existing officers were re-elected, except for two members of the management sub-committee: Messrs J Barratt and R Cheslett.

President: D Walker
Chairman: DJ McKnight
Hon Secretary and Match/Results Secretary (evenings): ER Kavanagh
Hon Treasurer: J Forrest
Hon Veterans Secretary: vacant; no nomination received
Hon Results Secretary (Vets): A Bligh
Management Sub-committee: S Alsop, T Bills, J Pearson, A Rowlinson re-elected; H Beech, N Dewey elected

9. Fixing of honorariums

The meeting approved honorariums conforming to the five-year plan. The new honorariums were as follows.

Treasurer £320
Secretary £320
Match secretary £190
Veterans’ secretary £190
Veterans’ match secretary £190

10. General discussion of matters affecting the league

The treasurer reported that there was no more room on the existing Jennison Shield for further winners. Unless a donation materialised, he proposed to but a new trophy. P.C.S. offered to donate a trophy.

P.C.S. also reported that they had insufficient players and with regret they were forced to resign from the evening league. The secretary commented that this meant a change to the proposed composition and hence to the fixtures that had just been distributed. There would be two divisions of 11 and one of 10: should the ten-team division be the top or the bottom? The consensus was that it should be the bottom division, with Ladybridge and Shaw Heath being promoted to divisions A and B respectively.

Alan Bligh suggested that in future veterans’ matches should start at 1.45pm, to allow players to get home before the traffic got too busy. This would require a rule change, so could not be decided at this meeting, but he sought delegates’ views. There were a few comments in favour, and none against.

There was no further business and the meeting closed at 8.15pm