NORTH WEST FEDERATION OF CROQUET CLUBS
Minutes of AGM held on Saturday 16 November 2002
Held at Culcheth Sports & Social Club by kind invitation of Daten Croquet Club
Committee (from 16 November 2002): Chairman: Bob Burnett; Secretary: Ian Lines; Development Officer: John Beech; League Manager: John Wilkinson; Coaching Officer: James Hawkins; CA Representative: Barry Keen; NW Championship Manager: Keith Roberts; Pennine Cup Captain: Roger Schofield;
Present: Barry Keen, Ian Lines, Ailsa Lines, John Wilkinson (Bowdon); David Barrett; Paul Rigge, Geoff Young (Bury); Alan Stubbs, Janet Davies (Chester); Eric Charters, Judy Doring, Eileen Cowsill (Culcheth); David Nicholson, Mark Miller (Crake Valley); Liz Wilson, Peter Wilson (Fylde); Georgina Llewellyn, Anwen Lloyd Williams (Llanfairfechan); Ray Belcher, Bob Burnett, Ray Lowe (Southport); John Beech, Roger Schofield (Pendle).
1. Welcome by the Chairman: The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2. Apologies for Absence: Apologies were received from: Peter Wardle (Crake Valley), James Hawkins (Southport), John Haslam (Southport)
3. Confirmation of the Minutes of the Last Meeting Held on 24 November 2001: The minutes were agreed with no comments.
4. Matters Arising from the Last Minutes: There were no matters arising.
5. Reports on the Past Year from Officers: Chairman – Bob Burnett: John Finnerty – The Chairman reported the sad news of John Finnerty’s tragic accident in Snowdonia. He will be sadly missed at Llanfairfechan and by all his friends. Neil Williams – The Chairman had received a letter from Neil, he is apparently somewhat better and is starting a course of radiotherapy. Everyone wishes him well. Pennine Cup – The North West retained the Pennine Cup over in Hull in August, winning 5-4. Club Championship – The North West Club Championship was a success yet again. Thanks to Abdul Ahmad for managing. Clubs are encouraged to enter for the Advanced (Action Club Reps). Web Site – The web site (www.www.croquetnw.co.uk) is a great success. Thanks were recorded to Tony Thomas for all his hard work, and people are encouraged to send him (tonythomas@www.croquetnw.co.uk) regular news and information (but NW League Match Results to John Wilkinson). Tony would like all Club Representatives to send him information to produce a club page for each club, plus any other ideas (Action Club Reps), and is considering additional content, e.g. tables of past winners, handicaps of players in NW, hot news, etc. Millennium Trophies Advanced – Event postponed to next year due to lack of entries (see item 9).
Secretary – Barry Keen: The secretary apologised for his recent absence due to being in Canada. The minutes of the last spring meeting are to be being circulated with those of the 2002 AGM.
Treasurer – Geoff Young: Acceptance of the accounts was proposed by Roger Schofield and seconded by John Beech and was agreed nem com. The balance carried forward is virtually unchanged from last year. The CA development grant was £250 last year in order to be in line with other Federations. It was agreed that Southport should have an increased contribution next year of £200 for hosting the NW Club Championships.
Development Officer – John Beech: JB has visited Ellesmere and other clubs to assist development. Clubs are encouraged to apply for grants under the Awards for All scheme. CA have agreed a development grant of £500 for next year which will go towards continued intensive coaching, visits to clubs, new equipment, support of the NW Club Champs (to encourage tournament play and new CA members). Potential for new club near Wrexham All club secretaries to inform John Beech of contact details and event dates for the Croquet North Leaflet (Action Club Reps). John Beech will then liaise with Anna Giraud (Secretary of Northern Confederation) regarding production.
CA Representative – Barry Keen: The CA Council has adopted a Child Protection Document, on which clubs will shortly receive details. Club Membership fee has increased to £6.10. The new CA Office at Cheltenham has been completed. There have been discussions regarding whether Federations should be autonomous, their boundaries and the extent/nature of links with the CA. Key question is ‘what additional help would Federations like to receive from CA’. Barry Keen would welcome any suggestions/views which he can take forward (Action Club Reps). John Beech noted that the NW Federation Constitution says that we operate under the aegis of the CA. There is also a working party on universal CA membership for all club croquet players. This is likely to progress in stages e.g. free entry to tournaments at your own club, £10 passport for tournaments elsewhere.
Coaching Officer – James Hawkins Mike Hague ran a very successful weekend coaching course at Southport (with Bruce Rannie present), resulting in 14 new club coaches, 4 Grade 1 coaches, 5 Grade 2 coaches and 1 Grade 3 coach. Thanks go to all the Southport Directing Staff. Any clubs with more people wanting to gain coaching qualifications should contact James before the Spring Meeting so that he can take a view as to whether there is sufficient demand to run another such course in the NW, otherwise see the CA fixtures book for courses elsewhere. The Flying Circus visited a number of clubs. This has gone well and James Hawkins will repeat next year as required (possibly at a higher level), but more coaches are always welcome to share the effort. Championship Manager – Abdul Ahmad Southport were thanked for hosting the event and Abdul was congratulated on running it so efficiently.
League Manager – John Wilkinson The league results were presented. Secretary holds a copy. 2003 NW League entry forms were distributed. These are to be returned to the League Manager to arrive by 31st December 2002 (Action All Club Reps). A successful year thanks to co-operation of team captains and special thanks to Tony Thomas for ongoing management of the website. Two anomalies in the League Rules came to light during the season: 1. Abandoned Matches: John Wilkinson proposed an addition to Rule 7, which now deals with matches in which very few games have been played. i.e. 7(d) The match result shall be the score of games completed or decided according to Rule 7(c) provided that the number of games thus counted equals at least half the number of games that should have been played. If fewer that half the games have been accounted for in this way the match shall be declared void and replayed on a date to be agreed by the captains. If it is not possible to replay the match before the end of the season neither club will be awarded a walkover. The League manager shall be informed by the host captain of the date of the replay. Rules 14 and 24 can also be deleted. This was seconded by Ray Belcher and approved nem com. 2. Golf Croquet League: John Wilkinson proposed a minor amendment to the rules to scale up the game scores for matches involving just 16 (not 22) games, to avoid possible injustices. This was seconded by Roger Schofield and approved nem com.
Suggestions were also made for alterations to the Advanced and Handicap League rules: 1. Advanced: Various possible schemes were discussed for restricting the handicaps of players allowed to form an advanced team. The meeting concluded that every club had a different pool of available players, and that it would not be sensible to impose any restrictions, but that Team Captains should be encouraged to arrange matches early and attempt to match handicaps as far as possible. The possibility of using bisques was considered but it was felt that this would defeat the object of playing Advanced. Peter Wilson and John Wilkinson will consider introducing a handicap based scoring system to determine the ‘corrected’ overall match result, and will report to the Spring Meeting. 2. Handicap: Again, various handicap restrictions were considered but were rapidly discounted. Bob Burnett proposed that, for a 1 year trial in the Handicap League Singles, players should play off a base equal to half of the average handicaps of the players (i.e. if an 8 plays a 12 , then the base is 10/2 = 5, and the 8 receives 3 bisques and the 12 receives 7 bisques). This was seconded by Roger Schofield and approved nem com. Bob Burnett and John Wilkinson will consider whether this should also apply to Handicap Doubles, and will report to the Spring Meeting. John Wilkinson will reissue the League Rules to reflect the above amendments.
6 Club Reports: Throughout the meeting, the club representatives present reported on their activities since the last AGM. Bowdon: Continued success of Wednesday Competition and new Sunday Competition for beginners. Bowdon Firs won Secretary’s Shield. Full playing membership of 96. Full report held by Secretary. Bury: Good year of development. 37 members, 8 new this year. 5 teams in League. Won the NW Club Championship. Investigating potential use of Heaton Park (Commonwealth games venue). Chester: Membership up to 43, from 15. Successful advertising in newsletters for Local Residents Associations. Short competitive sessions (Tuesday evenings) bringing people on. Charity Golf croquet morning. Exhibition/introductory days at NT property near Wrexham, with potential for 4 lawns. 2 visits from flying Circus. 3rd in Short League. Crake Valley: Sad news of the death of Bob Vaughan (Chairman) in January. He will be much missed. 2nd in Advanced League. Cumbria Cup managed/won by David Nicholson. CA v SCA hosted and won by CA. Now have 3½ lawns. Membership/finances static. Culcheth: Lost 2 and gained 2 adult members. 2 Juniors. Came 3rd in Golf League and at NW Club Championship Golf. Appreciated visits by Abdul Ahmad and Bob Burnett, and would welcome any coaching. A permanent 2nd lawn is a possibility. Ellesmere: 5 members. Hope to play in league next year. Struggling for new members. Fylde: Membership 8-10. 3rd overall at NW club Championship. Using short croquet as main introduction.. Isle of Man: No report. Kendal: Moving to Levens Hall. Currently have 1 full lawn there, possibly going to 2 next year. Keswick: No report. Lancaster: No report. Llanfairfechan: Sad news of John Finnerty’s tragic accident. Successful Children’s project, made possible by 2 Conwy County Council Borough Council Community Chest Grants from SportLot and the Sports Council for Wales. Investigating use of indoor carpet, and Georgina Llewellyn will contact Peter Wardle regarding the CA carpet currently at Kendal. Full report held by Secretary. Pendle: Competed in all 4 North West Leagues, the North West Club Championship, the Mary Rose and the Longman Cup. Successful in winning the Short League. Ran the usual tournaments with the same level of success as in former years plus one new one that got off to a good start. Hosted the Northern finals of the All England Handicap and Abdul Ahmad won the All England Golf Handicap. 5 courts and 46 members but are on orders to quit from the landlord and face an uncertain future. Southport: Club Coaching course was very successful. Peels hosted for the last time. Usual 2 Advanced and Open handicap Tournaments. Decided not to go ahead with lottery bid, but keeping north lawns for NW Club Championship. Recruitment OK. Won the Handicap, advanced and Golf Leagues.
7. Presentation of Trophies: Advanced – Southport Handica- Southport Short – Pendle Golf – Southport
8. Election of Officers: Chairman: Bob Burnett Prop: John Beech Sec: Liz Wilson Secretary: Ian Lines Prop: Bob Burnett Sec: John Wilkinson Treasurer: Geoff Young Prop: Bob Burnett Sec: John Wilkinson Development Officer: John Beech Prop: Bob Burnett Sec: Roger Schofield CA Representative: Barry Keen (3 year appointment) Coaching Officer: James Hawkins Prop: Liz Wilson Sec: Ian Lines League Manager: John Wilkinson Prop: David Nicholson Sec: Liz Wilson Championship Manager: Keith Roberts Prop: Bob Burnett Sec: Ian Lines Pennine Cup Captain: Roger Schofield Prop: John Beech Sec: David Nicholson The above Officers were elected by the meeting nem com.
9. Millennium Trophy: Restricting Advanced to B class only not a success (1 entry). In future may be A & B class. Advanced Final delayed to April 2003. John Beech, Geoff Young and David Barrett will liaise regarding date, format and location. Intention is that Finals will always be early in year (April).
10. A.O.B.: NW Federation fees remain at £20. Cheques to be sent to Geoff Young asap (Action Club Reps). Liz Wilson volunteered to act as Secretary for the NW Club Championships at Southport. Roger Schofield confirmed that Pendle would host the Pennine cup. Janet Davies has investigated the potential benefit of Inland Revenue tax concessions for community amateur sports clubs, and registering as a charity. Concessions are not available on subscriptions, only on donations. Charity status may reduce rate relief down to 80%. In summary, probably not worth pursuing, but Janet will provide Tony Thomas with more details for the croquetnw web site. Draft minutes of AGM will be issued within 3 days for comment to all club representatives and club secretaries who have provided e-mail addresses. Comments received by 1st December 2002 will be incorporated. Final issue to all Club Secretaries will be by snail mail, unless they have an e-mail address.
11. Date and Time of Next Meeting: The date of the next AGM was set at Saturday 15th November 2003 starting at 10.00 am at Culcheth. The date of the next Spring Meeting was set at Saturday 8th March 2003 at 10.00 am at Culcheth.
12. Close of Meeting: The Chairman thanked the Culcheth Club for hosting the AGM and declared the meeting closed at 1.00 pm.
Ian Lines NW Federation Secretary 16 November 2002