Minutes of a meeting of the Committee of the Bury and
District Table Tennis League
Date: Tuesday 2 October 2007 Place: Seedfield
Present: Keith
Warrington, Frank Sheldon, Rodney Hall,
Apologies: David Ternent,
Graham Jeffries
1 Chairman
FS took the chair.
2 Development of table
tennis in Bury
Joe Walk submitted a paper
(attached) on his proposals for developing table tennis in Bury, building on
the work he is currently doing at Woodhey School.
He is already taking steps
to apply for grant funding for equipment while awaiting the response from the
TA.
KW, KB, FS and RH agreed to
form a committee, with JW as Chairman, to progress the project.
There are a number of
questions to be resolved such as what facilities are there at the TA for
catering and storage, rental costs, caretaking hours, security, security of
tenure etc. These can be discussed and
resolved by the new committee. There was
also a discussion about equipment – should tables be freestanding or rollaway,
getting alternative quotations etc.
Again, these will be resolved by the committee.
Action: JW
arrange a visit to the TA with KW, KB, FS and RH.
Action: KB
to give JW contact details of the other committee members.
Action: JW
to arrange an initial committee meeting.
JW
also asked for help at Woodhey – KW and FS agreed to visit next week. CRB checks would be needed for those helping
at Woodhey.
3
Facilities from Bury Council
FS
reported that he had received no further response from his contact at Bury
Council. It was agreed to take no
further action while the TA proposal was being progressed.
4
Seedfield Centre
It
was agreed that FS would contact the Seedfield Centre to say that, at present,
the League did not wish to pursue the possible use of these facilities any
further.
Action: FS
to communicate to Seedfield Centre.
5
Minutes of the meeting held on 13 August 2007
Approved
6
Matters Arising
a) Venue for Finals Night
Those who had visited the
new Maccabi venue had been impressed by the facilities. However there had been some adverse reports
about the playing conditions, particularly the noise levels, sighting the ball
against the light background and the height of the bounce. It was agreed to attempt to book Ramsbottom
again for this season’s finals night and review matters again after a season’s
experience of playing at Maccabi.
Action: DT to book Ramsbottom
b) Have the L&CTTL been
given correct contact details for the Bury League?
Action: Await reply from GJ
c) Website progress
No further action yet by KB.
Action: KB to develop the site on the
new host. Target mid November
d) ELPM photo
This has been provided by GJ
but it may be too small for use on the website.
e) Use of Sam Hilton bequest
A number of possible uses were
discussed but no agreement reached.
There was uncertainty amongst those present as to what current trophies
are in use. Details are needed.
Action: DT to provide a summary of what
medals and trophies are awarded each season, and which are returned for use the
following year.
f) Insurance
The League insurance policy
is now renewed through the ETTA, giving a saving of over £100 p.a.
g) Changes to bank account
signatories
The process has stalled and
needs to be expedited.
Action: KB, PH and KW to sort this out.
h) End of season event
FS has proposed an end of
season meal for the League at Whitefield Golf Club. He could also arrange a golf day if demand
existed. A number of clubs already hold
an end of season event and perhaps they would be interested in combining their
activity with other clubs.
Action: KW will circulate clubs and ask
their views.
7 Match Secretary’s
report
KW reported on a dispute
between Little Lever and Adelphi over the postponement of the first match of
the season due to non-availability of the premises. It appeared that both teams would agree to
play the return fixture for double points if they were unable to reschedule the
match in the meantime.
Other committee members
identified potential problems with fixtures being postponed, particularly where
clubs wanted to postpone because they were unable to put out their best teams
on the official night (possibly due to conflicts with fixtures in other
leagues). The postponement rule had not
been created or modified specifically to allow this but it was up to the
“non-offending” team to decide whether to agree to the postponement. It was hoped that all clubs would be honest
in their dealing in this matter.
The Bury Times had missed
publishing any table tennis news one week due to a production mistake (printing
the same page twice). KW continues to
press for better coverage.
Website hits continue to
increase but are still below what might be expected. KB wasn’t sure how accurate the statistics
were in absolute terms.
8 Secretary’s report
KB reported that the invoice
for printing the handbooks and scorecards had not yet been received but a
saving of nearly £400 over last year was expected.
KB is now the official
representative of the League at ETTA Ltd.
A lot of communications had
been received from the ETTA but little of general interest.
KB noted that he would put
details of the ETTA 2000 club on the website.
It was also agreed to put copies of Committee minutes on the site.
Action: KB
As email is now being used a
lot for League matters, KB requested everyone to access their email reasonably
frequently.
Action: All
9 Treasurer’s report
None
10 Interleague
Secretary’s report
GJ had sent details of the
first Interleague matches of the year.
The first team won two and drew one.
The second team won two and lost one.
In the absence of a sixth
player, Kim Barnard doubled up and won ten out of twelve.
11 Coaching/Development
Officer’s report
None
12 Cup draws
KB reported that he had
developed a means of allowing a Wimbledon type draw to be used for the cup
competitions while avoiding home/away issues.
Action: KB to give details to KW.
Action: KW will issue handicaps within
the next week.
13 Handbook errors
The only errors noted so far
were IMcK’s phone number and David Watts’ email.
Action: KB to put corrections on the
website.
14 Cup competition
The Committee approved a request
from Carlton C to allow a reserve player to play (if required) in all rounds of
the cup, in line with league rule 8(o).
Action: KW to notified Carlton.
The qualifying date
specified in the same rule will be 31 January 2008 this season.
Action: KW to notify clubs.
15 Clarification of the
rules about rubbers
The Committee stated some
time ago that only ITTF approved rubbers would be allowed in our League. The official League rules state that ETTA
laws apply; these laws only require rubbers to conform to certain
specifications rather than being on the ITTF list. It was agreed that the use of only ITTF
approved rubbers was beneficial for the avoidance of any disputes. An appropriate amendment of League rules
would be proposed at the AGM (if not before).
Action: KB
16 AOB
a) New Chairperson
In the absence of any
permanent Chairperson, FS agreed to act as Chairperson at all Committee
meetings.
b) Review of season
timetable, competitions, handicapping etc
AW and PH agreed to consider
these issues and make proposals.
Action: AW and PH to report in due
course.
c) Liaison with other
Leagues
This is continuing on an
occasional and unofficial basis. No-one
volunteered to pursue this on a more regular basis.
Action: KB to put on next agenda
d) Rule changes
e) Club mergers (reduction
in number of single team clubs)
KB raised this again as he
believes that with 13 of the 24 clubs in the League having only one team there
are potential problems for the League.
RH noted that merging clubs (even with retention of more than one set of
premises) could cause problems because of membership rules and club names. Player rankings are also an issue when groups
of players wish to play as one team. The
Committee might have to relax ranking rules in some circumstances. No conclusions were reached.
16 Date of next meeting –
w/c 19 November 2007
Action: KB to choose a date after
consultation.
Developing Table Tennis in the Bury
area, submitted by Joe Walk
a)
Expand
provision at Woodhey. This will require
extra assistance with coaches and practice partners. An evening session would be needed available
to youngsters not from the school - there are cost implications for this and complications
arising from school priorities such as exams or parents' evenings.
b) The alternative is to set up a
dedicated TT centre. A venue would have
to be found and an organising group set up to run it. * See below
Coaches - Joe Walk, Keith Butler, we need more!
At present the youngsters at Woodhey
attend one session each week during the school terms and are entered for the
ESTTA tournaments. They also form part
of the Bury squad for the Greater Manchester Youth Games and one of the girls
is representing Bury in Datong, China in August 2008.
·
I
have put in an application to use the main hall in the TA centre in Bury on
Monday evenings - from 7.00 to 10.00 pm.
There is space for 9 tables.
·
When
I get approval from the TA I will put in an Awards for All Lottery application
to finance the project - purchase of equipment, insurances, coaching fees,
finance for coach training etc (These have an eight week turn-around from
application to confirmation) I have had considerable assistance from ETTA and
Bury Leisure Services in putting this bid together.
·
We
need to set up a club with a constitution and bank account (Two/three
signatories required)
·
A
commitment from members to assist with running the sessions is essential;
we will need someone to "man" the door throughout the evening. A rota can be arranged. All involved will need CRB clearance.
·
The
session will consist of 90 minutes coaching with youngsters and then 90 minutes
practice for adults.
·
Everyone
must be members of Bury Table Tennis Club, paying an annual membership fee and
also a fee each time he/she plays. This
latter fee will be waived if the player arrives at 7.00 and helps with the
coaching (CRB clearance required)
·
If
this project is a success we can consider, in consultation with the TA, playing
league matches at the venue.
