Minutes of a meeting of the Committee of the Bury and District Table Tennis League

 

Date: Tuesday 4 May 2010                        Place: Seedfield Methodist Church Hall

 

Present:                       Ken Crimes, Keith Warrington, Keith Butler, Rodney Hall, Mandy Winskill, Graham Wardle, Ian McKenzie, Andrew Webster, Bob Goodman (President)

Apologies:                Simon King, Steve Hathaway, Graham Jeffries, Edward Freeman

 

 

1             Minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2010

Approved

 

2             Matters arising from 15 March meeting

Additional printing on surrounds

This had been arranged by SH in time for the Finals Night.

 

Question about awarded matches

KC had replied to this.

 

3             Timetable for the new season

 

KW’s proposal for this was agreed:

 

Monday 26 April

Letter sent to clubs informing them of date of AGM, asking for proposed rule changes etc to be in by Monday 3 May (21days notice).

Tuesday 4 May

League Committee meeting to discuss any rule changes that have been submitted including any of our own.

Thursday 6 May

Letter sent to clubs giving date of AGM, with Agenda and with any proposed rule changes included.  Last year's minutes to be included with the letter (14 days notice).

Monday 24 May

AGM at Seedfield Methodist Church Hall at 745pm.

Entry Forms to be handed out to all Clubs.

Friday 25 June

Closing date for the receipt of entries.

Monday 28 June

Management Committee Meeting to form the Divisions.

(7.30 pm at Seedfield Methodist Church Hall).

Friday 2 July

Letter to be sent to all Club Secretaries informing them of the Divisions to which their teams have been allocated.

Monday 16 August

Full League Meeting at Seedfield Methodist Church Hall, at 730 pm at which all Clubs must be represented.  Handbooks to be handed out.

Monday 6 September

Start of the League programme.

 

4             Accounts for 2009/2010

GW issued the accounts and reviewed significant features.

Despite the greatly increased costs for the Championships there was a small surplus for the year.

The timing of the financial year and the AGM made it all but impossible to have the accounts audited in time for the AGM.  It was agreed that the unaudited accounts would be circulated to the clubs together with the audited figures for previous years that had not been available at the last AGMs.

 

5             Committee

All members of the Committee except for SH were willing to stand again.  It was understood that Andy Evans (Prestwich) and Lee Devenport (Adelphi) were interested in putting their names forward.  They would be welcome additions.

SK would not be able to devote such an enormous amount of time to the League as he had this year and KW would again be away for about five weeks of the season.  Appropriate arrangements would be needed to cover these.

 

6             Finals Night

KC had written to Elton Sports Club to thank them for the use of their premises which had contributed greatly to a successful evening.

He had also written to thank those who had presented the trophies bearing their family name.

Nancy Lomax had written to KC to thank the League for the events of the evening.

 

There had been some suggestions that the evening should have included more finals at the expense of dropping the semi-finals.  Some felt that those from the lower divisions who had reached divisional finals deserved to play on the evening.

This is a difficult issue, balancing that point of view against the desire to showcase the best players on the League’s night.

It was agreed that those who had won their competitions late on the day of the Championships before few spectators had not received the attention they might.  This would be reviewed for the new season.

 

7             New Trophy

David Ternent and his wife had offered to present a trophy to the League, to be awarded for one of the events that currently had no trophy.  The offer had been gratefully accepted.

 

8             Rule changes

A number of rule changes proposed by Committee members and League players were vigorously debated.  The results of the discussion were that some would be proposed with the Committee’s support whilst others would be submitted in accordance with the rules but without the backing of the Committee.

The actual wording is shown in the notes below; comments are as follows.

 

Rules 4 and 5

Changes made to tidy up the wording and format of these.  The status of the Coaching/Development Officer has been altered to be on the same basis as other Officers.

 

Rules 3 and 8(b)

Changed as a result of ETTA individual membership.

 

Rule 8(f)

Slight relaxation of this rule concerning the re-arrangement of matches.  It extends the pools-panel approach to any match not played.  Optional addition giving three points minimum to the innocent team.

 

Rule 8(i)

If one or two players fail to turn up the match score will be based on the actual wins plus games awarded because of the missing players.  If no player turns then rule 8(f) applies.  Otherwise there would be a bit of an anomaly between matches never played (with pools panel result) and matches where one team didn’t turn up without giving notice (10-0).

Remove an irrelevant paragraph that should have been removed last year when 8(f) was amended.

 

Rule 8(j)

Including a reference to the electronic submission of scorecards.

 

Rules 8(o) and (p)

It would be impossible to include the necessary new detailed rules for the competitions because of time constraints and there is a good argument for not including such details in the rules in any case.

 

 

9             Date of next meeting

The next meetings will be held as shown in the timetable noted earlier.                                                      Action: KB

 

 

Rule proposals

 

4.    Officers and Management Committee.

(a)    The Officers of the League shall be President, Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Match Secretary, Tournament Secretary, Inter-league Secretary and Coaching/Development Officer.

(b)    The Management Committee shall consist of the Officers of the League and up to five Ordinary Committee Members.

(c)    Honorary Life Members may be elected by the Management Committee.

 

 

5.    Annual General Meeting.

(a)   The Annual General Meeting of the League shall be held as soon after the end of April in each calendar year as is feasible and all registered players of the League shall be entitled to attend.

(b)    Each Club shall have one vote at this meeting.

(c)    The Officers and Ordinary Committee Members mentioned in Rule 4(a) and (b) shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting.

(d)    Five people entitled to vote shall form a quorum.

(e)    A Club failing to be represented shall be fined £5.

 

3     Subscriptions.  The annual subscription shall be £30 per team.

         An additional fee must be paid by each club for every player who wishes to obtain their ETTA individual membership through the League.  The amount of this payment is that specified by the ETTA as the relevant individual membership fee.

       All clubs shall pay their subscriptions and fees by the 30th September in each season.  Any Club not paying these by this date shall be fined £5 for each month and part of a month that they remain unpaid.  If any subscription or fee remains unpaid on the 31st December, that Club shall be expelled from the League for the following season.

 

8.

(b)    Each Club shall register with the Match Secretary sufficient players to enable it to run the team or teams entered; these players to be registered in strict order of playing ability.  All players must be registered with the Match Secretary and have ETTA individual player membership before taking part in any match.  The registration of any player shall be subject to the approval of the Management Committee and, in particular, the registration of any player after 31st January in any season shall only be approved specifically by the Management Committee at their next scheduled meeting.

Clubs must supply to the Match Secretary completed ETTA membership forms for all players wishing to obtain their Individual Membership though the League.  Clubs must supply to the Match Secretary evidence of ETTA membership for their other players.  The Committee shall specify the latest date for the submission of the forms and evidence.  Only players whose forms or evidence have been submitted by the specified date will be eligible to play in any League match.

 

 

 

 

8.

(f)     (i)           All matches should be played on the date stated in the handbook but, if both teams agree, a match can be brought forward and played before the date specified in the Handbook or moved to a later day in the scheduled week.  Such matches would not be regarded as postponed matches.

 

(ii)          Matches may only be postponed if:

(a)     the home team's room is unavailable or

(b)    a player of either team is required for a Bury League representative match or

(c)     there are exceptional circumstances approved by the Emergency Committee

 

(iii)        If a match is postponed under one of the above circumstances every effort must be made to re-arrange the match.  The options are:

(a)     both club secretaries agree on a new date; this date to be no later than the last week of scheduled League matches or the scheduled date of the return fixture, whichever is earlier

(b)    amalgamate the match with the return fixture in the second half of the season and play for double points and double wins.  This will apply to any first-half match that has not been played by the scheduled date of the return fixture.

If the match is still not played then the Committee may impose a fine of £15 on either or both teams.

 

(iv)        If any match is not played during a season the Committee shall award points and wins to neither, either or both teams as the Committee considers fair.

 

8.

(f)     (iv)        as above plus: If one team is considered not to be at fault it shall receive a minimum of three points.

 

8.

(i)     All matches are to commence not later than 7.30 p.m. and two players must be in attendance by 7.45 p.m.  In the event of the non-arrival of players by these times, the opposing team may claim the sets of the absent players.  If no player is in attendance by 8.00 p.m. the match will be awarded under the provisions of rule 8(f).  Any one player with a reason acceptable to the opposing team may play if in attendance by 9.15 p.m., but the score card must be endorsed with the time of arrival and the reason for lateness and the opponents must also be told by 7.30 p.m.  All sets must be completed and any player not completing all his sets may be subject to disciplinary action, in addition to his club, by the Management Committee.  Any team not fielding three players in any match shall be fined £3 for each player missing.

 

8.

(j)     Score cards with the result of the match must be forwarded by the home Club to the Match Secretary.  All cards must either bear a postmark within 48 hours of the match or be sent electronically (or delivered by hand) within 72 hours of the match, otherwise a fine of £2 will be imposed.  Sunday shall be ignored for all purposes of this rule.  If a score card is submitted with the scores filled in for a player who was not actually present, each team shall be fined £5 and the two players signing the card shall be suspended for one match.  If the card is not signed by a team, the suspension shall apply to all players of that team present during the match.

If a player is proved to have played under a false name, that team shall be fined £15 and all players who took part in that match for that team shall be suspended for two matches.

All suspensions are to commence on the Monday of the week following the decision by the Management Committee

 

8.

(o)    Cup competitions will be arranged for each division and for all divisions.

         The arrangements and rules for the competitions will be proposed by the Committee at the pre-season meeting specified in Rule 6.  The proposals will be discussed, modified if necessary and agreed at that meeting.

        

(p)    Proposals for the end of season tournaments will be made by the Committee at the pre-season meeting specified in Rule 6.  After considering the views expressed at that meeting the Committee will publish details of the final arrangements and rules for the tournaments.

 

The rules proposed by players, which will not be supported by the Committee, are:

 

 

1       Clubs with more than one team shall enter each team separately to be self-contained plus a nominated player from the team below.

 

This would replace the part of Rule 8(c):

Players ranked 1 to 3 ……………………………may not play for a lower.

 

2       All teams are given the option to opt out of the cup competitions when completing the league entry forms.

 

3       All teams are given the option to opt out of the Dwyer Cup and Sponsors Cup, but the Divisional Cups are compulsory.

 

4       Any team may postpone one match during the season, without the agreement of the opposing team, by claiming this right no more than seven days after the fixture date.  The match must be re-arranged to be played no more than four weeks after the date of the claim and no later than the last week of the season.