Sale and Urmston Bowling Association

The chairman opened the meeting and welcomed delegates.

Delegates stood for a few moments in memory of bowlers who had passed away. These included Tom Rowley of Davyhulme Park, Harry Cuthbert of Legh Arms, Ronnie Fox and Denis Leach of Partington and Dave Westley of Roebuck.

Treasurer Jim Fletcher

The minutes from the previous meeting were on the website and copies were available – no objections to the minutes.

There had been discussion on promotion and relegation in the Wednesday league. In order to get teams to their right levels, three teams would be promoted and relegated for the 2023 season. This policy would be kept under review.

We had lost one team from the Wednesday league – Bowling Green. That left us with 23 teams. After promoting and relegating three we will have divisions of 12 and 11. The season would be on the same plan as last year, except Division 2 teams will have two open dates.

Based on the low entries for the Merit and Pairs competitions last year, he suggested we again run these across both divisions. There would be separate team knock-outs for each division.

Nursery play in our league and in the Manchester Premier, so their fixtures have to be co-ordinated. Manchester Premier have their meeting next week, so he wouldn’t do any planning until then.

Mondays would be as last year.

Greater Manchester county had called an emergency meeting for next Monday (very short notice!) to discuss a proposal from BCGBA for a £1 per player levy. He had no further information, but assumed this was to be an annual levy. It may be as well as the current club levy, or replace it. He suspected the league levy (new last year) will continue. He asked for the league’s views on this; the reaction was generally to oppose the proposal.

Usually at this time of year there was a long list of proposals for the BCGBA rules revision meeting (generally last week of January), but he had heard nothing this year.

He proposed to write to GMCCGBA objecting to the short notice of the meeting; arguing that an email consultation would be sufficient (as in previous years); and giving our view.

There would be a meeting in March would be to invoice fees and give lists of players, and in exchange fixtures and lists/paperwork would be given out.

Delegates asked whether we could opt out of the BCGBA – the secretary explained it would be too difficult to do so. Moving to Cheshire was also postulated but it was explained that there would potentially be the same issues, and the GM league was in fact a cheaper option.

The treasurer was away on holiday. He had published the annual accounts and advised a balance of £1,800.

The final balance of the Urmston league was £1161, which had been transferred to the new association. This amount was nett of a payment to the GM county of £765 for their 2022 fees. This gave a total of £1926. From this £1470 had been distributed to the Urmston clubs, leaving a net contribution to the new association of £456.

The former treasurer of the Sale league gave a report on the winding up of that association. The balance at 10 November 2021 had been £747.20. From that, honorariums of £200 (secretary) and £100 (treasurer) had been paid for the 2021 season. Interest on closure was £1.35, making a final balance of £448.55 which had been transferred to the new association.

There was no invoice for public liability insurance. The league officials were of the opinion such insurance was not needed. Although it is technically a BCGBA requirement, they had not noticed we had not complied. This may be because they were unable to provide a registration number for the new association.

An auditor had not been appointed. It was agreed that we should arrange one for next year.

These were agreed at the former Urmston league levels (secretary £200; treasurer £100). They would be paid in the 2023 financial year, for services in 2022.

The rule changes agreed at the November meeting were formalised and approved as follows.

Jim Fletcher resigned as treasurer. The meeting recorded their thanks and best wishes to him. Graham Price was elected in his place. Other officials were all re-elected:

President: Frank Warburton
Chairman: Geoff Dixon
Secretary: Ross Kavanagh
Committee:
Monday: Dave Appleton
Wed D1: Grahame Tonge
Wed D2: Peter Thompson

The next meeting would be in March, date and time to be confirmed.

The BCGBA laws of the game now prohibit open-toed sandals when playing bowls. It was noted that any exceptions to this or similar rules would have to be supported by a certificate from a doctor appointed by BCGBA.

The chairman thanked delegates for their attendance. He noted that the United Services club was no longer an active bowling club, but most of the members would be playing at Sale Excelsior.