Sale and Urmston Bowling Association

The chairman welcomed delegates to the meting and handed over running of it to the secretary.

Delegates stood for a few moments in memory of bowlers who had passed away. These included Peter Thompson of Davyhulme Park, Stan Hopper of Fallowfield, Chris Heathcote, Alan Moore and Mike Nuttall of Flixton Cricket, Neil Hindley of Flixton Ex-servicemens, Alan Hampson and Phil Tranter of Golden Hill, and Dave Beavan of Partington.

The minutes from the previous meeting were on the website and copies were available. The minutes were accepted.

The secretary reported that the Monday league had been more competitive than previously. Flixton Cricket won it comfortably, but there were battles for second and for fourth place. Flixton Cricket also won the knock-out.

On Wednesday Roebuck were again dominant, winning league and cup. The rest of the Division 1 teams were fairly evenly matched, except for Nursery’s surprising decline. Legh Arms bounced back to the first division, and would be joined by Partington who won the race for second place. Golden Hill won the second division cup – their first silverware since 2017.

The second division knockout was blighted by teams withdrawing: three out of ten matches were not played. It meant that one team reached the semi-final without playing a match, and then didn’t contest it. The secretary believed that teams should always turn up with whatever players they have and show respect for the competition.

Competitions
He thought the experiment of holding one Merit and one Pairs competition, open to both leagues, had been a success. Limiting entries to 16 didn’t appear to have denied any hopefuls the chance to enter.

The Merit had 17 entries; two withdrew before the event and two did not appear. The Pairs also had 17 entries; one pair withdrew and three didn’t appear. If people are gong to enter these competitions they really should make the effort to turn up.

Lindsay Mulrooney won both competitions, with Alex Mitchell in the Pairs.

For 2025, Urmston Men’s have resigned from the Monday league and Davyhulme Parks from the Wednesday league. There were applications from Roebuck for Monday and from Quarry Bank and a second team at Oughtrington for Wednesday. We needed to decide if we accept these applications. Roebuck have said they are planning a team for beginners. Quarry Bank played in the Sale league until 2018 and were then a strong team. This time they declare it is a beginners’ team.

If these teams were accepted we would have reasonable seasons on both nights.

There followed a discussion on accepting these teams. Flixton Conservative expressed doubts that the Roebuck team would not again dominate the league. The Roebuck delegate explained his plan for developing new bowlers and said that he had eight or nine already lined up.

After some further discussion, Roebuck’s application was accepted with one vote against. The other teams’ applications were approved unanimously and without debate.

The accounts summary had been circulated, and further copies were available. The version initially published on the web site had shown £40 of income against the wrong heading, though the totals were correct. The treasurer summarised the main points. Most items were similar to last year. Insurance had increased because we benefitted from an introductory offer the previous season.. Also, the previous season had an exceptional income from the sale of a silver trophy. The overall balance had reduced by about £11. Another silver trophy (from the Sale league) had been found and we would attempt to sell it in due course.

The auditor reported that he had studied the accounts and supporting documentation. The error noted above had been notified to him, and he was satisfied that the accounts were accurate. He congratulated the treasurer on his work.

The meeting agreed that the secretary’s honorarium should increase to £250 (from £200) and the treasurer’s honorarium should continue at £100.

Amongst committee members, the Wednesday Division 2 representative had sadly died during the year. The Division 1 representative was from Nursery, who would now be in Division 2, so a new representative was needed for Wednesday Division 1. Steve Crowder of Roebuck agreed to take on the job. All other officers were willing to continue.
President: Brian Brooks
Chairman: Geoff Dixon
Secretary: Ross Kavanagh
Treasurer: Graham Price
Committee:
Monday: Mel Fry
Wed D1: Steve Crowder
Wed D2: Grahame Tonge

The chairman noted encouraging signs of teams trying to get new bowlers into the sport. He wished all members a successful season.