7 November 2018
Held at Brooklands
Present: Chairman F. Warburton, Secretary R. Kavanagh, Treasurer G. Tonge, and delegates from all teams except Longford Park.
The chairman welcomed all delegates. He thanked the officers and those clubs that had made their greens available for league events. He especially mentioned SW Manchester CC and Cringlewood, the two teams in the Pride of Sale final which was closely fought in a great atmosphere. Harold Mills of SWMCC was a popular man of the match.
The meeting stood for a few moments in memory of colleagues who had passed away. These included: Derek Jacob (SW Manchester CC) and Tom Merryman (Brooklands). Also Pauline Dale, the widow of Eric Dale.
None.
The minutes of the previous AGM had been circulated. They were taken as read and approved. There were no matters arising.
We had again had only 14 teams for the 2018 season. It was difficult to plan for this number. We had operated as two divisions of seven, playing a league programme and the five-home, five-away competition. This gave each team 14 or 15 matches over 17 weeks. It seemed a reasonable compromise, but the secretary was aware that teams did meet the some opponents three times (and sometimes in quick succession). There was also the problem that for some teams the open dates could also come in quick succession.
In the first division, Beech House regained the title, with Quarry Bank in their accustomed position as runners-up. These two were also finalists in the fives competition, but this time Quarry Bank won. Andy Bowyer of Beech House went through the season unbeaten to win the averages prize. Bill Jordan of Beech House was also unbeaten.
The second division was won by Sale Cons, with Bowling Green second. Sale Cons also reached the final of the Fives competition, where they were beaten by Nursery. There were again two unbeaten players: Ron Wood of Chorlton finishing ahead of Paul Stafford of Nursery.
In the Pride of Sale knock-out, the final was contested by teams from the first and second divisions. It finished in a tie with five winners each. SW Manchester CC were declared the winners over Cringlewood with more wins in the first three games.
We had 28 entries for the Merit - slightly down on last year. It was won by Kevin Murphy of Cringlewood.
There were 14 entries for the Eric Dale pairs - an increase on last year. The winners were Carl Dulson and Colin Grose of Fallowfield.
So overall, the awards had been reasonably well distributed.
Quarry Bank had resigned from the league – Peter Kelsall could not continue for personal reasons and it seemed no-one else was willing to take over running the team. We had had a tentative enquiry for a second team from an existing club, which would be dependent on us deciding to reduce the team size to eight. The committee had some difficult decisions ahead, which they were deferring until after tonight’s vote and the number of teams available was clarified.
Greater Manchester county had their AGM on 8 November. There were no rule changes proposed, and no change to their fees. From next March every club was supposed to have a nominated safeguarding officer. This officer has to pass a DBS check, which is free but involves making an appointment to meet one of the two county safeguarding officers. The club safeguarding officer is also recommended to attend a course, but there doesn’t seem to be any process in place to check that they are doing their job properly, or at all. It’s not clear yet what sanctions will be applied to clubs that don’t comply, and anecdotally it appears there may be quite a lot of these.
The pre-season meeting is expected to be on 14 March. The secretary will write to clubs before than when we know the final number of teams. If necessary he would call a special meeting to discuss composition or more radical proposals.
The treasurer reported a small deficit of about £50. However the end of season payment from Legh Arms (£40) had been received too late for the accounts, so the true deficit was about £11. We still had a healthy balance, but he warned that next year we would need to consider raising club fees. The flat fee had been unchanged for four years. Increasing it from £45 to £50 would raise about £60 p.a. Alternatively an increase in the registration fee (going from £2 to £2.50) would raise about £100 p.a. This would be reduced if the meeting decided to go to 8-a-side.
The rules stated that prize money not collected at the presentation day should be returned to the league. In the event one club had not collected their prizes, but had subsequently written to the secretary apologising and explaining that there had been a family emergency. The committee had discussed this, and decided to pay out the prizes. The treasurer now asked the meeting if this was the correct decision. The consensus was that it was correct, but the rules should be amended to allow the committee this discretion.
The auditor had reviewed and signed the accounts.
The honoraria were unchanged: treasurer £100, secretary: £200.
Rationale:
Proposed by Beech House
Beech House summarised the arguments in favour, as given above. The cost of floodlights was given as £16/hour. Chorlton were opposed to the motion as it represented a loss of 20% of bowling opportunities. Players displaced from a team were likely to be lost to the sport. Even at eight-a-side the problems of holidays and sickness would remain.
Other delegates pointed out the loss of revenue to clubs and the league.
Some leagues allow players to play twice when a team is short. A rule change (at a general meeting) would be needed to do this in the Sale league.
The motion was defeated, 8 votes to 4.
The existing officers were re-elected en bloc.
The chairman thanked all delegates for attending. The meeting also expressed its thanks to the officers.
The meeting closed at 8.05pm.