24 November 2021
Held at Brooklands
Present: Chairman F. Warburton, Secretary R. Kavanagh, Treasurer G. Tonge, delegates from all teams except Longford Park, and an observer from the Urmston league.
The chairman welcomed all delegates. He remarked that it had been a difficult season to plan, with the late start, and congratulated clubs on getting through the programme.
The meeting stood for a few moments in memory of colleagues who had passed away. These included: Steve Robinson (Nursery).
The secretary of the Urmston league had hoped to attend, but sent apologies.
The minutes of the previous AGM (in 2019) and the general meeting in October 2021 had been circulated. They were taken as read and approved. There were no matters arising.
We got through a league programme with a late start and teams playing each other once only. Urmston Men’s Club finished one chalk behind Beech House with Nursery third and the rest some way behind. Quite a few matches were rather one-sided, which isn’t satisfactory for either of the sides.
Matches were eight-a-side this year. Even so, teams failed to get eight players in ten matches, plus Longford Park did not play at all in three matches. Chorlton also struggled.
There were no team knockout or individual competitions this year.
Longford Park limped to the end of the season, and seem to have given up the ghost. Also Urmston Men’s have resigned. They also play in the Urmston league on Wednesdays, and struggled to put out two teams on the same night. So we currently have eleven teams. The secretary hadn’t given any thought yet as to how we might organise these as he was hopeful of the merger with Urmston going ahead.
Urmston league
See item 12.
BCGBA
It’s expected that the charge per player won’t be proposed this year, but there will be a proposed fee of £10 per league per year. If this is passed, the Greater Manchester county intend to pay it on leagues’ behalf.
There are already 27 proposals to amend the rules of the game, and seven proposals to change admin rules.
The BCGBA recorded a surplus of £10,000 last year, and has £159,000 in the trustee fund.
Greater Manchester
There will be no further county handbooks. Everything to be on the internet.
The county has £18,000 in the bank. It is willing to provide financial support to clubs running open days or similar promotions.
Safeguarding officers: DBS checks done three years ago have expired and must be renewed.
Referees: the county has few of them compared to other counties, and there’s little interest from league or clubs to use referees at their competitions.
The development and coaching officers resigned, complaining of poor support from BCGBA.
The secretary and treasurer of the county association also resigned - no reason given. No replacements elected. It seems the current team will soldier on till end-February. If no-one found by then the county will have to disband.
The treasurer reported that the transfer of our funds to the Vernon Building Society had gone smoothly. He noted that even after we had closed the HSBC account and received all the funds from it, HSBC still insisted they needed more information from us.
The accounts were somewhat unbalanced, with most club payments having been made in 2019 but carried forward to the current year. We still had a healthy balance of about £750.
The auditor had reviewed and signed the accounts.
The honoraria were unchanged: treasurer £100, secretary: £200.
11.1. Amend rules as required to reduce the team size to eight players
Proposed by Bowling Green
The 2021 season had been played as eight-a-side, but this was a strictly temporary arrangement. The aim of the proposal was to make this permanent and to counter the shortage of players experienced by some teams. However it was pointed out that other teams had sufficient players and for them someone would not get a game.
The motion was passed with no votes against.
11.2 Match rule 3 to be amended to read:
“That for matches played, visitors shall lead the jack and all games shall be 21 up. Standard jacks to be provided by the home team and used in all matches. The home team may practise until 20 minutes before the start time and then clear the green for the away team. The away team may then practise up to 5 minutes before the start time and then clear the green. The draw will then be made and play will commence at the prescribed start time.”
Proposed by Chorlton
Chorlton had previously misunderstood the previous rule (allowing the away captain to practise at the same time as the home team), and apologised to the two teams where this had been a bone of contention.
The aim of this proposal was to allow all players, including the away captain, adequate time to practise, and then leave a gap for the draw to be done, comfort breaks, etc. before play began on time.
Other clubs expressed the view that the existing rule worked well and there was no need to change.
The motion was rejected, with one vote in favour.
11.3 Amend match rule 2a (playing twice)
Proposed by the secretary
Several options had been presented. However, with the change to eight-a-side, the consensus was that we didn’t now need any scheme to allow player(s) to play twice in a match.
This was agreed with three votes against.
The secretary had attended a delegates’ meeting of the Urmston league. That league currently runs one division of twelve teams, playing on both Mondays and Wednesdays. He had proposed a new association, with two separate leagues, one on each day. Teams from the Sale and Urmston leagues would be invited to enter either or both of these.
Some clubs pointed out that they already had commitments on Monday evenings. There would be no compulsion to enter a team on either day. The expectation was that the Wednesday league would consist of nearly all the current Sale and Urmston leagues, and would be big enough to run two divisions. The Monday league would consist of nearly all the existing Urmston teams, plus any Sale teams that wished to join in.
There were issues that would need ironing out. Notably, we had now changed to eight-a-side whereas the Urmston league is ten-a-side.
The meeting agreed that we should continue to explore the possibilities.
The Urmston delegates were expected to report back on their clubs’ views at a meeting on 20 December. The secretary hoped that if that was favourable a small group could be convened to sort out details. The aim would be to present proposals to general meetings of both leagues around the end of January or early February.
The existing officers were re-elected en bloc.
The change of bank account meant that we couldn’t get access to our funds briefly before the last meeting, so the money was paid out at this meeting.
Trinity reported that they had changed their name to Trinity Moor BC, and had moved permanently to Sale Moor Park.
The chairman thanked all delegates for attending. The meeting also expressed its thanks to the officers.
The meeting closed at 7.40pm.