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LATEST NEWS..... Chrissy Walsh 18 Sept Congratulations to Barnstaple Tarka A who beat Bude in the Houldsworth Cup. Rule 20..Promotion and Relegation shall be a] two up and two down, except one will be promoted from Division 2 and one relegated from Division 1. b] The second placed team in Division 2 may challenge the second from bottom team in Division 1. This match will be played before September 30th at a neutral location to be decided by the Executive committee. The date will be at the convenience of the neutral club. Balls will be provided by the NDLTA, and a coin will be tossed to decide who will be Home or Away to establish which team will move courts. The winner of the match will play in Division 1 and the loser in Division 2 for the next season. In the event of a draw the match will be decided on the number of games won. If still a draw one set will be played between a pairing of each team’s choice. Pairs will have to consist of players who have played at least three of the teams fixtures that season, or players from a lower team who have played three matches. 10 June
Captains, please check that your telephone numbers are correct. 1. Read the NDLTA Rules which are to be found on the website. NB. There is no room on the card to allocate a separate box for the BTM number, but these may be 5. To be added to Rule 14....... Abandoned matches because of inclement weather. If, in the event of captains The Div Govier Tournament is on Sun April 17 and the John Walsh Tournament is on Sun May 8. Entry forms for both tournaments can be found under 'Events' ********************************************************************************************************** Before the meeting, the committee met to discuss the League divisions, Cups, etc. Sue H asked Tom W if he would take over responsibility for contacting clubs so that each one could have a point of contact (this may not necessarily be Club Secretary) who would be able to promote their club. A list would be compiled which would be displayed at Tarka Centre. 1. APOLOGIES: Georgina Loosemore. 2. LEAGUES: MEN - Torrington C team had withdrawn, but Braunton B had returned, and there was an additional team from Ashleigh Road. 38 teams. The promotion/relegation decisions were thus straightforward. LADIES - Hartland had returned, and there were 2 additional teams - Park Lane C, and Ilfracombe C. 28 teams. It was obvious to make each division into 7 teams. Winners and runners-up in each division (apart from1) to be promoted, lowest team in division to be relegated, UNLESS this would mean the 3rd team in division would need to be promoted to fill a vacancy, in which case the lowest team who should have been relegated would stay up. This was voted in - 12 pro, 1 abst. 3. KO and PS CUPS - both the men's competitions would be conventional draws - 11 teams in KO Cup, 8 in P Stacey Cup - the ladies' KO Cup would be run on a Round Robin basis (5 teams), but the P Stacey would be a conventional draw (7 teams). 4. HOULDSWORTH CUP - There were 9 teams in Houldsworth Cup and it would be a conventional draw. The seedings and draws for all the Cups would be done after the meeting. 5. RUNNERS-UP CHALLENGE - proposal from Braunton regarding the ability for runners-up in all divisions (not just division 2, as agreed at AGM) to challenge second from lowest team in next higher division, generated some debate, both for and against. Points raised: Consistency. Venue of any play-off. Idea of 2up/2down to mix up divisions, this suggestion confusing issue. A vote was taken, and this was defeated - pro 6, con 7. 6. DIFFERENT VENUES FOR CUP FINALS - The proposal from Westward Ho! that the finals of all Cups should be rotated around all clubs in area, to generate more interest. Points raised: At Tarka guaranteed to play regardless of weather. One venue gives the atmosphere of a final. Would this generate any more interest and attendance compared to holding them at Tarka? Cost? (last year £299) - seemed anomalous that NDLTA had to pay Tennis Centre for this when other clubs could provide free of charge. Vote taken - pro 2, con 11. 7. DINNER DANCE. Chris W said the committee had made some enquiries re prices - all very comparable, c£27, at other venues, which were mostly Brend, to accommodate the numbers, so prices similar. It had been suggested that a buffet dance at Tarka, with bar, finger food, disco and live band, would cost approx £10 per head. As agreed, the Association would subsidise the Juniors, so actual prices would be in region of £14-15 for adults, £7-8 for juniors. It was agreed that this format was worth a try, and if it didn't work have a rethink next year. Date was provisionally fixed for 1st October, 7 for 7.30pm. 8. ND TOURNAMENT. Sue H apologised for not having sent out any information to clubs. Reasons for recent lack of entries were gone over - Bank Holiday, start of school term, travelling to Tarka for 1 match, hanging around etc. Suggestion was for different dates and different format. Sections to be split on ability. Round Robin format. Singles and doubles. Weekend play. Possible vets during weekday. Separate groups for Juniors, but any under 14 playing for County in last 2 years not eligible for Junior event. Cost £10 doubles, £12 singles. £7 for juniors, except the yellow ball group, which would be £12. This would give 4 hours of play in relevant standard, indoors. Sue H said she would like to see a mix of Juniors and Adults playing on same day as she believed this was beneficial to have all age groups interacting. Possible dates: Sept 24/25, Oct 8/9, Oct 15/16. Committee to finalise and set up. 9. SCORE CARDS - Chris W stressed need for clarity, names should be printed, and include first names as well as surnames. There was no room on the card to allocate a separate box for the BTM number, but these could be written under the appropriate name, or if numbers were emailed to her, she would add them to the list on the web-site. 10. PENALTY FOR NON-ATTENDANCE There were no absences today, but in past have been persistent offenders, who have been fined £20. It was important to have every club attend, to be involved in the Association and to keep informed of decisions taken. If anybody wished to propose an alternative method of reinforcing this message, to notify Secretary before Sept 30th for this year's AGM. 11. GEORGINA Unfortunately, due to other commitments, she was not able to come this evening. Sue H reported that although Georgina had offered to hold an informal forum in N Devon earlier in the year, there had been insufficient interest from clubs to justify holding it. The main item under discussion at the Forums held in other areas had been the change in LTA registration - the charge for affiliation, which used to be on a per capita basis (with discounted price for Juniors) was now to be based on number of courts at £100 per court. The financial impact of this would vary according to clubs; some winners, some losers. Sue H will send Georgina's report to Chris W to put on web-site. 12. ‘DON'T STOP ME NOW' - Judi Walker gave a brief description of this scheme, which provides funding up to £300 for youngsters under 19, in care, or in receipt of free school meals, to access activities. It pays for membership and coaching etc. Several local clubs and coaches, but not all, are signed up to this, and as the scheme ends on 31st August, Judi was keen to promote awareness of the benefits both to the youngsters, and to the clubs. Devon C.C. reimburses the clubs for the costs. It was agreed to publicise this on the web-site. 13. SECRETARY'S POST - Sue H asked if there was anyone willing to take over this role, or alternatively, that of Chairman, and she would do secretary's post. Hannah Miller expressed an interest in Secretary's position, and Sue D said she would contact her later with an outline of what the post involves. 14. BRAUNTON - their new courts should be completed in time for the summer season, and they were very much looking forward to having a true surface to play on at last. However, they did warn that if the temperature this summer exceeded 21c, no play would be possible during the first year to avoid damage to the new surface. In this case play would have to be on the old courts, and it was agreed that the Fixtures Secretary would make allowances for any such matches needing to be re-arranged. 15. FIXTURES - Steve Date said he would try to accommodate dates requesting teams non-availability for matches, but this might not always be possible . 16. CLUB REPORTS AT AGM - Sally Ferguson from Ho! made a suggestion that these be circulated to all clubs prior to the AGM, which would save time at the meeting and clubs would still have the opportunity to find out about all other clubs' activities. This was agreed to be a good idea, though a deadline for submission would need to be set. 17. JOHN WALSH TOURNAMENT - This would be held on 8th May. Chris said there would be entry forms available shortly. 18. DI GOVIER TOURNAMENT - 17th April, at Ilfracombe as usual. Entry forms had been emailed to club Secretaries, there were some on the table at this meeting, and some would be left on display at Tarka. The meeting closed at 8.40pm.
****************************************************************************************************** MINUTES OF THE NDLTA AGM HELD AT ASHLEIGH ROAD TENNIS CLUB ON 18 NOVEMBER 2010 AT 7PM
APOLOGIES: Shirley Grills, John Norman, Hilary Adams, Georgina Loosemore
MINUTES: The 2009 AGM Minutes having been circulated prior to the meeting, were taken as read and then passed
MATTERS ARISING: Cath Lake said that Eric Hewlitt had been mis-diagnosed so was doing well but still undergoing treatment and had visited during the summer
Dave V said that British Tennis Membership numbers will become more important, as LTA will push to record all forms of adult play and therefore will need to be on scorecards or website
NEWS FROM CLUBS:
Barnstaple Ashleigh Road
The year has shown again a steady increase in membership, and club afternoons have been well attended. A team was entered in the ND Tennis League for the first time since we lost our team members to Tarka. They finished top of the 6th division, and it is planned to enter a second team next year
Barnstaple Tarka Tennis Club
Our membership has increased to 74 members. The juniors have enjoyed playing in their matches and several have joined in with club nights, which has helped them to feel more part of the club, and good for the rest of us to get to know and play against them. During the summer, our Monday club nights included some team coaching with Chris Gill and Hannah Miller, which proved helpful and popular. We are trying to organize more social Tournaments, with two arranged for December and March so far. Six men's and four ladies' teams were entered in the league this year. Our men's A team won Division 1 and the Knockout Cup. Three other teams, all juniors, won their respective divisions, including our Ladies B team who gained the Division 1 title. Well done to them all. We also retained the Houldsworth Cup
Braunton
Braunton had a reasonable season in both men's and ladies' sections. Our memberships are static at the moment, but hoping for a big interest with tennis players coming out of the woodwork when our new courts are up and running. The dig for these will start on 6 December and completion is planned for end of next March, ready for the new season. Initially it will be temporary lines on black until painting takes place in May. They are situated in front of the athletic track. There will be 4 courts with floodlights, but the lights are not allowed on beyond 9pm; this is stipulated in planning unfortunately. Also for the first year until the tarmac is fully hard, which takes up to a year, if temperatures exceed 21oc on the surface, we are unable to play on them and will have to use the old ones. There will be space in containers nearby and maybe toilets in the clubhouse nearby! Clubmark is in progress and we're in negotiation with coaches
Chulmleigh Tennis Club
Club has more or less maintained its membership this year. With three men's teams and one ladies' team and a Tarka winter league team; the keenest players have been kept busy. The men's A team gained promotion to the next division. A new focus for the committee has been on working towards becoming a Clubmark club - still in progress! In addition, we have affiliated to Chulmleigh Recreational Association, which aims to help local clubs by providing facilities and support. The Club joined the ‘Don't Stop Me Now' scheme, enabling more children to access coaching. There was a substantial interest in coaching after Easter from primary age students, enabling regular mini tennis coaching to continue; some of which was provided by Pedpass. This was followed by a very successful Summer School for around 30 students. A beginner adult class was well supported, as was the coaching provided for older students and experienced adults. Besides our in-house tournament, a new tournament as part of Chulmleigh Fair, was staged. Since May, we have been posting our regular monthly newsletter on our website (chulmleightennisclub.co.uk), giving the public access to our activities. At present, we are establishing new coaching opportunities with a new performance coach to supplement our existing provision. As a rural club, we have had problems with providing coaches for all our sessions this year, especially as young coaches found the LTA affiliation process costly and time-consuming. We are holding our AGM and annual prize-giving next month and looking forward to developing further activities in 2011. Juniors make up more than half club membership
Ilfracombe
Our ladies' and men's teams had mixed success this season, most teams retaining their positions in their divisions. Our ladies' B team, consisted of members new to league tennis and likewise our men's D team made up of predominantly junior members had a good introduction to matchplay, and are looking forward to using the experience for the 2011 season. We have a thriving social tennis membership, which is moving towards more competitive play and participation in the league. Our junior programme continues to grow, with our active involvement in Park Open Days, free taster sessions and coaching programmes in local primary schools, such as Woolacombe, Combe Martin, Ilfracombe and Kingsacre, all contributing to our growth in junior tennis. As a club we are committed to widening the appeal of tennis, particularly with young people, and are looking into the "Don't stop me Now!" initiative, which aims to get children from under-privileged households into sport. Ilfracombe Tennis Club is positive about the future, and looking forward to 2011
Lynton
The club is experiencing difficult times, not so much with membership but with enough people to fill club sessions on both Saturday and Sundays. This could impact on our league teams at the start of next season. What will definitely have a very negative impact is that fact that for no apparent reason Lynton were not invited/allowed to participate in the Winter League, despite last year gaining our best results ever. Having been continuous members of both winter and summer leagues for a long time, the feeling amongst the community towards North Devon tennis/LTA is, to say the least, extremely bad. The good work done by the club with the schools (5 years) and with local families will continue and renewed efforts made to regain their confidence in North Devon tennis
At this point, Lyn were questioned whether they were on Tarka's mailing list for the newsletter as the Winter League was promoted here - not by invitation. After some discussion, it was determined that Lyn had not received the newsletter due to a change of e-mail address
Park Lane
2010 was a challenging year. We entered 4 men's teams and 2 ladies' teams. The ladies' teams finished runner up in the 2nd and won the 4th division. Club membership numbers were down on last year, which resulted in one less men's team. Monday club nights were well attended during the Summer. Park Lane's move further up the park has been put back again and the move is unlikely before 2012 and our courts are showing their age. We are hoping to pressure wash them in the spring to remove any moss that has built up during the damp winter. Overall Park Lane had an enjoyable season and are looking forward to 2011
Rock Park
Membership rose by about 30% to 43. League teams did very well for a club of our size; the men ending in the top 3 of divisions 1, 2 and 3. Bruno Alvarez achieved a UK ranking of 177. We collected over £400 for Breast cancer at our music evening. We are still trying to start a junior section and increase membership
Torrington
Unfortunately there was extra problems with parking due to the Sure Start development, but it is hoped that car parking spaces will be available by next year - however, they will be shared with other groups using the Scout Hall and Sure Start facilities. It is looking like Torrington will only be able to enter 2 men's league teams and 1 ladies' next season. Regretfully it was not viable to run the summer tennis coaching due to TDC court hire fees and insufficient number of students enrolling. Membership is down
Westward Ho!
We're awaiting the results of our planning appeal hopefully around Christmas for our new rackets centre. If successful we'll aim to re-locate sometime during 2012. We passed an annual audit on our Clubmark accreditation; this has become an invaluable tool in moving the club forward and managing the club using best practice. Our Annual LTA Ratings Tournament was another great success raising over £2,500 for club funds. We also won 10 of the 30 NDLTA titles and runner up trophies on offer this season. We've attracted 20 new members, many via our website. We now have a membership of around 150. We also attracted a large number of holiday members this year. Our British Tennis Membership is still very large with over 200 members listed. We have over 120 children on our coaching programme and this year we've signed up to the ‘Don't stop me now' scheme for underprivileged children
Woolsery
Membership remains steady with approx 30 members enjoying club nights. Our 3 ladies' teams had a good season with them all coming 3rd in their respective divisions. The club offered 15 weeks of adult and junior coaching this season. Our coach was Ian Leonard. Once again, in partnership with Bideford Learning Alliance, we ran a summer holiday coaching week and also added an Easter week. Both weeks were well attended and we held 3 sessions per morning. Approx 30 children attended the Easter courses with numbers slightly down in the summer week. Again children came from a wide area. Claire Harding was our organiser and coach, with help from Ian Leonard. Fundraising this year was a draw and a Wine & Wisdom evening. We are hoping to raise funds to help with new floodlighting, which will enable Woolsery to complete league matches. Due to new affordable housing being built near our community hall, some clubs will be happy to know our windmill has been moved further away from our courts
Hartland
Roger Berry said that he forward on a reminder that Hartland's club report was still awaited
Bratton Fleming
There was no report from Bratton Fleming. A fine of £20 will be sent for no representation at AGM
Sue H suggested that clubs should put any proposals in relation to the fine forward for the pre-season meeting. Chris W said that many other clubs had a ‘no attendance at AGM, no participation in league following year' policy
Congratulations The Committee wished to congratulate Bruno Alvarez on his recent achievement
CHAIR'S REPORT:
With another year of tennis under our belts, it's time to look back on this summer's activities and to look forward to next year.
Another wet end to the summer season led to a flurry of teams trying to complete their fixtures before the Dinner Dance, so it was with some relief that all the results were able to be sorted in time for the presentation.
There were very few occasions during the playing season where the committee had to make decisions and - although the Fixtures Secretary has had a bit of a hard year over the cards, etc - I would like to thank all the teams, captains and organisers for playing their tennis in a sportsmanlike and friendly fashion. I am sure we all enjoyed ourselves over the year (apart - of course - from those who picked up injuries along the way!)
For the first time, North Devon is finding itself a leading player in Devon Tennis rather than being considered a minor one. David Vinall - our former chairman - is the chairman of the Devon LTA Council and Georgina Loosemore - a North Devon girl through and through - is Devon's Tennis Development Officer. We already have one of the best tennis websites in the South West and I would like to consider that we have a very good and well-organised League.
You may be surprised to know that over 400 people played in the league this year. In addition there will be a number of club members who just play social tennis and don't compete in the league of course.
All those people are reliant on matches being organised for them to play in: from the "four" who get together at club on a social session, to the 400 plus whose tennis matches have been organised by their team captains, Fixtures Secretary and Fixtures Planner at the start of the season. Not forgetting those players who entered the tournaments at Westward Ho, Ilfracombe and the North Devon Tournament who are reliant on the tournament committee - referee, tournament secretary, catering volunteers - to enjoy the game they love.
At this time of the year, not only is the League looking for volunteers to help run tennis in North Devon for another year, but all of the clubs are doing the same - looking for new volunteers for their own committees to help their club go forward and promote tennis in the area.
What I would ask you all to do is to think about what you (or someone you know in your club) can do to help. If you don't want to take a club or League committee role, can you do something else? Perhaps help with the social side of tennis to encourage more people to play. It doesn't have to be onerous - it should be fun! And if more people helped out the workload would be spread more evenly.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those people who have helped in running the League this year: Sally for disseminating information within the league, Chrissie and Steve for organising and maintaining the fixtures (and Steve for keeping the finances under control), Sue, John and Tom for their help on the committee, Hilary Adams for organising the Dinner Dance and Dave Vinall for refereeing the North Devon Tournament. I know there are some people I haven't mentioned but - without these guys - your League wouldn't operate at all!
Next year, LTA will be focusing on regularly playing adults and will want these numbers to increase. Rather than expect the 400 or so to play more games, perhaps we can encourage more people to join our clubs to play more tennis. This will help to keep the clubs going by increasing club membership and - whether it be internal club tournaments or more people playing in our existing tournaments - "the more the merrier", I say!
TREASURER'S REPORT:
There's a small surplus for the year of £62.09; much the same as 09. Receipts for the presentation evening of £2,000 shows a significant fall. Entry fees for ND tournament again fell and resulted in a small loss. ND Tournament 2007 receipts were more than double than for this year. Suggest no increase in affiliation fees.
FIXTURES SECRETARY'S REPORT:
Scorecards............what can I say, I really do believe that some teams think that mind reading is one of my attributes as far too many scorecards this season have caused me a lot of extra work by me having to contact the relevant Captain. I will point out here that the 24 points in all the divisions didn't cause any problems on the scorecards; more on that later.
Something else which almost had me throwing in the towel was that far too many Captains did not inform me of rained of matches and the rearranged dates, which again caused me extra work. I did send out emails to all Captains at the beginning of the season highlighting some of the problems
One huge breakthrough this season was when Sam wrote some extra code which meant that I no longer had to laboriously scan in every scorecard - after first ensuring that the names were legible etc - and email them to the journal. The Journal now have the ability of downloading all the results themselves using a date filter, they enter the week and all the results are displayed as per the website. This means they can update their system daily and saves me a huge job!
Including cup matches, 370 matches were played by over 400 players. We started with 38 teams in the Mens' divisions and 28 in the Ladies', but then lost one from each. Men's division 6 went down to 5 teams which meant that unfortunately they only played 8 matches - a rather short season. To avoid teams being pulled out very early on, would clubs please ensure that they do take into consideration all aspects of entering extra teams in the league. All nominated players played at least once. There was only one walkover in the league and 6 teams put out incomplete teams - re: the latter, don't forget to inform your opposition if this is what you intend to do. In the cup matches there were two walkovers so the fine income is down to £20. It's two too many but still a big improvement on previous seasons.
Although, it may not have appeared so, rained off matches were again considerably down from the 70 in 2008, to around 30. Again, this was no consolation to those teams who had the same match rained off more than once. And I would like to thank all those Captains who did endeavour to rearrange their fixtures, especially those at the end of the season, when there was nothing on the matches. Steve goes to a lot of trouble to produce the fixtures and I feel that we should do our best to complete them. All matches bar one were completed- Ilfracombe D & Park Lane C take note. Someone once said, "Don't knock the weather; nine tenths of the population couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while". Although, it would be good to start a conversation with "the match is on!"
I would like to thank the rest of the committee for their help in resolving a couple of issues this season, unfortunately, in finding a solution to a problem it isn't always the decision that some teams would like, but the committee always endeavour to be as fair as the facts will allow them to be.
The presentation dinner dance will be discussed later, but re: the presentation of the trophies, my personal opinion is that as so much work is put into the running of the league by so few people to enable over 400 people to play tennis, then it is a pretty poor show when a representative of a winning club - note the club - does not attend the presentation evening. NB if it is a matter of cost then surely the winning team or runners up could club together and send at least one person from the club to collect their trophies.
Finally, a very big thank you to Sam for continually rewriting the website, it really is a tremendous asset to North Devon and I wish that I had more time to do it justice and update it more often.
TARKA REPORT:
Junior wise 2009 Peter Underhill Devon u14 champion Doubles with Lewie Parker 2010 Emerson Styles Devon u14 champion Lewie u14 doubles again Will Morrish red runner up Mat Morrish 17 in country u12 topped Devon rankings last year Emerson Styles top 20 in his age group number 1 Devon Lucy Gill and Mat Morrish finals u12 county cup, Girls runners up, boys 7th nationally This year we have had 8 players play in Devon county cups Highest regular competing juniors in Devon & Cornwall who have played 6 matches or more
CREATED A LINK WITH EXETER UNIVERSITY Devon tennis academy
CENTRE
AEGON TOURNAMENT Best draw to date, 5 players top 100, 64, 67 $75,000 this year Best to date in relation to income & spectators - 500 on finals day, 1800 through the door
TENNISHEAD Created a link with to promote Tarka & ladies event through year, Tarka feature
NEW DEVELOPMENT - planning gone through, different plans
ELECTION OF OFFICERS:
Chair Sue Hunter Vice-Chair Tom Williams Treasurer Steve Date Secretary Temporary - Sue Doncaster. Clubs to be asked to consider either people for either chair or secretary's post Fixtures Secretary Chris Walsh Other members John Norman and Chris Gill as representative from Tarka LTA reps (2) Sue Hunter. Clubs expressed their wish that Sue should approach Gary Tovey from Ilfracombe, who has expressed an interest in being a representative. Georgina Loosemore has said that she'll come up to ND for an informal forum in Jan to discuss topics taken up at forums in south and any other topics, possibly to be held at W Ho Club Tarka rep Chris Gill
IMPORTANT DATES:
PROPOSALS:
A - From Park Lane: In the knowledge that the annual dinner dance has not been well supported in recent years the club suggests that alternatives should be looked at. One idea suggested is a presentation evening, perhaps with a buffet, to be held at the Tarka Tennis Centre with a ticket cost of no more than say £5. It might be possible, but not essential, to combine this with some form of tennis event.
Ruth McMeechan, Elaine Cassidy and Helen Beer said the felt the price was expensive this year. Cathy Lake agreed on the price issue, as they also had travelling costs to consider (buses don't leave late enough). Chris W said that in 2006 the Committee said we'd subsidize the juniors up to £3, there are now a lot more juniors (and who are winning). Chris W felt that we ought to subsidize the juniors more. Helen Beer suggested a ‘bring-and-share' buffet at Tarka. She also said that she's rather juniors were subsidized for tournaments. Chris G suggested having some of the finals before having a buffet at Tarka. Mark said that the key word as far as he was concerned was ‘celebration'.
Proposal carried
Sub-Committee for dinner/dance: Chris W, Tom Williams, Jinny Stapley will liaise to look at alternative venues
B - From Park Lane: The club considers that all points awarded for league matches should be won and that it is totally inappropriate for points to be given for simply turning up with a full team! The club would prefer to return to the system of a match being the best of 16 points made up of two points per set won. If, however, the league computer system requires all matches to be the best of 24 points as per division 1, the club proposes that this should be made up of 3 points per set won.
Ruth McMeechan agreed that the 2nd proposal could be dropped, as Chris W explained that this would be far too complicated
Proposal not carried Chris W said captains can just put down 16 points on card as system will just add the shared points C - From Torrington: That we would prefer to have a certificate awarded instead of a trophy stating which clubs played, the relevant division etc and even spaces left on the certificate for the recipients to add their own individual club team players' names. Needless to say this would save some expense! Perhaps with less expense incurred every league team that didn't get placed could also receive a similar format certificate that captains could photocopy and distribute to team players for their effort and participation! Hilary Newing said that Barnstaple thought juniors would appreciate trophies or vouchers, may be from Apex sports. Sue D said that the comparison on the price of trophies would mean that vouchers would be for only about £3. Ruth McMeechan suggested a tube of balls. Proposal not carried
D - From the Committee: Any score card which causes the Fixture Secretary an unreasonable amount of extra work - both teams will be fined 2 points. It is the responsibility of both team captains to ensure the card is correct. Chris has had to scan numerous cards in and return them to team captains for clarification. Even a date missing causes extra work.
Teresa suggested that maybe an example of a ‘bad' card was put on the website. Chris W explained that it was mainly hand-writing or information left out that caused problems
Proposal carried
E - From the Committee: There will be two up and two down at the end of the season, with the exception of Divisions 1 & 2 where the runners-up in Division 2 may challenge the 2nd from bottom in Division 1 to establish who will play in Division 1 the following season. It will shake up the Divisions and give teams more incentive to play for the runners-up position. In Division 1 - particularly the Men's - it is quite a bit stronger than the lower Divisions and not all runners-up teams may want to be promoted.
Proposal carried
F - From Westward Ho: To be added to Rule 14....... Abandoned matches because of inclement weather - If, in the event of captains being unable to agree, then the match will be stopped and resumed from the same point at a later date with the same players. The Fixtures Secretary must be informed. Rule 17 then applies.
Proposal carried G - From Westward Ho: That the ND Tournament should be rotated each year at local clubs who are willing and able to hold the event. Dave V pointed out that he'd put the proposal forward with his referee hat on, not as W Ho! Chair.
Chris G said that cost was not an issue for Tarka, they'd be happy to give the indoor courts to the tournament and they would absorb the cost, but the date and format are an issue. Both Mark and Dave said they felt that Tarka hadn't supported the tournament in the past 2 years. Dave suggested that we needed to promote the clubs more. Dave said that Tarka had charged £500 for courts this year, £75 less than last, but they had used less courts. Ruth McMeechan said that the cost was an issue for her. Marius suggested the same format as the John Walsh tournament. Dave said there was no reason the format couldn't be changed. Helen said if the tournament was in September it would extend the season for Torrington, as most of their players played only in the summer. Chris G said that the tournament should include juniors. Sue D said that she felt that the juniors and adults playing in the tournament at the same time was a benefit for the juniors to see the adults in action. Chris W asked in relation to refereeing the tournament around the clubs, Dave said that there are lots of tournament organizers being trained in the area and these would be utilised.
Proposal not carried
Sub- committee: Chris Gill, Warren Danby, Sue Hunter, Dave Vinall, Sally Ferguson, Sue D Proposals will be circulated to clubs before pre-season meeting |
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