ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2011
The Annual General Meeting of the Biggleswade & District Friendly Badminton League took place on Wednesday 8th June 2011 at the Weatherley Centre, Stratton Upper School, Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire at 8.00pm
The Chairman Les Weston opened the meeting by welcoming the committee, Christine Spring, Elaine Drury and representatives of the following member clubs:-
Academy, Bassingbourn, Biggleswade Ivel, Broadway, Cam Gears, Ernulf, Highbury, Icarus, Masters, Racquets, Redhoods, Royston, St John’s, Strings
Hitchin and Onyx were not represented
1. Apologies
Wilbury and Wrestlingworth
2. Minutes of last Meeting
The meeting unanimously approved the minutes of the last AGM
Proposed by Ceri Grenyer Seconded by Rob Wade Signed by Les Weston
3. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising, although Ernulf wished to point out that unfortunately last year when they had to concede a match it was out of their hands as the school needed the courts at the last minute and it could not be re-arranged.
4. Fixture Secretary/Secretary’s Report
18 Clubs joined the Biggleswade League this season with 43 teams entering the leagues made up of 11 Mixed, 7 Ladies and 25 Men’s teams. Unfortunately due to lack of players we lost Feathers Ladies, Wrestlingworth Mixed and two Men’s B teams Onyx and Ernulf this year. However we gained a Highbury Mixed Team, St John’s Men’s C team and were also pleased to welcome back Racquets Ladies.
224 matches were played which means nearly 3000 ends if they were won in two but of course there were some extremely hard fought matches with many games going to the best of three, so the leagues have played well over that 3000. I have the enviable position to see all the match sheets so I know how much sweat blood and tears have gone into some of these results. Several matches had 5 out of the 6 rubbers going to 3 ends and there was just one match out of all the leagues between Ivel and St John’s C where every rubber went to 3 ends. It did seem justice that it was a 3 all draw. I don’t know whether anyone added up the points that night but it was 342 to 341.
There were 2 other matches in the Men’s Div 4 that ended with 3 all draws with just one point separating them namely Bassingbourn v St Johns C 244 to 245 and Icarus v Bassingbourn which was 287 to 286. In the latter match Clive Byles and Lee Boulton took Bill Pargeter and Eoin Carroll to the limit 30-29 in the middle game of the first rubber of the night. There was only one other pair throughout the leagues that took an end to the limit and that was in a Mens Div 2 match whereTim Mitchell and Dave Parker of Royston B beat Guy Sandiford and Nick Boon of Hitchin21-18, 16-21, 30-29.
Only 2 matches were conceded this year which is the best record for many years especially considering the bad weather before Xmas and all the Bank holidays at the end of the season which forced us to go well into May to get the matches played. Well done to all the fixture secretaries who have the unenviable job of re-arranging matches.
I would like to apologise but thank clubs for your patience in that time before Xmas when I unexpectedly had to go to Australia not realising that I would be gone for over 6 weeks. I know it must have been frustrating not seeing the results on the web site. At this point I would like to thank Roger Gamage personally for his time and effort in filling in the match results and keeping the league tables up to date.
Congratulations to all the winners of the leagues.
The Men’s Division 1 title was settled on the last match of that league with St John’s A securing the points over Cam Gears to become the victors, pushing Masters A, who have been the holders of Division 1 for 8 years, into second place. Highbury who won division 3 last year have now become Division 2 Champions. Academy have gone from strength to strength since joining the Biggleswade leagues with both their Men’s A and B teams winning Divisions 3 and 4 respectively. In the Ladies league Ivel have convincingly retained their trophy.
The Mixed Division 1 title was again not decided until the last match when Royston beat Broadway 5- 4 to leapfrog from 3rd place over Ivel A and Cam Gears A to clinch the title.
In Mixed Division 2 Highbury in their first season just missed out by 2 points to the victors Cam Gears B
Obviously it is great to win but hopefully win or lose everyone enjoyed their season.
On the whole most clubs sent their score sheets in on time with me only having to chase one or two clubs for late results A gentle reminder that score sheets are supposed to be sent in by the home team within 7 days of the match being played. The sheets were also filled in much better than previous years with surnames as well as first names. Clubs with more than one team do forget sometimes to put whether it is A, B or C team.
I said this last year and I will say it again. Emails have made it easier to get documentation and information to clubs, and emails and text messages are used by a lot of clubs to confirm or change matches etc. However they do not work if they are not read or indeed even received. It only takes a second to press the reply button and send a quick message to say that you have received the message then at least you know your message has reached its intended destination.
I would like to thank all the club secretaries and treasurers for the hard work they put in to keep their clubs running and also thank all the fixture secretaries, especially when it comes to rearranging fixtures. Especial thank you to the fixture secretaries who sort out a list of dates for their home games for their various teams at the beginning of the season. This gives a great basis for the fixture secretary to work with.
Finally, thank you to all those who have played and helped to make it a successful and enjoyable season. I hope you will all be entering again next year.
Please remember to have your team entries in by 1st August at the latest.
The earlier you get your entry forms in the better.
5. Web Site Co-ordinator
Roger Gamage, who sent his apologies for being able to attend the meeting, sent a brief report.
‘From my point of view maintaining the results and tables on the website has been very smooth this year and, as always, has been made very easy by Elaine’s sterling work in collating and passing on match scores. I hope all will be joining me in thanking her for the huge amount of work she does on behalf of all of us. However I have had a few e-mails during the year from people gently complaining about the time it takes for results to appear on the league web site. Thankfully these mild complaints have been resolved amicably but I’d like to remind member clubs that the web site is maintained entirely on a voluntary basis, and using very simple and low cost tools. Early in the season i was extremely busy, and frequently had to travel abroad on business. Also there was a period when, for reasons that most are aware of, Elaine was unable to process results for several weeks. Also many delays are due to the tardiness of clubs actually sending the results in!
The possibility of having some facility for clubs to upload their own results on to the site has come up from time to time, and last year I was given contact details of somebody who had helped one of the other leagues with this kind of system on their website. I confess that I stopped pursuing this possibility when the word “fees” was brought up. If the league, collectively, wish to employ professional help for the construction and maintenance of our web site, then I would of course respect that decision. However, I am mindful that the Biggleswade League fees are much lower than our sister leagues’ and I suspect they would have to rise considerably to cover the cost of a professional webmaster or designer. Maybe this is something for the AGM to consider.
I am quite prepared to continue posting scores and league tables on a voluntary basis, assuming there are no other volunteers, but if the current manual process is not acceptable to the member clubs I would prefer yo step aside and let somebody else take over.’
· There was a brief discussion following Roger’s report based mainly on the sending in of score sheets and comparing it to the Letchworth League. In the latter the home team club can enter their results straight onto the web site instead of posting the results then it has to be confirmed by the away team, but sometimes this confirmation does not happen therefore the tables can’t be updated. Although the season finished several weeks ago the Letchworth league table has still not been finalised.
Robe Case pointed out that in our leagues both teams confirm the results straight away on match nights with captain’s signatures on the match sheet which is then sent in, either posted, emailed or scanned within 7 days.
Elaine also thought our layout of results, fixtures and tables, with each league being on one page, was very quick and easy to see and understand. However David Rowe and Ken Abbott are both going to look into the possibility of automated filling in of match sheets.
6. Treasurer’s report
The treasurer Christine Spring submitted the Income and Expenditure Accounts and reported as follows:-
This year we have made a profit of £31.61 and as everyone knows by now our main objective each season is to break even. Having achieved our aim there is noo need to increase our subs from the present £7.00
· There was a brief discussion following Chris’s report that as we have a healthy reserve account we should perhaps spend some of that money.
It was proposed by David Rowe and seconded by Gemma Langridge that the subs per team should be reduced to £5 instead of £7.
The proposal was carried by 11 votes for, 1 against, and 2 abstentions
7. Election of Officers
Chairman: Les Weston
Treasurer: Christine Spring
Fixtures Secretary/Secretary: Elaine Drury
Web Site Co-ordinator: Roger Gamage
Proposed by Bob Tucker Seconded by Rob Case Committee elected unanimously
8. Proposals
Usually at the end of the season the 2 top teams go up and the 2 bottom teams go down in the individual leagues but Elaine proposed that to balance up the Mixed leagues this year that 2 teams are as normal promoted up from Div 2 but only one team should go down from Div 1
9. A.O.B.
There was no any other business.
Rob Case thanked the whole committee for all their work.
10. Presentation of Trophies
Men’s Division 4 Academy B
Men’s Division 3 Academy A
Men’s Division 2 Highbury
Men’s Division 1 St John’s A
Ladies Biggleswade Ivel
Mixed 2 Cam Gears B
Mixed 1 Royston A
Lady of Eindhoven Academy B
The meeting closed at 8.45pm
Please return your entry forms for the league a.s.a.p. and please note it will only be £5 per team (not £7)
