ST HELENS & DISTRICT BADMINTON LEAGUE

Minutes of Annual General Meeting held at Broadway Badminton Centre,

Thursday 10th May 2012 at 7.30pm

Present: Les Hill, Nigel Cross, Janet Chelton, Janet Cliffe, Jeff Johnson, Jim Parish, Paul Hawgood, John Harris, Linda Eccleston

Apologies: Roe Green,WBBC, Dean Patel, John Harrison

Representatives from: Bryn, Corpus Christi, Culcheth,  Feathers, Fords, Greenfield, ICI, Sutton, Vida, Wesley, Y Club

Minutes of last meeting

After the Roll Call Les presented the Minutes from the last AGM held on

5th May 2011 and these were accepted by all present.  There were no matters arising.

No Strings sessions

Chairman’s Report

Les opened the meeting and started off by thanking the committee members for their time and attendance at meetings.

With reference to the issue of County Fees; PH had sent a letter on behalf of Vida which was discussed at the last meeting of Council but as yet had not had a reply.  Les to draft letter to County in support of individual fee paid once to LCBA.  Linda informed the meeting that the County had overruled the appeal and reiterated their decision of collecting fees.

Finally, this year the Fixtures Meeting will be held on Thursday, 6th September 2012.  Clubs should aim to play their fixtures before the end of March 2012.  Les stated that all clubs must advise the League in writing of their team(s) for next season before 1st August 2012.

Treasurer’s Report

Jan reported a healthy bank balance of £1,486.94.  There are also still monies to be paid out for League and Tournament  trophies and Knockout Final shuttles.

Both the Senior and Junior Tournament were a success this year making a profit of £106.00 (minus trophies) and £41.65 respectively.  Figures for the dance have yet to be calculated.

Jan thanked all the secretaries, treasurers and tournament organisers for making her job of collecting money and fees a lot easier.  Janet Chelton

Secretary’s Report

“Thank you to everyone for their efforts and support over the past year and particularly to those who took part and supported events during the season.

2012 saw the opening of our new Badminton Centre at the old Broadway High School Site.  This was a joint venture between Badminton England/St Helens Council and Sutton Badminton Club.  The facility is shared with St Helens Council Youth Service who use it on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday all day.  The rest of the time is occupied by St Helens clubs ie Feathers/Corpus Christi/Sutton and Merseyside Performance Centre.  Other groups are running through the month of May to try and increase badminton participation in St Helens such as No Strings Pay ‘n Play sessions, Workforce, Family Badminton, Over 50’s (now open to all ages) and League coaching sessions.

The Launch was held on 3rd March 2012 starting with an 18 hour badminton marathon run by Sutton Badminton Club and helped to raise £1,020.00 for Alder Hey Imagine Appeal.  My thanks to everyone who gave up their day (and night) to take part and support this very worthy cause.  Nick Rimmer from Badminton England officially opened the Centre with the help and support from Leah Singleton and Dave Boocock and Gemma Webster from St Helens Council, my thanks to them because without their help and support we would not have this marvellous facility in St Helens.

St Helens Council held their official launch on 12th April 2012 and was attended by Adrian Christi (Chief Executive), Marie Rimmer, Council Leader and other leading officials.  A demonstration was given by each of the groups that use the Centre and included players from Sutton and the Performance Centre as well as Tom Wolfenden who gave time out of his busy schedule to come and support the event.

Our junior tournament went extremely well with over 70 children taking part in the different age groups and was held at Broadway.  This year we made a smaller profit partly intentional to use up the profits made over the last couple of years of over £100 each.  It was decided that the money should be best used for the benefits of junior so the entry fee was reduced to £3 and again trophies awarded to both winners and runners-up.    Unfortunately there were no entries in the Y10/Y12 girls events forcing the cancellation of 4 of the events.  However, the feedback from both parents and players were very positive with many of them saying how much they enjoyed it and how well it ran and especially how nice it was to have a home base for Badminton such as Broadway.  Again without the help of all the volunteers on the day this wouldn’t have been possible, so my thanks to Nigel Cross, Ian Eccleston and the many parents who helped out on the day.

I will updating the league book shortly so if there are any changes to secretary or contact numbers can you please let me know as soon as possible so that these can be included.

This year I have had some help with the website from Stuart Mo who has been populating our gallery with pictures of the various events that have run this season, my thanks to Stuart for all his time and effort.  Linda Eccleston

Match Secretary’s Report

Thank you to all secretaries for their support as without that my job would be a lot harder.  The season went quite smoothly and score sheets were received within timescales and easier when received electronically.  Just a couple of points to note:

•          When A teams play B teams the matches have to be arranged such that one is played in the first half of the season.  There was a new rule passed last year stating this.

•          Please put players’ full name at least once on the score sheet and ensure that both club names are also on the sheet.

New teams entered this year namely; WBBC and Roe Green.  Vida entered B teams and Bryn entered B and C teams.  I hope everyone enjoyed the season and congratulations to all clubs who managed to get their teams out even though at times it was a struggle for some.

As shown on the league tables, the Men’s League was very close this year with ICI A winning Division 1 by only 15 games as both ICI and Fords had the same number of points.  Again, both Y Club and Corpus Christi had the same points but Y club won 18 more games.  Corpus Christi penalised for not fielding a team on 1 occasion.  In Division 2 Bryn B were winners by 2 points from Vida A.  Bryn C and WBBC also finished on the same number of points with Bryn C winning the most number of games.

The Mixed Division 1 was won comfortably by Fords with Sutton A as runners-up.  Both Y club and Corpus Christ penalised for failing to field a team.  David Lloyd withdrew at the beginning of the season.  Division 2 was won by Vida A with Greenfield finishing in 2nd place.  Janet Cliffe

Tournament Secretary’s Report

This year the event was held at the new Broadway Badminton Centre and although there were lower entries, overall it was a successful day and went very well except I felt a little guilty over the handicapping after winning one of the events.  There were more games played due to more courts being available at Broadway but some problems getting players onto court as many were upstairs which meant Mike making continuous trips to call players.  Here is a list of the winners:

Men’s Singles: Rob Winstanley
Runner-up: Stephen Wilson

Men’s Doubles: Aaron Owen & Nigel Cross
Runners-up: John Hough & Robert Metcalf

Ladies Doubles: Alison Marsh & Anne Ashworth
Runners-up: Helen Everett & Amy Shovelton

Mixed Doubles: Aaron Owen & Helen Everett
Runners-up: Paul Hawgood & Sue Cassidy

Unfortunately there was not enough interest to run a Vets tournament but hope to revisit this at another time in the year.  Can Secretaries please help with attracting players in order for it to run.  Nigel Cross

Knock-out Tournament Secretary’s Report

Handicapping continues to be a problem but thanks to John Harris for his help this year.  Here is the round up:

In Round 1 Bryn beat Feathers by 100.5 points and Fords beat Wesley by 86.5 points.

In Round 2 Bryn beat Fords by 35.5 points.  Greenfield beat Sutton by 65.5 and Vida beat Corpus Chirsti by 131 (admittedly not one of our better efforts).  Y Club had a walk-over into the semi-final because David Lloyd withdrew.  They were beaten by Bryn by 3.5 points.  Vida beat Greenfield by 116.5.

In the final Bryn beat Vida by 67.5 points.  Thanks to Sutton for giving up 2 courts for the final.  My aim when handicapping is for a winning margin between 30 and 50 points which was achieved on 2 occasions.  If anyone has any ideas on how this can be improved then I would welcome your thoughts.  Janet Cliffe

Election of Officers

There had been no nominations received from clubs leading up to the meeting.  In view of this the Chairman proposed that the current committee continue for another season.  The committee agreed to serve for 2012/2013.

Any Other Business

Proposal to run a Men’s Knock-out competition following same Rules as set out for the Mixed competition.  PH volunteered to run the event with the support of Derek Neary.  Clubs to inform Paul by the Fixtures Meeting whether they would like to take part.

Proposal to amend Rule 20 (voted in favour by 9-5) to state that: During one season a player may play a combined total of four matches for a higher team than that for which he/she has been registered.  A player will be deemed to have been re-registered if he/she plays a fifth time for a higher team.

New Rule to be added (voted in favour by 12-3) for the issuing of handicaps of Knockout matches to be kept secret until after the match has been played.  It is the responsibility of the home team captain to contact the competition secretary for the handicapping figures.

Linda read out a letter of thanks from Greenfield Badminton Club for the League’s donation of £50 in support of their Sports Relief event.  The total amount raised was £300, well done Greenfield.

Lastly, there was a request from Graham High to join the Committee.  This was accepted and welcomed.

Date of next meeting

This will be the Fixtures Meeting, to be held on Thursday, 6th September 2012 at 7.30pm at Ruskin Drive.

Distribution: Committee Members plus GH

Secretaries: DS, MO, IG, SP, JN, RS, AM, DN, AB, BW, NW