ARLON MIDDLESEX SQUASH LEAGUE - VETERANS & VINTAGE SECTION
Minutes of the 25th AGM held at the Glaxo (GSK) Leisure Centre on 16 July 2009
Present
MSRA Committee Members: Robin Mace (Vice Chairman MSRA & Meeting Chairman), Jack Harris (Secretary of the MSL Veterans Vintage Section),
John Nicholson (MSRA Treasurer) and Tim Taylor (Chairman MSRA Junior Committee).
Representatives of teams and others per the attendance list.
1 Welcome Members and particularly new team secretaries were welcomed by the Chairman. There was representation of all teams although in a few cases members from one team in a club had been accepted in advance to represent another of its teams. Apologies had been received from Al Robertson (MSRA Chairman), Max Millar (MSRA Secretary) and John Crosbie (MSRA Closed Tournament Organiser).
2 Minutes of the 2008 AGM As circulated and set out on the web site last July was taken as read and approved.
3 League Secretary's Report As circulated in advance and posted on the web site, also taken as read and approved. Jack Harris amplified upon some of its content and updated members on some recent events relating to the MSRA. He expressed his sadness at the passing of Norman Wilby, who had founded the Middlesex Squash League in 1971, proposed the creation of the Vets League in 1984 and made the MSL one of the finest in the Country.
4 Election of League Secretary Jack Harris was unanimously re-elected. He advised that the coming season (his 25th) would be his last and that, subject to election at the 2010 AGM, he hoped that Robin Mace would take on the role for season 2010/11.
5 Fixture preparation arrangements It was reported that all 'Home Date' forms had been received and appreciation was expressed for their provision prior to the meeting which facilitated early resolution of queries. The processing arrangements, which are unchanged from previous years, were outlined with the aim being to get the individual team fixture lists despatched to team secretaries before the end of the month. Team secretaries were reminded that they could change fixtures up to 31 August 2009 but thereafter this could only be done with the consent of the other side.
6 Divisional structure for 2009/10 (a) Vets Jack Harris advised that since preparing his paper on this subject (as circulated prior to the AGM), on the vets side he was delighted to report upon one new entry, West Herts IV, which had been placed in Division 3. This addition would replace the Coolhurst III team that had withdrawn. As a result there would again be 27 vets teams spread over three divisions of 9 teams each. Uxbridge II, who were promoted to Division 2, had advised that they were prepared to remain in Division 3 in order to facilitate the placing of Northwood II in Division 2 as had been requested. The offer by Uxbridge was much appreciated. There were two other requests for higher placement to be considered from Coolhurst I and Berkhamsted I who had both been relegated to Division 2 as the bottom two teams in Division 1, but considered that they would be strong enough to remain in that Division. Derick Bass of Temple Fortune said that his team, which had been promoted from Division 2 to 1, were willing in view of their limited player resources to stay in Division 2 for a second year running. This would permit Coolhurst I to take their place in Division 1. There was no other volunteer from any other Division 1 team to drop to Division 2 and therefore the request for special promotion back to Division 1 for Berkhamsted could unfortunately not be dealt with. (b) Vintage On the vintage side there were no changes from the original paper. The two new teams, Berkhamsted and Coolhurst, were welcomed and had been placed in Division 2. There were now 20 vintage teams and in order to balance the structure into two divisions of 10 teams each, St Albans I, who had been relegated at the end of last season from Division 1 to 2 were placed at their request back in Division 1. (c) Approval The revised structuring of all divisions was approved by members. The final full divisional list of vets and vintage teams would be circulated with these minutes.
7 MSRA and MSL Men's AGMs held on 25 June 2009
(a) Elections It was reported that at the MSRA AGM the following new appointments were made:
Chairman: Al Robertson; Vice-Chairman: Robin Mace; Secretary: Max Millar; Treasurer: John Nicholson.
(b) Finance The financial results for the year ended 30 April 2009 were reported upon and showed an overall deficit for the new MSRA of £979. Within this deficit the
MSL side itself incurred a loss of £1,118 and it might be necessary next season or the season after to slightly increase team subscriptions. Our objectives were to
more or less balance our income and expenditure and our overall financial position remained strong.
(c) Rules Two additions were made to the MSL Rules. Rule 10.3.6 formalised a procedure that had actually been used by League Secretaries for many years whereby
they sanctioned the use of an ineligible player at the last string when a team found itself short of a player on the day of a match. This was allowed provided the other
captain was advised before the match started, that both sides recorded that the player was ineligible and obviously that his result if he won his game would not count
as such. Rule 10.9 was added to permit any section of the MSL if it so decided before a season commenced, to approve match scoring for all or some divisions with
PAR (point-a-rally) to 11. From 1 April 2009 this is now the official scoring system within the Rules of Squash. However, the traditional scoring is also still permitted
as an alternative. The Men's section agreed to experiment next season with PAR to 11 for its Division 1 only. As far as our section is concerned, no desire to use this
scoring method was expressed.
(d) Special Preesentations The MSL Men's side presentations included the Norman Wilby Award to Craig Randall, currently Secretary of the Wembley & Sudbury
Vets team,particularly recognising his role over many years as Assistant Secretary to the late Norman Wilby and his continuing help to the MSL in the background.
The Club of the Year Award went to Paddington (formerly also a member of the Vets Section).
8 Other matters raised by the League Secretary (a) Reminders Attention was drawn to the yellow coloured 'Reminders' note in packets which covered some of our basic rules. The full updated rules are on our web site. Particularly with new secretaries in mind a few essential administrative points were also outlined. (b) E-mail and web The use of this facility was now basic to the running of the MSL and virtually all communication of documents and information was now dealt with in these formats. The use of the telephone and fax were, however, still most important. Our member's co-operation on this mode of communication was greatly appreciated since this considerably helped to reduce the work involved in the running the Section. Our web site now carries a large number of pages with a substantial amount of information covered. The only information not to go on the web would be secretarial details which would be circulated with these minutes. There was no intention to change our system of match reporting for the coming season with the traditional Result Cards being required to be sent in promptly by team secretaries. (c) Action required Secretaries were reminded to get their team Registration Forms completed on time, settle outstanding team subscriptions, advise of any changes needed to the secretarial register and again do their utmost to avoid walkovers next season by making prompt match date changes where these were agreed. (d) MSRA Closed Tournament This was likely to be held from October 2 to 4 at the Northwood Club. Entry forms would be distributed shortly by John Crosbie, the Tournament Organiser and would of course be posted on the web site.
9 Any other business There was no further business notified but Tim Taylor, Chairman of the MSRA Junior Committee, appealed to members whether they were parents or not or whether they still had children who were juniors, for volunteers to serve on his Committee to further develop this vital section of the MSRA which represented its future.
Finally, Robin Mace expressed gratitude to Jack Harris for his many years of service. He in turn thanked members for their support and assistance during the last
difficult year. As ever, the work of team secretaries was vital for the continued success of the Middlesex Squash League..
The Meeting commenced at 7.55 p.m. and terminated at 8.58 p.m.
PRESENTATIONS
The AGM was followed by the presentation of 4 year service secretarial tops to 6 of our team secretaries and the trophies and mementoes to the winners and runners up in the 2008/09 Season. The MSL Secretary of the Year Award was made to Derick Bass of Temple Fortune. A special presentation of a cut glass vase was made to Stewart Gibbs in appreciation for his service over many years as Secretary of the MSRA.
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