This will be the latest that I have ever prepared my report on a season ended.  It should be no secret by now that I have been heavily involved for more than a year in matters relating to the Middlesex Squash & Racketball Association.  These matters related to the appointment at the Main AGM in 2008 of a new chairman who, whilst I knew that he was a very capable person in many respects, I felt was not suitable to chair the new body formed as a merger of the old MSRA and the MSL.  This new body, which I had first proposed should be created back in 2006, called the Middlesex Squash & Racketball Association, came into effect at the AGM for 2008 held on 23 July 2008.  Unfortunately, there has been much unwanted and unnecessary controversy and disagreement within the Committee on which I served in the multiple roles of Treasurer, Vets League Secretary and Referee Organiser.   Regrettably this developed into two opposing factions and all came to a head at an Extraordinary General Meeting held on 21 May 2009.  At this EGM, at which nearly all the clubs in the Vets League were represented, the motion was carried to remove the chairman, Gordon Kerr, from office and appoint Robin Mace, who will be known to many of you as the MSL Summer League Secretary for the last 10 years, as Chairman until the 2009 AGM.  Hopefully this will end an unprecedented episode in Middlesex Squash with which I have been associated for 25 years.  I sincerely hope all will settle down once again to be no more than a background to the smooth running and development of squash in Middlesex.  The next important date will be this year's Main MSRA and MSL AGMs to be held on 25 June 2009. 

May I take the opportunity of thanking those of you who represented your Clubs at the recent EGM how much I and Robin Mace appreciated your attendance which was vital on that occasion.  I will not hide from the fact that if the motion had been defeated I would have severed all my connections with the MSL and MSRA.  I hope that this will now not prove necessary but I do intend anyway to reduce my workload by initially giving up the treasurership and after the coming season to pass over the running of our Vets League to a suitable successor who I hope will emerge over the coming months and carry it forward with its unique character into the future.

With all this disruption I have fallen badly behind in my work on this League and also much personal work and activities.   Therefore, to try and catch up my report on last season is actually brief than usual !   

However, in looking back at the last season I must first record with great sadness the death on 7 April 2009 of Norman Wilby who founded the Middlesex League in 1971 and proposed the setting up of the Vets League in 1984.  All in squash owe a great deal to Norman's foresight in setting up and running the MSL for some 35 years and for his contribution in so many ways to squash in Middlesex.  I miss him and the recent battles that there have been in Middlesex Squash, of which he was thankfully totally unaware, would have been no less than a tragedy to him. 

By and large the 2008/09 season has been a fairly normal one but I am relieved that we have got through it so well without any major problems.  It was in fact highly successful and I think enjoyed by most of our players.  Despite taking my eye of the ball to some degree, our team secretaries did their work superbly and a measure of their effort is that we only had 9 matches declared as walkover which is the lowest since I started to tot these up in 2003/04. Thank you all so much for ensuring that rearranged matches were nearly all played by the season's end.

In the season just ended there were 45 teams, three less than the previous season, which is the lowest number since 1989/90 and I do hope that this trend of reduction in teams does not continue.  Although the game is still contracting at all levels I think it will level out but perhaps not just yet.   In common with previous years I have circulated to all secretaries, and show on the web site, a table headed Record for Season 2008/09.  This shows teams in the final order in their division with their individual records, match results and walkovers.  The total number of players used has dropped to 327 compared with 370 the previous year and this is also the lowest since I first recorded these figures in 2003/04.   Included in the total number of players were just 4 ladies which is certainly the lowest ever and a long way from the days when we were able to run a ladies vets division.   Thankfully, our Main League still just holds on with a single small ladies division.

This record also contains each team's hospitality summary and this season the top team was West Herts Vintage I closely followed by Vets teams Coolhurst I and Northwood III (the latter being my old team) and St Albans Vintage I.  Well done to these sides and many more that recorded overall consistent excellent appreciation from their visitors.  Please never overlook the importance of looking after the players in visiting teams since the social side of our league is one of its essential elements.  It is not just getting them drinks but includes being there to welcome them, showing them to the changing rooms, advising on which courts are to be used, agreeing the playing order, fair marking of matches, staying to socialise after the match and of course serving the best meal that the available facilities are capable of providing. 

Looking ahead, whilst I would hate to lose sides, teams have to be realistic and before entering must consider whether they will have the resources to raise a team to fulfil all their engagements in a season.     All in all, whilst I think that our vintage divisions will not be heavily affected next season there may be the loss of one or two more teams at vets level which I don't like to see but with which we will have to live.  I will look for new teams in areas where I think it is possible to recruit since there are still a number of clubs without vets teams although the difficulty is often that of getting someone to run a team.  Whilst I do not want to go too far afield there are some potential teams in or fairly close to the Middlesex area that I would like to see join us.  It was very clear during the recent turmoil how we rely upon many teams from Herts.  This of course has been the situation since we were formed since in fact it was initially a joint venture between Middlesex and Herts in which we took the lead in running it.   In the season just ended we had 16 teams from Herts and 1 from Bucks coming in total from 9 Clubs outside of the geographical area of Middlesex.  All of us from whichever of the three counties we play in have helped each other to give a varied and large enough body to make up the best and largest vets and vintage league in the country.   Thank you very much our friends from Herts and Bucks !

Briefly looking at the divisional results, there was another striking win by West Herts in Vets Div 1 and also as in the previous season by Temple Fortune, with a small squad, who took Vets Div 2.  By a narrow margin West Herts also came top in Vets Div 3.    There was a first ever for Oakleigh Park who were champions in Vintage 1 ending a three year's run for Broxbourne.   Oakleigh Park looked likely to do a double with its second team winning Vintage 2 but were overtaken in the end by Northwood II giving that team its first ever success in the division. The League Tables show the top teams in each division, the bottom ones and promotions and relegations.  With regard to the latter, whilst there is a 'two up - two down' system, this is subject to variation where teams withdraw or new ones are admitted. There is always some restructuring and in the pre AGM papers I will outline my proposals for members approval.

Our AGM will held on THURSDAY JULY 16 again at the GlaxoSmithKline Club in Greenford 

Gradually over the last two seasons the major part of communication with members has been by way of e mail which in general saves me a lot of work particularly at the end of the season and during the preparation period for the next one.  I must of course remind you how important it now is to please advise me when your e mail address changes.  Whilst a number of significant advances have been made in the form of on line match result reporting in the main league, I do not intend to use this method for our section which in my view does not save secretaries any time and there will still be Result Cards to be sent in (on time) and the same fixture preparation arrangements as previously will apply.  The main men's League, which is now highly automated, also provides individual player grading but this is beyond my resources and capabilities and whilst I don't really think that it is needed for vets or vintage players who have a pretty good idea of relative strengths it might well be possible for my eventual successor to provide this sort of information.   Despite the undoubted benefits of electronic communication through e mail and the web, there is still considerable contact by telephone which for certain matters remains the quickest way to sort out a problem or keep up to date with friends and colleagues.

Once again my particular and sincere thanks for the efforts of the secretaries of our teams without whom we would not exist.   As a last function for the season just ended please ensure that if you are not continuing as secretary next year you must pass on your records to your successor and let me know who that will be.  Either way I must have entry forms for 2009/10 by JUNE 15 and these have been e mailed to all secretaries and are on the web site for printing off.  I would dearly like to put interactive Entry Forms on the web site and indeed likewise for the Homedate and Registration forms, but as requested in previous seasons I really need someone out there to come over to me and help on this for which I would happily pay a small fee. 

Finally, at the end of a fraught squash year from my point of view, 2008/09 was our our 25th since we were formed and the coming season will be my personal 25th in which I will have proudly run this wonderful Vets and Vintage League.

JACK HARRIS

Hon Secretary Middlesex Vets and Vintage Leagues                                                                                  

31 May 2009

LINKS TO:   HOME   PAGE    

                          Record for Season 2008/09    (A)

                           MSL Vets & Vintage Record since 1984   (A) 

                      Jack Harris' Notes