CAMBRIDGE & DISTRICT TABLE TENNIS LEAGUE

Minutes of the AGM held on 23.6.10

at the Fulbourn Centre

The President announced that the League had sadly lost three of its longest serving members during the past year, Steve Stafford, Pat O’Bryne and David Dye.   He acknowledged the contribution they had all made to our League and this was followed by a minute’s silence in their memory. 

Steve Stafford’s family had donated a cup in his memory which will be awarded yearly at the AGM to the Player of the League Tournament.   Tracey Sambrook was the first winner and was presented with the new cup.    

The main business of the meeting then commenced.

PRESENT

Tony Brotchie (Life Vice-President), Ruth Puddick, Roger Fensom and Rob Trigg (Vice-Presidents) and 26 members, representing 13 clubs.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Brian Asplin, Marc Meunier, Richard Wells, Pippa Keane, Clare Macrae, Jannett Klinke, 

Peter Hutchison.

PRESIDENT’S OPENING ADDRESS

Brian Judd reported that although he hadn’t been able to get to all the Committee meetings this season, he knew that the Committee had worked very hard.  He was saddened by the passing of our colleagues and was sure they will be missed.   

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

Agreed. 

MATTERS ARISING

Audit

As Auditor, Brian Judd confirmed that last year’s books had since been checked and confirmed to be in order.  They had now been signed off.

GENERAL SECRETARY’S REPORT

The Committee had met on 6 occasions this season.  Thanks were recorded to all the Committee for the work they do.   Dave Harrison will be standing down from the post of Chairman, after 15 years.  Brian Freer as always had the biggest workload and we were lucky to have someone prepared to give up so much of their time.   Bob Pettit had again submitted regular articles to the Cambridge News, although he had not been supplied with as many reports from team captains as he would have wished and this jeopardised the continuation of this role.   Further thanks were recorded to Martin Gray and Caroline Wright for bringing a youthful look to the Committee and some fresh ideas, and  to 

Carl Woolf for agreeing to take on the post of Coaching Secretary.   The League Tournament was 

held in January at the Ross Peers Sports Centre,  run successfully once again by Brian Freer and Martyn Livermore.  Martin Gray organised the tables, Kevin Gray and Caroline Wright stepped in on the day to help put the tables up and Sam Wilkin assisted the organisers.  Thanks were due to them all.   University players produced the winners of the 5 major singles with Shaun Hall retaining his Men’s Singles title and Sasha Tsai winning the Women’s Singles.  It should be recorded that the University players stayed at the end to help put the tables away.  The County tournament was held in March, when Keith Richardson won the Men’s Singles for the 19^th time, the Veterans Singles and the Men’s Doubles with Mick Harper.    Helen Arnold won the Women’s title, and the Ladies’ Doubles, Kevin Gray and Janet Nicholls won the Mixed Doubles against father and daughter Jeff and

2

Amy Catlin.  Janet also won the Handicap Singles, and Daniel Fielding claimed 4 titles, the Under-21 event, Boys Singles, Boys Doubles with Harris Ryder and the restricted Singles.

The following League players represented the County over the past season:   

Seniors: Martin Gray, Kevin Gray, Steve Annison, Tim Avis, Martin Freeland, Liwu Wei, 

Caroline Wright, Helen Arnold, Tracey Sambrook and Janet Nicholls.   

Veterans (including Over-60’s):  Kevin Gray, Dave Tiplady, Simon Pryke, Mick Harper, 

Yvette Hooks, Liwu Wei, Dave Rowell, Reno Phyo, Steve Trevanion, Mandy Mills, Terry Lane, Andy Merritt, Roger Fensom, Rod Hatton and Val Parkes.

Juniors:  Patrick Mohan. 

COMPETITION SECRETARY’S REPORT

Brian Freer circulated his report.   The League had comprised of 44 teams from 15 clubs with 232 players registered.   A total of 440 matches were scheduled, 31 of which were played late, 4 conceded, 2 were void, and 32 played with players short.    The introduction of the new rule concerning the postponement of matches was breached by many teams and the Committee imposed fines on several teams.   There was, however, a reduction in the usual pile up of postponed fixtures towards the end of the season and thanks must go to all Team Captains for their efforts in keeping postponed matches to a minimum.    Carl Woolf (Fulbourn) stated that League members were told at last year’s AGM that imposing a fee would be an emergency measure, but it would now appear that teams were being fined for matches that were not played on time and he considered that this was not following the spirit of the rule.    He was informed by the Chair of the meeting that this was not the appropriate forum in which to question the rules, and that he had been given the chance to raise this at Committee meetings, but had failed to do so.   

The Handicap Knockout Cup had 24 entries with the Final being played at the Fulbourn Centre.   

Winning teams were:

Div 1: St Georges 1

Div 2: RCG Stapleford 1

Div 3: St Ives 3

Div 4: St Georges 4

Handicap: Soham 2

Brian explained the implementation of ETTA Membership which will take effect next season.    Members for whom the ETTA already hold e-mail addresses will have their individual membership form e-mailed to them direct from the ETTA during July.   Forms for all other members had already been received by the League, and Club representatives present at this AGM were asked to collect these at the end of the meeting.      Individuals had the option to apply for ETTA membership either directly online to the ETTA or by completing their forms and forwarding them via their Clubs to Brian.   He would then forward them to the ETTA, who would subsequently issue the individual Membership Nos.  It would be helpful if the latter option could be used where possible as this would make it easier for Brian to keep tabs on all our players.   In instances where individuals played in more than one League, they would need to nominate which League they were registering with and then provide the other Leagues with their ETTA Membership No. once this was issued.    Only players with an ETTA Membership No. would be allowed to compete in League competitions.  

TREASURER’S REPORT

The audited Accounts were circulated.    Brian reported that it was the first time for many seasons 

that a major loss had occurred, with a deficit of £722 for the year.   This was mainly due to an 

3

increase in printing costs as 2,000 new scorecards had been produced, the League had paid for two coaching courses and there had been a loss of £169 on the Tournament.    Venue and equipment hire 

and the cost of the trophies outweighed the amount received in entry fees.   Martin Gray had made enquiries at St Neots about the cost of holding our tournament there and because the tables were in situ, the total cost would be considerably cheaper than Soham.   However, if we were to hold our tournament there, it might have to be held over two days because the hall is smaller and there would be fewer tables.   The Committee will look into this and also consider whether to increase the entry fees.    Brian pointed out that in future Insurance costs will be covered within the ETTA membership fee.  Brian Freer was thanked for all his hard work, both as Treasurer and Competition Secretary.

MATCH SECRETARY’S REPORT

In the Wilmott Cup, Cambridge once again hosted the group at St Neots.   The League was represented by Martin and Kevin Gray, and the other teams were North Middlesex and Ipswich.   Cambridge lost their first match against North Middlesex 1-4, and this was followed by a very close match between North Middlesex and Ipswich which North Middlesex finally won 3-2.  In the final match, Cambridge battled hard against Ipswich but went down by 1-4.   North Middlesex therefore went through to the National Finals.  Thanks were recorded to Bob Pettit for umpiring all the games and to the St Neots Club for providing such an excellent venue.   In the Rose Bowl, Cambridge were drawn in a group with Derby and Leicester but as Leicester were unable to field a team on the allotted date, Cambridge and Derby went straight through to the Finals held at Draycott, Derby. On one of the hottest days of the year, Cambridge were represented by Maria Boulton, Mandy Mills and Caroline Wright.   Their first match was against a strong North Herts team.  Maria won her first match but with Maria and Mandy only losing by two points in each of their final sets of their second games, Cambridge lost the match 1-4.   In the next match against Derby, Mandy won her first match. However this turned out to be Cambridge’s only win and resulted in another 1-4 defeat.  The final group match against Hastings resulted in a similar scoreline with Cambridge losing 1-4, Maria being the sole winner on that occasion.  Although the doubles pairing of Maria Boulton and 

Caroline Wright began to improve on their scores, they were outplayed by the Hastings pair.  Cambridge’s final match was a play-off for 7^th/8^th place against Watford.  Mandy and Maria won their singles to give the team a 3-1 lead which was enough to give them 7^th place in the competition.  North Herts were the top team.

COACHING SECRETARY’S REPORT

Carl Woolf stated that he had not received communication from anyone regarding coaching.

AUDITOR’S REPORT

Brian Judd reported that he had checked the books and everything was in order.   

PROPOSED RULE CHANGES

The Executive Committee had proposed the following:

Delete Rule 6.     Insert New Rule 6

6 

i.      All players taking part in League Competitions must be a Player Member of the 

        ETTA.

ii.    The Annual League subscription shall be as follows:

        a)    £8.00 for each Team

        b)    £4.50 for each registered Player

        The foregoing fees shall be in addition to the ETTA Player Membership   

        (includes Insurance) and Cambridgeshire TTA Affiliation Fees.

Carried unanimously.

4

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The following were elected unopposed: 

President: Brian Judd

Life Vice-President: Tony Brotchie

Vice-Presidents:    Paul Day, John Cornwell, Ruth Puddick, Colin Cushen, John Loker, 

Keith Richardson, Roger Fensom, Rob Trigg.

Dave Harrison was newly elected.

Chairman: Bob Pettit

Vice-Chairman: Mick Byrd

General Secretary: Val Parkes

Competitions Secretary: Brian Freer

Treasurer: Brian Freer

Match Secretary: Val Parkes

Coaching Secretary: Carl Woolf

          Committee Members: Martyn Livermore, Martin Gray, Caroline Wright, Janet Nicholls

County Delegates: Martin Gray, Val Parkes

Auditor: Brian Judd

To mark the occasion of Dave Harrison retiring from his post of Chairman, which he had held for the past 14 years, and for being League Secretary and Treasurer for 7 years prior to that, the President made a presentation of a book token to Dave in acknowledgement of the vast amount of work he had put in on our behalf.   In addition to his official posts, Dave had also been responsible for setting up the League and County websites, the computerised results, averages and league tables and archiving the League’s history on the website.   He also drew up the proposals for a revised Constitution.     The presentation was greeted with a loud round of applause.  In reply, Dave commented on the wonderful support he had received from different members of the Committee.   Meetings had mostly been fun.   He felt privileged to be voted a new Vice-President of the League and would be happy to continue running the League website for as long as we wished him to do so.  

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Press Reports

Bob Pettit stated that most of the information he received for the reports came from Brian Freer via the weekly results.    Despite asking at last year’s AGM for captains to send him a few lines, it had been frustrating that very little was forthcoming.   If the members wished to read reports in the Cambridge News, then they need to let him have the information.   Martyn Livermore asked if Bob sent copy to the other local papers i.e. in Newmarket, Haverhill, St Ives, etc.   Bob replied that if he is sent information he will put it in.   It was agreed that whilst the League’s website is updated more frequently now, the members would still like to read articles in the Press.   It was also considered important that press coverage continued as it kept our League in the public eye.   It was suggested 

that a note be put in the Handbook on the Fixtures or Divisions page, to please send reports to Bob.   

Rule 14 Implementation and Protocol

It was planned that next season a regular update on postponed matches would be kept and teams notified more promptly if they incurred a fee.   This would hopefully prevent any further reoccurrence by the same teams.   It was reiterated that whilst it should be the team requesting the postponement who contact Brian Freer, it would be sensible for the other team to also get in touch with Brian as this should eliminate any matches falling through the net.  

PRESENTATION OF TROPHIES Tony Brotchie, Life Vice-President, presented trophies to the divisional winners and runners-up, the Handicap winners and runners-up and to the “top” players of 

each division.   The Tony Brotchie trophy was presented to Val Parkes.

The meeting closed at 9.45 p.m.