The Salopian Sports Committee
The Minutes of the Meeting
Held on Wednesday 22nd February, 2017
At 6.00pm in The Offices of Stephenson Harwood, LLP,
1, Finsbury Circus, London, EC2M 7SH.
Those Present ;-
The Chairman, Peter Birch , also for The Old Salopian Hunt ;
The Salopian Club Treasurer, Richard Boys-Stones ;
The Salopian Club Treasurer Elect , Tony Barker ;
The Director of The Salopian Club, Nick Jenkins ;
The Chairman of The Salopian Club, Peter Stewart ;
The President of Sabrina, Miles Preston ;
The Secretary of Saracens, Rob Hillman ;
The Chairman of The OS Basketball Club, Bryan Yick ;
The Commodore of The OS Yachting Club , James Pitt ;
The Representatives of The OS Football Club, James Tucker ( 1st XI Player ) and George Blakemore (2nd Team Captain)
The Representatives of The OS Ladies Sports , Portia Hibbert & Annabelle Brentnall
The Representative of The OS Golfing Society, Rob Cutler ;
The Secretary of The OS Fives Club, Chris Hughes ;
The Captain of The OS Squash Club, Ben Stirk, with Rupert Parry .
A Photo of The Committee was taken.
The Meeting Commenced.
1. Introduction & Thanks. The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and for all the preparation that was sent in for the Meeting and also thanked Richard McGarry for making it possible for the Meeting to be in Stephenson Harwood’s office. The Chairman then asked all around the table to introduce themselves.
2. Apologies. Elle Gurden for OS Ladies Sport; David Thomas for OS Hunt; Linley Portsmouth, Ed Taylor & Lewis Brown for Rugby; Richard McGarry & Oliver Heyward for Football.
3. Approval of The Minutes of The Previous Committee Meeting held on Tuesday 23rd February, 2016, was sought. No matters arose. The Minutes were then approved by all.
4. Matters Arising from The Recent Salopian Club Meeting of 18th January, 2017. The Director gave a résumé of the recent Meeting, held here and also Club activities. In the last 4 months, up until Christmas, The Salopian Club engaged more people than in the last two years. Socially, there were core events, including City Drinks, where there were over 200 present, The Henley Gathering, again for over 200, and Old Salopian Day, which targeted groups of Salopians that were in the School in year group decades ending in “6” ( and this year will be for decades ending in “7”), followed by a Dinner. There were big reunion occasions organised by Sabrina celebrating The 150th Anniversary of The RSSBC, culminating in a River Thames cruise and dinner on the luxurious Silver Sturgeon river yacht. Arts & Activities have taken off, and included a superb OS Choir singing at an Epiphany Service at St. Mary Le Bow, which was outstanding. The new Careers Fellow, Catriona Dry, has been in place for a year and engages with Students and Leavers and Old Salopians with opportunities or advice, as well as those who can talk about their professional experiences. The Alumni Management System, called “Potentiality”, is taking longer to roll out, but eventually will be worth the wait and enable Salopians to update their own data and communicate within the Club, as long as they sign in to the system.
5. The Salopian Club Business and The Schools Sport Report. The Director started with his report about School Sports. The School Fives Team became semi-finalists in The Open Fives competition and runners-up in The Williams Team event. Girls Fives Under 15 team were winners and in addition, The Ladies Pair in The Varsity Match were both Old Salopians and one of the Cambridge pair was also a OS Lady. In Football the 1st XI got to the semi-final of the ISFA Boodles Cup, playing Millfield away, drawing at 3-3 and then losing after ten penalty kicks. The 1st XI go on to play Thomas Telford School in The County Cup. In Rowing there are about 170 regular rowers, including the Girls. The 1st VIII came up against the winners of Henley in the second round and were knocked out, but three of the crew went on to row for GB Junior Teams, with two on the Gold winning VIII . Cricket was slightly marred, as the Captain, George Panayi, was called up for Warwickshire, before The Silk Trophy, which meant that they failed to achieve retaining the Trophy for the fourth time. The Under 17’s were finalists at national level. The Under 15’s won The Junior Silk Trophy. The Under 15 Girls were quarter-finalists in their Schools Tournament and one of the girls plays for the U15 Boys side. For Ladies Sport there is the new State-of-the-art Astroturf Hockey pitch, where the “UK” pitch used to be (which is between The Grove and KH ), which means that County Tournaments can be played at The School. The Under 16 Girls came 2nd in their tournament. The Under 14 Girls won their tournament. In Netball, the U14 Girls were runners-up in their competition. The Hunt won The Knole Cup for the second year running, making it the leading Cross Country School Club in the land. Basketball are running an Under 18, Under 16 Boys and an Under 18 Girls side. Squash are pretty strong, with the advent of a No.1 seed of a Junior Hong Kong International. Tennis is pretty strong and in Golf they have got to the Regional quarter-finals of The HMC Foursomes and are also unbeaten in “friendlies”. In Rugby last season, they were County Cup finalists in every age group, winning at Under 16 & 15 levels. The Director then asked everyone to look at their respective website pages ( within the School Website ) and pay attention to the need to update them. Many Sports Clubs’ websites have out of date information which is misleading and unhelpful. It is imperative that new information is sent to The Administrator, Janet Scholes, ( ) at Salopian Club Office, where it will be added to the website page for each sport. It requires just one person in each sport, to take on the job of updating their website information regularly. There is also a need for One Person Only from each Sport to be in charge of providing material for The Salopian Magazine, ensuring it arrives at The Salopian office well before the deadline. When many photos are included in this material, they must be prioritised, as there is a limit on the number that can be included in an article. With regards to Insurance, proof of Insurance Cover must be provided before Grants are paid out. With regards to Recruitment, it is imperative that each Sport uses their Match Fixture with The School as a primary event for recruiting students into Salopian Clubs and to always stay in touch with The Master or Mistress in charge. Also, arrange to have a get-together with current teams after an event, using it to sign up members. Always establish and maintain close contact with the Staff involved with School Sports and invite them to events and social occasions, which will pay dividends for club recruitment. If not already done, Annual Plans and Strategic Plans are to be produced now by The Sports Clubs for The Salopian Club and will be scrutinised. For help preparing these plans, a “Matrix” of previous plans can be found on The Salopian Club Website. There were no Matters Arising after this report.
6. Review of The Sports Clubs Reports, Plans & Grant Requests. The Salopian Club Treasurer thanked The Sports Clubs for providing all the information before the meeting. He said that the Salopian Club finances are in quite good shape and The Salopian Sports are the major beneficiary of The Grants (totalling nearly £30000). {See # List Attached} The Club is happy to support and sponsor not only the traditional, well established Sports, but also the newer younger Sports Clubs as well. Each Sports Representative was then asked to tell The Committee about any highlights and participation and any lessons or good practice that could be shared and also how social media is being used to encourage participation and then justify The Grant Request, including any one-off items or rational for any increase. OS Yacht Club (A full report was previously provided) JP said that this Sport is not actively played at The School by the pupils, which makes it difficult to recruit at a fixture. Johnny Moulsdale is staying on as Treasurer and Will Collins is the new Secretary. Mark Oates is the Sailing Secretary. There are 130 members of whom 56 are paid-up. There have been 28 new members in the last three years. There is one main event for the club, which is The Arrow Trophy, an inter School regatta, which takes place in Cowes each year, where a fleet of 25 one design boats sail over 2 days. Entry to The Arrow Trophy Competition requires prepayment. In 2019, The OS Yacht Club will run The Arrow Trophy event. There is a group Insurance Policy now in place. Charles Manby and Will Collins have both had Old Salopian members sail with them. The Grant Request is for £1000, which helps the Senior Members subsidise the Juniors and pay for the Insurance. NJ said that Philip Lapage takes students sailing. Old Salopian Football Club (A full report was previously sent) JT said that the Club has enjoyed good participation with a younger generation coming through. GB said that the Club are playing in The Arthurian League, with the 1st Team in the Premier League and finished in the top half. The main competition is The Arthur Dunn Cup, where the 1st Team got to the Final last year, but went 1-0 down to Tonbridge, with 50 or so OS supporters there. The 2nd Team are in Division 3 and holding their own. This year they are playing Repton in the Semi-Finals of The Dunn on 25th March, at Shrewsbury. There are 50 in the 2nd Team Squad and about 25 – 30 in the 1st Team Squad and quite a few in The Vets Squad. There are about 100 playing members. Twitter and Whatsapp are well used Social Media tools for promotion. To try to encourage younger players to engage in the European Tour, The Grant Request includes an extra £1000. 22 went to Prague last year. Contacts are made with OS University students to invite them to play games in London and, staying in touch with the Master-in-Charge gives an indication of future potential members. The Annual Dinner is on 5th May in London. Saracens (A full report was previously sent.) RH said that the main competition is The Cricketer Cup, which is a 32 Schools Alumni Knockout Competition, which is getting stronger each year. Sadly the Team lost in the second round to Dulwich. The Junior XI are playing Wrexham at Shrewsbury in the summer, in a tough competition. The last 10 winners of The Cricketer Cup are playing in the last quarter of the draw. The first round is in June, when Universities are still in term, depriving the Team of some players, as well as Club competitions still running, making it difficult to assemble teams. Tom Cox is the present Captain, with Ben Williams taking over soon. There are about 25 players to call on. James Taylor has offered to take on a monitoring roll, to get some of the young University players to come and play with the Saracens. Joe Leach is Captain of Worcestershire this year and George Panayi is now with Warwickshire. The School continues to produce excellent cricketers, who are always asked to join Saracens. Other fixtures were against The School 1st & 2nd XI’s , losing to the 1st XI and winning against the 2nd XI. There is the introduction of a couple of 20-20 Matches in London this year, at Shepherd’s Bush. The Devon Tour had 18 cricketers combining it with The Golfing Society games. Insurance is arranged through The ECB. There was a young Saracens Dinner for 15, in Shrewsbury, the week before Christmas. Subscriptions are increasing through improved efficiency in chasing up unpaid amounts. Saracens facebook page is going to be relaunched and there is a very lively “Whatsapp” community. There’s a 50th Anniversary of The Cricketer Cup Dinner coming up in April, with 35 Saracens going. Paul Pridgeon is retiring “School Coaching Professional”, so Saracens will be making a thank-you to him and Adam Shantry of Worcestershire will be taking over. The Grant Request is for £6100 which includes an exceptional item of £1000 sponsorship of The School Tour brochure. Andy Barnard says the costs of The Tour are going up because of the presence of a girl cricketer means a female member of staff has to attend as well. PS asked if this is the meeting that determines the application for The Grants. RBS said that he and the Director consider whether the Grant Requests are appropriate after all the Sports Clubs have submitted their requests and after the meeting, where there is the opportunity to discuss the requests, before the Salopian Club Committee Meeting in June, where approval is sought. Sabrina MP said 250 people turned up on May 7th for a family day, in the first of the celebrations for the 150th Anniversary of The RSSBC and then 165 came to the party on The Silver Sturgeon on the Thames, on the evening of November 5th. The Schools Head of The River is going to be on March 23rd, where Sabrina hold a lunch at The Blue Anchor in Hammersmith from 12.00 for all Salopians. On 7th May, there is a reunion lunch at Shrewsbury for crews of Bill Sayer and Martin Orviss (1989-99). It is hoped to have a Golf Day & Dinner with The Golfing Society at Huntercombe or something similar. Then, at Henley as usual, there is a lunch party for 200 or so, on the Saturday. There are plans to hold a lecture in the autumn, if the right person can be found. There are about 900 members and only around 100 join in with Sabrina events, so it is intended to try to engage with more by increasing communications. £50000 of donations from members enabled Sabrina to buy a Double Scull for the Girls and two other Pairs and also half of an “Empacher VIII”.