MINUTES OF THE LEAGUE FIXTURES MEETING OF NORTHUMBERLAND BADMINTON ASSOCIATION HELD ATTHE TYNESIDE BADMINTON CENTRE ON SUNDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2014 AT 7.00 p.m.

The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming all club representatives present. All clubs competing in the Northumberland Leagues were represented apart from those 3 clubs listed below under “Apologies”. Also present were the following members of Northumberland Badminton Association Management Committee: Mr R Pearson (Hon President), Mr S Abbott (Hon Vice Chairman), Mrs N Waterfield (Hon Secretary),Miss J Brown (Hon Treasurer), Mr S Porter (Clubs Coordinator),and Mrs A Thompson (League Secretary).

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Mr D Gray, (NBA Hon Chairman), Mr M Waterfield (Registration Secretary), Chester-le-Street, Hotspur and Norham BC.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

The Minutes of the previous League Fixtures Meeting, held on Sunday 8 September 2013, were approved by the club representatives present, and duly signed by the Chairman as a true record of the proceedings.

SENIOR LEAGUES – 2013-14

Mrs Thompson (League Secretary) asked all clubs to be aware of the amendment to the League Rule re nominations for teams – 6 players (instead of 4) now to be nominated for a team. Aim is to allow 2 teams from a club to be in the same division from next season. Hopefully this will lead to fewer players appearing on 3 club teams! This rule had beenraised at the Clubs Sub-Committee meeting and then taken forward and approved by the Competitive Play Sub-Committee.

CLUB/MATCH SECRETARY’S BOOKLET

Printed copies were circulated. The Hon Secretary informed the meeting that as usual she would email out the contact booklet. [NB - one late amendment was made to the email address of the NCBC Secretary – to be included in the booklet and clubs made aware of this change]

TOURNAMENTS

The Chairmaninformed the meeting that all NBAtournaments (apart from one graded tournament hosted by Newcastle Medicals at the Centre for Sport) and County matches, would be at the Tyneside Badminton Centre. Copies of a list of events would shortly be emailed out to clubs and placed on the Centre’s noticeboards as well as the NBA website.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  1. N Bibby, Wallsend Bewicke – Ladies’ nights to start again from Friday 12 September, every 2 weeks, at the TBC. These have proved to be popular sessions.
  2. V Common, Telecom – asked if the Penalty Rule 5.3 was voted in by clubs. The Chairman clarified that this was not actually a new rule. The League Secretary also pointed out that if no nominations had been received from a club, then the first team as played by a club, would stand as the nominated 6 players.
  3. Various club representatives especially those from smaller clubs, expressed concern regarding nominations – for example if 6 men are nominated as the club’s first team then what if some of them are unavailable due to working away or working shifts – this could cause problems for smaller clubs. Mrs Thompson stressed that any club which encounters such a problem should contact her straight away to discuss the matter.
  4. The Chairman added that hopefully the new rule would create more competitive divisions in the Leagues, and pointed out that the majority of clubs had attended the Clubs Sub-Committee meeting where this had been discussed, and had agreed to the introduction of this new nominations rule.
  5. The League Secretary added the following: a plea to clubs not to try to add names to the lists on the webpage; Andy McGill would require an email contact for each club; all players in the Leagues MUST be affiliated to BE – checks would be made; any problems at all, please contact Mrs Thompson.
  6. M Perry (Benfield Bears) pointed out that BE were now asking for an email address for each club member – this would be a problem with juniors. She was advised to contact BE Membership to discuss this.

There being no further business, the Hon Chairman thanked those present for attending. He then duly closed the meeting, inviting clubs to make their fixtures.