Minutes of the Wirral Tennis League AGM held at Prentonon Thursday 29th November 2012 at 7pm

1.0Roll call of Club Representatives

1.1The meeting was attended by the following club representatives:

Alderley – Nicola Jones, Bertram – Paul Evans & Dave Martin, Birkenhead – Richard Chiverrell,Cheshire Oaks–Steve Barlow, Helsby- Steve Frehley, Heswall - Sylvia Reed,Hooton – John Pughe,Hoylake – Clair Miller, Neston – Mel Brooks, North Cheshire – Richard Wilberforce, Oxton– Mike Withy, Pinewood - Lesley McCaffery & Jan Jones, Port Sunlight – David Jarvis & Norman Nelson, Prenton – Debra Jones & Sue Edwards, Thorndale – Barbara Flynn, Upton – Mike Leeman and Wallasey Manor - Alison Loader.

1.2The following WTL Committee members were present:

Chairperson – Ken Patrick (Neston). Secretary – Matt Webb (Oxton), Fixture Secretary – Geoff Dewhurst (Upton), Louise Wilson - Port Sunlight, Val McIndoe - (Thorndale) & Mark Powers - (Prenton).

2.0Apologies

2.1David Thomas (Cheshire Oaks) - Treasurer

3.0Acceptance of last year’s AGM minutes:

3.1The minutes of last year’s AGM dated Wednesday 23rd November 2011 were accepted as a true record by the meeting.

4.0Chairpersons Report 2012

4.1Ken Patrick welcomed everyone to the meeting & thanked Prenton for offering to host it and for providing food for after the meeting thenreported as follows:

Ken informed the meeting of the sad news of the death of Joe Palmer who had died that morning. Joe had been heavily involved in many different aspects of tennis on the Wirral.

Ken then apologised, as following the no confidence in vote in 2010 of the Treasurer and the 2011 AGM, little progress had been made in seeking redress through the Bank for the unnecessary Bank charges incurred by the league accounts and the fact that the last set of accounts were meant to be published on the website and were not. This situation arose mainly because the new Treasure David Thomas had taken a job in Scotland and was no longer living on the Wirral and he had for obvious reasons requested to stand down at this AGM. Ken reminded the meeting the situation wouldn't have risen with the accounts if Ian Gearing had taken a more open and honest approach when he was Treasurer. In David's absence the League Secretary Matt Webb had prepared and would present the accounts to the meeting.

Ken explained that there were some serious subjects for the meeting to consider, Heswall's response to item 7.2 on the agenda and the acceptance of the new scoring system which the Committee felt was vital to the fairness of the league.

Ken then thanked all the committee members for their continued hard work and support during the past year and mentioned Sue Edwards& Clair Miller who had also regularly attended meetings with helpful suggestions.

Ken felt the Presentation evening had been poorly supported this year and would be asking the meeting to consider what they wanted in the future to make this a better night.

Finally, Ken reported that the 1st Division play offs had been a very exciting new venture, though the issues surrounding the ratification of any penalties due at the end of the season which may determine league positions for play offs showed that the committee would need to be very smart at the end of the season to avoid a repeat of a team playing in the play offs that might otherwise not have done.

5.0Fixture Secretary’s Report 2011

5.1Geoff Dewhurst presented the ‘Fixture Secretary’s Report 2011’ a copy of which was provided to each club at the meeting and has been uploaded to the WTL Website.

Overall I think it has been a decent season and have been extremely lucky with the weather in a very poor and wet summer.

We have the same number of teams as in last season’s record number of 71. The mixed league was one team short of 6 divisions of 8 teams. The men’s league continues to expand with the 2nd division having 12 teams and the newish ladies league had 4 teams which meant there were still 71 teams in the league (in 2003 there was 50 teams), however on the downside there was an unprecedented number of teams not fulfilling fixtures either partly or completely. It would be good to expand the ladies league and to return to 8 teams in mixed division 6.

Having lost their 1st team last year restrictions were placed on the now COaks1 in that they could only play 4 of the original 1st team players (deregistered last year) each match.

There were some very close finishes for titles, promotions and relegations and many were not decided until the last match. Neston1 regained the title from Hoylake1 but still needed 3 points from their last match. The weather was so kind that there were only 17 matches rearranged (out of 475) (8 mixed, 8 men’s and 1 ladies and of those only 2 mixed were not started).

The presentation evening was held at Oxton again and despite being oversubscribed last year the take up was disappointing. Also disappointing was that there was no representative from Prenton to receive the 2 trophies they won. Photos taken on the night can be accessed via the website or using the link

Congratulations to all division winners and to teams gaining promotion and commiserations to teams relegated.

Div

/ Winners / Runners up
1 / Neston1 / Many congratulations to Neston1 for regaining the title and really sealing it with an 9-8 away win over runners up Hoylake1 despite being a man short. Neston1’s only defeat was at home to Hoylake1 /

Hoylake1

/ Almost retained the championship until losing in match 13 to Neston1
2 / Upton1 / Led from the start, won by 28 points and were the only mixed team to win all 14 matches. They return to top flight after 3 years. / Neston2 / Just edged PSunlight1 out of runners up spot on matches won having finished level on points. Unfortunately they do not go into division 1 after the inaugural playoff with Prenton1 which finished 8-8 but Prenton1 won on games 81-67. WTL CM2 penalised Neston 4 points so P Sunlight1 would have been in playoff. WTL CM2 felt that Prenton1 had won the playoff and Neston2 penalty will be applied in 2013

Div

/ Winners / Runners up
3 / Thorndale1 / Bounce back to division 2 after winning the deciding match 13-4 at home to COaks. COaks were 4 points ahead before final match. / COaks1 / Having lead since match 1 and won all 13 matches they lost their last match to Thorndale1. Both teams were guaranteed promotion long before last matches.
4 / Prenton3 / Win the division after just missing out by finishing 3rd in 2011. / Thorndale2 / Sealed promotion by winning final match 14-4 and therefore denying Hoylake3 & Bertram2 their chance. They finished mid table last year
5 / Upton2 / Bounce back to division 4 with a massive margin of 44 points having lost only 1 match to runners up Thorndale3 / Thorndale3 / Gain successive promotions and looked certain for promotion from early on finishing 33 points ahead of 3rd placed Prenton4. They are the 3rd Thorndale team to gain promotion this season
6 / Upton3 / Having lost the 1st match of the season 9-8 at Pinewood2, Upton3 won all remaining matches to take the title with a 16-0 win in final match in which they needed 11 points. They are the 3rd Upton team to win their division this season / Oxton2 / Bounced back to division 5 by finishing well ahead of their 3rd team and only losing 2 games, both to winners Upton2

Men Div 1

/ Prenton1 / Winning all 14 matches. Prenton1 are making this championship their own and it is their 5th consecutive win. Who can stop them making it 6 next season? / Neston1 / Runners up again but 22 points behind, can they take the title from Prenton1 next season?

2

/ Bertram1 / Bounce back to division 1 having not lost a match (4 draws) and beaten runners up NCheshire1 6-2 in match 3. / NCheshire1 / Bounce back to 1st division by winning their penultimate match at home to Oxton1 5-4

Ladies Div 1

/ Neston1 / Win a close 2nd year of ladies league having finished runners up in the inaugural league last year to WallaseyM1 who sadly withdrew at the start of season. / Oxton1 / New entrants Oxton1 finished runners up by 1 point over Thorndale1 (who took over from WallaseyM1) and another point ahead of Heswall1.

Teams needing to seek re-election:

Birkenhead4 - bottom of division 6

WallaseyM3 – failing to fulfil fixtures

NCheshire2 – failing to fulfil fixtures

NCheshire2 Men - bottom of division 2 men

WallaseyM2 Men – failing to fulfil fixtures

Heswall1 Ladies - bottom of division 1 ladies

Changes introduced for season 2011:

  1. A playoff between team finishing 2nd to bottom in division 1 and team finishing 2nd to top in division 2 for a place in division 1 next season. It was an exciting and tense match, which finished 8-8 at Neston2. Prenton1 stay in division 1 by winning on games 81-67. P Sunlight were unlucky in the timing of the penalty applied to Neston2 at WTL CM2 which meant they would have been runners up. WTL CM2 felt that Prenton had won the playoff and should not have to have another playoff. The Neston 2 penalty of 4 points will be applied in 2013.
  1. A scan of all result cards available to everyone. They are on Flickr which can be accessed directly or via the website.

New teams:

Oxton1 ladiesThorndale1 ladiesNCheshire2 menUpton1 men

Deleted teams:

COaks1 (from season 2011)WallaseyM1 ladiesBertram LadiesPrenton ladies

Special requirements:

All special requirements requested were accommodated (E.g. 1st & 2nd teams at home at same time). If you have any special requirements then ensure I receive them before the end of the year and I will do my best to accommodate you.

Website:

The website ( has received more hits than ever.

I didn’t have the time to proceed with a program provided by Steve Lee (LTA) which may help with fixture scheduling. I intend to contact Nicki Harrison and give it a go this winter.

The website has continued to provided timely access to league information for all with:

Up to date resultsUp to date league tablesSunset times

FixturesRearranged match detailsFloodlight usage

RegistrationsRankingsRules

Standard penalty tariffsProblemsCommittee

Club contactsLinks to member club websitesCommittee decisions (mainly re problems)

History of leagueHistory of all previous years league tables (to be added)

NewsClub location map and club addresses/telephone numbers

All result cards on FlickrWest Cheshire Winter league tables (supplied by Barbara Job)

  • Please advise me if there is anything else you would like to see on website
  • Photos from the WTL Presentation Evenings are on flickr linked from website

If any club would like photos published then email them to me, especially the division winners & runners up.

Problems: Unfortunately increased to 61 from 49. Disappointing that 30 were for teams being short (including no show) which contributed to volume. The problems were:

Mixed

/ Men / Ladies / Total
Not fulfil fixture
/ 3 / 5 / 1 / 9 / Total matches
Not fulfil part fixture / 16 / 16 / player short
Player not show / 5 / 5 / 30
Incorrect card / 5 / 3 / 8
Ranking / 6 / 6
Registration / 6 / 1 / 7
Playing twice in same week / 3 / 2 / 5
Late card / 2 / 1 / 3
Rearranged date not advised / 1 / 1

Fixture Secretary / Webmaster:

There has now been a website for 10 seasons.

Registrations:

I will leave the registrations on website, so for next season please maintain them by advising of players who have left your club in addition to new registrations. When registering a player ensure they are not registered with any other club (which would mean a transfer and requires at least 48 hours notice).

NB Rule 6.1 All players must be bona fide playing members.

Contacts: Ensure your contacts are up to date otherwise your club could miss significant communication.

League history: If you know of any history e.g. officers of the league please let me know. Does anyone know how the league rankings were determined in 1984 & 1985 (see website)?

I thank the committee for their support and wish all clubs an enjoyable, successful and let’s make it a problem free 2013 season. Please ensure your club and members are aware of the rules. They are there to try and ensure fairness for all. If you do not agree with or find anything unclear then please propose a change or clarification to the wording.

Proposed rule changes:

1. Change to playing position for player no show

Where a player is named on result card (card is supposed to be completed before start of match and changes allowed only with the agreement of opposing captain) and does not show then the straight doubles are conceded. For the mixed doubles: the lowest will be conceded and the highest must be played (i.e. if number 1 is missing then players 2,3 & 4 will play 1,2 & 3). The rule does not supersede rule 5.5

Reason: Rule 5.5 should be applied and only the above proposed rule applied in special circumstances with very good reasons for no show.

2. Total points available for each match shall be 16 (8 for men’s & ladies leagues).

Reasons:

  • Unfair that there should be between 16 and 24 points available per match
  • Particularly early season favours teams playing at clubs with lights (not clubs with lights)
  • Fairer if rubbers at 2-0 are scored better than rubbers at 2-1
  • It is possible under the current system that a team could win virtually all matches 16-0 and lose out to team winning most 16-8.
  • Reduces risk of gaining by playing against the rules (e.g. 3rd set super tiebreak or sharing sets)
  • Before 1 point per set was introduced the scoring was 1 point per rubber (i.e. 0 points if rubber lost 2-1)
  • Still something to play for in best of 3 tiebreak sets.
  • Result card to be completed as now and FS will calculate score.

3. Extend playoffs to all divisions (including Men's and Ladies)

Proposed last AGM and trialled for the 1st division only, the play off between 2nd division runners up and 1st division 2nd to bottom proved to be very exciting and competitive. It finished 8-8 with Prenton1 retaining their 1st divisions status by virtue of winning more games than Neston 2.

6.0Treasurer’s Report 2011

6.1In the absence of the Treasurer the League Secretary, Matt Webb, had prepared and gave the Treasurer’s report:

The league accounts are a simple job as we only generate income from club subscriptions and any presentation evenings held. Our only expenditures are the cost of running the league (stationery, website, flickr, trophies engraving and any agreed subsided for the presentation evenings).

The balance carried forward was £2,398.02

Total income for the period was £3,605(£1,475 subscription fees and £2,130 for the 2011 presentation ticket sales).

Total expenditure was £3,641.67 - Expenditure exceeded income due to the league subsidising the 2011 presentation evening by £922.05. This gap would have been significantly higher had all expenses falling due within the period been paid, Geoff Dewhurst has two years worth of league expenditure (stationery / website / flickr) to be claimed totalling £547.00 (2011 - £226.04 & 2012 - £320.96) and Val McIndoe is owed circa£530 for the 2012 trophy engraving.

Looking forward, the league has again subsidised the 2012 presentation evening by £1000.00 so allowing for all expenses due being paid the current account balance is only £284.35. With no further expenses expected before the income from the clubs is due of £1,475 (assuming receipts are the same as last year) our operating balance at the start of the 2013 season will be circa £1,759.35. With expected normal expenditure of around £850 we are projecting a reserve of circa £909.35 at the end of the next season, therefore the league will not be in a position to make such a generous subsidy to the 2013 presentation night if the committee & AGM deem this appropriate. As this will have an effect on the face ticket price of any such event, careful consideration should be given to the budget of any 2013 presentation evening by the organisers.

Matt confirmed he had made arrangements to take collection of the account details from the outgoing Treasurer and that he would be happy to stand to fill the vacant Treasurers position if someone could relieve him of his current position of Secretary.

Matt proposed that where possible clubs be encouraged to make their subscription payments electronically, remembering to key in their club name within the reference box when doing so as this would greatly increase the efficiency of collecting subscriptions and aid transparency on the Bank statements.

As the accounts are so simple, he also proposed that instead of arranging and paying for the auditing of the accounts externally, that instead each year (if elected Treasurer) he prepared the accounts and a copy the bank statements for the period and send them out to every club contact electronically which would in effect mean the accounts are fully disclosed and can be audited by every club in the league. These proposals were agreed as good ideas.

If elected Treasurer, Matt also said he will accept an offer of help from Martin Stewart of Alderley to chase the Bank in an attempt to recover the near £1,500 in Bank charges the league suffered whilst the accounts were poorly administered.

Matt then proposed his accounts to the meeting which unanimously voted their acceptance.

7.0Matter’s arising

7.1Re-election and applications to the mixedleague – Birkenhead 4 were re-elected to division 6. Wallasey Manor 3 were withdrawn. North Cheshire 2 were withdrawn. Both teams can seek re-election if they can raise enough support to generate a team.