Datchworth League 2015 Annual General Meeting Held at the John Clements Sports and Community Centre () on Friday 27th November 2015

Attendees: Broxbourne, Codicote, David Lloyd, Digswell, , Gosling, Kimpton, , Orchard, Rye Park, St Margarets, , Watton, Weston, ,

Clubs Not Present Albanians, Ashwell, Aston, County Hall, Datchworth, Dellcott, Elliswick, HBSTC, , , , Legends, Lister, Northaw & Cuffley, Odyssey, Pirton, St Pauls, Townsend, Triage,

1. Apology for Absence Townsend (Alison Asplin)

2. Minutes of the last AGM The minutes of the AGM in 2014 have been on the web-site, proposed for acceptance by Bob Anderson (Wymondley) and seconded by Dave Foster (Codicote).

3. Chairman’s Speech The AGM is the one opportunity in the year to raise issues and change the rules in the constitution as the committee is unable to change the rules. During the year there are a number of complaints and everybody was asked to voice any concerns or seek further clarification. Each club represented at the AGM has a single vote.

The attendees at the meeting were introduced to the members of the committee (currently six members).

The chairman and the members of the clubs represented noted with sadness the passing of Mark Klimek, the chairman of Kimpton tennis club. The meeting noted Mark’s contribution to the Datchworth League over the years in addition to the Kimpton club.

The AGM was held in the new Sports and Social club at Codicote (John Clements Sports and Community Centre) which was opened in April, a significant amount of money had to be raised and Mark offered assistance to other clubs on approaches to fund raising. Of particular note was the use of a professional fund raiser who had obtained contributions from, for example, Luton Airport and Asda

The league has had another successful year with 33 different clubs and 128 teams playing tennis in the summer and autumn leagues. The league is a credit to everybody who takes part and is very successful with only a small number of issues. There are some fantastic players in the league and the standard of the tennis played continues to improve which gives a very exciting league to participate in.

4. Election of Chairman, Secretary and Committee Mark Knapper explained the role of the committee

No additional volunteers to stand on the committee were forthcoming and all the current committee agreed to continue.

The committee proposed was (club association shown in brackets):

Mark Knapper (Codicote) – Chairman Rupert Russell (Hitchin) – Results co-ordinator Diane Coe (Hitchin) - Secretary Tim Boughen (Letchworth) – Member without portfolio Maria Walker (Weston) – Member without portfolio Linda Nikman (Broxbourne) – Member without portfolio

The committee was proposed by Jason Baker (Wheathampstead) and seconded by Elizabeth Anderson (Wymondley). The new committee was unanimously voted in by the clubs present at the meeting.

5. Statement of Account The accounts were presented to the AGM and showed the league had a healthy balance although there were a number of bills still to be settled for expenses associated with the AGM. The expenses for the hosting of the web-site were an exceptional cost in 2015 as in addition to the payment for 2015 the invoices for 2013 and 2014 had been settled.

The bank account held £1493.56 on the day of the AGM.

Although expenditure for the league was approaching the income it was proposed to maintain the league subscriptions at £5 per team for the summer league.

The accounts were voted for acceptance by Ian Vosper (Watton) and seconded by Tim Boughen (Letchworth). The accounts were voted as accepted by the meeting.

6. Presentation of Trophies These were presented by Jackie Worboys and Sam Gibbs (Kimpton)

7. Proposed Rule Changes Proposed rule changes were presented to the meeting and discussed, the following amendment was agreed by majority.

Rule 2 Matches (except rearranged ones) are to be played on Monday evenings, starting not later than 6.30pm (or 7pm by mutual agreement of both sides). If a team is more than 30 minutes late the opposing team claim the first set (7:0 in games). After 60 minutes they claim a walkover (Summer 2 sets + 20 games, Autumn 4 sets + 40 games). (Autumn league - The default match start time is 1:00pm on Saturday. If the home side is required to change the time or date away from the default to fit in with their court availability then this must be agreed with the opposition again preferably at the start of the season or at least 2 weeks in advance. If agreement is not reached the match remains at default date and time.

In the summer league the third player must be available to commence the second set within 1 hour of the official start time.

There was a discussion on the following part of Rule 7 - A player of any standard may not play in the league for the first time in any of the last 4 matches of the Summer league or the last 3 matches of the Autumn league. (N.B. A player who has played in at least one Monday Evening League match may play in any Autumn matches (subject to meeting any other eligibility requirements). The meeting voted to leave this rule unchanged i.e. all players participating in the last 4 matches in the Summer league must have played at least once in the first 10 weeks.

It was agreed that all the other rules discussed at the meeting were to remain unchanged.

8. AOB Elizabeth Anderson (Wymondley) thanked the committee for their hard work during the year.

Clubs are reminded that the provision of some refreshments at matches is required e.g. water, a hot drink (if possible) with biscuits.

9. Date of the next meeting Friday 25th November 7.30pm at the John Clements Sports and Community Centre (Codicote).