Archive | Committee Meetings

On Tuesday evening the planned EGM to discuss the outstanding 2024 Competitions was held and was reasonably well attended.

The Chairman  outlined the purpose of the meeting and why it had been called which was primarily because of the lack of entries received, which in turn, had led to the planned team Competitions that were due to be held in June having to be postponed. The extension of the entry date had marginally increased the number of entries, but at the date (2nd July) the Committee still felt there were insufficient entries to justify holding the Competitions. The cost of trophies for limited numbers was also a consideration, but it has always been recognised that the cost of competitions, an essential part of our Association since it’s conception over 60 years ago are never going to pay their own way.

One of the reasons it was felt necessary to call an EGM was to try and establish the reasons for the lack of entries. 

A number of thoughts were put forward by the club representatives which included the problem of  holding the Competitions on Sundays (agreed at the 2024 AGM), lack of knowledge of the  Competitions by the players, assumed ability to compete with the Premier/A section sides, lack of handicaps to incentivise teams from lower sections and several others.

The number of entries for each competition received to date which, with the exception of the Singles and Pairs was still considered insufficient to run the remaining Competitions this season unless more entries could be generated and a number of teams represented said they would be prepared to enter teams.

After much discussion the following points were discussed and agreed. 

• No Competition will be held in 2024 unless a minimum of 8 entries are received
• The entry date for all Competitions will be extended until July 18th. If  less than 8 entries have been received by hat date that Competition will not take place this season.
• Wednesday September 10th (week 19 as it were) will be set aside as the revised date for the team 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s competitions. All entries MUST be received by July 18th either via the Team Support link on the website or direct to Roger Nichols (roger.nichols@hotmail.com) together with the entry fees £1 per person per competition. Team members should be named where possible, but it is not essential at the time of entry. Venue and timings will be confirmed after July 18th.
• The planned introduction/re-introduction of Competitions for both teams and players from the lower sections needs to be re-launched in 2025 as there has been little or no interest this year.

The Singles and Pairs Competitions will be held, as planned, on Sunday August 11th at Abingdon United FC. The draws will be made on the day. Assuming sufficient entries the Captains and Secretaries Competitions will also take place on that day.

A number of other suggestions received at the meeting will be included for discussion and, if appropriate agreement, at the 2025 AGM. These include the introduction of handicapping the team based competitions, the increase of registration fees to include automatic entry some of the Competitions, and the extension of the Summer season to free up some Wednesday’s for Competitions (this could involve reducing the number of teams in sections).

Well, I think that about summarises the discussions and outcomes from Tuesday’s meeting.

The Committee would like to thank the attendees or their contribution on the night and their commitment to share the outcomes with their team mates to boost the entries in the next couple of weeks. We really want all of these  Competitions to take place, but it will only happen if we get he minimum entry numbers by July 18th.

Registration forms are still on the website so please let’s get those entries in and make our Competitions both valued and competitive!!

At a meeting of the Committee on Monday 20th May  a number of important decisions were agreed which affect our 2024 Competitions. These affect all entrants already received and those which teams or individuals were about to make about entering. 

Despite extending the closing date until yesterday we are still well down on the entries particularly for the team events which were scheduled to take place on Sunday June 9th. With only 2 confirmed entries for the team 5’s, 3 entries for the Team 4’s and 5 entries for the Red Drive 3’s competition the Committee decided to postpone the Sunday June 9th competitions until later in the Summer. We really can’t justify staging competitions where the number of entries do not make the Competitions meaningful.

We decided to extend the entry date with a new closing date of Sunday June 16th (Father’s Day) for all Competitions and subject to the number of entries received by that date we hope that we can re-arrange a suitable date and venue to hold these team competitions which have been held annually for over 50 years!!

Entries for all Competitions will remain open until this mid June date and we already have a better level of entry for both the pairs and singles competitions which, together with the Captains and Secretaries Competitions will take place in early August as planned. All Competitions will, as agreed, at the AGM, earlier in the year still be held on Sundays.

The Committee also discussed the planned competitions exclusively for teams in Section B and below for which no entries have yet been received. Again we are keen to hold at least pairs and singles competitions for players in Sections B, C, D , E and F to encourage as many people as possible playing Competitions and we are proposing new trophies for these this year.

Finally on Competitions we are encouraged by the number of newcomers to our league this year and to recognise that we are looking to possibly hold another couple of Competitions (you will note that we are never put off entirely despite the lack of entries) so later this year we are looking to stage a ladies pairs competition open to all registered lady players (mixed from any team) and an under 25’s competition again open to all registered players. We will post entry forms for these two proposed new  competitions together with the very flexible rules in the next few days.

Finally Competitions are an essential part of our heritage and we don’t want to lose them, we actually want more not less hence our discussions and decisions taken at Committee tonight. 

So please get your entries in too many is not a problem too few is!

It’s the old adage it you don’t enter, the Competitions may not be viable this year and into the future, and they are a significant part of our heritage!

The trophies both team and individual also represent a very sizeable cost to the Association so that has to be justified because it’s your money we spend! So, the more entries the merrier is certainly true in this case.

Remember entry costs only £1 per person for all of our competitions so buy your ticket to enter now!!!

(Chairman’s Remarks: – it’s a cliche but competitions can test your mettle so much more than a weekly game, as Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor from the darts world said “You can’t practice ******** yourself” – to be a better player practice only goes so far, competitions sorts the cool from the collapsing which also means it can be anyone’s win. Get your entries in and see if you have the ‘right stuff’.)

Your Association Committee met on Tuesday to decide the makeup of the league sections and to introduce the new Knockout Competitions for the B-F sections as requested by our sponsor, Thames Cable, to encourage the lower sections to take part.

COMPETITIONS

The Competition forms are now available on the home page for both Premier/A and the B-F Sections. These now have an extended deadline to Sunday 19th MAY so get your entries in! 

The 8s Handicap Knockout continues and is a handicap of 2 dolls per section difference – again allowing lower section teams a great chance to win.

Competitions put you under more pressure than a league match so it’s worth taking part to get used to that buzz. 

LEAGUE GROWTH AND FIXTURES

Although we have 55 teams paid we are chasing a couple of teams for their registration forms – the committee will be chasing you this week. You may be aware a couple of venues have closed but the good news is those teams have transferred to other venues – such is the enthusiasm for our wonderful and local game. This is a great uptick from last year’s 52 and it means that the number of byes will be reduced in the sections and, fingers crossed no team drops out like last year.

The fixture list will be finalised and going to the printers at the end of the week so we’ll publish as soon as we can. 

It’s worth reminding all teams that positioning in sections is, as it has been for several years, based on the aggregate score of the top 8 players from the previous season assuming they have registered again for the year. In a few cases some teams and some players did not play in the last season, so where appropriate averages from their last full season has been taken into account. This process means that some teams may find themselves in a higher or lower section this year than last and this is simply because either their average determines that or because their registered players have changed. The handicap system used for the Premier and A Section is based on exactly the same principles and aims to create an achievable win for those teams playing their best.

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Since Registration Night there has been a few additional teams registered bringing the total number of teams registered to 52 an increase of 4 from 2022. Whilst this is great because our prime objective is always to grow both the number of teams and individuals playing our game as possible. 52 represents a not insignificant growth in numbers when you consider the challenges that pubs and clubs and their customers (us!) face in these difficult economic times.

The increase in numbers has, though,   presented us with a dilemma, but in keeping with our desire to have as many teams as possible playing we have decided to add an extra section this season. This means that there will be 10 teams in the Premier/A section and in the B section with 8 teams in Sections C,D,E, and F. This means that instead of 18 matches in these sections there will be only 14 with 4 byes in each.

It’s worth reminding all teams that positioning in sections is, as it has been for several years, based on the aggregate score of the top 8 players from the previous season assuming they have registered again for 2023. In a few cases some teams and some players did not play in 2022, so where appropriate averages from their last full season (2019) has been taken into account. This process means that some teams may find themselves in a higher or lower section this year than last and this is simply because either their average determines that or because their registered players have changed. The handicap system used for the Premier and A section is based on exactly the same principles. 

On the positive side, for those sections with less teams  we have been able to arrange  the sections so that they free up 2 teams from each section each week which will give the opportunity to either arrange friendlies or even an informal “supplementary league” with teams from across 4 sections having the opportunity to play each other. We will have to sort out how best that is organised a bit later, it will probably need to be sorted by the teams affected, but it does give the opportunity for all teams to play 18 games and every week over the season if they want to..

As a result of these considerations the production of the fixtures etc has been slightly delayed, but all of the details will be with you by the end of April. The  league season proper starts on May 10th with the 1st round of the team 8’s knockout handicap competition scheduled for the week earlier May 3rd and the draw for those games will be published on the website and to the respective teams in the next few days.