1

Apologies for absence.

Glyn Albuquerque, Tony Stevens, Graham Hansen, Haruko Posford

ACTION

2

Minutes of the AGM 2017.

John Mullis had prepared a preliminary copy of the minutes of the 2017 AGM. This version was accepted as a true record. Proposed by Mike Bunting and seconded by Simon Fisher

3

Chairman’s report.

John Barker welcomed all those who attended.

It had been a sad year for the league with the loss of Lon Moir and John Mullis. Lon, who died this year aged 93, was a previous chairman of the league and he started Monks Hill TTC, which provided among other things coaching for juniors and became the largest club in the League.

John Mullis was secretary of the League for 33 years and did a magnificent job. Apart from organising the League each year, producing the handbooks - often delivering them by hand, he ran the cup competitions and tournaments was playing as recently as last May. He played a major role in organising the amalgamation of the Croydon Business Houses League and the Croydon and District League.

It is remarkable how many divisions there were then and is a pity we are left with just 4 but it is good that former clubs such as Woodmansterne are re-joining the League this season.

The Chairman then read a eulogy that Chris Harper was going to give at John’s funeral at the request of his daughter.

‘John appeared to have 3 loves in his life – his family, dancing and table tennis.

He was secretary of the Croydon Table Tennis League for more than 30 years and although he was always greatly appreciated it is only now that we understand how much work he did as we try to prepare the league for next season. Those who are prepared to work voluntarily for the benefit of many are becoming increasing rare.

In recognition of what he had given to the Croydon League he and his wife Christine were invited to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party, which I know they greatly enjoyed.

Subsequently he was presented with the Torch Trophy Trust Award, which recognises outstanding achievement by hardworking volunteers in sport. John was extremely reluctant to attend the ceremony because it followed not long after the death of Christine but with persuasion from myself and his two daughters he finally agreed to attend. The evening was a great success and John was presented with the award by Sophie, Countess of Wessex and he met several sporting personalities including Sir Bobby Charlton.

The Countess said that she is a keen table tennis player and John and I tried to persuade her to join our club Kenley as she would have been assured a 100% average but to no avail.

John continued to give all of himself to running the league and as recently as May was still running around as normal. The speed and severity of his illness shocked all of us but even at the end when he was very weak he did his best to shake hands from his hospital bed.

John could be very stubborn on occasions and he refused to have assistance in his secretarial role but his commitment will never be surpassed. He was also one of those rare people who never refuse to help others whatever the circumstances.

He would have been a little embarrassed by the number of people who have come to say farewell today but it reflects how much he meant to his family and friends and it is a fitting testament to a life well lived. We will miss him greatly’.

I announced at last year’s AGM that I would be standing down this year, as did our Treasurer, Satish Desai. I would like to thank him for the excellent job he has done for the last 8 years or so.

Graham Hansen has volunteered to become the TT365 administrator, which the League will use to formulate fixtures and record results. I am pleased pleased to report that Chris Harper has agreed to stand as Chairman and he will also carry out the administrative tasks falling to the secretary including liaising with TTE and the Surrey TTA. Simon Fisher has kindly agreed to stand as treasurer and Robin Faulkner has volunteered to run the cup competitions.

Finally, I would like to congratulate all the League and Cup winners and the runners-up and look forward to the trophy presentation later.

4

Secretary’s report.

Chris Harper said that it had not been an easy task taking over from John. For this season we are still going to require clubs to submit results to the divisional secretaries but it may be possible in the longer term for them to enter results themselves on the website. It was a pity that some clubs failed to complete all their fixtures last season and it is essential that clubs ensure they have sufficient players when entering teams.

He confirmed the finishing positions in the divisions last season.

Premier     Winners: Sparta A,        Runners up: Eldon A

Division 1  Winners: Sparta C,        Runners up: Wickham Park B

Division 2  Winners: Limpsfield A  Runners up: Wickham Park D

Division 3  Winners: Ballards C      Runners up:  Reedham Park

Open Cup  Winners: Sparta A        Runners up: Sparta B

Hand’ Cup Winners: Sparta A        Runners up: Sparta B

He asked the meeting for views on whether the season runs too long and the general view was that the season should not run into May. Although the league did not run a tournament last season for various reasons it is the intention to run one this year.

The Secretary mentioned GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, and said that a notice will be placed on the League website. The League does not provide any of your data to third parties apart from TTE and players who register with the League will be deemed to have given their consent.

He also said that it is the intention of the League to adopt online banking as much as possible in future although provision will be made for those without internet access.

5

Treasurers report.

Satish Desai said that for the first time the balance carried forward had dipped below £1000. Main reason is that second place trophies are now being awarded which increases the trophy costs. The League entry fee has therefore been increased to £40. He mentioned that he was retiring and thanked the chairman and the committee for their work. He confirmed that the League had donated £100 to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity in memory of John Mullis.

Adoption of the accounts was proposed by Peter Lancaster, seconded by Roger Nichols and approved by all.

6

Margot Fraser confirmed that the TTE membership fee has been increased to £16 following the AGM. She said that nothing else is happening with TTE or Surrey TTA that concerns the League.  She confirmed that Ollie Maric-Murray is the National under 11 champion.

The Surrey TTA had awarded the Trevor Channing trophy to John Mullis in recognition of his extensive work for the Croydon league. Fortunately, John had been made aware of the award before his death.

7

Season 2018-2019 Format.

The League Committee will be deciding on divisions once all the entry forms have been received.

To be discussed

8

Election of league officials.

The League had held an EGM in June as there would be vacancies for chairman, secretary and treasurer. As a result, Graham Hansen kindly volunteered to run the TT365 website, Simon Fisher had volunteered to become treasurer and Chris Harper would take over as chairman. John Barker would succeed Chris Harper as League President.

These nominations were proposed by Daryl Price, seconded by John Fannin and approved by all.

The appointment of committee members Dave Fish, Robin Faulkner, Roger Nichols, Mo Isthikar and Margot Fraser was proposed by Dave Gabriel, seconded by Andre Dyce and agreed by all.

9

AOB.

Mike Bunting and Dave Brooks had proposed changes to rules 29 and 30. The proposal had been received by John Mullis but had not been included in the agenda. It was agreed that the proposal could be discussed.

Rule 29 states that if a team fails to attend a scheduled match, the non offending side are awarded all 10 points. Mike felt that the points should be moderated to what the non offending side would reasonably expect to receive when playing that team. He agreed that the offending side (the side not showing up) would receive nothing. Points made by the floor were that it very seldom happened that a team just didn’t show up. A match was usually postponed and fixed for a future date.

The point was made that 2 sides in the same league could use this rule to their advantage to obtain 10 points and either achieve a higher position than they should or avoid relegation. The proposal to delete the rule was defeated. Rule 30 was discussed where it states that no matches would be decided by the executive committee. The chairman said that this rule would be reviewed by the committee but at the moment matches not played by the end of the season are declared void.

To be discussed

To be discussed

10

AOB.

The Chairman informed the meeting that from now on handbooks will not be printed but lists of clubs and fixtures will be displayed on the TT365 website.

www.tabletennis365.com/Croydon. 

The Chairman said that the League would like to purchase a trophy in memory of John Mullis. Several of those present said they would be happy to contribute to such a trophy and the Chairman said the committee would give thought as to the circumstances in which it should be presented.

He thanked all for their attendance.

To be discussed

11

The trophies were then presented by the President to winners and second place teams listed under secretaries report (4)