CROYDON TABLE TENNIS LEAGUE
(Affiliated to Table Tennis England and the Surrey TTA)
President: John Barker
Hon Treasurer Chairman TT365 Administrator
Simon Fisher Chris Harper Graham Hansen
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
held at Eldon Phab on Thursday 10th August 2023
Present:
John Barker, President
Chris Harper, Chairman
Simon Fisher, Hon Treasurer
Graham Hansen, TT365 Administrator
Mo Istihikhar,
Roger Nichols, Committee members
Gerry Mold
Roy Thompson, Forresters
Joy Grohmann, Sth Croydon TTC
Lew Hodges, Wickham Park
Ivan Gervais,
Jonathan Gervais
Jonathan Fallon
Civan Rennock,
Chris Posford
Jim Reeder SDA
Sam Boison
Quan Zhou, Eldon TTC
Ian O’Connor
Andre Dyce Sparta
Apologies for absence:
Robin Faulkner
Minutes of the 2022 AGM
Chris Harper reminded the meeting of one or two points from the minutes.
There were no matters arising.
Chairman/Secretary’s Report
Chris Harper mentioned that Diane Rowe had died in June at the venerable age of 90. She won 19 English National titles and was twice a world champion in doubles with the sister Ros. Some of our older members may have seen her play, he was sure that he did on one occasion, playing doubles with Mary Wright.
Early in the year we lost a real stalwart in John Prince, who played in the league for many years, most recently for Ballards. John always had a hearty greeting for everyone and he will be much missed.
Dave Fish, who has been one of our match secretaries for decades has decided to retire due to health problems. The League marked this with a relatively low cost gesture to him but we are extremely thankful for all the work he put in. The meeting gave Dave Fish a strong round of applause.
Chris Harper said that earlier today he had received an email from Robin Faulkner to say that he is resigning from the committee. He said he would continue as match secretary for the 4th Div and the 3rd Div if necessary. I am not sure if that is practicable as he wouldn’t be able to confirm the state of divisions and any cancellations at committee meetings.
That brings me to the subject of the committee. We have election of officers later but I will be resigning after this season, as will John I believe, Robin has now left and I am not sure about Roger Nichols. Very shortly there will be no-one left and without some of you coming forward to replace us there won’t be a league.
John Barker reiterated what the chairman had said. He remarked that several of the committee are in their mid or late 70s and a couple in their 80s. He gave a potted history of the League and table tennis in Croydon and emphasised that unless new and enthusiastic members come on to the committee there soon won’t be a League and everyone will suffer as a result.
Chris Posford and Ian O’Connor said they would survey members of their clubs as two of the largest in the League.
TT365 was sold by Chris Dangerfield to Steve Pound and he, or possibly they, are pursuing a claim against TTE in respect of anti-competition law. Whatever the result of that, TT365 remains free to users and we will be using it again next season.
The chairman said that he received an email a few days ago from someone called Gervis Knox. He is setting up another league format, which to him didn’t offer anything above TT365, and yet he wants to charge £150 p.a. with an introductory offer of £112. He thought that this stood little chance of success.
Surprisingly, the divisions managed to complete their matches last season and he would like to thank all the match secretaries for their efforts.
We ran the cup competitions using the home and away system and I think this was well received. He had planned to play the final of the Open and the Handicap here at Eldon as it makes them more of an occasion. Somehow, Robin managed to get behind with it all and the finals were played at South Croydon on a round robin basis.
He asked the meeting if they preferred that the finals are played here between two teams as originally envisaged or enjoyed the round robin?
The chairman asked for a show of hands and the meeting overwhelmingly voted in favour of the finals at Eldon.
The chairman said that the cost of trophies has increased markedly because of inflation and he wanted to put it to the meeting to see if medals would be equally acceptable. They are obviously cheaper and can possibly come in a presentation box. He said that the League will also be considering purchasing a large number of the logos that are placed on trophies and medals. It would simply say Croydon Table Tennis League but would cut down the engraving costs considerably.
He took a vote on whether to purchase trophies or medals in future and the majority were in favour of trophies. He may well give clubs the option when placing the order at the end of the season.
There were no questions.
Treasurer’s Report
Simon Fisher ran through the spreadsheet he had provided to the meeting. Apart from Sparta paying for one extra team and not 10 as shown there were no questions. The League has a healthy balance of £1838.90 although the net cost of the trophies, around £500, will have to be deducted.
The chairman mentioned that he and Simon had had an unbelievably frustrating time trying to make payments from our NatWest business account. Due to new security procedures passwords had to be changed and he was forced to provide further evidence of identity. We could not make payments for weeks although he had tried to assure NatWest, unsuccessfully, that he is not a Columbian drugs smuggler.
The chairman thanked Simon for the meticulous way he kept the accounts.
Table Tennis England/ Surrey TTA
As you know, TTE appointed Adrian Christy as CEO and he managed to say a lot without saying anything. They are currently trying to appoint a new chairman. Although it is an honorary position you would think they are trying to appoint the head of MI5 the fuss they are making. The performance of players representing England is fairly pathetic although the standards in all countries has increased substantially.
We have not yet received notice of TTE’s and Surrey’s affiliation fees for next season. Hopefully they will not increase by much as we have kept our fees at the same level as the last two seasons but we may not be able to do so for much longer.
He reminded those present to register with TTE for next season to remain eligible to play.
Proposals for Rule Changes
The chairman said that no-one had suggested any rule changes although the committee with have to look at the cup rules to reflect the new system of playing.
Election of League Officials
There were no nominations to join the committee and the chairman reminded the meeting of his earlier remarks.
The present committee were proposed and seconded and agreed by all present.
There was no other business
Presentation of trophies
The chairman asked the President if he would kindly present the trophies to last year’s winners and runners up.
Division 1 Winners: Sparta A
Division 1 Runners Up: Eldon A
Division 2 Winners: SDA
Divisions 2 Runners Up: Eldon C
Divisions 3 Winners: Sparta C
Division 3 Runners Up: South Croydon C
Division 4 Winners: Wickham Park E
Division 4 Runners Up: Limpsfield B
The John Mullis Open Cup Winners: Ballards A
The John Mullis Open Cup Runners Up: Eldon A
The John Mullis Handicap Cup Winners: Eldon A
The John Mullis Handicap Cup Runners Up: South Croydon E
The Chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and wished them a successful season.
