WIGAN & DISTRICT TABLE TENNIS LEAGUE
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
ON TUESDAY 18th  JULY 2023 AT LEIGH MINERS CLUB
____________________________________________________________________________
Present:

Chairman Jim Bolton
Vice Chairman John Hughes
Secretary Sandra Moss
Results Secretary David Mawdesley
Treasurer Paul Siney
       
Committee Mike Crook, Chris Garfin, Paul Melling
Allan Pickford 

                                   __________________________

The Chairman opened the meeting at 7.30 p.m.and there were only 15 attendees with many teams not represented. 

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and then asked for a one minute silence for Paul Foster (Standish TTC) who had sadly passed away. Paul had played in the Wigan League for many years and will be very much missed by everyone. 

The Chairman then referred to the Minutes of the last AGM and these were accepted and signed.

The season commenced with 3 Divisions and 28 teams. This made for a very busy season with 24 weeks of matches which did not leave much time to fit in KO Competitions and catch up matches and a question was raised if we should look at splitting teams up into smaller divisions with less matches.

The results at the end of the season were:
Division 1 Winners: Warrington Jets Runners up: Wigan Eagles
Division 2 Winners: Poolstock Pirates Runners up: LSG Dragons
Division 3 Winners: Project X Runers up:  Skem A

Well done to Skem A as a new team in the League for coming runners up and narrowly missing being the winners of Division 3.

The KO Competitions were held at Platt Bridge over a number of sessions and many thanks for the commitment of the usual Committee members who helped to run these.  We do need more support next season to run these events.  Also thanks to Platt Bridge for hosting the competitions.


The Champions Challenge held on 19th May at Leigh Miners had only 72 attendees which was disappointing.  The winner was Matthew Westworth (Preston) and the Runner up was 
Jo Killoran (Wirral).  We probably need to look at the timing of the event for next year.  Thanks to Leigh for the venue and organising the refreshments.  We raised £850 for Wigan & Leigh Hospice.


SECRETARY’S REPORT

Nothing to report


TREASURER’S REPORT

The up to date accounts were circulated at the meeting as shown below:

Wigan and District Table Tennis League
Income and Expenditure Account 2022 - 2023

     Income     £ Expenditure    £ 
League Fees    1640.00 Epson Printer        244.99 
Adverts             90.00 Printing of Scorecards & Booklets 187.59
Table Tennis Balls     20.00 Lancashire & Cheshire TT Fees   364.00 
Entry Fees - Competitions 190.00 Vets Fees    67.50 
Finals Night Tickets   335.00 Room Hire for Competitions    90.00 
Finals night Buffet   275.00 
Champions Challenge Buffet     250.00 
Trophies   596.05 

Total Income 2275.00 Total Expenditure 2075.13 
Balance BF 5254.03 
Cash in Bank 5453.90




The Treasurer also informed the meeting that we needed a new bank account for the League as the current bank account was registered in the name of Mr Table Tennis which causes confusion.  It is planned to change the account to one that allows online banking and this will take a couple of months to set up but will still be with Lloyds Bank.  





RESULTS SECRETARY’S REPORT

A big thank you to all members who sent in the scorecards last season.  The vast majority were received either on the night of the match or the morning after.
Only one or two problems occurred with the inputting of results on the website, the reason in all cases being a failure in technology, either in actual receipt of the card or the website itself (apart from when the blokes laying my drive cut through the internet cable).  All issues were resolved without too much trouble.
May I, however, just remind those sending in the card that, if possible, do not take the photo of the card on a dark or multi coloured background.  It not only makes it difficult to read sometimes but costs more in printing ink.
All matches, except two, were played either on the scheduled night or the rearranged night within the rules. The two exceptions were in Division 2 when it was not realised at the time of the rearrangement that the new date was Easter Monday when the venue was unavailable and the second being in Division 1 in the last week of the season when a team conceded the game due to lack of players.
No penalty points at all were deducted during the season for any reason but, technically there were quite a few seemingly rule violations.  These were entirely based on Rule 26 – the reserve or substitute rule. For example, in two separate games, teams played a fourth player in the doubles and this player was a registered team member.  However, the teams had inclued a subtitute player in the three man team so on the face of it a substitute player was not actually needed.  In both cases the player concerned was recovering from illness or injury and just wished to see how they would get on playing a game.  Such extenuating curcumstances can be accommodated but I have no idea of the circumstances just from looking at a card and the input pings up ‘rule violation’ on the system.  Please, if anything unusual occurs during any game then add an explanation on the email when sending in the card.
Don’t forget to record the doubles pairings.  The omission of doubles pairings is quite common and in such cases I take numbers 1 and 2 as the pair.  Many of the dounles averages shown on the website are wrong because the pairings are incorrect.  There is no prize for doubles, nor do they appear in a table toppers list, but an incorrect pairing can have an adverse effect on seeding in the individual competitions.
Congratulations to all winners from last season and thank you to all those who made my job easier and more enjoyable by sticking to the rules. I look forward to the same cooperation in the future.












RULE CHANGES

The proposals for changes/additions were debated and voted on as follows: 

RULE 3
The League shall be governed by a Management Committee elected annually at the Annual General Meeting and shall consist of the following:  Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Fixture Secretary, along with three elected representatives.
This Committee shall determine the structure of the League and fixtures and have the power to decide on all questions relating to the eligibility of players, the interpretation of the League rules and shall have full jurisdiction over all matters or business concerning the League whether covered in the rules or not and its decision shall be considered final, subject to any appeal.
The Committee shall have the power to co-opt other persons qualified to assist in the adminsitration of the affairs of the League.
The quorum necessary for the Management Committee shall be five members.
UNANIMOUSLY AGREED
RULE 3A
An Annual General Meeting shall be held every year at the end of the season.
At the AGM the officers of the League and the elected members of the Committee shall have one vote each.  In addition, teams who competed in the previous season shall have one vote per team.  The vote required for any proposal shall be a simple majority.  In the event of a tie, the Chairman shall have the casting vote.  The quorum required for an AGM shall be twelve.
UNANIMOUSLY AGREED
RULE 3B
Promotion and relegation for winners and losers in respective Divisions will be enforced by the Management Committee, subject to the number of teams in each Division.  In the case of significantly amended teams or new teams entering the League the Management Committee reserves the right to place them in the appropriate Division.
PROPOSER – DAVID MAWDESLEY (on behalf of the Committee)
UNANIMOUSLY AGREED



RULE 19
No player can play in the League without having fully paid up Table Tennis England membership. This membership condition will be checked before results of matches are entered into the system.
In the event of a dispute the onus of proof of membership is on the individual to produce evidence of their TTE registration to the Results Secretary.
No player may play in the League without membership of their club/team subject to each club/team’s rules and regulations. If any membership fees are outstanding, the League, in support of its member clubs/teams, may retrospectively disallow any matches played by the player until such time as their membership/registration fees are brought up to date.
PROPOSER – DAVID MAWDESLEY (on behalf of the Committee)
UNANIMOUSLY AGREED
RULE 32
In all divisions there shall be three players per team with each player playing each member of the opposing team, plus one doubles match. In which a fourth, or even fifth, player may be introduced into the team. HOWEVER, note that if a reserve player is included in the three match players then the fourth or fifth player CAN NOT  be a registered team member.
Teams shall not play an ineligible player, nor record on the scorecard as having taken part in the match, the name of any player who did not do so. Failure to comply with this rule will result in a twelve point deduction for the offending team. Should a team deliberately record player(s) who haven’t played, with the agreement of the opposing team, then BOTH teams will have twelve points deducted.  
PROPOSER – DAVID MAWDESLEY (on behalf of the Committee)
UNANIMOUSLY AGREED








RULE 26
Teams may call up reserves from a lower division to play for their team on any number of occasions and can be up to two players per match. The teams in the lowest division can call upon reserves from their own division on any number of occasions and can be up to two players per match.
Teams CAN NOT call up a reserve player if one of their registered players is available to play.
Any of the three players on the night can form the doubles partnership.
All players must be registered with Wigan and District Table Tennis League.
A player MAY NOT play for more than one team on the same night whether the other team is in Wigan League or not.
PROPOSER – DAVID MAWDESLEY (on behalf of the Committee)
UNANIMOUSLY AGREED
Also RULE 26
I propose that players can only play as a reserve to replace a player who is ranked above them.  (a ranking list can be done from last seasons averages with some manual adjustments for new or returning players).
When joining a team a player must first of all be ranked to see if they are playing in the appropriate division.
In addition any player who is registered for a team but who hasn’t played a minimum of 4 matches before the final month of matches for their team, will be unable to play in that final month.
PROPOSER – PAUL CLARK
PROPOSER NOT PRESENT – to be discussed only

Also RULE 26
Change rule 26 to previous rule that we had before COVID19
which says that teams may call for reserves ONLY from lower division. 
Players should NOT be able to play in the same league for more than 1 team.
PROPOSER VALDAS SEMIOTAS
UNANIMOUSLY AGREED


RULE 38
If a team concedes or fails to turn up for a league match, the non offending team will receive all 30 points and the offending team zero points. In addition, the offending team will receive a penalty of 12 points deduction.
All points deducted ( for any reason) will be ignored when calculating handicaps.
PROPOSER – DAVID MAWDESLEY (on behalf of the Committee)
UNANIMOUSLY AGREED

There then followed a short discussion on Paul Clark’s proposal and it was commented that we do not have a system that ranks players and to do this manually would take a lot of time.  Also that it could be quite problematic for a team to find a reserve player at the last minute who is correctly ranked.
The concern raised about players who did not play until the last few weeks of the season was generally perceived by the meeting as not having been a problem but it was agreed that if it did it should not be allowed and should be looked at.
 
ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The current Committee was re-elected with the exception of Mike Crook (Standish TTC) who had submitted his resignation.  The Chairman thanked Mike on behalf of everyone for his service and contribution over the years. The Secretary asked Mike to inform her if there was going to be a replacement representative for Standish Club.

A proposal was made and seconded to elect Richard Jones onto the Committee to take over some of the duties of the Treasurer and Secretary. Welcome to Richard.


ANY OTHER BUSINESS

TT365 and Sport 80
David Mawdesley raised his concern about the lack of support he had been receiving from the TT365 technical team since the company had been taken over by Steve Pound.  He had put in 6 requests recently without any replies and that he was worried that TT365 may not be as robust as it was.
It was therefore recommended that we try the Sport 80 system this season and run it parallel to our own TT365 system – in case we need to change to Sport 80 in the future.

Thomas Cuthbert (LSG) has volunteered to trial Sport 80 so this would mean sending the match scorecards to both myself and Thomas this season. The Handbook will be amended accordingly.

David also informed the meeting that for the coming season players would have to have TTE membership.  If new players in our League have already registered with TTE then he would be able to pick up their details.  If they have not yet registered with TTE then he would need full details to be sent to him. 

He also reminded members that if they change their email address they must go into TT365 and change it.

Format of Finals/Presentation Night
The Treasurer expressed his disappointment at the lack of support from members and felt the event needed a lot of time and effort and money to arrange for such poor attendance.
A discussion then followed on how we could change/improve this event:

- Chris Garfin pointed out that a lot of the expenditure went on trophies and this could be reduced by not presenting runners-up trophies and by giving medals instead of trophies
- Mark Hunter commented that the event needed some entertainment to attract families to attend and boost the numbers
- Martin Cook suggested giving books of raffle tickets to teams to sell and raise some funds
- Mark Hunter suggested holding the event at St Judes Club – venue would be free of charge
- Suggestion to do Presentation event at the AGM
- Suggestion not to have as many finals matches taking place on the night or maybe just have one exhibition match

It was decided the best way forward would be have a sub committee to look at this further .


KO Competitions
The Secretary commented on the lack of entrants again at the annual KO Competitions.  Some felt it was held over too many dates but we have already tried doing it all at one venue on one day but this was not a success either.  
If we had a bigger venue to use we would not need so many sessions but unfortunately we do not have the facilities in Wigan.

Valdas Semiotas also asked why finalists who played their matches on Finals Night had to pay an entry fee to the venue, whilst finalists who played their match at the end of the actual KO competition did not have to pay extra.  It was agreed that this would be addressed at next season’s event.



Meetings during the season
It was requested that we have more meetings than just the AGM so this would be looked at when planning next season to fit at least one other meeting in at a suitable time.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting – the meeting closing at 21.06 

 












Proposer …………………………… Seconder …………………………… Date………….





(Minutes by Secretary – Sandra Moss)