GLOUCESTERSHIRE SHORT MAT BOWLING ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
Held on Monday 13 January 2025 at 7.00pm
at
Kingsway Community Centre, Thatcham Avenue, Quedgeley GL2 2GS
APOLOGIES
- Apologies for absence were received from: Wendy Barr (Winstone), Clive O’Gorman
(Woodmancote), Veronica Baldwin (Wotton Hall), Val New (Bishop’s Cleeve), David Bubb (Forest of Dean) and Barbara Bubb (Membership Secretary). A full list of attendees is attached to these minutes.
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING - The minutes of the previous meeting on 04 November 2024 had been circulated and, there being no amendments, were approved and signed as a true record by the Chair.
MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES. - The Secretary had made a further attempt to locate missing County trophies (see para 12 of minutes of previous meeting). He only had contact details for 2 previous known holders and had asked them to pass on the message to any others, with whom they may still be in contact. His enquiry had elicited only one reply, stating that he did not have the trophies and did not know where they were.
- Chris Evans (Chair) was disappointed, but we now had to admit that despite repeated attempts, we were unlikely to recover these trophies and therefore now had to decide on a course of action. We quickly agreed that we should purchase new trophies to replace those lost and tasked the Secretary with finding suitable replacements, plates for runners-up and cups for winners. Once purchased these trophies should be engraved with past winners to preserve the history of the competition, for which we have full records.
- We also agreed that, wherever possible, winners and runners-up trophies for County championship competitions should be presented on the day of competition, rather than after the AGM. To avoid a repetition of this unfortunate episode all winners/runners-up will be asked to sign a receipt for trophies, undertaking to return them to the Secretary for engraving when requested and accept responsibility to replace any trophy that is lost.
OFFICERS’ REPORTS - The Secretary had circulated the usual selection of minutes and newsletters from ESMBA including its consultation paper on dress code (adoption of coloured trousers). In a short discussion on dress we agreed that we would not oppose a change of rule to accommodate this. Andy had now received an acknowledgement from ESMBA of GSMBA’s entry into the new County double rink event at Melton Mowbray on 23 February. They would let us know if a space became available to enter a second team. Finally, he had begun work on the wording of amendments to the Constitution, as agreed at our previous meeting, to be circulated before the March meeting.
- The Treasurer reported that our bank balance on 31 December 2024 stood at £7557, with £3808 in the savings account. She did not expect this to change much in the near future.\
- The Membership Secretary was not present but the Treasurer noted that membership was up slightly to 321 since November
- The Competition Secretary was happy with the progress of County Competitions/National
Qualifiers and announced winners of those held since November, which had all been posted on the GSMBA website. He was pleased that the number of entrants had risen and that notwithstanding the reduction in entry fee, events had shown a small profit. We still awaited an ESMBA decision on how many places they would be allocating to GSMBA for the National Championship. - While entrant numbers overall were up, Phil Jennings analysis showed that only 5.5% of our
affiliated members had taken part. Most entrants came from 3 clubs although players from 60% of registered clubs had at least one entrant. We then discussed potential ways to encourage wider participation – one problem may be the requirement to enter so early in the season. While this is unavoidable under ESMBA rules for those who wished to progress to National rounds, we should consider later closing dates, perhaps up to a month before the actual competition event, for those who only want to compete for the County Championship. Another idea was to accept entries from individuals, who could join with members of other clubs to make up pairs/triples/fours teams. Mike Wall noted that those clubs with the most entrants had an advocate who actively encouraged players to take part. - The League Secretary was pleased to say that all but 2 matches so far had been played as scheduled, with poor weather accounting for the 2 postponements. The hits on the website indicated that players were keeping up with results and he thanked Julian Kellett for his prompt updating.
- Mike Wall will continue to organise the Summer League and proposed some changes to the rules governing it:
- jack off the mat: automatic 2 shots to opponent, including the last end.
- remove bonus point for scoring 6 on an end (consequent on amending the scoring system)
- Amendments to the scoring system: 1 shot awarded to the closest bowl after leads and twos had bowled; nearest 3 bowls, irrespective of which team they belong to, to score 4, 2 and 1 point each.
- Remove eliminator and play-off rounds to play Finals on a single night as a straight knockout between the top 4 teams in each section.
Some clubs were concerned that they would have no opportunity to practice games under the amended rules. Mike intended to circulate the proposals to all clubs when sending out entry forms and would take into account any comments from participating clubs.
- The County Team Captain reported the matches against Avon for the Brunel Cup had been completed; we had not been able to make up the difference from the first match at Bristol and Avon have taken the cup.
- In the ICC wins against Herefordshire and Avon and a loss to Wiltshire have put our squad in 2nd place in the group table. There remains an ongoing dispute regarding our match with Avon at Brils on 08 December. Avon did not have an umpire on duty and ICC rules state that they should forfeit the match and points be awarded to their opponents. If ESMBA enforce this ruling it will affect the placings of GSMBA and Herefordshire and the result of the Herefordshire match v. Avon on 04 January has not yet been posted on the ESMBA website yet. We agreed that should the ESMBA rule against Avon, we would not accept the default points, as we felt the lack of umpire had not affected the way the game was played, nor the outcome.
- The Premier elimination round is scheduled to be played on 01/02 February, venue not yet known.
We now turn our attention to the Two Shires Trophy matches in February and March and the new County Double Rinks on 23 February at Melton Mowbray. The closing date for entries is 01 February, so we wait to see if we have been allocated a team place (see para 6 above – place confirmed).
AOB - As in previous years, Phil Jennings had provisionally reserved all the potential dates for County matches and events at Kingsway for the 2025-26 season and will cancel those not required, as soon as fixtures are confirmed. He has had some push back from Kingsway management, who like to keep weekend slots available for local events and say they have had to refuse business, when we have subsequently cancelled our reservation. He did confirm that we have the 11 dates required for ICC and County Championships between October and January. At the moment, we are dependent on ESMBA releasing dates.
- Mike Edginton asked that all clubs be reminded that ‘threes up’ is specifically forbidden by league rules.
- We agreed to set 23 April as the date for the AGM and, having been happy with Wotton Hall last year, asked Jenny Carter to find out whether we could use that venue again. [Post Meeting Note: We now have a confirmed booking for Wotton Hall at 7.00pm on 23 April 2025].
DATE OF NEXT MEETING - We agreed that the next meeting should take place at Kingsway at 7.00pm on 10 March 2025. [Post Meeting Note: 10 March is not available, so the meeting will be on the reserve date, 03 March]
LIST OF ATTENDEES
Chris Evans (Chair, Kingsway), Andy Todd (Secretary, Cheltenham Whaddon), Jenny Carter (Treasurer, Wotton Hall), Mike Sparrow( League Secretary, Defford), Mike Wall (Yorkley), Monica Carter (County Captain, Ripple), Mike Edginton (Westbury-on-Severn), Phil Jennings (Kingsway), Dave Yendole (Defford)
Minutes prepared by:
Andy Todd
Secretary, GSMBA
Signed as a true record:
Chris Evans
Chair, GSMBA
