GLOUCESTERSHIRE SHORT MAT BOWLING ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
Held on Monday 11 August 2025 at 7.00pm
at
Kingsway Community Centre, Thatcham Avenue, Quedgeley GL2 2GS
APOLOGIES
Peter Taylor (Yorkley)
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
- The minutes of the previous meeting on 23 June 2025 had been circulated and, there being no
amendments, were approved and signed as a true record by the Chair.
MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES
None
REPORTS - The Secretary had issued a letter and form to all clubs, including 2 new clubs at Sharpness and
Woolastone, asking them to renew their subscriptions to the Association. He had thus far received responses from 9 clubs. - He had circulated important new information from ESMBA concerning its relationship with the
Bowls Development Alliance (BDA), which now offered training and advice to all short mat clubs, much of which was online. BDA runs a network of regional development officers, who could visit clubs and provide more tailored advice and had recently appointed a new officer for the South West. - The ESMBA were now promoting a new group insurance scheme, replacing that previously
managed by Sutton Winson, which would expire on 31 August 2025. The Secretary had distributed details of cost and how to apply for the new scheme to all clubs. - Substituting for the Chair he had taken part in the ‘County Connections’ feature on BBC Radio
Gloucestershire to talk about short mat and then bowls more generally in the county, which had been less daunting than expected. - Finally, much time had been spent on writing up the outcomes of meetings of the subcommittee
reviewing League rules and producing a revised set of rules (see para # below). - The Treasurer reported that the Associations balance at the bank stood at £6332.62. She had
arranged online access to the account, which would allow payment of bills by bank transfer and avoid
charges for cheques. Currently, only she had access but could add a second account holder if necessary – Andy Todd offered to take this on. - The Membership Secretary would be issuing player affiliation forms to clubs in the near future.
She advised that the ESMBA affiliation fee had risen by £0.50, but the GSMBA share had remained at £2,
so the total fee would now be £7.50 per member. The ESMBA were still requesting information on age
profile (not tied to an individual) and had amended the age groups. - The Competitions Secretary had sent out invitations for entries to County & National competitions
and the relevant forms were available on the GSMBA website. He reminded clubs that the closing date for entries is 26 September 2025. - The League Secretary noted that we are approaching the end of the 2025 Summer League and are
about the enter the first play-off phase, which will be held on 03 September at Kingsway, starting at 7.00pm.
These play-offs, to clarify, will involve the 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th placed teams in both league A and B. The
winners of each group will progress to the semi-final stage at a neutral venue (to be chosen when the results are known), where they will play against the 2nd placed teams in both leagues. The winners and runners up will then advance to the Final against the league winners, again at a neutral venue. - He apologised for the confusion some of you may have experienced, regarding the finals: it had
always been his intention to have a play-off involving the 5th and 6th placed teams, in an attempt to nullify any advantage to clubs with more than one team. - The Winter League is just around the corner, so, as soon as clubs know how many teams they intend
to enter, please let him know. As the season runs from 01 September, we have less than 3 weeks to get the ball rolling, so number of teams to him by 22 August please. - As an Association we are always looking for new members, whether as individuals or clubs,
however new clubs need to be aware that 12 registered players per team is probably the minimum number required to complete a league season. - He registered his thanks to Julian Kellett, our webmaster, for keeping the website updated so
promptly and to club officials for sending in results of matches so quickly. - The County Captain reported that 47 Gloucestershire club members had indicated their wish to play
for the county in the coming season and all entry forms had been received by 31st July. All have now been contacted with requests for outstanding completed GDPR forms (or an arrangement to sign a form on 6th September). - She will now explore the possibility of practise sessions at Kingsway prior to the start of the ICC
season. 2 hour sessions may be available on Mondays and Fridays. Obviously, there will be a cost to the
individuals attending. However, it will give the team members the opportunity to play at Kingsway before our first challenge of hosting West Midlands on 4th October. - There had been no progress so far in obtaining possible sponsorship for new county kit. She has a
second potential sponsor in mind in the event of a negative response from Warners.
LEAGUE RULES - The Secretary had circulated copies of revised league rules to all clubs. The Rules Review sub
committee now proposed that this Committee adopt these amended League rules for the beginning of the Winter League on 01 September 2025. The Chair asked for comments and/or amendments from club representatives. - David Bubb (Forest of Dean) objected to Rule 2.2 regarding movement of players. He contended that
at the end of a season it might allow clubs running 2 (or more) teams to manipulate team composition (e.g. by playing stronger players in ‘lower’ teams) to influence promotion/relegation unfairly and to the detriment of other clubs. He argued that the previous rule which compelled clubs to nominate their top 8 players should be retained to avoid this scenario. Mike Edginton (Westbury-on-Severn) countered that the scenario was very unlikely, given the overall restriction of number of games for any one player, and that it was important for clubs to have flexibility to ensure that all matches were completed. Indeed, this rule had been in force last season and no problems had occurred. The amendment was put to a vote and rejected by 8 votes to 3. - David suggested other minor amendments to the wording of clauses, which were all rejected except
for the following:- 18.3 Amend final phrase by adding ‘pair’ to read ‘one pair per bowl’
- 27.1 Summer league match fees: Add ‘subject to annual review’
- 31.3 KO Cup match fees: Add ‘subject to annual review’
- The Committee then voted
unanimouslyto approve the adoption of the revised rules from 01
September 2025, subject to the amendments agreed in para 20 above. The Secretary undertook to make the amendments and issue a revised copy to all clubs and to ask the webmaster to upload the new rules to the website.
ESMBA AGM - The Secretary and County Captain had attended the ESMBA AGM on 19 July 2025 and the full
minutes will be prepared and circulated to clubs in due course. The Secretary had summarised issues and comments raised at the meeting, which may affect clubs and read out his report (see Attachment A).
AOB - As Safeguarding Officer, Monica Carter asked the Secretary to send her contact details for any new
club joining the Association, so that she could pass on information regarding safeguarding. - Phil Jennings, in his capacity as POC for arranging fixtures and competition dates with Kingsway
Community Centre, was concerned that several recent changes had been made by the Chair, without first consulting him. He was not prepared to continue with this role. - We agreed that the next meeting would take place at 7.00pm on 20 October 2025
LIST OF ATTENDEES
Chris Evans (Chair, Kingsway), Andy Todd (Secretary, Cheltenham Whaddon), Jenny Carter (Treasurer,
Wotton Hall), Mike Sparrow (League Secretary, Defford), Barbara Bubb (Membership Secretary, Forest of
Dean), Monica Carter (County Captain, Ripple), John Bennett (Ripple), David Bubb (Forest of Dean), Phil
Jennings (Kingsway), Mike Edginton (Westbury-on-Severn), Val New (Bishop’s Cleeve)
Minutes prepared by:
Andy Todd
Secretary, GSMBA
Signed as a true record:
Chris Evans
Chair, GSMBA
Attachment A to Minutes of Management Committee Meeting on 11 August 2025
ESMBA AGM
Attendees: Andy Todd & Monica Carter
Reports
All have been circulated, comments/issues that may a ect our clubs:
- Registration Sec: regarding new insurance scheme, requirement is that club should have 8
a iliated players to benefit. Stressed the importance of a iliating all players if possible – if a
claim involves non-a iliated members, insurer may not pay out and if they do, they could
pursue committee members for their costs. - Competitions: no National entry forms available at the meeting (he wasn’t there); to be
forwarded in the next week - ICC: will be issuing a diary update and an update on rules shortly. Playing at a neutral venue to
reduce travel was acceptable but no ‘double headers’ would be allowed.
Resolutions - Management Fees: Umpire Director allowance increased to £250 p.a., across the board
increase of 10% approved (note that many members of ESMBA management committee do not
claim their allowances) - Membership Fees: Approved further increase of £0.50 as per resolution in 2023 AGM.
- Officers: All the standing officers were re-elected unopposed. Three vacancies for President
(not so important), Vice Chair and Umpires Director. In the absence of any other nominee, Brab
Hallows agreed to stay on in a limited capacity (will organise umpires but not travel so much).
Umpires will now undergo reassessment every 3 years.
Open Forum - Presentation by Bowls Development Alliance. Promoted the regular ‘Weeks of Learning’
(next 2 are 4 – 8 August and 13 – 17/10), all online, with seminars on various subjects of interest
to all bowls clubs, including Short Mat. One of their services is the Club Health Checker, takes
30-40 mins to fill in and then indicates any areas of concern and what could be improved.
There is a liaison o icer in every region (SW = Molly Cousins, newly appointed, details
circulated recently) - Safeguarding: all clubs required to have a Safeguarding Officer by 2028 and should include
their safeguarding policy in club constitutions [GSMBA included this in the recent review of our
constitution]. She suggested that all club committee members should take the online
‘Introduction to Safeguarding’ course to raise awareness. Also a good idea to conduct a risk
assessment to highlight any areas of concern. - Qualification for ESMBA National Championships: raised by North Yorkshire SMBA,
proposing that all counties should be permitted to put forward 4 entries to National Champs
(provided they have indicated the wish to do so and regardless of where the actually finished).
ICC Sec noted that the current rule was put in place to close a loophole which would allow
entries to be manipulated by counties. Would not affect how many entries ESMBA accepts: the
algorithm they use to allocate entries depends on the number of entries compared to total
county membership. The basic allocation is 1 entry per county: any additional entries are
calculated using the formula.
