GLOUCESTERSHIRE SHORT MAT BOWLING ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
Held on Monday 20 October 2025 at 7.00pm
at Kingsway Community Centre, Thatcham Avenue, Quedgeley GL2 2GS
APOLOGIES
Phil Jennings (Kingsway), Mike Edginton (Westbury), Clive O’Gorman (Woodmancote), Peter Taylor (Yorkley), David Yendole (Defford). A full list of attendees is given at the end of these minutes.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
- David Bubb objected that in para 21 of the minutes of the meeting on 11 August 2025 was incorrect, in that the vote it described was not unanimous. The Secretary agreed to delete “unanimously”. The Committee then approved the minutes and the Chair signed them as a true record.
MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES - Referring to para 24 of the minutes, the Chair explained the background to the issue and confirmed that no more had been heard on the matter.
OFFICERS’ REPORTS - The Secretary reported that a total of 19 clubs had registered as members of GSMBA, including 2 new clubs at Sharpness & Woolaston.
- He had circulated correspondence from ESMBA, including draft minutes of the AGM in July 2025, minutes of their recent Management Committee meetings, and communications about the misuse of the email address for renewal of club insurance to forward affiliation and competition rules.
- We had received a copy of the updated ICC rules and the application form to enter ICC next year which has to be returned by 31 October. He noted that the fee now up to £125 but assumed we would still enter.
- He had completed the update of league rules, circulated it to clubs and it had been uploaded to the website. A recent query had brought to his attention that the amended Constitution had not been published on the website, but this had now been done.
- The Treasurer stated the current bank balance stood at £9156.22 but we would soon have to make payments to the ESMBA for player registration and National competitions and for hire of venues, which would reduce that to about £6900. Together with £3870 in the savings account, the Association finances were in good order.
- The Membership Secretary reported that membership was currently 310 and could be expected to rise to around 330, once all clubs had returned their numbers. This represented a small reduction from 340 registered for last year.
- The Competition Secretary gave the result of the Over 55 pairs: winners were Ian Broderick & Phil Jennings, who had been runners-up twice recently, defeating Julian Kellett & Margaret Willis. He had submitted entries to national competitions to the ESMBA and was please to say that overall entries to County competitions were up by 20% over last season.
- The League Secretary stated that the Summer League finals had taken place at Ripple on Thursday 02 October. Teams taking part were Defford, Kingsway Swans, Yorkley Falcons and Yorkley Kestrels. He recorded thanks to members at Ripple, who provided a lovely spread during the break and to the bowlers for putting on an exciting spectacle for the many enthusiastic people watching. The excitement was maintained right up the final bowl of the final end of the games, when several results were still possible. In the end Defford, Swans and Falcons all finished on 2 wins, meaning the result came down to shot difference:
Defford 8 points +4 shots
Falcons 8 points +2 shots
Swans 8 points +1 shot
Kestrels 2 points - The Winter League is already up and running. Already we have encountered 2 problems: a road closure and an outbreak of Covid, but both issues have been addressed and changes made to alleviate the problems. He thanked club contacts for submitting results promptly and, so far, legibly and clearly, and also Julian for updating the website promptly.
- The County Team captain had arranged practice sessions for the team met on 06 and 27 September, with everyone having the opportunity to plays Triples and Fours on the county mats. In addition, the first pre-ICC match practise session was available for team members on 03 October and attracted 18 players.
Sadly, she had not been able to implement a more structured practise, but plans are in place for the next one on 31 October. A £2 per player charge covered the cost of the 2-hour session. - Our first ICC match with West Midlands did not disappoint. Although we lost the match 4 points to 36 points, the individual games were well played, with some close shot totals in games. The re-instated raffle raised £40 for our charity.
- The county kit proposal has been given a welcome from Warners Cars Ltd. Contact with the Managing Director (Mark Jones) has led to a request from him, for me to contact him again in January 2026 with the details.
- The next matches are The Brunel Cup on 25 October and ICC match with Herefordshire on 01 November. Team selections are on the GSMBA website.
- We have been invited to enter teams to the ESMBA Over 55’s Triples and Double Rink events at Melton Mowbray, which we played in last year. With regard to ICC entry, Monica believed we should consider whether to enter an A Team again, as this season we had 50 players prepared to play in county games. We would address this later in the year.
- Regarding Safeguarding, a safeguarding page is now available on the website with information relevant to clubs. Monica will nevertheless continue to circulate bulletins and other information to clubs.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS - Mike Sparow advised that Defford would shortly have a twin roller (manual) available, which they had replaced with an electric roller, acquired through a Lottery grant. Chris Evans wondered whether GSMBA should also consider buying electric rollers for its own mats at Kingsway. He asked Mike to provide the form of words that Defford had used, that we may be able to adapt to make a case.
- Chris reported that 8 jacks had been recoated at a cost of £100 and asked that they be reserved for County matches and competitions.
- We agreed that the next meeting should take place at 7.00pm on 12 January 2026. [This date confirmed with Kingsway Community Centre after the meeting].
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), J. Cox (Ripple), Angela Slimm (Ripple), David Bubb (Forest of Dean), Val New (Bishop’s Cleeve), Saul Featherstone (Sharpness)
Minutes prepared by:
Andy Todd
Secretary, GSMBA
Signed as a true record:
Chris Evans
Chair, GSMBA
