Minutes of a Committee Meeting held at the Conservative Club, Truro

Present 8 :

Mike Booth, Chris Bickerdike,  Heather Upton, Sandra Bickerdike, Brian Relton, Linda Ashworth, Gordon Mortimer, Geoff Warren

 

Apologies 3 :

Chris Nichols, Jim Barker, David Stone

 

The Chairman, Mike Booth, opened the meeting at 7.30 pm by thanking those present for travelling to the meeting.

 

Minutes of the Last Meeting:

The minutes of the last committee meeting were accepted as being a true record.

 

Matters Arising:

The Bridgemates Workshop run by Don Pearson is not taking place. There was too great a diversity in what those interested expected to achieve by the workshop for it to succeed.

 

Cornwall Congress 2016

Soon after Robin Barker agreed to be Chief Director, Don Pearson agreed to be Scorer for Friday and Saturday. On Sunday when he is playing in the Swiss Teams, he will set the bridgemates up but Jim Barker will be Scorer. Jim & Frances Barker are renting a house in nearby Marhamchurch during the Congress, so Frances will be available to duplimate any boards that are needed a second time. Robin Barker will be asked whether there is someone in Devon that can provide duplimated boards for the Sunday event.

 

After some discussion following the last committee meeting, it was decided that the format of competitions for the weekend, and the start and finish time for each day, would remain the same. The only small change is that the Novice pairs on Friday afternoon will have a wider entry level and will be called the Club Players Trophy.

 

Entries to date are pretty well on a par with last year – currently we have 18 pairs for the Championship Pairs, 25 pairs for the Swiss Pairs, and 17 teams for the Swiss Teams. There are very few entries yet from Cornish players.   

 

Programme of County Events 2016/7

Chris Bickerdike, acting Tournament & Entries Secretary, thanked  Jim & Frances Barker and Brian Relton for again each taking entries for three events. Their energy in persuading people to play in events resulted in a 6.6% increase in entries (there was one more event this year as the Swiss Pairs was cancelled in February 2015).

 

Chris presented a draft programme for Sept ‘16 to April ‘17 drawing attention to the AGM being held during the tea interval at the Mixed Pairs on 9 October and the Swiss Pairs in February which would again include a free cream tea for everyone.

 

Brian Relton led a lengthy discussion about the County knockout, a green-pointed event which is our Pachabo qualifier. Number of teams entering is diminishing annually – this year only 9 entered and one of those withdrew without playing a match. As a result their opponents had a bye to the semi-final – not a satisfactory situation. Brian’s suggestion that we use the Teams of Four Championship as a qualifying event, with the top four teams then going forward to the semi-final of the Knockout, was accepted. The semi-final would be a random draw, with the team finishing fifth taking the place of any  team not wishing to play in the knockout. Two additional players can be added to a team, but they must not have played for any other team in the earlier stage of the competition. Green-points will be awarded to the top half of the Championship, with further greens for winners of knockout matches.

 

Annual General Meeting

As mentioned above, the AGM this year will be held during the interval at the Mixed Pairs. As such, it is essential it runs quickly and smoothly. No presentations will be made as all cups have already been distributed. Committee members’ reports will be written and distributed to the membership in accordance with the Constitution – 3 weeks before the meeting - so hopefully any queries can be dealt with quickly on the day. Re-election of officers, and election of new officers, will then precede any other business.

 

Western Counties League

Brian Relton indicated that this year had been one of modest achievement after the successes of last year. The B team has won 4 out of 6 matches, and the A & C teams two each. The use of Bodmin BC as the new venue for home matches has been a success, as was the neutral venue near Cullompton for the East Wales match.

 

With such a small pool of players willing to play county bridge, Brian spent a lot of time recently getting the opinions of the regulars to ascertain whether there was still a desire to continue playing in the league. Sandra Bickerdike in particular, and others at the meeting, urged the selectors to seek out new players to begin playing county matches – players who may struggle initially, but will eventually allow others to move up to the A & B teams where there is currently no scope for rotation of players. It was agreed that we would continue entering three teams in the Western League.

 

At the end of year meeting next Sunday, Brian will again be raising with the other counties that some limit of player’s ranking should apply to the B & C teams in order to avoid serious mis-matches. The proposed reintroduction of food catering at matches will also be discussed – a suggestion Cornwall is not in favour of.

 

Training & Development Issues

In his absence, Jim Barker had left a short report outlining that Liz Perry is still supervising the schoolchildren at Marlborough Primary School in Falmouth. Jim would like to get other schools involved. Bridge teaching is active at clubs and other venues throughout the county, and some are beginning to play at local clubs.

 

Jim is hoping to organise a training day for current club directors and including bridgemates training. With only two county directors, Jim is hoping such a day will help in getting volunteers to lift the full burden of directing and scoring from Chris Nichols and himself.

 

New Vice Chairperson

With Mike Booth, the current Chairman, soon to be entering his third and final year, there is a need to elect a new Vice Chairperson at the AGM. Mike has approached two persons unsuccessfully, and a third person has just been invited.

 

Pay To Play 2017/8

Any proposed increase in county P2P (currently 7p per session) is voted on at the AGM. The absent Treasurer will need to decide whether an increase is required before the Agenda is circulated. Last year there was no increase; this year the committee gave the treasurer approval to seek a 1p or 2p increase if he felt that was appropriate.

 

UPDATE SINCE THE MEETING – The treasurer, David Stone, confirmed that an increase in P2P would not be sought as the CCBA bank balance is stable.

 

Any Other Business

There were no further topics raised by the meeting which was closed at 9.12 pm. The next meeting will be the AGM on Sunday 9 October.

 

CJB

13.05.16