Present:-Catriona Batty, Joan Bolden, Rosemary Browne, Peter Clark, Andy Malcolm (Chairman), Maureen Sowerby, Roger Wilkins 

1.       Apologies  Phil Hancock, Dave Knightley, Wendy Smith

2.       Minutes of Committee Meeting held on 18 Oct 11 Agreed and signed by Chairman

3.       Matters arising from 18 Oct meeting

Item 6 Archives Records from 1997 collated by Matthew Wheadon had been put on the web. Roger will supply Maureen with lists of earlier winners and these will also be put on the web.

Item 9 Website Maureen was thanked for her work in getting the new website up and working so well.

4.       Report by Winter League Match Secretary Rosemary reported that the main problems were associated with the University teams and with Lympstone men not fulfilling fixtures. Following a successful appeal against their withdrawal for not fulfilling matches, University Men’s A team were allowed to continue and since then they have fulfilled their fixtures. Just this week, Rosemary had been informed that the University Men’s and Ladies B teams were withdrawing from the league citing problems with transport and pressures of upcoming exams. Lympstone Men had not fulfilled three away fixtures. They had though informed their opponents that they were cancelling these matches. It was agreed that all results for the University B teams and Lympstone men would be expunged. Andy will write to the University regretting the withdrawals and the extremely poor management of the University teams. He will indicate that the Committee will recommend to the Winter AGM that the participation of the University in the Winter League will be suspended for one year.

There were still problems with poorly completed scorecards. There had though been relatively few postponements and, provided the weather in February is reasonable, the season should be able to be completed on time.

Rosemary was thanked for all she had done during a trying winter.

5.       Report by Hon Gen Secretary Minutes The procedure for handling minutes needs to be improved, now that they are going on to the web. To be of use to clubs they need to be posted quite soon after the meeting, and before signature at the next Committee meeting. It was agreed that (a) the Secretary will draft minutes in a form to go on the web, but with lengthy tables or reports included in a section that would only go to Committee members (b) the draft minutes will be emailed to Committee members with a short date for comments/corrections (c) these will be incorporated and an up-dated revised version approved by the Chairman for putting on the web. Trophies Roger has recovered a shield for the re-formed Ladies Division 6. Agreed that we will continue with the procedure for the Winter League of presenting only small permanent shields to winners of the divisions other than Division 1. Questionnaire Roger reported that he had only received one or two comments from Clubs on the summary of questionnaire responses that he had sent to club contacts.

6.       Report by Treasurer Catriona reported that we have a current balance of £1482.41, but will have a substantial bill for engraving. She forecast that we would make a small loss over the year. Her recommendation that we propose team fees for the summer league be kept at £6 was agreed. She recommended that we change the financial year to run from 1 Jan to 31 Dec. At present accounts are presented for the period right up to the AGM. This has to be done in a hurry and precludes the possibility of the accounts being checked by an external person. It was agreed to introduce the change in financial year immediately and for the accounts to be checked externally.

7.       Entries and proposed Divisions for Summer League  Maureen reported that there had been two new teams entered in the Ladies and five new teams (but three withdrawals) in the Men’s. Teams had been allocated to Divisions according to the new Rule 14, with the number of teams in Ladies 4 and 5 increased from 6 to 7 and the number of teams in Men’s 5, 6 and 7 increased from 7 to 8. Her proposals were agreed and were put on the web the following day with Clubs able to object to the proposals by 13 Feb. Any objections made will be considered by the Committee through exchange of emails. Maureen commented that the new rule had made it easier to work out allocations to Divisions.

8.       Rules  It was agreed to put to the AGM the following proposals for change to the rules (changes in red):

New Rule, probably after Rule 8

If a Club enters a team, but then withdraws the team before it has played any matches, the maximum number of teams that the Club will be able to enter in the following season will be the number that fulfilled their fixtures in the preceding season.

Proposal to amend part of Rule 18

In the case of bad weather, the Home team must, within five days, inform the Match Secretary of the postponement and offer the opponents at least three alternative dates for the rearranged match, which must be in different weeks but not including dates upon which the Away team already has a match fixed. The opposing team must agree a date within two weeks of the postponement and the Match Secretary notified of the new date by the Home team. If dates are not offered or agreed within the above time span, then the offending team will be fined 2 points.

Proposal to amend Rule 23 d)

d) Should a club decide a player has been registered for too high a team, that player may be transferred to a team below provided that: 

(i) He/she has not played more than twice for the higher team.

(ii) The higher team have played at least three matches, but have not completed their fixtures for the season.

(iii) Where fewer than four players remain in the higher team another player is registered in his/her place.

The Match Secretary must be informed of the transfer before the player plays for the lower team. A transferred player may not play for a higher team during the current season.

Proposal to amend Rule 25

(a) The Team Captains shall forward the completed score sheets in respect of all home matches played to the Match Secretary, within five days of the match being completed. Home teams whose score sheets have not been received after seven days will be fined 2 points. (b) Following an initial warning, a fine of 1 point may be imposed on both teams for any scorecard that is incomplete or incorrect. 

9.       Arrangements and Agenda for AGM  The agenda for the AGM was agreed. Georgina Loosemore, Tennis Development Manager, Devon LTA, has agreed to present the trophies.  

10.   Committee and officers for 2012-13 The Committee agreed nominations to be made for the coming year.

11.   Any other business In relation to a query raised by Rosemary, it was confirmed that for Summer League matches to be re-arranged (according to Rule 18) there has to be agreement between the two captains. If this is not forthcoming the original date stands.

Roger Wilkins

To view the Minutes of Committee meeting Oct 18th 2011 - click here