Minutes of the East Youth Competitions Committee held on November 10th 2005

 

Present: L.Bant Chair, F.Wheeler Secretary and  Budgets Officer, J.Pagliaro Beds (B), S.Tippen Cambs (B&G), N.Unwin Essex (G), J.Wood Herts (G), G.Welch Herts (B), B.Barr Lincs (B) and M.McCall, Hon. Treasurer ERHA.

 

Apologies were received from A.Bloom Norfolk (G), K.Boulter Suffolk (B&G) and Douig Thom Essex (B).

 

Joint Meeting  

 

1.  The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed as a true record.  Matters   arising: - The new Td booklet should be posted to members of the Committee soon.  The East Umpires Handbook which had been promised had yet to arrive.  A reminder to the East Secretary produced a quick response and all now have copies.  Beds had kindly offered to host the Boys U12 competition on April 9th 2006.

 

2. Correspondence: - As a concerned volunteer of many years D.Menear had sent a letter expressing her concerns at the congested calendar, particularly for the boys where limited options for the Committee had meant that Finals days were too early on. These will be discussed further when next season’s calendar is being planned.  It was mentioned that the England fixtures and preparation for the Regional Tournament severely limited the available Sundays. 

Back to back matches had also concerned D.Menear and the fact that boys, particularly, played in more than one age group. The Counties were allowed squads of 18 to try to combat the necessity of back to back matches. L.Bant said that it was the responsibility of the coaches not to overplay players.  A suggestion that the rules be changed to say that players were only allowed to play in one age group did not meet with the agreement of all representatives.

The Match Official situation.  D.Menear felt that there was  a lack of agreement between the East technical officials and the youth Committee as to the tasks that these officials were expected to take in the early Championship and League fixtures.  She felt that the people involved should act as hosts for the fixture, keep the scores and make sure that there were no problems with safety.   The East Technical officials seemed to expect more.  As every county is needing to persuade parents to help, the Committee felt that their enthusiasm for the task might be blunted if more was expected  and this might lead to an even greater shortage of volunteers.  At all finals days there were experienced people to officiate. 

 

3.  Reports.     East management.  The minutes of the last East management meeting were on the web. Some were circulated to members.  It was suggested that the Committee should be renamed the East Youth Competitions Committee. 

There was no report from England.

                        Umpires:  B. Pollard was worried about the number of umpires needed for Nov 6th and the 27th.  He also wanted to know the best way to find out about actual details of the fixtures.  If in doubt he should communicate with F. Wheeler or L.Bant.  It was pointed out that the youth fixtures were on the web-site under youth giving the start and finish times of each fixture.  It was also suggested that B.Pollard be e-mailed by the match Official if there were any changes to the programme.  Keith Boddy was now the person responsible for phoning Development Umpires. The ERHUA would not be able to provide umpires for the U11 minis at Bedford. 

4.         Finance.  The Budgets Officer gave out the proposed budget for the season.  In an effort to avoid last season’s surplus , the timing of the invoices to the counties would be slightly different.   The first instalment would be sent out in November for approximately two thirds of the costs, and the second one would be sent out in March by which time most of the costs would be known.  There would still be the possibility of a small surplus as the mini costs would not be complete and there would still be some other fixtures to play.  The surplus would be used to lower the costs of next season’s costs, as has happened this year.  The Hon. Treasurer and the Budgets Officer were thanked by the Chair for their hard work producing the budget. 

 

5.  U21 tournament.  This is to take place at Old Loughtonians ground on December 18th . 

Unfortunately, Norfolk had not expressed their wish to take part early enough to be included in the tournament as the closing date had been October 10th .  S.Tippen is in charge of sending out the details to those counties taking part. The participating counties would be invoiced from the East.

 

Girls’  Representatives  meeting  

Essex put forward a suggestion that L.Bant and F.Wheeler should send out a questionnaire to that county coaches with their views on how the competitions had gone so far.  M. McCall suggested that County Reps should do this and pass on their findings to other reps.  This would help in the discussions for next year’s calendar.

Herts reported that they would have teams in the girls Indoor Competitions and that the u13 development would be starting younger girls as from December 4th .

Cambs reported having problems with finding umpires for the leagues with S.Tippen having the responsibility for this herself.  A written report was submitted by Suffolk.

Kent.  The U18 schools had had 26 entrants in their competition and Kent was wondering if the eighth team should always be a second team from the county who won the previous year.

This would be discussed in a later Committee meeting.

 

Boys’ Representatives meeting

The draw for the Boys schools competition was held.

U14     Section A  Cambs 1, Beds, Herts and Essex.

            Section B Lincs, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambs 2.

U16     Section A Herts 1, Lincs, Cambs and Essex.

            Section B Norfolk, Suffolk, Beds and Herts 2.

U18     Section A Cambs, Essex 1, Suffolk and Beds.

            Section B Norfolk, Herts, Lincs and Essex 2.

Essex wanted further clarification on the Haileybury Camps  as it had seemed that they were used as part of the selection process for the U15 and U17 regional teams, despite assurances to the contrary. 

Herts.  G.Welch reported a change of e-mail address.

Lincs.  Two academies were to be set up ,one in the north and one in the south of Lincs using money from the Sports Relief Grant that had been gained by A.Ricketts.

Essex was concerned about the food and petrol  allowances for  umpires which were more than England pay.   However, the Hon.Treasurer pointed out that these were very low and that East umpires were only meant to claim  what they had spent on food  up to £5 – it was pointed out that some venues were more expensive than others.  Other venues provided food.

Written reports detailing the progress of the teams  were given by Suffolk, Herts and Beds.

 

The meeting finished at 9.25pm.