Barnard Castle and District 5’s and 3’s
Minutes of the 2024 Annual General Meeting
Barnard Castle and District 5’s and 3’s 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held at the Cricket Club Barnard Castle on Monday 12th August 2024, at 8.00pm.
Opening remarks and apologies:
The Chair (Eddie Tinkler) opened the meeting at 8.05pm. There was a traditional silence in respect to those domino players who are no longer with us. All representative and committee members (Nick Peckett, Theresa Rogers-Walshaw, Gillian Watson, Mark Wallace and Dor Lowe) were welcomed by the Chair. Gillian Watson as Secretary took the minutes.
Minutes of the 2023 AGM
The minutes were proposed as accepted by Wendy Harrison and seconded by Alistair Peart. A show of hands approved the 2023 AGM minutes. There were no other matters arising.
Chair’s report
The chair started by thanking the committee for their work throughout the year: Mark for helping when available, Nick for keeping scores and website up to date, Gillian for secretarial work and organising the knockouts, Theresa for taking care of the cash and Dor for helping out when needed.
He stated that a big thank you goes to Craig Hamilton for assisting with league fixtures, and always being ready to help when needed.
He also thanked the captains for making it a relatively trouble-free season.
Eddie relayed his thanks to all the pubs, clubs and landlords for supporting the league, and the Teesdale Mercury for reporting league events. In addition, he thanked the Cricket Club for hosting events as required.
He went on to encourage all the teams to get their dominoes out and encourage the younger generation to become interested, as they are the future of the league.
He continued that we need more teams, more younger players and more younger committee members.
He advised that we should still be hygienically aware when playing, for example, NO HAND LICKING!
Eddie then went on to express his regret that this has been his last year as chair. He shared with us that he had enjoyed his extended tenure, made many friends, had lots of experiences, but it was time to hand it to someone else. He stated, “we need some new good ideas putting into place to try and get more teams and members, and perhaps with him out of the way this might happen.”
He expressed that he would continue to help and support the league wished everyone all the best for this and every season and to ‘just keep shuffling!’
The Chair concluded his address by thanking everyone for their past support and stated it had meant a lot to him!
However, as the agenda advised Eddie chaired this AGM and stated that elections for the new chair would take place at the end of the meeting.
Secretaries Report
The committee have had several meetings throughout the year and two in particular on the proposals for change. Minutes were taken on all occasions.
In regard to the knockouts Gillian stated that the league has always used the first round for members to hold the team, captains and gent’s pairs games on the same night and the 2023/2024 season was no exception. She stated that the issue she would like the members to consider is, when to slot in the byes, i.e. should it be at the beginning (as many have advised) or in the second round. Two exhibits were provided one of the last knockout timetables (option A, showing the byes in the first round), and one showing the byes in the second round (option B). Gillian reminded the members that the timetable must, by the semi-final, only have four teams in the running, hence the timetable needs to be divisible by four. A show of hand was requested as to whether the members preferred option A or B. Option A garnered the most votes. Gillian thanked the members for their help in this matter.
Web Advisers Report
Nick thanked the captains for the results that were communicated to him during the last season.
Nick went on to advise the meeting of the Dominoes WhatsApp group: it is to promote the use of WhatsApp to report match results which is a much better medium than SMS Texts and can use a local Wi-Fi network instead of relying on having cell coverage. It will also give those included in the group a notification immediately any team posts a score so everyone in the group becomes aware of the scores that have been reported to the group. He hopes that this will encourage teams to post their scores promptly instead of waiting until beyond midnight or even the following day. Those teams that haven't kept up with technology and still use steam powered phones can still report via text if they must.
Note:
The score reporting system is to be the same as last year. Cards are to be delivered to the Cricketers Arms by Friday after a match.
Treasurers Report
The full treasurers report will be tabled at the captains meeting this year. However, the treasurer declared that the league fees and the knockout fees would stay the same as last year (£10 for each) given that there is a healthy bank balance. The current bank balance of £1,888.02, in the league account.
Elections:
Chairperson: as stated earlier this was decided at the end of the meeting, given Eddies decision to withdraw.
Committee: The chair asked the existing committee (Nick Peckett, Theresa Rogers-Walshaw, Gillian Watson, Mark Wallace and Dor Lowe) if they would continue in their duties, they agreed.
The proposal was that the current committee member be elected ‘en bloc’.
Their tenure was proposed by Alistair Peart and seconded by Phil Williams.
Vote: The proposal was carried.
New nomination
The chair asked for any new nominations to the committee.
Alistair Peart expressed his interest in joining the committee.
The proposal was that Alistair Peart join as a committee member
His appointment was proposed by Mark and seconded by Neville.
Vote: The proposal was carried
Paula Rogers also expressed an interest in joining the committee
The proposal was that Paula Rogers join as a committee member
Her appointment was proposed by Theresa and seconded by Mark.
Vote: The proposal was carried.
Roll call of the domino teams:
The roll call was completed successfully, and the fees collected, 19 teams have been recorded thus far for the 2024/25 season. The collection of subscriptions was £190.
The Chair stated that two teams will go down to the B league and one will go up to join the A league.
Letters to the committee
1. The request that both leagues have an equal number of teams cannot be voted upon because the number of teams for this season is 19.
2. Proposal to extend the season – four options
Craig gave and explanation of all four proposals:
The ideas were suggested to try
and extend the league. With fewer teams, each year the league is becoming
shorter. This year it will end on the 13th of January. (For one team in the
second division their last league game will be on the 16th December.)
a) Option A was continue as before. Two leagues one with 10 teams one with 9.
Max 18 games. League starts 2nd Sept, ends 13th Jan.
b) Option B was as above but play each team 3 times instead of twice. This would
extend the league until 17th March. Fixture list would be the same but weeks 1 -
3 - 5 - 7 - 9 - 11 - 13 - 15 and 17 would be repeated. Home and away fixtures
would be split as evenly as possible.
c) Option C was one league. This would involve 36 games. One game each Monday
would extend the league into the middle of June. As this is too long you would
have to play two games on certain nights. Play one game, re-draw then play a
second. You could play 20 single night fixtures and 9 double night fixtures.
This would extend the league until mid to late March. It may mean starting the
double game nights earlier.
d) Option D set a fixed closing date for the League. Play the fixtures as normal
the either repeat this first 10 fixtures or re-draw another 10 fixtures. The
downside being teams will not play each other the same number of times.
As noted in option B home and away fixtures would be divided as evenly as
possible.
As secretary Gillian shared with the meeting that the committee felt it necessary to offer some advice and after much deliberation their suggestion is that representatives consider option a or b as the most viable.
The chair asked representative to cast their votes.
Vote:
10 votes were recorded for option A: 8 for option B: 1 abstention
The chair stated that the league will therefore stay as it was for another year.
3. To play the teams, captains and gent’s pairs on the same night. The chair stated that this had already been dealt with earlier in the meeting.
Question from the floor:
None recorded.
The committee proposed:
a) The league and knockout fees for 2024/25 be not increased. The league fees are £10, and the knockout fees are also £10.
Vote: Carried
b) Venue for finals night proposals were taken for the Cricket Club, Barnard Castle WMC and Middleton Social Club
Vote: Cricket Club had 9 votes: Barnard castle WMC 3 votes: Middleton Social Club 5 votes. Therefore, Cricket Club was voted as the venue for finals night.
c) The captains meeting to be held on Tuesday the 27thAug 2024 at the Cricket Club at 8.pm
Vote: Proposal was accepted by those members present
To mark Eddies tenure as chair, Gillian addressed the meeting.
She stated that Eddie had offered his services to the league as chair for approximately 25 years and that is an amazingly long time, and we should be very grateful to him for that. We have been privileged to travel with him on this journey, where, along the way he has helped many teams and individuals. She stated that he has kept us all on track all those years and he will be missed. Therefore, the committee and the league members would like to thank him for his domino journey and for allowing us to travel with him. Eddie, Thank you!!!
Theresa presented Eddie with a card and a bottle of his favourite tipple.
Election of chairperson
Gillian Watson was proposed by Wendy Harrison and seconded by Neville Bainbridge
Others were also willing to second the proposal.
After a show of hands, Gillian was duly elected as chairperson.
As there was no further business the Eddie thanked those present for their contribution and closed the meeting.
Items to announce:
Captain’s Meeting Tuesday 27th August – Cricket Club 8pm
Score Reporting by text to 07967771758 – NOTE – No voice calls accepted on this number!
Results cards arrangements – colour coded and to Cricketers Arms by noon Friday.