SURREY DARTS ORGANISATION

SURREY MENS SUPER LEAGUE AGM 2004/2005
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON SUNDAY 29TH AUGUST 2004 AT EPSOM COMMON WORKING MENS CLUB

Meeting Commenced: 7:30pm

1 Roll Call

10 of the 12 teams that will be contesting this year’s League were represented. These being:
Ditton FC, Golden Lion, Golden Lion A, Hersham, Jubilee Club, Metropole, The Princess (Woking), St Peters, Worcester Park Athletic, Walton Working Mens Club.

Apologies for absence were received from Salfords & The Rhodrons Club (Hook).
Persons present: Anthony Hopkins, Tony Cartwright, Julie Hopkins, Claire Heron, Peter Munt, Tim Stedman, Jim Cullip, Phil Gallagher, Mark Richmond, Chris Gallagher, Paul Ardley, Carl Ramsey, Debbie Ramsey, Paul Humphreys, Jon Stephenson, Peter Arnold, Chris Arnold, Dean Archer

2 Secretary’s Report

League Secretary Martin Cullip congratulated Ditton FC, both on their winning the Title in 2003/4 and on their creditable showing in the Champions Cup, where they narrowly lost 4-5 to Hampshire. He also congratulated Jimmy Mann on winning all three Knockout Competitions & commented that it was a difficult feat which will be tough to match.
Martin also thanked Darren Gale for his kind sponsorship, which enabled the League to purchase a brand new perpetual trophy for the League Singles Champion, and those present were asked to publicise to their players that sponsorship options were welcomed, both for the purchase of trophies, and for adverts in ‘Toe The Oche’. It was also stressed that adverts for goods or services could be placed on the Web-Site if there was demand, and that all sponsorship proceeds would go directly into League prize money.
The League Secretary reported that the League Rules needed to be tidied up & that he would be doing just that during the season, time permitting. The current rules had remained unchanged recently, but were haphazardly set out & difficult to navigate. Team secretaries were told that they would each receive a full set of rules BEFORE the season began & that any change to the order of the rules would be open to scrutiny by all team secretaries before being officially recognised. It was also suggested that the Rules be put on the web-site & Martin Cullip agreed that this could be done quite easily, and that a League Rules page would be added when time permitted.
Finally, The League Secretary stated that as from the upcoming season, each issue of ‘Toe The Oche’ would no longer be e-mailed & that instead, the weekly newsletter would be available on the web-site in Adobe Acrobat format by Saturday lunchtime. Team secretaries or a delegated team member would be responsible for downloading each weekly issue for their teams. There were no objections to this new way of receiving ‘Toe The Oche’.

3 Free Week Competitions

The League had heard that the Morden Tavern were amenable to holding a competition on one of the three free weeks during the League Fixtures. It was noted that the usual format for such competitions was that the Landlord/Steward would financially match the total entry money & that this should be a requirement if the pub was to hold one of the events. Those present noted that the Morden Tavern had not entered a team into the League (their application was too late as 12 teams had already been accepted) and as such, could not be guaranteed a date, but their keenness was recognised & it was agreed that such arrangements would be looked at later in the year.

4 Problems with Fixtures

The League Secretary enquired as to the problems that some teams have with the start date for the season, as several teams had players and/or the venue itself committed for the early weeks of the season. Many problems had been solved with the first week being scheduled as late as the 14th September, but the Metropole & Hersham still had issues which would prevent them starting on this date. Paul Humphreys of the Metropole stated that their venue was used for the Final stages of their local League & wouldn’t be available as a home venue until the 28th September, whilst Dean Archer of Hersham informed the meeting that his team would be unable to fulfil any fixture until the 21st as many of their team were still involved in Summer Leagues. Tim Stedman stated that it would be desirable for all teams to be able to play from the first fixture & proposed that the League should start on the 21st, with the Metropole beginning with an away game. Peter Munt said there were no objections in his capacity as Summer League Secretary & that if time was short, the summer Doubles Competition could be cancelled in order for next year’s Winter League to start in plenty of time. The meeting agreed that the League would start on Tuesday 21st September.

5 Surrey Youth Donation

Julie Hopkins put a motion to the meeting that a donation of £1 per player be paid to help the newly re-formed Surrey Youth teams pay for their entry fees & to provide a few trophies for the players. Jon Stephenson asked if the total amount for this, approximately £150, would help the youth very much, to which Julie replied that any donation would be gratefully received as they had been offered no sponsorship by the County or by the venue, Epsom Legion. Chris Gallagher proposed that the donation be £10 per team instead of a levy on each player & Jim Cullip suggested that the wording should be “donation of no less than £10 per team” thereby enabling teams to give more should they so wish. This proposal was agreed by the meeting. The League Secretary asked that the extra £10 per team be paid with the £30 registration fee so the Youth organisers could put the money to work at the earliest opportunity.

6 BDO Personal Accident Insurance

Martin Cullip stated that Team secretaries in the Ladies Super League had been advised that their players were no longer covered under the BDO Personal Accident Insurance during Super League games, and that this would also apply to players in the Mens Super League. It was noted that the article in Darts World that reported the cancellation of the policy had stated that all players should be informed that they were no longer covered, hence the statement from the League Secretary. A discussion ensued as to whether the players’ registration fee would revert to £2.50 as the extra £1 from the previous season had been described as a levy to cover the cost of said insurance. The League Secretary said that he had heard no news of this and that he believed the registration fee to still be £3.50 per player.

7 Playing Format

The playing format was discussed & two alternative options were proposed. The first comprised a 9 man team playing 3 triples & nine singles for the same 12 points. The second being playing 16 points over two separate boards, whereby each player would play two matches of 501 best of 5.
There was much discussion over the merits of the different formats, but the general consensus was that it was too short notice to install a new playing format for the coming season.
A vote was taken & there were 6 votes for the current format remaining, 3 for making a change & 1 abstention.
The League Secretary stated that the different options would be explained in full, in writing & circulated to team secretaries so that a decision could be made by all players of their preference in time for possible implementation next season.

OTHER BUSINESS

There was no other business put to the meeting, but Martin Cullip thanked the Club for their help at short notice in holding the meeting as Epsom Legion had unexpectedly been closed for the night. Julie Hopkins also thanked those present for their agreement to make a donation to the Youth teams.
Meeting ended: 9:10pm