HertsSQUASH County Committee Meetings

AGM Minutes - Monday 4th June 8pm at Radlett

MINUTES OF THE 2007 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HERTS SQUASH RACKETS ASSOCIATION
HELD AT RADLETT SQUASH CLUB ON 4TH JUNE 2007

Present: Jason Foster Chairman
Dominic Webster Secretary
Paul Drakes Treasurer
Isobel Smith Ladies Captain
Sally Ann Webster League Secretary
Fiona McLure League Secretary
Nicky Wase
Derek Thorpe: Herts Website
Mark Blake: Committee Member

1. Apologies: Phil Jenkins, Richard Anthony (Biggleswade), Geoff Savage (R3)

2. The 2006 Minutes

The minutes were accepted unanimously. Proposed by Alan Proudfoot (Tring) and seconded by Tony Porter (Royston).

3. Chairman

Jason began the meeting by introducing the committee members for those who did
not already know them. He thanked Radlett Squash Club for allowing HSRA to hold
the AGM at their club. Radlett had also hosted the very successful County Cup Finals which were held on 19th April 2007.

Jason highlighted how well Hertfordshire squash is doing at the moment on the representative side both junior and senior teams. Jason thanked the Junior Committee for continuing to do such a great job. Jason stressed that although the county was doing well at the elite level, we still needed to encourage more players at ‘grass roots’ level and get more people interested in the sport.

The Herts Closed Championship was held at Broxbourne in January and was a very enjoyable event. History was made when 17 year old junior Adrian Waller from Potter bar Squash Club became the youngest ever winner. He beat Adam Fuller in the final. Full results are:

Mens A Adrian Waller bt Adam Fuller 3 - 2
Mens B Aron Toms (round robin format)
Mens C Ian Blower bt Nathan Derrick 3 - 1
Mens A Plate Chris Dawson bt Adam Edge 3 - 1
Mens C Plate Andy Davis bt Louis Drakes 3 - 0
Ladies A Isobel Smith bt Sharmila Devi 3 - 0
Ladies O’40 Elke Rubasm (round robin format)
Mens O’35 John Mcfarlane bt Alastair Ambrose 3 - 0
Mens O’35 plate Dominic Webster bt Martin White 3 - 0
Mens O’45 Gary Spindler bt Paul Ryan 3 - 1
Mens o:45 Plate John Shaw bt Mick Daines 3 - 0
Mens O’55 Dave Cooper (round robin format)
Mens O’65 Len Froggitt (round robin format)
Thank to Broxbourne squash Club for hosting the event. to Geoff Long and his company, CopyDisk ,for sponsorship and also to Gary Spindler of Just Rackets for donating some prizes.

Jason said that Adrian Waller had won U’17 and U19 British Championships and was most certainly the future of squash in Hertfordshire. Herts also have a World Champion, Chris Ryder of Berkhamstead who won the final of the World University Squash championship in Hungary.

Our girls U13 team won the National Championship, well done to them, a fantastic achievement.

Boys U15 became National Inter-county champions for the 1st time beating Yorkshire in the Final. Well done to them.

Boys U17 having lost in the semi- finals, won the 3rd/4th playoff beating Nottinghamshire 3 -2, another great result for the juniors.

Mens County Report

For the first time ever the mens county 1st team have qualified for the Premiership division, a great achievement from a still young team. Chris Ryder, Adam Fuller, Adrian Waller, Keith Timms, Neil Waller.

The Herts County Cup finals were held at Radlett and were well attended. In the Senior Cup Potters Bar beat Broxbourne 4 – 1 and in the Junior Cup Biggleswade beat Harlow 3-2 and for the first time the ladies Rose Bowl was contested with Cannons beating Haileybury 2-1 in a closely contested match. Thanks again to Gary Spindler of Just Rackets for sponsoring the event.

Jason then took a moment to remember Alan Pedder of Gosling who died very sadly earlier this year. He was a very enthusiastic squash player, always willing to play matches, help out team mates and loved the game of squash. He will be sadly missed by his fellow players. A member of his team from Gosling said that they had held an event to remember Alan and had raised £450. They are hoping to buy a cup with this money and hold an annual event in his name.

Jason finished his report by highlighting the new exciting PSA Challenger events that have been organised in Herts over the next few months, the first being at Bishops Stortford, recently voted England Squash Club of the Year. These are a new venture in partnership with Harrow Squash aimed at players trying to break into professional squash and allowing them to accrue PSA points. Running alongside this tournament will be events for men, ladies and juniors.

4. Secretary’s Report

Dominic talked about affiliation and the fact that now most counties are running their leagues online, it is easier for England Squash to pick up and cross reference players. Some clubs do not list the names of the players at their club and therefore these players will not get the benefits of being of being an England Squash member. Hertfordshire are fairly good on affiliation. The cost to a club is now £6.30 per person. Dominic urged people to get their respective clubs to put player’s names forward in order for them to benefit.

England Squash are also looking at the problem of multiple membership, if a player is a member of more than one club, it is not necessary for them to be affiliated at each club. They are developing an online membership system so that this problem can be sorted out, even though they will probably loose about 1% of their income each year.

5. Ladies County Report

The squad consisted of Isobel Smith (Next Generation), Maureen Morrison
(Broxbourne), Elke Rubsam (Haileybury), Sheila Blake (Broxbourne) , Laura Taylor
(Cannons St Albans), Fiona McLure (Next Generation) and Rachel Hosking (Allenburys).

Following a tough 1st weekend, the team went to the relegation weekend. Even though they won two out of their three matches Herts came third on points and are relegated for next season.

Isobel thanked all the players for their support. Also well done to Elke Rubsam who was selected to play for England O’50 again in the Home Internationals.

6. Treasurer’s Report

Paul Drakes submitted and proposed the accounts for the year ended April 2007 to the AGM, these were seconded by Mark Blake (Broxbourne).

7. Ladies League

Following a meeting with the teams last year, the ladies leagues were amalgamated into one division of eight teams for the first half of the season and were then split into two divisions of four for the second half of the season. This had worked very well with the middle teams having to play for every point to stay up. The teams in the 1st division were Bishops Stortford, Cannons St Albans, Haileybury and Next Generation and those in the second division were Allenburys, Tring, Cannons 2 and Gosling. Bishops Stortford won Division 1 and Allenburys won Division 2. Fiona highlighted that we only need a couple more teams in the leagues to make it far more competitive and asked players to ‘track down’ any ladies who would wish to play in the leagues.

8. Mens Leagues

Sally Ann began by welcoming North Herts Leisure back into the league, it’s always
good to see new teams appearing. They does seem to be a trend of teams dropping out in the higher divisions but then new teams appearing in the lower divisions. This has made it slightly more difficult in balancing the divisions, but still the number of teams in the league remain the same. There hadn’t been any major problems this season.



Sally Ann then said that, due to a heavier workload and not being able to devote enough time to the leagues, she would be resigning from the committee. Sally Ann has been running the mens leagues for ten years and has done so with great efficiency, also instigating the online leagues a few years ago. Jason thanked her for all her hard work over the years and she received a round of applause from the Committee and AGM. This means that a new league secretary will have to be found for the new season starting in September.

9. Election of Officers

The committee were re-elected on bloc, proposed by Neil Stennett (Batchwood) and
seconded by Tony Porter (Tring), with the post of Mens League Secretary vacant.

10. Any Other Business

Andy Davies asked whether the conditions of entry to the Herts Closed could be widened to include players in the Herts Leagues. Currently entry is restricted to players born or living in Hertfordshire.

The subject was discussed at length and in the end a vote was taken. It was agreed that should a player in the Herts leagues wish to enter the tournament it would be at the discretion of the Committee.

11. League Presentations

Ladies Winner
Winter League Div 1 Bishops Stortford
Div 2 Allenburys

Mens
Summer League Div 5 Batchwood
Div 4 Gosling 3
Div 3 Bishops Stortford 2
Div 2 Cannons 1
Div 1 Broxbourne 1

Winter League Div 5 R3 3
Div 4 Harlow
Div 3 R3 2
Div 2 Broxbourne 2
Div 1 Bishops Stortford

The Wilkinson Sword was presented to Radlett Squash Club for their great work with
Juniors, hosting the Cup Finals, and their all round support for squash.

The meeting finished at 9.05 p.m.

Dear All

AGM – next Monday
May I take this opportunity to remind everyone that the AGM will take place next Monday – 4th June – at Radlett Squash Club starting at 7.45pm. It is compulsory that at least one member of your club attends in order for you to qualify to play in the Hertfordshire Squash Leagues. Please make sure that this rule is adhered to, failure to do so may result in your team being unable to play in the winter leagues.

Click on the Agenda for the AGM, remember this is your opportunity to have your say. We welcome your input, so please come along and join in.

Summer Results
Attached are the results received to date. I have been receiving a few emailed results. Please make sure that all cards are sent by post, everyone who requested more cards should have received them by now, I will of course have some with me for distribution at the AGM.

Winter Results
Division 1 Stortford 1 (103) Berko 1 (89)

Division 2 Broxbourne 2 (81) Royston 1 (81) Broxbourne win on countback of games won

Division 3 R3 Stevenage 2 (99) Berko 3 (96)

Division 4 Harlow (91) Stortford 4 (86)

Division 5 R3 Stevenage 3 (83) Gosling 4 (80)

Trophies will be awarded at the AGM – please make sure teams are there for the presentations

Cup Finals Results
Senior Cup Potters Bar 1 (4) Broxbourne (1)
Junior Cup Biggleswade (3) Harlow (2)

That’s all for now folks!
See you on Monday at Radlett Squash Club.