Cheltenham League Meetings

CHELTENHAM ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Minutes of the Management Committee Meeting at the Victory Club Cheltenham on Wednesday 27th October 2004 at 7-00pm

Attendees: G Cook, J Crowther, L Fisher, T Onions, N Oram, B Hill. J Hunt.

Apologies: D Barrett, R Attwood, P Newcombe, P Tustain

Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday the 22nd September2004 and the emergency meeting held on Friday 15th October were read and accepted.

Matters Arising.
There were no matters arising from the minutes

Management Committee Vacancies

The Chairman gave a brief summation of events since the emergency meeting that had been held at the Victory Club on Friday, 15th October 2004. Nick Oram had taken over as Assistant Secretary and had administered the League's fixtures since 16th October. Materials and documents appertaining to League business had been very kindly delivered to the Chairman by Peter Jurd's widow, Anita, and then passed on to Nick Oram. In a conversation with the League Chairman, Nick Oram had intimated his willingness to take on the General Secretary's role if another Assistant Secretary could be found to administer the fixtures. John Hunt was approached to take on the responsibilities of Assistant Secretary and agreed.

Consequently, the Chairman proposed to the meeting that Nick Oram be elected General Secretary of the Cheltenham League and that John Hunt be elected Assistant Secretary of the Cheltenham League. Mr John Crowther seconded this motion. Both appointments were confirmed by a unanimous vote in favour.

The Chairman then stressed that, as a consequence of these new appointments, there were now two vacancies on the League Management Committee. It was decided that a request for new members of the Management Committee should be posted on the League's Web site and in the minutes of the meeting, so that anyone who has an interest in becoming more involved in League affairs would be aware that they should contact the new Secretary in the first instance.

GFA Vacancy

The Chairman explained to the meeting that, because of its size, the Cheltenham Association Football League is permitted three members on the council of the Gloucestershire Football Association. The Chairman, who is a life member of the Association, is a GFA Councillor in his own right. Up until his death, Peter Jurd filled the three positions made available to the League along with John Crowther and Arthur Stiley. It was felt that the most appropriate action would be to nominate Nick Oram to fill the current vacancy. This was proposed by the the Chairman, Mr G. Cook and seconded by Mr J. Crowther, the vic-chairman. This motion was agreed unanimously.

Correspondence:

A letter dated 24th October 2004 had been received by the Chairman, Mr Gordon Cook, from Anita R Goodier, the wife of Peter Jurd. The Chairman read this letter to the meeting. In the letter, Mrs Goodier asked the Chairman to pass on her sincere gratitude to all Cheltenham League members for their cards and messages since Peter's untimely death. She also expressed the fact that the recognition that all those connected with the Cheltenham League had given, to Peter's dedication and work for the league, and the respect in which he was held have helped to lift her spirits.

Tewkesbury Dynamos v Shipton Oliffe. This match was postponed on Saturday, 9th October. Shipton Oliffe Secretary Reg Eaton had written the following to the League.
"We turned up for the game, we changed and we waited. No referee turned up and YMCA said that they had no one to do the job. We had only the bare 11 players so they called the game off"
The letter from Robert Morris of Tewkesbury YMCA read as follows
"It is with regret that I have to inform you that the Division One game between ourselves and Shipton Oliffe was abandoned before kick off due to not having anyone to referee the game (the listed referee never turned up). Both Shipton and ourselves only had 12 players and therefore nobody suitable to officiate. Both managers agreed that it would be better to abandon and reschedule at your convenience.
We were due to have Terry Gladwin referee the game but we were informed that he had also been assigned to a Northern Senior League game. We tried to contact Arthur Stiley but there was no answer on his land or mobile line. I then informed Les Fisher of the situation and he said we had done all we could.
Both Shipton and ourselves believe that we came to a fair and amicable decision and would hope that there are no further ramifications from the League Committee"
The Committee considered this matter and felt that no further action should be taken

Email from Belmore Jags requesting Postponement of Div 2 game v Newton Heath on Saturday, 30th October. Owing to injuries and a number of 1st team players being unavailable because they were to be in Blackpool at a wedding, Belmore Jags requested that they be allowed to postpone their home Division Two fixture against Newton Heath Reserves. As this request had not been made 8 weeks in advance, permission was not given. Belmore Jags were reminded that, in accordance with the provisions of rule 10(F), if they were to postpone a game because of non availability of players on this date, they would have to cancel their reserve team's Div 4 game first. They were also reminded that rule 10(F) set out strict guidelines for penalising a club which postponed any game.

Email from Rod Buchanan, new Secretary of Finlay Rovers: An email had been received from Rod Buchanan. Rod had assumed the position of secretary of Finlay Rovers following the death of Tony Martindale. Rod gave the reasons for the postponement of both Finlay Rovers matches on Saturday, 23rd October. He detailed that only a maximum of 7 players had attended training the previous Wednesday as 7 were ill with a flu virus, 5 had muscular injuries and 5 were away for half term. Another 3 had to work on Saturday 23rd.
In light of these difficulties and in view of the obvious efforts that were being made by the officers of Finlay Rovers in trying circumstances, the meeting decided to take no action against Finlay Rovers in this instance. Furthermore, the officers of the league resolved to be proactive in their assistance of Finlay Rovers' new officers in the immediate future.

Returned post intended for Mr O. Tustin of Beaufort United. It was reported that a letter had been returned marked "no longer at this address" which had originally been mailed to Mr O. Tustin. Mr Tustin had been identified as a member of Beaufort United when that club folded and, as such, was held responsible for an equal share of the debt left by the club. The meeting decided to take no further action as Mr Tustin's name did not appear on the list of players from Beaufort United who were still barred from registering with another club in the Cheltenham League.

Fixtures:
October 30th: Fixtures for Saturday, October 30th were circulated
November 2004: It was reported that revised fixtures for November 2004, including rearranged games for November 6th involving some of the clubs who were no longer involved in County Cup matches, had been prepared. These were to be passed, as relevant, to the Cheltenham Borough Council pitch authorities.
Postponed Fixtures: The meeting was informed that all but 1 of the outstanding fixtures had been rearranged and that this fixture would be rescheduled once the relevant Northern Senior League fixture list had been received from the home club concerned

Rule Offences:
The following Clubs have been fined under Rule 8 B No Stamped Addressed Envelopes Fined £2.00 Tewkesbury YMCA
The following Clubs have been fined under Rule 10b No First Aid Kit, fined £5.00:
18/09/04- Div 2 Newton Heath, 16/10/04- Charities Cup, Prestbury Rovers
Late Kick Off, fined £5.00:
09/10/04 Div 3 Phoenix United away 15 minutes

The following Clubs have been fined under Rule 11a Fined £5.00. each offence.
No Reg numbers on result card : 18/09/04 - Div 3 Charlton Rovers
Incorrect Referee's details : 14/09/04 - Div 2 Newton Heath. No referee named when V.Prout. 18/09/04 - Div 2 Newton Heath. No referee named when M.Murray. 25/09/04- Div 3 Naunton Park. Stated M.Jeffries when should have been K.Perry. 9/10/04- Div 1 Northway: No referee named. 9/10/04- Div 4 Falcons. Stated M Daives when should have been P. Gilder
No Date Details: 18/09/04 - Div 1 Northway: Result Card not dated
No Club Details: 18/09/04 - Div 1: Northway: No Club name
No Division Details: 18/09/04 - Div1 Northway: No details of division for match
No Team Details: 18/09/04 - Div 2 Moreton Rangers: No details of teams playing in match. 9/10/04 Div 2 Moreton Rangers: No details of teams playing in match. 16/10/04 Div 2 Moreton Rangers: No details of teams playing in match
No Sportsmanship marks: 9/10/04 Div 1 Northway
No Referees Marks: 16/10/04 Div 4 Hi Tec Rangers

The following Clubs have been fined under Rule 11b Late Results: fined £10.00 . 25/09/04 County Cup Newton Heath, Rowanfield, AC Olympia (no result)
02/10/04 County Cup Belmore Jags, Charlton Rovers (no result), Bourton Rovers (5.35 pm). St Marks also phoned in a County Cup result at 5.50 pm on this day but were not charged as the game was only settled following extra time and the taking or 22 penalties
09/10/04 - Div 3 St Marks, Div 5 Stanton (no result)
16/10/04 - Junior Charities Cup Bishops Cleeve IV (no result)
23/10/04 - Div 2 Gas Green, Smiths Athletic II (no result)

Any Other Business:
The League Treasurer, Mr Les Fisher, presented an interim statement of the League's accounts, which indicated that the League continued on a sound financial footing. The treasurer undertook to present a more complete set of accounts to the next meeting.

It was reported to the meeting that the collection at the funeral of Peter Jurd had raised in excess of £400

An incident at a recent Northleach Town home match, in which a member of the public indicated that they would report the referee to the Northleach Parish Council for allowing the match to be played, was reported. It was agreed that the situation would be monitored.

It was proposed by the Chairman and seconded by the Secretary that the start time of League Management Committee meetings should revert to 7-15 pm. This was agreed.

It was reported that it had become apparent that Tewkesbury Dynamos were engaged in efforts to move their home ground to the Dowty Rotol club in Staverton. This move was in response to the problems the club had experienced at both Tewkesbury School and Pamington fields this season. The notion of the move was approved in anticipation of permission being sought and the hope that this would see an end of Tewkesbury Dynamos nomadic existence was expressed

The Treasurer requested that all officers who wish to claim expenses should do so on a monthly basis.

NEXT MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING WEDNESDAY 24th NOVEMBER 2004
COMMENCING AT 7-15 PM

For your Diary the remaining meeting dates are:,
2005 Jan 5th, Jan 26th, Feb 23rd, Mar 30th, April 27th, May 25th.
CLUB MEETINGS: 26th JANUARY 2005.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JUNE 8TH 2005.