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North East Sports Quiz League
Minutes of Annual General Meeting held at
Byker Union Club 8th June 2006
The meeting began with the Chairman
passing on the apologies of Philadelphia Cricket Club ‘A’ team who
unfortunately couldn’t attend the meeting.
The Chairman asked if everyone had read the
minutes from last years AGM, and if so, were there any matters
arising. There being none, the Chairman asked if the minutes were a
true record of the meeting. Kevin Turner proposed the acceptance of
the minutes, Steve Westerby seconded and the minutes were accepted.
Secretary’s Report
The Secretary started by saying that
on the quiz front, the season had been highly enjoyable and as
competitive as ever. He reported that of the 166 League Games
scheduled for this season only two had not been played. Bearing in
mind that fixtures were still being changed due to UEFA Cup nights,
the small number of lost fixtures highlighted the continued commitment
and flexibility of everyone in the League. The Secretary informed the
meeting that the League had lost two long serving teams this season.
Gateshead Fell who were formerly United Services Club and who had been
in the League even longer than the Chairman had sadly resigned from
the League early this season and Castle & Anchor had also left the
League after 25 years.
Both Leagues had been highly
competitive. East End Liberal Club again won the Premier League title,
whilst the ‘B’ League had been as competitive as ever. He went on to
point out that we would be down to 18 teams for next season and
highlighted the continuing problems of attracting new teams but the
Committee would again strive to find new blood for the League.
The Secretary then thanked the
Chairman and Committee for their work during the year and paid special
thanks to the Publicity Secretary for his work in running the web
site. This made keeping up with results and League placings so much
easier and the Secretary thanked Dave Westerby on the League’s behalf.
Chairman’s Remarks
The Chairman endorsed
the Secretary’s remarks about the competitive nature of the two
Leagues this season. He thanked the Committee for their work during
the season and thanked all the question compilers for League and Cup
quizzes. He also endorsed the Secretary’s thanks to Dave Westerby for
running the web site .He thanked the Secretary for his work during the
year. He also mentioned the problems of attracting new teams into the
League. He said the team from Sunderland who played in the Challenge
Cup with a view to joining the League had ultimately withdrawn saying
that the wide diversity of sports had put them off.
He went on to say
that the Publicity Secretary would produce a handbook for the new
season and that all teams would receive one copy which they could then
photocopy for their team. The Chairman mentioned the 30th
anniversary celebration night at the PTE Club which had taken place at
the end of last season. He said the turnout had been good but a few
current teams hadn’t turned up but it was good to see some of the
original founders of the League there as well as some ‘old faces’ and
it had been a good and enjoyable night. He thanked Paul Davison for
the original idea.
Finally, he wished all teams good luck for next
season.
Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer asked if everyone had
seen a copy of the balance sheet. He stated that Castle & Anchor
hadn’t paid their League fees for this season. He then asked if there
were any questions. Barry Howbridge asked how the affiliation fees
came to £325 when the fees were £20 per team. The Treasurer replied by
saying the extra £5 had probably been from the raffle at last years
AGM and had been inadvertently put in the wrong income column. The
acceptance of the balance sheet was proposed by Saltwell SC and
seconded by Whitley Bay and unanimously accepted by the floor.
Election of Officials
The Chairman stated that all four
officials were prepared to carry on again next season and there had
been no names put forward for any of the jobs. The Officials were
accepted unanimously by the meeting.
League Structure
There were two proposals on the table
for league structure, one from Blaydon RFC
Proposal of League Structure by Blaydon RFC
The League structure to
be of 3 Leagues
Premier
Division
East End Liberal Club
Leeholme SC
Byker PTE
Britannia Hotel
Kirk Merrington
The Bene
Division ‘B’
Ovington SC
East End Nomads
Old Shildon WMC
Saltwell SC
St Teresas
Philadelphia CC ‘A’
Division ‘C’
Wolsington Hotel
Blaydon RFC
Morpeth Harriers
Whitley Bay
Philadelphia CC ‘B’
Mount Pleasant
All leagues to play Home and Away
And
Proposal of League Structure as of this season
The League structure to
be of 2 Leagues of 9 teams each. Due to the withdrawals of Gateshead
Fell and Castle & Anchor, three teams would have to be promoted from
the B League.
Premier
Division
East End Liberal Club
Leeholme SC
Byker PTE
Britannia Hotel
Kirk Merington
The Bene
East End Nomads
Saltwell SC
St Teresas
Division ‘B’
Philadelphia CC ‘A’
Old Shildon WMC
Ovington SC
Wolsington Hotel
Blaydon RFC
Morpeth Harriers
Whitley Bay
Philadelphia CC ‘B’
Mount Pleasant
All leagues to play opposition once only
The Secretary explained that the
Committee had received a letter from Mike Hind of Blaydon RFC
proposing the Three Leagues of six teams. He said that three leagues
would be beneficial in that it would make each league more competitive
and would allow an easier standard of question to be set for the ‘C’
league whilst the ‘B’ league would have their own questions and
wouldn’t use either Premier or C League quizzes.
A discussion took place about the
merits of three leagues. Barry Howbridge asked if Question Compilers
would be a problem as in the past the Premier League had set their own
quiz. The Secretary assured Barry that the League already had someone
willing to set the Premier League quizzes and that there were enough
teams in the B League with Premier League experience to also help with
quizzes should the need arise. Players in the Premier League would set
the B League quizzes and someone had indicated that they would set the
C League. Mike Hind asked if whoever was setting the C League quiz
could consider the standard carefully and make them easier. The
Secretary told Mike that this would be taken into consideration. East
End Liberal Club made the point that with three leagues of six the
number of games played would be ten in each league meaning that
fixture congestion would not be an issue this year as it was the last
time three leagues was proposed. The Secretary asked if anyone wanted
to speak in favour of the current two league structure. No one did. A
vote was taken and the Three League structure was passed by 15 votes
to 2
Election of Committee
The Chairman praised the current
Committee members for their work and said that all had indicated they
would be prepared to serve again next season. With the new three
league structure it actually worked out the current Committee had two
representatives from each League There being no new names put forward,
the current Committee were given the meetings endorsement to carry on.
Proposals for Rule Changes/Amendments
The Secretary
reported that there were no proposals for changes to Rules or to the
content of the quiz but there were two proposals to change the format
of the Cup competitions. A proposal had been made by Byker PTE to
change the format of the Challenge Cup to a regional format. There
would be two groups in the North of the region and two in the South.
The groups would comprise two of five teams and two of four. The two
five team groups would have a qualifying round to reduce the number to
four teams in each group. These four groups of four would then play
off on one night at one venue as two Semi-Finals and a Final to
produce a regional winner. The four Regional winners would then meet
again at one venue to play off in Semi-Finals and Final to produce the
Challenge Cup winner. The benefit of this would be that there would be
no long journeys for teams in the Cup and that we would gain a night
as there would only be three nights required for the Cup not four.
A
discussion took place and teams were broadly in favour. The Bene made
the point that with League games being played Home and Away there
would be enough long journeys in the League without adding to them in
the Cup. Leeholme were against the idea saying that they would end up
just playing the same teams each year and they would soon tire of
this. The Secretary made the point that this is something we could try
for a year to see how it works. A vote was taken and the proposal was
passed by 14 votes to 3.
A
proposal by the Committee to change the format of the Knock Out Cup
was then presented. The Secretary explained that with three League of
six, it could be that the Divisional night qualifiers could be a waste
of time if one or two teams failed to turn up. He also stated that the
atmosphere and attendance at Finals Night this year had been
excellent. The proposal was to scrap the KO Cup Qualifying nights and
have one night with all 18 teams competing on Finals Night for the KO
Cup. Kevin Turner said that this was a great idea as we want the
maximum number of teams to attend Finals Night. East End Liberal Club
asked the question who would compile the quiz if all teams were
competing. The Secretary assured them that a Compiler would be found.
Leeholme stated that this was the best idea of the night. A vote was
taken and the proposal was unanimously carried.
Any Other Business
There being no other business, the
meeting ended and the Presentation of trophies began.
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