Post
by Stephen Westmoreland » Fri Jul 05, 2024 5:40 pm
It was the League AGM on the 3rd July.
Take out from the League AGM:
· All Committee positions are retained and a Competition Controller post added, run by Pavan.
· The AGM agreed to increase the board count to 6 boards for all competitions
· Player swopping between clubs within individual competitions is once more banned, with one caveat.
· Players can be sent to Honley and Belgrave to make up the numbers IF they are under 1600. This is whilst they recruit up. Both clubs do not have the numbers but want to see the league increase board count.
· The Keddie Cup becomes a league scratch rapidplay competition with 6 boards, finishing at Holmfirth near David’s birthday in December. The Bill Lumley runs as a handicap in the New Year.
· We agreed to put an extra team into the Calderdale League. The proposal to just go in as clubs was declined by all but the league wanted to still name the teams to differentiate rather than just do A, B & C e.g. Huddersfield Knights, Tigers, Rooks and so forth. Names TBD by the Captains.
· An u1300 (or such) competition is to be run, potentially alongside the Watkinsons. Rob Mitchell and Pavan to sort.
· The Individual KO Competitions are to come back in with a £5 fee for adults and £2.50 for juniors. Note due to the low level of players and influx of juniors, the grade boundaries need to change. Nigel, Pavan and Rob to sort the detail.
· The handicap scoring system is to be changed. The proposed Edinburgh system was voted down in favour of a system Alec proposed. A max difference of 390 per board agreed, with boundaries jumping to 2340. Everyone got the logic bar me but I am severely lacking in sleep and have been travelling with work for the last three days.
-The KO was won by Huddersfield. Examiner and Watkinsons League by Honley. Bill Lumley Trophy and Keddie Cup by Holmfirth.
The President's talk (OK I said more than this):
The recovery of the League continues. A deliberate decision was made to only run the Keddie Cup and Watkinsons in September, to allow Meltham and Dewsbury time to build and enter the League. They did and the subsequent surge in enthusiasm and numbers gave us our most successful season since around 2015.
For context the Examiner League 2018-19 has in Huddersfield, Calderdale, Honley and Wakefield. This season we had Huddersfield, Honley, Holmfirth x2, Meltham, Dewsbury and Belgrave.
In terms of individuals playing in competitions:
Bill Lumley - 39
Examiner – 55
KO – 46
Keddie – 41
Watkinsons 38
The development and progress of Meltham has been astounding and a huge congratulations for starting to rebuild Denby Dale. Tony also did a fantastic job in rebuilding Dewsbury and I am sure he will do the same at Denby Dale.
I am also delighted to see the volume of new and junior players. This is alongside enthusiastic participation in the Yorkshire teams. A special shout out to Alex Burke and Isaac Fossey, we were integral players in the winning Yorkshire u18s team in the NCCU Pennine Cup. Alex in particular is one of the most feared junior players in the County. I continue to encourage and support players wanting to play for County.
Good luck to those out for the u1650s in the County Finals this weekend. Gaz, Isaac and Hamid (that I am aware of). Others that have played this season include myself, Jacob, Alex, Dan, Dave Booth, Dave Colledge, Drew Batley, Colin, Rogan, John George, Tony, Viv, Granville, Dave Patrick, Rob, Will Peacock and Harley Townsend. The HDCA fully supports Yorkshire.
For 2024/25 I would like to see the league strengthen and responsibilities shared. We are still over-reliant on a small number of people and this needs to spread out more.
Let’s continue this build, get more new clubs going and bring back more competitions.
Yorkshire, HDCA & Holmfirth
Not that Hebden are precisely doing *badly*, what with fielding three teams all stacked in the middle of the table.