Central Herts Petanque League


AGM Minutes

16.03.2020
at Whitehill Golf Club		 League Organisation
Matt Beattie was confirmed at League Chair for the 2020-2021 season and Chris Sweeney the divisional organiser and treasurer. Nigel Wood nominated to assist with league finances and act as a sigantory, and this was confirmed by vote.

Number of teams in the league
The Farmers Boy intend to enter a second team this season.

League commencement
The original plan was to commence the season after the Easter weekend; and make use of the additional weeks that the move in early May bank holiday to a Friday would afford us to run an additional tournament. However, owing to the Coronavirus outbreak, the season would not be able to start as planned following Easter. The First of June was decided as the latest possible start date to fit in a full season, and was decided on as a realistic start date should any distancing measures/pub closures take place, if restrictions were lifted. As there is uncertainty around this, a decision will be made nearer to the time. It is likely that additional tournaments will be abandoned if a full season is played with a later start date.

Food
Given the issues around transmission of Coronavirus, it was decided that the requirement for pubs/teams to provide food should be removed for this season.

League Subscriptions
There will be no league subscription for the coming year, as the league is still solvent and has sufficient resources.

AOB
There was no other business at this stage.
31.03.2019
at the Brown Bear		 League Organisation
Matt Beattie was confirmed at League Chair for the 2019-2020 season and Chris Sweeney the divisional organiser and treasurer.

League commencement
It was decided that the leage would commence the first Monday following the Easter weekend, i.e. 29.04.2019. It is appreciated that this will give a single game before the May Day holiday, but owing to where Easter falls this year, there is no realistic alternative. The duration and structure of the league will be dependent on the number of teams.

Number of teams in the league
Efforts have been made over the last couple of years to attract new teams to the league, resulting in Whitehill at Dane End joining last season. We will continue to try and attract new teams to the league - Matt has been contacting pubs in the area known to have gardens/pistes/play in other leagues. He will also contact former teams to see if there are players who might wish to form new teams/re-enter existing teams. It was decided that if we continue to have 7/8 teams in the league, then the "season and a half" format that we have been running to date will continue, while if we have 9/10 teams, we will need to revert to a full season. A move to a full season will allow us to have some catch up weeks during the season for catch up and cup games.

It should be noted that where there are an odd number of teams, additional bye weeks are necessary - it is encouraged that teams use these, particularly in the summer months, to organise friendly games against other pubs (including those in other leagues or those who may be able only to field occasional teams).

Rules Several items were raised:
  • Use of Hoops/Rings: It was clarified/reiterated that hoops may be used instead of drawn circles. These may be official hoops, or home-made, e.g. out of hosepipes. The sizes are stipulated in our league rules. Following discussion, it was decided that no change was required to our rules.
  • Failure to correctly throw the coche: It was noted that Pétanque England have changed the rules re throwing the coche (only once then opposition can place choche); this was discussed that noted that at this time we are not changing our rules this year (i.e. we will still allow three times before opponent can go), OR using locally adopted rules such as kicking it in may be played, subject to prior agreement between captains. The local rules will be altered to reflect the name change of the BPA and also this modification to their official rules.
  • Marking of piste length: This was discussed and the outcome was that it would be appreciated if teams could mark either string or wooden side in metres or a ten metre length to give indication of distance and maximum lengths. Owing to different piste design it would be impossible to enforce this rule, so no change to the rules result from this.

League Finances The following motions were carried:
  • The league finances to be moved to an account at a branch local to the current organisational staff. Martyn (Old Bulls Head) co-opted to assist with this.
  • A trophy to be acquired for the winning league pub

End Season do This was discussed, and voted that teams would like a social event at the end of the season. Date and venue to be decided.