Secretary’s Notes

I cannot believe it was a year ago that I last wrote my notes, and it again has been an interesting and I believe a successful year for the Association.

Captain Tony has written a comprehensive review of the year and I know he thoroughly enjoyed it. He played 22 times as well as attending some County dinners even winning the Bedfordshire golf event. He has been a member of the Association since 1996 and has easily played in more matches than anyone else. He fully deserved to be Captain.

We attracted 9 new members this year, but membership remains the key issue. The Committee has addressed this at the 4 meetings we have held. Visits have been made to a couple of non-active clubs without any success so far. The Club Ambassadors have been asked to increase their efforts, but it might be useful if all members reading this tried to get their colleagues to join. A few clubs are very proactive, but most are not. Of the 108 members on the database only about 80 are actually participating.

The real effect of this is that the Match Managers struggled to get a team for most matches this year. We only had 12 a side for the Ladies Beds and London. We only had 15 for Herts and Essex. A big thank you to the Match Managers in particular John French who had the two most difficult ones. Also thanks to David Liston for coming in half way through the year to take over from Bob Jones as Match Secretary. We could do with some more Match Managers to spread the load. Please consider being one and fill in the box on the 2024 form.

Looking at the Match/Events statistics we must also be grateful to the following most reliable members for their participation and filling in for withdrawals. Bob Barnes and Richard Nightingale played 9 times. Doug Ebdon 10, John Pettitt, Brian Rodgers and Roger Warren 11 and Rob Southerden 12. On the minus side 20% of invitations were declined and overall there were 41 withdrawals which is well above previous years.

David will be sending out the 2024 Subs/Match form at the end of the year and again I ask you complete and return quickly. It is a frustrating task to send out reminders and we need to know members availability for matches by the end of February to make the selection process easier. This also applies to match/events and a good example was the Autumn Meeting when 27 members did not respond at all even after a reminder. If you cannot play, please let us know.

We will be having our AGM at the Spring Meeting at Sonning and the papers will be sent out in good time. If you have any points you wish to raise, please let me know.

Next year’s fixtures are now in place and can be seen here in this newsletter. It’s a difficult task doing this as I must get it all done early and cannot now visit the clubs to arrange it all and agree the prices. It’s much better to do this in person rather than by phone or email. Prices have remained stable for 2024 so we do not need to increase our match fees as shown in Dougs Financial report.

Having moved to Devizes also means my ability to step in for a withdrawal is limited and attending County dinners is more difficult. I have therefore decided to resign as Secretary from December 2025 when I reach 80. I will have been on the Committee since 2009 so feel I have done my bit.

We are therefore looking for a replacement and if you are at all interested, please let me or another Committee member know. I had just retired when I joined, and it is a task that keeps you busy and your mind active. I can send details of requirements on request.

I still get requests for various information, most of which is available on the website. The website is always up to date and here is a reminder of some of the attributes:

1. The matches will show who has been selected and once active who is playing.
2. Click on the Postcode for a club to see the location and the directions to it.
3. The tabs at the top of the home page will take you to this and past newsletters as well as clothing details.
4. You can get the email and phone numbers for everyone by adding /memberdownloads to the home page logon. I do it this way to protect the information. I believe some of this information is out of date as I have not been informed of changes of club, address or phone numbers. Please check your entry and let me know if it has changed.

Lastly please let me know of anything that you would like discussed or anything you consider would improve our organisation, matches and meetings.

Peter (Hon Secretary)