LANCASHIRE AREA BTBA
Minutes of
Third quarterly meeting held at Superbowl Accrington on Saturday 21st September 2002.
Present Apologies
Bev Weisenburger Vice Chairman John Larrard
Dave Weisenburger John Smith
Scott Weisenburger Jeff Calvert
Pat Clift Tina Calvert
Cath Dennison Ged Marcus
Bryan Wiggans 9; Treasurer Chris Aldersley
Barbara Glover Phil Aldersley
Zara Glover Rachel Jennings
Mike Glover 9; Secretary Eddie Pomfret
Jenny Lloyd Len Dudley
Mal Holmes Chairman Sheila Southern
Paul Wild Jim Missen
Julie Wild
Geoff Rens
Anthony Ashworth
Pete Singleton
Jackie Batty
Mike Glover confirmed having attended the County Secretaries convention and raised the following points with the BTBA National Chairman and head office staff as requested from our previous quarterly meeting :-
The Go Tenpin magazine was discussed
Mike Glover confirmed having discussed with Head Office the complaint of slow response to cards and incorrect county registration ie. Cheshire / Lancashire.
Lack of team England tournaments in the north were generally because of poor numbers supporting these. Bev W. reinforced this comment after experiencing the lack of support for sanctioned tournament held recently at Morecambe, which had very few Lancashire entries, even though there was considerable prize money to be won, but many from outside Lancashire
The reason for the BTBA membership for everybody except Gold Card members starting from the 1st September until 31st August started in 1961 and is in line with the majority if not all of the countries who are members of the World Organisation.
The forum on the web site (www.lancsbtba.co.uk) had been quiet over the summer.
Bryan Wiggans reported that not much activity had taken place through the Centre reps. He stated that he would produce a pack that he would send to each rep to get them going. Mike Glover requested that all attendees make use of this new communication network to get the reps familiarised with the role they had volunteered for. Contact him for any numbers or emails as necessary.
Mike Glover reported an increase in sanctioned leagues. This was mainly from Mega bowl Preston where it was anticipated that 3 leagues were being sanctioned. However it was also anticipated that all leagues at Accrington and Blackpool Superbowl when set up would be sanctioned. There was one new league at Lakeside Preston that had also applied for sanctioning.
Bev Weisenburger and Jenny Lloyd reported having a very successful Grand Prix Doubles tournament at Morecambe where £ 3500 prize money was paid out in scratch and handicap sections sponsored by Carlsberg, Pepsi and Britvic. It is anticipated to run this tournament again next year. Also Morecambe intend to run another Little and Large tournament again probably in May 2003
Bryan Wiggans reported that the County Trials invitation to tender letter had been sent out to 10 No centres in Lancashire with a return date required by the 27th September. It was anticipated that the Trials Committee (Bryan Wiggans, Geof Rens Mal Holmes) would make a decision by the end of the month. The Trials date had been provisionally set for the first three Sundays in November to fit in with the new requirements of the junior system this coming year.
County Championships. Mike Glover informed the meeting that it was the responsibility of each county to hold such a tournament on a set date decided by the National BTBA around the second weekend in May. He confirmed his willingness to run this tournament. Pat Clift and Jenny Lloyd volunteered to assist. Bryan Wiggans confirmed that he would assist with the scoring. MG confirmed that he had a format already used by other counties as a starting point.
Scott Banks. Pete Singleton confirmed having had some preliminary discussions with Phil and Chris Aldersley. A further meeting between the three was planned to get the ball rolling. PS&MG confirmed having a meeting with Rita Wood of Yorkshire to establish approximate dates of Feb / March next year probably when the trials used to take place. Phil/Chris Aldersley to contact Rita to sort out actual date.
Junior tournaments. Barbara Glover and Pete Singleton reported that the Lancashire v Yorkshire and the Six counties had been successfully held. Cheshire had cancelled the Lancashire v Cheshire match. The under 14s Counties Tournament at Liverpool was planned by Jim Missen for the end of October.
Mike Glover confirmed attending this meeting over a weekend in Leicester. It was apparent that Lancashire whilst suffering similar difficulties to other counties was with numbers of centres and members, one of the larger counties.
The meeting in Leicester was informed of the new changes taking place with the police certification/licensing of anybody within the sport dealing with under 18 year olds.
We were also informed of the BTBA national councils intention of looking very seriously at what would be necessary by way of change to alter the image of Tenpin Bowling from a leisure pastime to a sport that would be more readily accepted by Sport England and The National Lottery Funding committee and as a consequence the International Olympics committee, because the strong desire of the BTBA and the International Bowling organisations (F.I.Q.) was to get the sport included in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. It had been included in the Commonwealth games four years ago in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, but the FIQ world bowling organisation and the BTBA had been unsuccessful in getting Tenpin Bowling into the games at Manchester although they had tried very hard.
Bev Weisenburger stated that more shirts had been recently ordered and will be available shortly. She pointed out to all at the meeting that it would be cheaper if it were possible to decide the quantities of shirts required and place one bulk order. Barbara Glover pointed out that it was nearly too late for the juniors as there would only be the under 14 Intercounty tournament left after 6th October.
Mike Glover confirmed having chased the alternative shirt supplier proposed by Carl Dulson and that a sample shirt was nearly ready for despatch to Bev Weisenburger. Bev agreed to chase this matter up for comparison of quality and cost with the existing shirt supplier.
The meeting agreed that as a result of changing the trial dates to November it would be easier for each group manager to identify their new squad and establish straight away who qualified and wished to purchase a shirt . All managers at the same time could pass their order to Bev to permit one order for the entire year with a small number of extras to be carried as spares. This method was to be adopted from now on.
PS/BG reported that the final one of the six training sessions had taken place.
The Six Counties Tournament at Scunthorpe had taken place. Congratulations to the boys who achieved 1st place.
In the Lancs v Yorks junior tournament held at Liverpool Lanc's did better than ever winning the majority of there head to head matches but losing by a very small margin on overall pinfall.
The under 18 girls did very well coming 3rd in the inter-county finals at Nottingham
Paul Wild reported that he was now in contact with Fred Miller and Jeff Calvert and starting to receive information from last year’s activities. He was also now making contact via the internet with some of the YAC’s within the county. Paul confirmed that he was trying to put together a local YAC league from all the centres run on the back of the YBCs
Dave Weisenburger put forward proposals for a tournament for the YACs that could be developed for all age groups. Dave was asked to put his proposals down in writing for discussion at the next meeting.
Paul confirmed that he had applied for his certification/ clearance to work with the under 18 year olds but was part of the national backlog which the authorities were gradually processing.
In the absence of Chris and Phil Aldersley who had been on holiday Barbara and Mike Glover stood in and managed the adult teams on the day and reported that the Intercounty tournament was a very enjoyable day at Lincoln. The ladies qualified and go through to the next round to represent the county at the final in Bedford in November. Unfortunately the men who bowled very well and looked to be in with a good chance until a poor last game let them down came fourth and just failed to qualify for the final.
Pat Clift reported that as always with the seniors, a very enjoyable time was had, also at Lincoln, even though neither of the teams qualified for the final this year.
Very little appeared to have taken place since the last meeting regarding fund raising. Pat Clift handed over the proceeds of the word search competition to Bryan Wiggans. The meeting thanked Pat for her efforts. The badges and pens were still available but seemed difficult to get going.
Mike Glover asked if there had been any progress with the Supermarket bag packing idea. Barbara Glover had tried to contact a number of people to find out what progress was being made without success. She agreed to continue to chase this because everybody at the meeting agreed that it was a very good idea. BG to contact Ged Marcus. If no progress could be made the meeting suggested that the local supermarkets be contacted by any attendees at the meeting on behalf of the Lancs BTBA to find one that would permit this fund raising activity.
Bryan Wiggans informed the meeting of the latest financial situation of the county.
Mal Holmes confirmed that he had recently attended his first National council meeting and as a consequence invited comments and ideas from the members present and from the Lancashire Group Site on all aspect of change for the future of our sport and governing body itself. He further went on to explain that Mr. J. Egan a fellow member of the National Council had posed a few questions in regard to these issues, which the members from around the Country could reply to.
The Chairman requested that it be put on record that the County would like to express their sincerest thanks to the Management of Morecambe bowl for the running of a sanctioned tournament recently. The scratch event was won by a Yorkshire Team and the handicap event by a Junior Team from our own County. WELL DONE to both.
The Chairman would like to wish Chris Maughan from Blackpool the County’s warmest congratulations on being selected for England.
Mike Glover thanked Jenny Lloyd and her team at their very smart new bowl at Accrington for their hospitality and refreshments and wished them on behalf of the Lancs BTBA every success with this new venture.
The secretary told the meeting that he had recently been informed of an organisation run by Sport England called ‘Volunteer Investment Programme’ V.I.P. This was specifically to help and support quote "the unsung heroes of English sport - the volunteer – You". It was totally free. All you have to do is ring 0800 363 373 explain what you are doing as a volunteer and they will put you on their data base and send you an information pack which is very useful and informative. The more of you that do it the better it is for our ‘SPORT’
Next Meeting. With the lack of suitable rooms now available in the south west corner of the county it was suggested to hold the next meeting at Blackpool Premier Bowl if this was acceptable to the Proprietor/ General Manager at Blackpool. (Post Meeting note. Rooms not available at Blackpool due to Xmas functions) Venue to be confirmed. The date was confirmed as Saturday 14th December 2002 at 7.00pm. The first meeting would be the Annual General Meeting for the election of Lancashire Area Executive committee members for 2003 followed by the normal quarterly meeting