WILTSHIRE VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Held at Devizes, Hare and Hounds Public House
Tuesday 19thJune 2012 at 19:00
1. Present
Cliff Ball Chair Calne
Paul Rainey Secretary Olympiad
Sarah Newstead Ladies Development Devizes
Steve Spurlock Vice Chair Aquae Sulis
Richard Howells Mixed League Wootton Bassett
Serena Morten Treasurer Calne
Su Brennand Junior Development (Boys) Melksham
Irwin Aiken Beach Development Wootton Bassett
Hans Kaashoek Devizes
Neil Bentley Competiton Secretary Calne
Kelly Jones Swindon
Steve Grimes Mavericks
Apologies
Jenny Boorman Child Welfare Officer Calne
Matt Stevens Junior Development (Girls) Devizes
Richard Morten Calne
Jorg Steimer Wootton Bassett
Matt Morten Calne
David James Erlestoke
Chris Warren Olympiad
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting
a. Everyone accepted the minutes as a true account of the meeting held on 7th March 2012 and the AGM of 29th June 2011
3. Matters Arising
a. Matt Stevens to liaise with Richard Howells for a diary for clubs. Club calendars will only be linked if the club specifically requests it as there are already web pages on other sites e.g. SWVA
Action – Richard Howells to add link to SWVA website.
b. Away teams trying to approve their results when the home team has not entered them will have their bonus points re-applied manually as long as the away team has informed the league secretary before the end of the 2 week window.
Action – Clubs to consider if the results approval should generate bonus points, points deducted if not approved or no points.
c. Insurance – It was suggested that a copy of the group insurance policy be attached to the minutes of the meeting as an appendix.
Action – Cliff Ball to get Richard Howells to put a link on the WVA website with reference to version and date.
d. Fining of clubs has not happened for non-attendance to meetings. It was suggested loss of league point would be more of an incentive. The only issue is if a club has more than 1 team. Devizes was suggested as a location as this seems to be more central.
Action – Cliff Ball to ask clubs what would be a good punitive action to get clubs turning up to meetings.
e. Devizes have asked for the return of a set of Mavericks kit from Leasa Williams.
Action – A member of the Olympiad to contact Leasa to try and retrieve the Mavericks kit.
4. WVA Executive Committee Summary Reports
a. Chair (Cliff Ball) – See WVA Annual Report in Appendix A
b. Vice Chair (Steve Spurlock) – Not been involved too much during the season but hope to get more involved in the coming year.
c. Secretary (Paul Rainey) – The only real responsibility given by the executive committee has been providing the minutes for the meetings which have been supplied in time.
d. Treasurer (Serena Morten) - See Appendix B. It was also mentioned that entry into tournaments is £30 per team. This is to cover the court costs and trophies. For the returnable trophies, it was discussed that they should be returned, engraved by 1st Jan. If the trophy is not returned, then there should be a fine of £20 per trophy.
Action – Cliff Ball to look at changing the rules to cover the loss of trophies.
e. Child Welfare (Jenny Boorman) – If a club has any juniors, then coaches have to be CRB checked with Volleyball England. For identification, your passport needs to be sent off to VE. This is sent back return of post. There is a course Safeguarding in sport which costs around £25.
Action – Jenny Boorman to provide information on course.
f. League Secretary (Richard Howells) – See Appendix C. The only issue that needs to be looked at is the league/ player registration.
Action – Richard Howells to state what is not quite right with all registration being tied to a league club and liaise with the Ladies & Junior and Competition secretaries.
g. Competitions Secretary (Calne VC – Neil Bentley) – See Appendix D. For the Dave Kinder Cup Final, it was suggested that each club provide an official with the referees being neutral.
Action – Neil Bentley to suggest method of ensuring officials at Cup final.
The end of season tournament has 2 trophies. This year’s tournament went very well but it was thought that it would be better if the tournament was run as 2 competitions, with each team entering into the Plate or the Shield. The only comment was that a better method of announcing the start and finish of the matches would be beneficial. Everyone thanked Neil for running the competitions.
h. Junior Girls (Matt Stevens) – See Appendix E.
i. Junior Boys (Su Brennand) – A number of girls from Swindon have been selected for the first round in Exeter. Dates are on the website but a couple may have to change. The South West are looking for an under 17’s coach for next season. The South west U15 boys came 2nd and the U17 came 3rd, half of which are playing in the UK school games. Next year the regionals will be a 1 day competition and therefore the South West Championships may have to move. Would like to see more Wiltshire juniors playing generally and in the competitions. Andrew Aiken has played in the U17 as a libero.
j. Ladies Development (Sarah Newstead) – See Appendix F. Thanks from Cliff Ball for all the effort put in and congratulations on getting the Merit Award.
k. Beach Development (Irwin Aiken) – See Appendix G. The format for the matches will probably be based on King and Queen of the court where the winner is the person with the most individual points difference. Thanks go to Swindon council for clearing the drainage for the court.
Action – Irwin Aiken to get link for the beach info on WB website to WVA.
Action – Irwin Aiken to get beach forum on WVA website.
(Richard Howells to advise on general access to the website)
5. Club Round Up
a. Aquae Sulis/ Trowbridge – Training is stabilising on Monday evenings with approximately 14 turning up each week. There are a lot of new players which may cause issues with putting a team in for next season. Trowbridge have around 30 people turning up each week and there may be a possibility to do a combined team in the Wiltshire league.
b. Devizes – See Appendix H.
c. Melksham – Seniors are doing fine with players but language can be an issue during training due to the diversity of people turning up. Juniors are going OK but a feed from the schools is required to increase/ keep the numbers up.
d. Calne – Good numbers for adults and juniors. The club has coped well with having 3 teams in the leagues this year and hopefully won’t loose too many players.
e. Olympiad – This season has not been as good as previous years, primarily due to injuries and work commitments which should hopefully be less next year.
f. Wootton Bassett – Quite a successful season for both teams, with training having stable numbers and hope to have 2 teams again next year. The Ladies will be playing in the Ladies & Junior League next year and also the south west.
g. Swindon – Have 18 juniors, all U13/ U12 and won both age groups at Boscombe. 1 player has been selected for U15 but is only 12. 9 of the players are looking to go to south west next year. Kelly Jones had previously done the coaching for work, but now is doing it voluntarily.
8/7 – tournament para challenge which is for juniors but not specifically for disabled.
10/8 – Life Site (Swindon). Volleyball will be on all day, hopefully on 2 courts (1 junior, 1 adult).
The adults comprising of 15 – 20 Goans play on Mondays from 6 – 8at St Josephs School and also at Coate Water. They are not particularly interested in playing in the league but would be interested in playing in tournaments.
h. Mavericks (Mens) – Had a fantastic season with winning the south west league. There has been no training for the matches which has worked well and have done some experimenting at the matches. Have managed to pull some players in from outside the region for this season and hope to play in south west and nationals next season. The team is for all abilities and would like to hear from other players interested in playing at a higher level. People thanked Steve Grimes for coaching and Matt Morten for doing all the organising.
6. Election of Officers
|
Position
|
Elected
|
Proposed
|
Seconded
|
|
Chair
|
Cliff Ball
|
Paul Rainey
|
Su Brennand
|
|
Vice-Chair
|
Steve Spurlock
|
Serena Morten
|
Neil Bentley
|
|
Secretary
|
Paul Rainey
|
Serena Morten
|
Su Brennand
|
|
Treasurer
|
Serena Morten
|
Richard Howells
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Paul Rainey
|
|
Child Welfare Officer
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Jenny Boorman
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Hans Kaashoek
|
Neil Bentley
|
|
League Secretary
|
Richard Howells
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Irwin Aiken
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Paul Rainey
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|
Competitions Secretary
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Calne
|
Paul Rainey
|
Irwin Aiken
|
|
Junior Girls Development Officer
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Matt Stevens
|
Richard Howells
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Serena Morten
|
|
Junior Boys Development Officer
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Su Brennand
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Irwin Aiken
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Neil Bentley
|
|
Ladies Development Officer
|
Sarah Newstead
|
Richard Howells
|
Serena Morten
|
|
Beach Development Officer
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Irwin Aiken
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Paul Rainey
|
Serena Morten
|
Cliff Ball thanked everyone who took on a role.
7. AOB
a. WVA Blog & new South West Team Administrator – Steve Grimes
When registering players for the league, if email and phone number are provided, then this could be used for communicating to everyone rather than the old ways of a contact passing on info (registration could be done as an opt in/out)
Setting up a blog is possible e.g. Teamer which is virtually free
Set up a WVA Facebook page.
Blog broadcasting can be done to contact everyone easily.
Action – Steve Grimes to give details of how we can move forward with communication.
b. Summer Tournaments – Salisbury tournament 18 – 19/8 but check website for details.
c. Dave Kinder Cup – It was suggested that the tournament could be run as a knockout cup.
d. Club Affiliations – All clubs must be affiliated as soon as possible. The WVA constitution states that all clubs must be affiliated to Volleyball England.
e. Trophies Responsibility – See 4d.
f. Meetings and Attendance.
Action – Cliff Ball to send out email for meeting and that clubs will be fined after next meeting (maybe bonus league point for clubs attending).
g. Paul Rainey – Olympiad volleyball club would have liked to play the End of Season Tournament but due to the rule that all players must have played in at least 1 match meant that a team could not be entered. The player who hadn’t played was a junior and would not have strengthened the side.
Action – Discuss this at next meeting.
h. Irwin Aiken – Asked when the Pre Season Tournament would be.
Wootton Bassett have a number of older balls which are going to be donated to Erlestoke. It was suggested that other clubs could also donate balls to needy clubs.
8. Date of Next Meeting – Wednesday 26th September 2012 Appendices
Appendix A.
Wiltshire Volleyball Association – Annual Report 2011/12 Season
The Wiltshire Volleyball Association (WVA) has had a busy and successful season with a full programme of local league fixtures and various cup competitions taking place regularly throughout the season. The WVA Committee has all positions currently filled comprising of Chair, Vice-Chair, WVA Secretary, Treasurer, League Secretary, Competitions Secretary, Child Welfare Officer, Ladies Development Officer, Junior Development Officers (Boys and Girls) and a new position of Beach Development Officer. A total of five WVA committee meetings were held during the season including the AGM, which were generally well attended.
The professional looking WVA web site (www.wva.org.uk), designed and managed by Richard Howells, has displayed all the various competitions results, kept up to date by the relevant WVA Officers. It is used as a point of reference with most of the recent WVA meeting minutes and other relevant documents accessible for all to view at their leisure. There is a ‘Forum’ page and it is intended to improve communications further with a ‘Blog’ page in time for next season. In an effort to ensure all teams in the WVA (mixed) league record their results in a timely manner a bonus point system was introduced at the start of this season; this has had an effect on some clubs final positioning in the Premier Division and Division 1.
The 2011/12 season commenced with the Pre-Season Tournament in September with Devizes 6X winning the Cup and Calne Comets runners-up. The Plate winners were Calne with Melksham as runners-up. The Dave Kinder Cup (a knock-out competition) was also played throughout the season; Devizes 6X overpowered a strong Salisbury Druids team to win the final by 3 sets to 1. The End of Season Tournament has been delayed to June.
This WVA League Competition had 13 teams, a drop of one team on the previous year, with 6 teams playing in the Premier Division and 7 teams in Division 1. The Premier Division was won convincingly by Wootton Bassett Aces winning all their matches and Devizes 6X taking the runners-up slot for the third consecutive season. The First Division was won by Wootton Bassett Bees, with Melksham VBC as Runners-Up. A play-off match between Olympiad, second from bottom team in the Premier Division and Melksham VBC is due to be played soon, the winner of this match will be rewarded with a Premier Division place next season.
The Ladies & Juniors League was enthusiastically managed by Sarah Newstead (and her able assistant Matt Stevens) with five events being held throughout the season. The tournaments were well attended with players of various skills levels participating. The winners of the Ladies & Juniors League were Salisbury Bluestones with Devizes runners-up. The Ladies & Juniors Christmas Cup produced a similar outcome with Salisbury and Devizes taking the same positions. Finally, the Ladies & Juniors End-of-Season Tournament was won by a young Wiltshire Mavericks Swindon team beating an able Salisbury team.
Unfortunately there was no Wiltshire Mavericks Ladies team this season with some key members of the squad having gone onto university and the like at the end of last season, which is often a consequence of a successful young team of similar ages. However, there was a representation from Wiltshire with Wootton Bassett Ladies, coached by Phil Heads, coming runner-up in the SW Ladies League. The Wiltshire Mavericks Men’s team reformed after one season out – dropped out of National League at end of 2009/10 season – and somehow won the coveted South West League losing only two matches all season. The team, managed by Matt Morten and coached by Steve Grimes, has entered the National League next season and is also introducing a new South West League team, which we are intending to be a development team for up and coming young players and some experienced players. Devizes VBC entered a strong young team into the South West Championship where they only just lost out on the semi-final.
On the ‘Junior’ front Wiltshire has a keen interest with Calne, Melksham, Devizes and Swindon producing boys and girls teams. Without the hard work and dedication of the organizers such as Matt Stevens, Su Brennand, Kelly Jones, Andrew Wescombe and others, this would not be possible. We are looking at the possibility of forming a Wiltshire Junior League competition to further develop some of the young talent within Wiltshire; this is seen by all in the WVA as a key area for development.
We have appointed a Beach Development Officer in Irwin Aiken who is setting out a timetable of summer events and marketing opportunities. Several of our officials are going to have a busy and interesting summer at the Olympics; these being Richard Morten, Serena Morten, Andrew Smith, John Postance and Sarah Newstead. We wish them all well with this fantastic opportunity.
In summary the WVA is in a reasonably strong position at present, with the possibility of another 2 teams in the league next season. We are fortunate to have sufficient and willing volunteers who give more than just their time to help us achieve our objectives. Without such people none of this would be possible.
Cliff Ball
Chair – Wiltshire Volleyball Association
Appendix B
Treasurer’s Report
Available from Serena Morten
Appendix C
League Secretary’s Report
What happened
Draft fixtures were published 4Sep (roughly).
The first matches of the season took place on 25Sep, the last matches on 26April.
I didn’t hear complaints about the season being too packed. Did it work for you?
This season we re-introduced both Match numbers and Player Registration numbers. A Match Number is a rare thing to see on a score sheet. I have seen a number of score sheets with no player registration numbers, and sometimes just Christian names on the list of players.
I saw a number of score sheets with no referee scores and no Player of the Match record. Typically by the time I get them it is too late to do anything about it. First Referees should remember that they sign the score sheet as a complete record of the match. First Referees should check it before they sign. Captains should sign the score sheet before play as a correct record of their team. Captains are supposed to check that too.
Issues
The rules state that ‘exceptional’ reasons are required to move a fixture after the publishing of the final fixtures. This season I have allowed teams to re-schedule matches so long as it’s something they agree on. In practise they all agreed – at least they didn’t complain to me – and a number of matches were rescheduled. Is that a situation you are happy with?
I am unhappy with the current situation for player registration. The rules say that players must be registered with the League Secretary before playing in ANY WVA completion. I think it is a mistake to link that to the Mixed Leagues Registration. Registration in the Leagues brings restrictions. Players are bound to a specified club and can/cannot play down.
I have no problem with any WVA completion being open only to players already registered for the Mixed League. I am unhappy with requiring players to register in the Mixed League for reasons other than the Mixed League. As the League Secretary I have no need to track players outside the league and this rule simply seems to create pointless work for the League Secretary.
It is inappropriate for players in the Ladies and Juniors. In the L&J players are not bound to a specific club and often form ad-hoc groups. It is inappropriate for the Start of Season tournament. Certainly this season there were players involved in that competition who did not play for the same club in the Mixed Leagues.
I have absolutely no problem with requiring players to register with the WVA to play in a WVA competition, I would be happy that registration in the Mixed Leagues automatically qualified a player for other WVA competitions. I think it is wrong to have only one register.
Appendix D
Competitions Secretary’s Report to Annual General Meeting on 19 June 2012
Three competitions have been held during the course of the season, namely the start-of-season tournament, the Dave Kinder cup and the end-of-season tournament.
Dave Kinder
Ten teams entered the Dave Kinder cup. This required four rounds with six teams given byes in the first round. The format was the same as previous years with each match being the best of five sets with the team drawn first being responsible for organising the fixture except the final. The final was organised by myself and held at Calne Leisure Centre. One change that I am considering for next year is that each club entering the competition will be required to supply one official for the final unless a team from that club is playing.
Tournaments
Both the tournaments used a similar format of every team playing every other team once in time-limited matches in a league system. The teams coming first and second went through to the shield final while the third and fourth placed teams contested the plate. The finals were best of three sets.
The number of teams entering the tournaments was initially poor for both tournaments and it was only a reaction to me cancelling the end-of-season tournament that brought the number of entries up to a satisfactory level. Four teams entered the start-of season while seven eventually entered the end-of-season tournament. Both tournaments were held at Christie Miller Sports Centre.
Teams were charged £30 to enter the tournaments and this covered the cost of hall hire but not the cost of perpetual trophies.
Winners
Congratulations have to go to Devizes 6X who won all three competitions (if winning the shield is considered to be winning the tournament overall). Salisbury were runners-up in the Dave Kinder cup and the end-of-season shield final, while Melksham were runners-up in both plate finals and Calne teams were runners-up in the shield final and winners of the plate final at the start-of season tournament.
Conclusion
Having taken over the role of Competitions Secretary this season, I was surprised at how difficult it was to find suitable dates and how slow some clubs were to respond or even enter competitions.
Appendix E
Wiltshire Volleyball Junior Girls Development Officer Report
This season has been a really positive season for girl’s development within Wiltshire. Melksham, Swindon, Calne and Devizes all have junior girls with Devizes and Melksham participating in the South-West U15-U17s tournament.
Jodie Amor from Devizes went full time at Volleyball England’s Academy and has represented England at u19’s level alongside Robyn Sayers; and a former junior Lizzie Smith (started at Devizes) just recently won her first VEBT title.
Devizes girls entered the U18s national cup and after comfortably winning the 1st round unfortunately came up against a very strong Ashcombe (who when on to win the cup) and Wessex (who qualified for the Semi’s) narrowly beat the young Devizes U18s.
Devizes, Calne and Melksham have entered junior girls in the Wiltshire Ladies league where the players continue to gain valuable match experience.
Five Devizes girls and one Swindon girl was selected for the South-West regional squad (Devizes: Yasmin Kaashoek, Edith Waterman, Vicky Cooper, Morag Taylor, Emily Maslen, Swindon: Amy Connagham) and all girls show great promise for the future.
Edith Waterman U14 and Yasmin Kaashoek U13 played a full role in the UK School Games within the U16s South Squad.
All in all a very good season for girl’s junior development and lets hope for more success next season with the hard work from all coaches throughout Wiltshire.
Appendix F
WVA Ladies and Juniors League Report
The WVA ladies and juniors league was reasonably well supported over the season by WVA clubs. Entries varied throughout the year from 3 teams up to 6 teams. There were 5 league fixtures over the season and the Christmas Cup and End of Season Tournaments were held within the January and April fixtures respectively. Unfortunately the December and March fixtures had to be cancelled due to low entry numbers.
The End of Season Cup winners were Wiltshire Mavericks Swindon who beat runners up Salisbury by 3 points.
The winners of the Christmas Cup were Salisbury who beat Devizes by 3 points.
The winners of the league were also Salisbury who had an impressive 16 point lead over runners up Devizes.
Trophies for winners and runners-up were presented at the end of season presentation evening.
Congratulations to Salisbury Bluestones Ladies who won medals, either Gold or Silver, in all three events!
Thanks to all clubs who have entered teams into the fixtures this season and supported this league. I’d especially like to thank Salisbury and Devizes who managed to attend every fixture so thank you to both clubs for your continued support to the league.
I’d like to thank Matt, who helped me with organising venues and sorting out the order of play for the fixtures.
Finally the feedback about this league is very positive as it is a fantastic opportunity for juniors to experience competitive matches in a friendly environment. It also gives the ladies a chance to play over a ladies height net, for some this is a rarity as most training sessions and matches are geared towards the men’s/mixed game. I hope that most clubs see this and will continue to support this in the coming seasons.
Final league table shown below:
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Team
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Matches Played
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Matches Won
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Matches Lost
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Complete Sets Won
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Unfinished Sets Won
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Total Points
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League Position
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Salisbury Bluestones
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17
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14
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3
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22
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8
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52
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1
|
|
Devizes
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17
|
8
|
9
|
14
|
8
|
36
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2
|
|
Wootton Bassett
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10
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7
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3
|
9
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5
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23
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3
|
|
Wiltshire Mavericks Swindon
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7
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5
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2
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6
|
1
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13
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4
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|
Calne
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14
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0
|
14
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3
|
0
|
6
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5
|
|
Melksham
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3
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0
|
0
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0
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
Christmas Cup final table:
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Salisbury
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Devizes
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Calne
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Points
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Position
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|
Salisbury
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|
24-26 15-7
25-19 12-15
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25-7 15-8
25-15 15-9
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14
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Christmas Cup WINNERS
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|
Devizes
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26-24 7-15
19-25 15-12
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|
25-20 8-15
25-21 18-16
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11
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Runners-up
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|
Calne
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7-25 8-15
15-25 9-15
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20-25 15-8
21-25 16-18
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|
8
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3rd place
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End of Season Cup table:
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Team
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Points
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Completed
sets won
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Unfinished
sets won
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Placing
|
|
Wiltshire Mavericks
Swindon
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9
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4
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1
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WINNERS
|
|
Salisbury
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6
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3
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0
|
RUNNERS UP
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|
Devizes
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6
|
2
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2
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3rd Place
|
|
Melksham
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0
|
0
|
0
|
4th place
|
Appendix G
Beach Development Officer’s Report
Initial Objectives
Publicise Beach Volleyball to make people aware of its’ existence and that it can happen in Wiltshire (Miles away from a beach).
E-mail sent around to all Wiltshire clubs containing;
Calendar of Beach events that will be held in the SW Region this Summer. No response or enquiries as a result of this –except at the Sunday Beach event.
Setting up a Summer Beach Volleyball League.- Some response from people who have played beach before. But a disappointing response from clubs We have had representatives from Wootton Bassett /Calne/ Devizes at the first session
A regular session has been set up at Coate Water on Sunday afternoon from 2:30 pm – If you want to join in then get on the Text list. Assume the session is on unless the weather looks a bit marginal – In which case check your text to see if it has been cancelled. Information is always posted on the WBVC website.
(Richard Howells to advise on general access to the website)
I intend to progress with the League – I would like to keep the Sunday event as a general session and have an evening/s ( say Tuesday or Thursday ) during the week for weekly league sessions. Initially this will start as league 1 which will have 4 -6 people entered in it as individuals. Every player will play with others in pairs and gain points that will be added up to determine a winner on the night. As interest develops further leagues will be added with the top team moving up a league and the bottom team moving down a league.
There is a junior Beach event being organised for Saturday 4th August to run alongside a “come and try volleyball day at Coate Water (Part of a general Sports Promotion event by Swindon Council).
I’m looking for junior entries as individuals, or teams.
I intend to organise a mixed volleyball event on Sunday 15th July as a suggested date.
How best to publicise events?
Can I use WVA Website
Other ideas?
What interest is there?
Other items
Application made to EVA to build another additional court at Coate Water and improve the existing one. (Declined, but application well received)
Intend to apply for money to build another court and improve drainage to existing court.
Points will be scored dependent upon the number of people in the league on the night. Points will be allocated as follows;
If 5 people play
Winner 5 points
2nd 4 points
3rd 3 points
4th get 2 points
5th gets 1 point
If 6 people play:
Winner gets 6 points
2nd gets 5 points
3rd gets 4 points
4th gets 3 points
5th gets 2 points
6th gets 1 point
· ETC.,etc. ___________________________
Points will be accumulated and at the end of the Summer season there will be a winner. (Beach King/Queen).
Appendix H
Devizes Club Report
With the club loosing over 17 players and the Wiltshire Mavericks Ladies and the Devizes South-West team pulling out of their respective leagues and Devizes going from 3 teams to 2 teams in the close season for various reasons we thought this season could be a long and different season to prior seasons.
This proved to be slightly wrong and it was another good season for Devizes with medals in all bar one competition we played in. Winners of the Pre-Season, End of Season, DK Cup coupled with runners-up of Ladies and Juniors League, Wiltshire Mixed League and Ladies Christmas Cup showed that the club is continuing to produce good quality players that consistently compete at a high level. Our U14s have step up to compete within the Wiltshire 1st Division and I think it’s a testament to the club over the last few seasons to see just how many of our players have gone on to further their volleyball at national and international level.
Training sessions have been well attended and most sessions have been structured well. It’s been another successful season; however we are keen to gain new senior members as we are a little light in this area.
Matt’s General Points and Observations for the season:
I think it’s been a good season in Wiltshire overall. Cliff as chairman has really come into the post and has been organising and running the association in a solid and professional manner at a time it was really needed.
Devizes have enjoyed participating in all competitions. Thanks must go to Calne and Neil Bentley for organizing these this season. However the feedback I have had from the End of Season tournament was that the matches were a little rushed (being only 12 minutes long) and they could have been 15-20 minutes in length. It was my mistake entirely that I missed the deadline for the tournament however the emails were not entirely clear(in my opinion) and it proved a little hasty to cancel the tournament and indeed the presentation evening. However it was a fantastic effort to eventually go from 2 teams up to 7 teams for the tournament.
Perhaps something we should look into is booking the end of season and presentation evening at the start of next season so the date is set right up front at the beginning of the season so all clubs have a high visibility of this and can plan well in advance. This way we could even bring back a raffle and sell the tickets throughout the season to generate more income. I was a little concerned at the end of the season when I logged on to view the league tables online to see a message saying all positions were provisional and winners etc will not be confirmed until the end / mid (?) May. The tables online and updating and entering the fixtures / results online I believe is working really well but I am not sure about the bonus points for doing this and would like to see the tables and entries online perhaps verified each month so the tables accurately reflect the teams positions in the table. I think 1 team moved up the league 2-3 places at the end of season when all verifications were taken into account.
I think I should also point out that if it were not for Devizes having to field players over 18 and winning both matches against Erlestoke prison in the 1st Division, it is my belief that Erlestoke would have won the 1st Division and would have been promoted. I totally understand why we cannot take U18s into the prison and respect this, however I do feel a little harsh (even guilty!) in taking in a ‘strong’ team that is not representative of our 2nd team and how this has perhaps impacted the 1st division this season.