Council Report 1988-1989

Published in the 1989-1990 Handbook.

This report has been compiled from the reports at the 1989 AGM by the Officers of the Association.

Seventy five teams entered the Winter League, two less than the previous season. Unfortunately two teams withdrew during the season leaving seventy three. This left a lot of free weeks for most teams. Railway 'A' once again won the Division One title, this tine by a huge margin of 66 points. At the other end of the League, Huby and Rowntrees 'G' shared the Division Seven title.

Our teams did not fair too well in the Yorkshire League. The men’s first team finished bottom of the Premier Division and the men’s third team bottom of Division Three. The men’s fourth team and the juniors were the most successful teams. Chris Dale (mens 4th), Maureen Gott (ladies) and Adele Lobley (junlor girIs) featured in the leading averages.

At last things appear to be moving on the development front. The ETTA have been forthcoming with leaflets and advice and sessions have been arranged at Oaklands and Burton Stone centres. The advanced training centre at Millthorpe continues to flourish and nine of our young player have been attending sessions there. This is a feeder squad for the Regional Centre of Excellence at Leeds.

The Yorkshire Evening Press have aIlowed us more space in their Saturday edition but it would greatly improve the weekly reports if teams wrote match comments in the space provided on the scorecard.

The competitions and tournaments season made an early start with the Festival Handicap Doubles event in the GuiIdhalI in July 1988. The winners were Jon Ayres and Nick Heyer (Poppleton). September saw the summer competition final, an all Bootham affair. In January 1989 we had the popular Bagshaw event and once again two younger players fought out the final with Peter Taylor of Poppleton beating Paul Eastwood 31-30 in the third game.

The York Closed championships was held on its usual February weekend. The prizes for most of the events were donated by York Railway Institute, celebrating its centenary year. The Saturday evening events, the hardbat singles and doubles, continued to increase in popularity. Charles Allenby won the singles and his Coneysthorpe teammate Ian Stansfield together with Chris Hynes (Rowntrees), paired in the draw, won the doubles. In the main Sunday events there were shocks in the men’s Singles. Unseeded Mark Bond, from York RI 'B' team, won the title beating two seeds on the way to the final. Mark, who also won the intermediate singles, was awarded the Clifford Trophy for best performance in the Closed. Fulford Road WMC players took the other four main event titles.

The charity pairs finals were staged at Rufforth Hall in March. Holders Ian Williams and Barry Johnson retained the title. This season the charity was a Special Care Baby Unit at York District Hospital.

The Shepherds and Machell Trophy Finals were as usual played at York RI in May. Coneysthorpe 'A' and Railway 'G' being the winners. The association is indebted to the clubs who provide rooms for staged finals. The Competition / Tournaments Committee is always on the lookout for ways of improving events – players please note.

This season the buffet/dance/presentation event was held in the Bay Horse, Marygate, always a different venue with Steve Franz as social secretary. Derek and Irene Bond made the presentations. Tim Bean won the Cameron Trophy as player of the year and and Rowntrees ‘B’ the Ted Plant Trophy as team of the year.

We welcomed two new Officers. Bob Lee did an excellent job in publishing the handbook, something we did not have the previous season. Chris Dale, the new Coaching Secretary, was hampered in not having a regular Sunday morning venue but it is hoped that things will improve next season.

At the A G.M. the chairman thanked the management committee, team administrators and members of the various committees / sub-committees for their efforts during the year.

D.C. Atkinson.

Acting General Secretary

2/8/89

League Tables and Players' Averages 1988-1989