Cotswold Polocrosse Club News

Changes to the Club

Mike and Rosie Pearce have taken over running the club

UKPA Tour to South Africa

Cotswold will be represented by two people on the coming tour to South Africa - Daniel and Agi.

Congratulations to both of them!

I'm back! - Well I'm trying!!

Well it's about time there was some new news on this site!!!!

For those that didn't know - well there might be one or two!!!

I had an accident playing last year and got my head in a mess(!) by connecting it with my horse's foot!!!. Still I'm on the mend! Helped tremendously by Frances and the kids!.

now I just have to try and get the website up to date!

She did it!

Vicky gave birth to a beautiful girl on Monday morning.

Training

We will begin with on foot practise at Cowleaze Farm (Mike & Rosie's) on Sunday 24th February at 2pm. We can use their outdoor school or gather in the barn if the weather is bad. To start with we'll talk tactics, compare notes and practise our ball skills.

We will meet every other Sunday at the same time and place:

• 24th February
• 10th March
• 27th March
• 7th April
• 21st April
• 5th May

We are not going to hire Wickstead this spring. It is a long way for most of us, quite limited in size and we felt that we can do as well at Cowleaze Farm this year. We can review this decision if the weather dictates.

Recruitment is still an important issue and I will try to advertise these training sessions and maybe attact more members.

Meeting Report

The committee met on Thursday 7th February and will meeet again on 7th March.

Gerry reported that no sponsorship had been forthcoming in spite of some effort.

It is confirmed that we will host the Inter-Regionals (see UKPA news page)

Gerry considered other locations for the tournament but Jackbarrow appears to be the best

We desparately need fresh photos for this website

Mike and others will enquire about getting a caravan to site at Cowleaze farm and house a trainer. Gerry will advertise for one. We will have to spend a considerable sum on the accomodation.

Confirmed that the club will change its name to Cotswold.

Gwen is attempting to get us registered for Gift Aid so we can claim some tax back.

It was agreed that we have to get new shirts, sponsor or no sponsor. Ideally we would want about 30 to cover all numbers in all sizes, but to reduce the costs we agredd to cut the number to 21 or thereabouts. If we ever need more than that we will use the best of the old ones. Colour will remain as Royal Blue (to match saddle cloths) but perhaps with white collars and sleeves if we can get these at reasonable cost. Now our Primary Juniors are not so small we need less small sizes! It was agreed that £500 would be allocated for shirts. In addition, you are asked if you would like to make a voluntary contribution to this cost. It would be useful if we could lift the budget to £600 or more to improve on quality and numbers. We will not be asked to buy our own shirts since we all regularly change position and this gets too complicated.

Club Colours will be officially described as Royal Blue and White. White bandages or boots were rejected as impractical to keep clean, but we should attempt to get white tape for our boots and bandages if we can.

Training - See Above

Team Selection

Always the easiest job in the club! Everyone is always delighted to agree with the selectors' decisions! Well perhaps not quite everyone all of the time! Last year, it was largely down to George and I. I'd like a third member this year over and above the trainer if we get one. If you would like to join in these deliberations and take a share of the decisions please put your name forward. Player or non-player - it doesn't matter, but you must be a paid up member. If there are several I will organise a ballot. You need to be prepared to make tough choices - often between friends. Email or call me now. Nominations close 28th February.

While on the subject, lets take time to note the usual policy behind selection. We have 18 to 21 players, not all of whom are always available.

• We nearly always try first, to make sure that everyone who is available gets to play.
• We then look at grading points and see how we can make teams that will make it into the division that the majority want to play in.
• We try to play combinations that work well together.
• Where it makes sense we borrow players to make up the points.

Last year we typically had 5 players in each division! Unfortunately our gradings are typically on the low side which means we sometimes had to struggle to enter our B players into the B Division and that ripples down to C and D. This is why we often imported players rather than promoting our own last year. It would make no sense to select a low graded player into the "B" team if that team then ended up in the C Division at the tournament. Better to import the necessary points and give the majority the better opportunity. With luck and a few extra grade points this year we might be able to confirm our position in B and offer the chance to our improving players in C to move on up. Again this will ripple down to C and D.

Name Change

In accordance with the decision at the AGM, (see below), I will register the club name as "Cotswold Polocrosse Club" and notify the UKPA and all other clubs.

I'll change the website soon, but it may be a while before everything gets sorted. We will have to redo the badge for the shirts. If you have good ideas or strong feelings about that get in touch with Daniel or Frances or me.

Club AGM Report

The 2001 Club AGM was held at the Duhigs in Minchinhampton. It was felt unnecessary to hire a hall as numbers were quite small. The Nicholls, Keen, Pearce, Morrisey and Duhig families were represented. Apologies from George, Frankie, Emily, Clare and Rachael. Full minutes are available if you want to read them and they will be reviewed formally at the next AGM

A number of important topics were discussed and decisions made:

• We continue to believe that the UKPA grading structure is crowded at the lower end and we must continue to argue top have this changed.
• Gwen reported that on some occasions when we have imported players into teams, we have not always received the player's entry fee. In future, where possible we will only pay in advance for our own players.
• Gwen will investigate Gift Aid as a possible way of reclaiming tax on our contributions to the club.
• Membership fees for the Club will be increased to £15 for playing adults and £10 for others (Juniors/Non-players/students).
  Why would you want to be a non-playing member?
  • to support your child players
  • to take part in club discussions and decisions
  • to support the club
• My Chairman's report is on a separate page
• We did not need to hold any elections for committee places.
• Next Year's Tournament: We have proposed that we hold the Inter-Regionals. Gerry is investigating alternative venues.
• PR: Sandra and Frances agreed to collect results and try to get reports into local papers after each tournament. We will also attempt to get coverage for our UKPA Squad members when they attend training or other events.
• Shirts: All agree that we need new shirts. A decision will wait until we know if we can get any sponsors
• Sponsorship: I have written "begging letter" which I will send to potential sponsors.
• The Name of the Club: Given a generous sponsor, we might change the name of the club to suite the sponsor. This led to some discussion of the club name. It was agreed that if we fail to obtain sponsorship that forces a name change we should change the name of teh club to "Cotswold Polocrosse Club".
• Training: Mike & Rosie again agreed to host a trainer if accomodation can be arranged.
• Fundraising: We will consider food and bar at the Tournament and also investigate Paint Balling.
• Gradings: I believe that gradings are generally better than they were and certainly moving in the right direction. While we may have specific arguments, Chris Schaefer has done a good job on sorting out the system. If you do want to have your grade reconsidered please contact me in the first instance. There is a well defined procedure for appealing any decision.

Committee Meeting Report

We don't have too many committee meetings in this club! We are here to play polocrosse! But we did have a meeting just before the AGM to prepare the ground. Full minutes are available.

• Matters to be raised with the UKPA AGM
  • 3 x 6 is the minimum expectation for matches
  • Gradings are still too cramped at the lower end
  • The regional structure and the Inter-Regional tournament must be reviewed
• Gwen is to investigate Charitable Status/Gift Aid
• Finance: Proposal to go to AGM to increase membership fees.
• Sponsoship: new efforts to be made
• Tournament Date: Our regular date doesn't fit into the calendar too well so we will bid for the Inter-Regionals. We may hold a fun tournament at the end of the season
• Shirts: Frances and Caroline investigating costs
• Trainer: an add to be placed on the Web
• WebSite: We need more photos
• Selection We will try and get three selectors next year to spread the load.

Website version 3 launched!

Squads Announced!

AGM Report

• an agreement to a slight increase in membership fees,
• an agrreement that we shoud consider a change of name to Cotswold Polocrosse Club, subject to sponsorship
• the award of the Chairman's trophy to Agnes for winning 4 Best No 1 Rosettes this season.

AGM Change of Venue

AGM Announcement

Squad Selections

Gradings Update

Training Days

Sadly, the tournament is CANCELLED

Wedding

Umpire Training

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Tournament Decision

Reminder