HCPL AGM Minutes

HCPL AGM
23/08/2026

Chairs Report.
Mark Farmer thanked those in attendance for making the time to attend (Around 20 souls) but he also mentioned his disappointment at those not in attendance. With teams able to send a representative if their captain cannot make it, every team should be able to get at least one person per team to the meeting.
Mark stated that he was happy with the way things have been going lately with the league.
Using RackemApp as both our website software and our results service has worked well.
Mark also stated that he was pleased that the new rules about rearranged matches has made a big difference, with fewer outstanding games than usual this season.
The Chair explained to the floor that, due to ongoing health issues and other matters, he is contemplating standing down from his position in the not-too-distant future, he encouraged everyone in attendance to offer assistance to the committee if possible.

Treasurer Report.
Terri Pugh reported that the League has just under £2000 in the bank at present. This is before entry monies are due in for the Team Entries for the Winter Season, KO Competitions and also before monies will be paid out for this season’s trophies etc. 
After a number of problems banking with Virgin, the League has transferred to NatWest Banking and it is much better.

Competiton Secretary Report.
Paul Kaye reported that things have gone well with all competitions and that this season’s Ladies Singles and Open Pairs will be underway soon.
Fixtures are tight with only just enough Thursdays available in the year. This is the reason why pool meetings are held on a Sunday.
Paul also mentioned the ‘new’ Champion of Champions Knockout that will be taking place at the end of this current season, involving winners from last Winter season and this Summer season. More details to follow on eligibility etc.

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Agenda Items

Election of Officers
All Officers re-appointed.

New Committee Members
A call was made for new committee members. One or two current captains or players showed some interest.

Winter Match Format
As usual this was the longest item on the agenda. It was decided by the floor to discuss The Prem format first, then ask the Div 1, 2 and 3 teams reps to discuss the format they would play in the coming Winter Season.

Prem.
After much discussion and various suggestions for format, the vote came down to either voting for the format to remain as is at 3 sets of 6 frames (18), or to look at and further discuss a different format.
The vote was almost unanimous to keep the format as last year with a couple of amendments.
Prem Matches to start at 7.30pm
3 sets of 6 frames (18 Total). Captains can play different squad players in each set of 6 frames.
Shot clock of 45 seconds will be in place (away team to provide a timer for each frame). There will be a 10 second count down, much the same as used during our finals night.
We will provide a guide nearer to the start of the season.

Divisions 1, 2, and 3.

This was quite a long discussion. 
Captains and/or representatives of Divisions 1, 2 and 3 were encouraged discuss the format of matches for their divisions between themselves as much as possible.
A number of ideas were put forward, keeping the status quo, introducing a minimum number of players at 5 (and a format to match that), playing the same format as the Premier Division, or changing to an all singles format but reduce the number of frames to 2 sets of 6 Singles.

After much debate the vote came down to either keeping the current format of 3 Doubles, 6 Singles, plus a wildcard Double (10 Frames) or trialling for one season to 2 sets of six singles (12 Frames.

The result of the vote was:
5 in favour of trialling 2 sets of 6 frames.
3 in favour of keeping the current format.
So we will be trialling the 12-frame format in the coming Winter Season. It will be revisited at the next AGM. 

Captains can change the team players in each set of 6.

There will be no shot clock in Divs 1, 2 or 3.

Knockout Cup Format
A short discussion and vote on the format of the KO Cup resulted in the decision to play the 2 sets of 6 singles format (12 singles). In the event of a tie at 6-6, a deciding wild card Scotch Doubles frame will take place, the captain deciding which two players from his team to take part.

No shot clock in Knockout Cup matches.

RackenApp App.
Following on from the Chair and Treasurer report, a chat about the RackemApp platform was had. The platform is brilliant for the committee to use for fixtures, Cups and Knockouts, it is great for players and teams to keep an eye on their statistics, as well as providing good feedback about how everything is running.  Terri is pleased with the App and how things are going, her big contribution to running the app was noted and commended by the Chairman. 
The cost of RackemApp for one year is slightly more than we used to pay for League Republic, but the benefits are much greater. The floor were asked if they thought it was OK to keep using the platform and agreed that we should.
Danny Gagg of Novello’s offered to help with sponsorship, along with another one or two leads we have, so the actual cost to the league itself will probably be zero. Win win!     

Divisional Players of the Season.
It was decided that divisional ‘player of the season’ awards will be made from the Winter Season onwards. This will be the player that has the best statistical record for the season in each division. This will be decided by percentages, with a player having to have played in 75% of their team’s league fixtures.

Ultimate Pool Leagues
Terri Pugh enlightened us somewhat regarding the proposed pool leagues that Ultimate Pool/EPA are currently pushing. It is not an immediate threat to our league as yet, and the EPA have said that any leagues starting up with UP must not play on the same night as any EPA affiliate league that is already running (ie us!). We will keep a close eye on this as time passes.

Seasons & Knockouts
Some discussion was had about the Summer league either becoming shorter with less matches, or possibly even removing the Summer league altogether.
This could give more time to play the various Knockouts we have (Singles, Doubles, Mixed and Ladies Kos & possibly a 3-person team KO).
So possibly one league per year, with a shortened Summer League.
Or just one league per year with plenty of time to play all the knockouts etc, shorter formats etc.

Another idea that came up was regarding the Summer Season and team placements & positioning to try and even out the playing ability and making it so that the lower division teams compete on a more level basis.
An idea was suggested of playing the first round of fixtures then separating the teams into divisions of top half (main) and bottom half (plate) divisions for the second half of season.  

Another popular suggestion was for each team to receive handicaps in the Summer.
It was decided by the floor to revisit this discussion at the next AGM as there was already quite a number of changes to take on board as it is.

Close of Meeting.
The chairman closed the meeting by thanking those in attendance for being there, the continued support for the Hereford Charity Pool League, apologised for the lengthy meeting. He wished everyone good luck for the upcoming knockouts and Winter Season.