Summary of the minutes of the Grouping Committee meeting on 03 01 2010 from 10am to 1pm at Badminton England, Milton Keynes

After reading through and discussing all the correspondence from members about the New Grouping Structure, the committee agreed to propose that:-

1. The new grouping structure should be adopted to group the counties for 2010-2011 season. This was agreed because

· Nobody was against the system outright.

· There were some concerns but the committee felt that they were no more an issue than with the current system.

· There were many more positives than negatives.

Please note that the actual grouping for next season cannot be calculated until we know for sure, which counties will be entering, who will have second team etc. This will be organised during April/May 2010.

2. We agreed that counties would be ranked using a combination the following criteria:-

· Look at the results from 2 years previous. Eg for the U15 age group next year, the result of the U13’s from 2008-2009 will be considered. For the U17 age group we would look at the U15’s result from 2008-2009.

· The top four boys and four girls from the most recent Badminton England grading would be used. (When a team enters a second team, positions 5^th to 8^th would be used.)

Giving 4 points for grade 1, 2 points for grade 2 and 1 point for grade 1. The points would be totalled for each county.

· The counties would then be split into a number of categories such as High, Middle and Lower.

3. Selection of opposition that each county plays:-

· The aim is for each county is to play a range of abilities from higher to lower, so that every set of 6 counties has similar range of standard.

· Teams would be selected to reduce travelling time or travelling distance to a minimum.

· The Committee reserves the right to deviate should a local circumstance preclude this.

· The group structure would be published on the web about 4 weeks prior to AGM

· Appeals to the league secretary at least three weeks prior to AGM. Committee to make final decision at least 2 weeks prior to AGM.

4 Other considerations

· The committee propose to play 6 matches to complete the league. Eight teams shall have, in addition, a play-off.

· That the top four counties from each league would automatically go through to the final, with play offs for positions 5 to 12, where 5th v 12th, 6th v 11th, 7th v 10th, and 8th v 9th. Home teams are in positions 5, 6, 7 and 8. Date set at the start of the year for playoff. (Eric Brown is sorting out date of SL Finals for 2012 and reserving play off dates.)

· We would consider a neutral venue for 2011-2012 season; BE to assist. This idea to be reviewed next year.

· From 2010-2011, individual certificates for positions 1 to 12 would be printed for all counties that reached this position in the league, irrespective of the play-off results.

· At the Shires League Final teams would be drawn to play one another using the following method. Two bags, one bag contains 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4^th positions in the league. Second bag containing 5th, 6th, 7th and 8^th positions in the league, (where 5^th means the winner of 5^th v 12^th etc). Take one card from each bag. These two teams play one another in the first round.

The grouping committee sincerely hope that you are in full agreement with the proposals above. It would be appreciated if league secretaries would discuss and ballot the members of their county for their opinions, letting me know if you accept or reject the proposals. If you are in general agreement with the proposals but have a concern about a specific issue, I should be grateful if you would put this in writing/email.

Unless there is considerable objection to specific aspects of the proposals, the proposals will be adopted for next season and they will NOT be voted on at the AGM.

Please forward your views, including your complete acceptance or rejection of the proposals before 31 01 2010.

Thoughts for 2011-2012 season were also discussed.

These included:

Splitting the counties into two ability groups, where the stronger counties play against one another and the rest would complete on a more geographical basis. This would involve considerably more travelling for the stronger counties, but the quality of the matches would be better. Finals would be arranged for both groups of teams and promotion and relegation could feature as part of process.

Eric Brown believes that such a system is necessary to enable continued development of the Shires League; and felt that BE would be able to support such a system by possibly replacing the current Team Challenges and transferring the resources it uses to run the Team Challenge to promote Shires League play-offs and finals.

Before such a proposal is to be put to the Shires League members, it was agreed that a complete working proposal is to be created, so that the implications are clear.

Yours sincerely

Ian Rizzotto