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News Release - BSMTTC News 157

Dateline: 26 May 2023

Members Meet

This week club members met together for the members annual business and administration meeting, the Club Annual General Meeting. This is an important occasion in the life of the club as it establishes how the club is run and by whom it will be run for the next twelve months. It also determines the level of membership fees and makes other important decisions. It also gives members a voice, a chance to have their say about the club.

Highlights

One of the highlights of the evening was a presentation by the family of Club President, Billy Clayton. Billy passed away in July 2022 just 3 months after his 90th birthday. Both Billy, and John Wheeler who also passed away last year were remembered by the meeting. Mal & Irene Clark, representing the family of Billy, have donated a brand new trophy in memory of him. The trophy to be known simply as the William Clayton Trophy was presented by Mal & Irene to the Club and received on its behalf by the Chairman. Billy was always very keen to help and encourage new junior players, so the trophy will become the Junior Singles Trophy. It was after Billy's death that the club, for the first time, held a junior singles event as part of its annual club tournament. It was fitting therefore that Mal & Irene were then able to present the new trophy to its first winner, Ivan Maksym. Ivan only joined the club in the late summer of 2022 when he came to the UK from Ukraine. He has been a great asset to the Junior League Team and became the first person to win the junior singles trophy.

Members gathered at Marine for the club's Annual General Meeting.

Above: Mal & Irene Clark present the new William Clayton Trophy to Club Chairman, Bernard Cooney (the one with the shorts!), on behalf of the club. The trophy is then presented to its first winner, Ivan Maksym.

And below Ivan & Mal, and Ivan's Mum, Olena, proudly joins the presentation. Olena is advertising junior table tennis at Marine in the Ukrainian Centre in Crosby.

Decisions reached

As well as setting the membership fee for 2023/24 at £180 for adults and £40 for children the club members also made two other important decisions. These were:

1. To make a minor change to the club constitution to settle ambiguity around what is a 'quorum; for club meetings.

2. To change the structure of the club from a private members club to a new community interest company. With the growing and ever changing membership a new structure was considered imperative to securing the future of the club.ent from League tab

Every decision was supported unanimously by the members present. With many members present speaking in relation to the various topics.

One further highlight of the evening was the announcement from long serving club member, Freddie Bainbridge - who for a period was also chairman of the club - of his retirement from league table tennis. Freddie has been a tremendous servant and supporter of the club and over the 2022/23 season provided significant cover to each of the club's teams in Division 1 of the league, at times when no other player was available. He also helped the BSM side to reach the final of the Frank Murphy Veterans Handicap Cup. The captains of the 1st and A Teams, Dermot Tierney & Colin Turner, paid warm tribute to the part Freddie had played in the past season. Freddie is now in his 80th year and has decided to hang up his bat from competitive play. But is still very keen to support all that goes on at the club.

Above: Freddie Bainbridge in action for the A Team in Div 1 of the Liverpool League during the 2022/23 season. A Team C aptain, Colin Turner, in the centre of the table, paid warm tribute to the part Freddie had played in helping the Div 1 teams over the season, especially at times when the teams had been hit by injury and absence. It is no easy task stepping up to play in Div 1 of the league!