Chairman’s Review, 13th November 2008
In a year which has not seen any particularly notable changes it is good to begin with some positives. The good performances of individuals will be marked later this evening in the presentation of awards and trophies; so here I am mainly concerned with our overall performances as a club.
The NW Sportshall League has a membership of 12 clubs and separate League Tables are kept for each age group. In the 2007/08 season our u 11 boys were 7th, u13 boys 6th and u15 boys 5th in their respective groups. This must be our best set of results for some years, the more so because we are one of the smaller clubs in the League. The girls who did compete did their best but team success was very limited because of the small number of girls who took part. Against these results it has been particularly disappointing that except for one athlete we have not had anyone competing in the first two rounds of the league in the current season I can add a challenge at this point as I have just learnt that our next Sportshall League match on November 30th is at Hazel Grove High School at 2:00pm not as on the cards issued in Wigan at 12:00 noon. Can we therefore look for a maximum turn out.
Our record in the summer Track and Field League will always be limited because we are fielding largely junior teams in a competition where league positions are are based on all age groups taken together. A break down into age groups would again show a good performance by our u13 boys.
Cross-country is not generally popular with our athletes, but we have seen and continue to see some very good performances by individual athletes. I would particularly thank Graham Taylor for his persistent encouragement for our athletes to get out and run. Whilst rewarding in itself, cross-country is one of the best ways of building up strength and stamina as a base for all other athletics.
Organisationally the Club has continued to run smoothly. On the coaching side I thank Mike Bullock for keeping a balanced and varied training programme going. Administratively, Patrick Grannan has taken over from Bruce Philip; he has made one or two changes and has generally kept our finances well in order. Having indicated her wish to lighten her load as Secretary, we are very grateful for the way that Julie James has begun to take this work over from Rosalie. Rosalie I found first joined the committee in 1999 – last Century! – taking over as secretary the following year. She has done a tremendous job seeing us through to a largely electronic era and has put a lot of work into new systems for membership registration and monitoring athlete awards. We are pleased that she has said that she is willing to continue to help with the organising of the Multi-event Championships.
Turning to the wider field of British athletics, I wish I could give you a clear and positive account of relationships, local, regional and national. Sadly the battles Rosalie has fought with membership registration schemes, Shine Awards and other innovations typify the confusion in British athletics as seen from our perspective. Just last week I looked on the England Athletics website for details of coaching courses, the relevant pages were not available (!) but I picked up a different news item. The Regional Development structure which has been set up over the last 2/3 years is now to be scrapped and all administration done centrally. We will therefore no longer have a regional centre which we can contact in Manchester.
At local level we must record our thanks again for the facilities available to us here at WHS for a minimal cost (£200 p.a.). Nevertheless we are frustrated by the low level of interaction with the school in terms of athletes and training. As far as I am aware there is a Primary School Sportshall Tournament going ahead this term but the only contact I have had about this is one meeting at the end of the summer term and one phone call this term. The potential for cooperation and the all round benefits that could come from working together are great. Two big hindrances to such cooperation as I see it are the constant changes in personnel dealing with athletics in the school, Borough and Sport Cheshire, on the one hand, and top down planning on the other. What is arranged for the local level is determined at regional or county level without asking if the schemes so devised actually meet what is needed and can be delivered at local school and club level.
Finally I must record further thanks. .Thanks to Graham who has now taken over our Web site; thanks to all committee members and parents who have supported us through the year and last but definitely not least thank you to our athletes for without active athletes there would be no athletics club.
Thank you all.
Dr. J W Lethbridge
Chairman
Another disappointing turnout in terms of numbers but excellent runs by our three regulars this year. Again no u11s!!
