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BOA Bulletin 227

19th June 2013 by Ken Kirby

Octopush E-News Bulletin 227

BOA Annual General Meeting and National Squads meeting Agenda

In this Issue:

  • Annual General Meeting and National Squads Meeting
  • Referees at Tournaments
  • Barriers for Leeds pool
  • BOA Tournaments
  • Cliff Underwood

Annual General Meeting & National Squads Meeting

The British Octopush Association Annual General Meeting and National Squads Meeting will be held on Sunday 14th July at 10.00 am in Ponds Forge Sheffield. This is the day after the National Finals.

All members are invited. Every BOA registered club is allowed one vote which may be carried by any representative of the club even if they are not registered to that club. A member is only allowed to represent one club so one person, one vote.

This is your time to have an input into how the BOA is run, all opinions and representations will be considered and discussed.

AGM Agenda

Apologies

Chairman's Welcome and Report

Membership Secretary's Report

Treasurers Report

Competitions Manager's Report

National Chief Referee Rport

Other Committee Officers Reports

British Octopush Association affiliation agreement with the British Sub Aqua Club

The BOA is currently not recognised by National sporting bodies so an affiliation agreement whith BSAC will allow us to be recognised through them.

The BSAC draft agreement has been drawn up and the wording agreed but before the Chairman can sign it there must be minuted agreement from BOA members.

Refereeing at tournaments

Several members have asked to discuss refereeing at tournaments includng penalties for unbecoming behaviour.

Election of officers

All Committee positions are to be elected so any member may stand for any of the Committee positions.

Chairman The Chairman has overall responsibility for the running of the association. Ken Kirby is current Chairman and is willing to stand again.

Vice Chairman Ton Derrett is stepping down from the VC role so we have a vacancy.

Secretary is the contact point of the association and keeps records such as minutes of meetings.

Treasurer is responsible for the associations finances including presenting budgets to the Committee and ensuring payments are collected. Lewis Saleem is current Treasurer and is willing to stand again.

Membership Secretary is in charge of all membership matters. Currently Phil Thompson is Membership Secretary.

Competitions Manager Andrew Stillwell is current Competitions Manager in charge of arranging tournaments and competitions.

National Chief Referee is in charge of all referee matters including ensuring the rules are up to date, referee time logging and accredidation and training courses. Nathan Peall is current National Chief Referee and will continue, but will be happy for some-one else to take on the role.

Merchandising Manager is currently Sean Phillips who mangaes merchandising, product development and budgeting. Sean is willing to continue if re-elected.

Sports Development Manager Anthony Gillies is stepping down from the post so there is a vacancy for someone to help to move the sport forward.

News Editor Sophie Preeece is currently in charge of keeping you all informed but will be stepping down so we have a vacancy.

Web Master In charge of the web site and any associated development, currently David Hyman.

Student Representative This year a new role will be developed to allow the BOA to work more closely with students and student teams. Tørris. Rasmussen has volunteered to stand but the post is also open to any other candidate who may wish to stand.

Member There may be Committee posts for members who want to start getting involved with the Committee but who do not wish to take on any of the above roles. This is open to any BOA members.

Any Other Business

Any issues concerning the BOA may be brought up and discussed.

National Squads Meeting

The National Squads Manager will lead the National Squads Meeting immediately after all AGM business is over.

The National Squads Manager is elected at this meeting.

Those eligible to vote at this meeting are current Committee members, National Squads Coaches, Managers, and Captains.

Ken Kirby

Chairman

British Octopush Association

BOA Tournaments

At the present time Sheffield will remain as the pool where all our highest level comps take place. To ensure no confusion this expressly means National Finals and Nautilus.

The reason why John Charles has been used so much recently is because I can have 3 courts running as well as a warm up pool, the location is central and has relatively good transport links. I have also had tremendous support from Leeds Octopush club in terms of getting barriers from Ponds Forge and back again which has been a great help. Now I know I have Plymouth in the South West, Crystal Palace in the South East and Stirling in Scotland as well but going to any of these pools really creates a massive strain on 90% of the other clubs in the country which then starts to cause attendance problems. Another factor is cost and Leeds is cheaper than Plymouth which in turn means its far cheaper than Palace, Stirling is probably the cheapest pool but how can I justify to the membership and teams getting up to Scotland when there are just Glasgow and Caledonia A in the Qualifier’s next year presently?

If I move the pool from Leeds, I know Plymouth has some barriers in place for dividing two courts, Palace to my knowledge has none. How am going to get the barriers from Ponds Forge to these locations and back again? Is someone from London/Plymouth going to hire a van and then drive to Sheffield pick up the necessary infrastructure on the Friday and then drive all the way back again to allow either a Friday night set up or early Saturday morning, then the responsibility of getting the barriers backup to Sheffield?

For these reasons John Charles Centre in Leeds currently remains my alternative choice to Ponds Forge.

Referees at Tournaments

It is the intention for teams to supply qualified referees and to move to 3 way reffing at all tournaments.

I am aware that these requirements will cause short term issues as we do not currently have enough trained people.

The ideal situation is for teams to supply non playing referees but if that is not possible then referee qualified players will referee when required.

In light of concerns I am prepared to relax conditions for next years qualifiers to the following stipulations:

(These are minimum requirements, generally teams should supply fully qualified referees).

From the 2014 Qualifiers the minimum requirement will be that teams must be able to supply at least two trainee refs that have been on BOA Level 1 Refs course.

From the 2015 Qualifiers the minimum requirement will be that teams must be able to supply at least two trainee refs and one level 1 ref.

From the 2016 Qualifiers the minimum requirement will be that teams must be able to supply at least two level 1 refs.

From the 2017 Qualifiers the minimum requirement will be that teams must be able to supply at least two level 1 refs and one level 2 ref.

From the 2018 Qualifiers the minimum requirement will be that teams must be able to supply at least two level 2 refs.

This gives clubs a two year window to attain one level 1 ref should they not already have one, three years to get two level 1’s in place and four years to get level twos in place.

I trust this meets the needs of what I am trying to do and the timescales and opportunities of clubs to develop their own referees.

Andrew Stillwell

Tournaments Manager

British Octopush Association

Barriers for Leeds pool

Richard Adams has some ideas for making barriers for the John Charles Centre swimming pool in Leeds to save carrying the ones from Sheffield back and forth. However he does need some help with costing, sourcing material and construction. If you are able to help then contact the committee at gbuwh.co.uk.

Cliff Underwood

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Cliff Underwood.

Cliff was among the founding members of the sport of Octopush, he organised the first meeting of the British Octopush Association and did a great deal to get Octopush off the ground.

Octopush was developed in Southsea in 1954 so naturally their team dominated early competitions. The young Cliff playing for the London based Aquatic club was the first to slip past Southsea’s defence and score a goal.

Tournaments started to grow and in 1973 the new National events Manager Cliff Underwood organised qualifying rounds prior to the finals for the first time. In 1974 he took over organising national ladder.

Massive growth in the sport caused Cliff to realise one man could not do it all so at a meeting at the Cheshunt football clubhouse in 1976 the British Octopush Association was founded, with Cliff as BOA Director running the competitive side of the sport.

In April 1977 a meeting held at Fort Bovisland inaugurated the first CMAS Underwater Hockey sub committee on the underwater games commission with Cliff as the UK signatory. Unfortunately Cliff’s one vote at the meeting against the other three meant the name ‘Octopush’ was rejected in favour of the bland sounding ‘Underwater Hockey’.

Cliff was appointed the first CMAS rules director charged with collecting all the various rules from around the world and finding a common ground for the basis of the new international rules.

Cliff remained a very avid follower of Octopush right up to his death. He kept statistics from tournaments and matches throughout his entire time with the sport which can be found on his web site. I myself having been harangued several times when results were not sent in for logging soon enough after a tournament. His wife Dorothy will be passing on his archives to the BOA.

The sport of Octopush owes a great deal to Cliff and we should all respect and honour his lifetime achievements even if you did not know him personally.

Cliff's funeral is on Monday 24th June but he hd asked that only close family attend. However his wife has invited any-one else to come and raise a glass to him at 7pm that evening.

Cliff's wishes were not to spend money on flowers but to donate to Diabetes UK. Any donations can be sent to Dorothy at 25, Brunswick Street, Walthamstow, E17 9NB.

Ken Kirby

Chairman

British Octopush Association.