The minutes of a committee meeting held at the School on Friday 2 October, 2015
Members present: A. Snelling (in the chair), S. Caveney, D. Palmer, B. Gilbert, K. Shea, P. Taylor, M. Pack, C. Laming
Apologies for absence: N. Hancock, T. Akehurst, D. Jarrett, G. Barnes, P. Lusted
Minutes and matters arising: The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 15 January, 2015, were agreed and signed as a correct record.
There were no matters arising.
Correspondence: The secretary read a letter from Graham Barnes who was at home recovering from recent surgery. The committee signed a card wishing him a speedy recovery.
Football report: The 2015/2016 Sittingbourne indoor 5 a side season is underway but is no longer played on Thursdays at the Sittingbourne Community College (formerly St John’s). The league celebrated its 40th anniversary last season, in fact two of our current squad first played there 38 years ago, however the facilities have apparently been sold to Westlands School and all bookings were terminated.
So the league moved quickly to hire the sports hall at The New House Youth Centre in Chalkwell Road but the only time available was Wednesday evenings between 9 and 10.30pm when normally our team would be in slippers and cocoa mode.
The hall is slightly bigger and the goals are slightly higher but considerably narrower which should make for much closer scorelines. So we lost the first game 5-0.
I should point out that this was entirely due to the goalkeeper taking a summer break of 3 months and 6 minutes so we played the first half with an injured outfield player in goal and were 5-0 down by half time. However, the keeper arrived for the second half and once we had put down the cocoa and changed out of our slippers we managed to draw the second half. It does look as though goals will be hard to come by with only 7 being scored in 6 games last week.
The season is only two weeks old but we are already 3rd from bottom which is a massive improvement on the last two seasons. Generally we improve as the season progresses so we’re aiming to finish higher than last year’s 4th place.
Last season and for the third in a row, we won more silverware. This time it was two runners up trophies, the first in the Consolation Shield (a best of the losers competition) and the other was the Knock Out Cup, the League’s main cup competition and which we had won for the previous two seasons. Both were close matches and could have gone either way.
Last year I reported that we had mislaid but had then found the Knock Out Cup. I failed to tell you that it turned up in Peter Thomson’s trophy cabinet. I didn’t think that I knew anyone with their own trophy cabinet but life is full of surprises.
The squad this season is largely the same but we have lost one of our better players because of the change from Thursday to Wednesday so we are on the hunt for a fit, prolific goal scorer with a penchant for post match cocoa.
If that’s you and you have your own slippers contact me: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Keith Shea. Football Secretary
Hockey report: Old Bordenians Hockey Club have 6 men’s teams and 2 ladies teams, as well as junior hockey (11+) and mini hockey (5+). The final 2014/15 league positions of the respective teams are as follows:
Men’s 1st X1 – Kent / Sussex Regional League Division 1 – 9th
Men’s 2nd X1 – Kent Area League Division 2 – 2nd (promoted to Kent Area League Division 1)
Men’s 3rd X1 – Kent Open Premier A – 2nd (promoted to Kent Area League Division 2)
Men’s 4th XI - Kent Open Premier C – 11th
Men’s 5th XI – Kent Open Division 2 – 8th
Men’s 6th XI – Kent Open Division 3 – 5th
Ladies 1st XI – Kent Women’s Premier Division – 4th
Ladies 2nd XI – Kent Women’s Division 4 – 2nd (promoted to Kent Women’s Division 3)
Those teams not gaining promotion will remain in their existing league for the new season.
Two of OBHC’s junior players, Adam Klucznik and Josh Willis, captained Kent at their respective age groups during the season and are a credit to the club.
Through the summer the club have been working on securing additional suppliers to the bar in the clubhouse and as a result will now be selling San Miguel on tap and Incubus, a locally produced real ale. The club has also been able to reduce the prices of many of our products behind the bar as a result. However this will only remain possible if we can increase our overall sales and all members support the bar on Saturdays and in particular our social events. On the 18th September, the club will be having (or, if you are reading this at the AGM, held) an opening night of the new bar to coincide with the opening ceremony and first game of the Rugby World Cup, England v Fiji.
David Palmer, OBA Hockey Representative
Dinner report: Arrangements were in hand for the annual dinner at UK Paper on Saturday 5 March, 2016. The speaker is Steve Bedelle, RN Retd. The ticket price would be limited to £20.
Website report:
Due to a change in personal circumstances, I have been unable to spend much time chasing up new articles or uploading articles from historical documents such as old Maroon magazines, old School yearbooks, previous exam papers, etc. However, the website has continued to upload and make available any items submitted for publication in a reasonable timeframe.
As always, it would be helpful if committee members consider either producing or commissioning something of interest to post on the website.
The website continues to be stable. There was a short period during Spring when uploading articles was a little problematical, although was possible with perseverance. This was resolved by the School’s IT administrator (who hosts the site) in early June when I reported the problem to him and has behaved normally since that time.
A Website Digest, containing all articles published in 2014 was produced and posted to those OBA members that registered to receive one when the Maroon ceased publication. The Digest, as usual, was made available to all members on the Website for download and printing.
The cost of maintaining the OBA website remains at less than £20 a year. This covers the cost of the registration of the .co.uk and .com website addresses.
The OBA email addresses are publicised in the “Contact Us” section of the website and available for use by all members. Any emails sent to these addresses are automatically forwarded to committee members for action.
David Palmer; Peter Lusted; Alan Snelling, OBA Website Committee
Remembrance:
Peter Taylor and Chris Laming gave a brief report of their visit to Ypres with Graham Barnes on 6 May for the dedication of a memorial plaque at St George’s Memorial Church, to the OBs who gave their lives in the First World War. They had also paid their respects to the late OB Ken Sears, whose role as a trustee of the church is also recorded on a separate plaque at St George’s.
This year’s annual service of remembrance will take place at the school on Saturday 7 November. Neil Hancock is making the arrangements and organising the event.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 8.34 pm.