RichardHowells posted on May 05, 2011 17:12
Developing players and teams
Although we’re a small club with limited time and space, we aim to cater for all our members:
- Individual players with varying experience and ability (from beginner to NVL level, from juniors to over-50s)
- Developing 3 teams (especially when a match is approaching)
- Indoor in winter, outdoor in summer
- Leagues, tournaments and European tours.
This season we gained some new
experienced players for the A-team and women’s team, and half our
members are now women. We didn’t attract any new beginners until we
returned to our hall in April.
Our competitive base is in the
Wiltshire Leagues. Some of our members play higher level competition
with other clubs - congratulations, and thank you for remaining loyal to
your local club. For the first time this season our women’s team played
in the South West League (as agreed at our 2010 AGM, they paid their
own way to hire other halls for extra training and SW League matches
beyond their fair share of our limited Sunday club sessions).
Development of our (male) players and
teams was disrupted by the fire at our hall, which meant we were only
able to train until mid-December. The 2010 AGM resolution to offer more
individual coaching was thwarted by this and by lack of interest (only
one player signed up!). Once again there was interest in regular junior
sessions, but the fire disrupted our schedule.
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Training hours dedicated to:
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Open to everyone
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A-team
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B-team
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Ladies team
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Juniors
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2010-11
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20
|
9
|
10
|
7
|
1
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Overall our members benefit from a
wide range of opportunities. In a small club it’s hard to balance
everyone’s differing needs and we’re always happy to receive feedback
and ideas to help us improve. I would like to thank everyone who helped
to organise and coach all this activity. Particular thanks should
go to our committee members who had to do far more organising of matches
and venues this season because of the fire.
Performance
Men / mixed
- A well balanced and settled Bees
squad had an excellent season, finishing narrowly second in Div 1 with
only one defeat. Now the women have other outlets, more players would be
welcome for next season.
- The A-team squad (9 players) had their poorest Premier Div season in years, losing 5 matches to finish 4th
and being knocked out of the cup in the semi-final. Lack of training
seemed to affect team cohesion and confidence, and more / younger
players would be welcome for next season!
- A combined A+B men’s team won their division at the Whitefield Tournament in July.
Women
- Runners-up in a very close final of the Wilts Ladies & Juniors Christmas Cup.
- Equal top on points and wins in the Wilts Ladies & Juniors League, but second on sets won.
- A splendid 5th place in the SW League, with a 50% win record in their first season (16 players).
- Finalists at Whitefield and played for experience at the SW Championships.
Congratulations to all our players and teams! Phil Heads, 24th April 2011