All committee present

The purpose of the committee was as follows:

        a.     Spread the workload currently placed on Raf.
        b.     Discuss the next captains meeting agenda.
        c.     Check fixtures and knockout draws.
        d.     Discuss new ideas and bring their findings to the Captains meetings.
In brief reduce the length of the captains meetings and share the workload.

This year 21 teams have entered the league, 3 other teams were too late to enter this year.
Division 1 teams are as follows:  

Cozy Wanderers (Previously Ver Wanders), Los Toscales, El Sol A, Exiles A, Britannia Inn, Target, Browns, Clansman, Barracudda & the Pig in the Dip.

Division 2 teams are as follows:
Cosy Corner (Relegated last year), El Sol B, Exiles B, Euromeat Piglets (Pig in The Dip), Manneke Pis, La Gramola (playing at the blue note), Vibes, Suters, Bernies Boys (Veronicas), Delerium Boys (Manneke Pis), Paddy O Taffy´s.

The committee examined the fixtures and found a few minor errors, the Cosy corner team which had last season been relegated had been placed in Division 1, and the 1st Division Runners up from last year who had moved to the Cosy Corner had been placed in the 2nd division, after a quick phone call it was confirmed that the Cosy Wanderers should play in the 1st division and the Cosy corner team play in the 2nd, RAF TO AMEND. 

There was also some discussion over the finals night, presentation nights etc. Due to the way this had been done the next season would not start until the 07th September 2008. After some inspired thinking and some discussion the final events of the season were re-arranged moving the presentation night forward by 2 weeks and the start of the next season scheduled initially for the 07th September 2008 to the 16th August 2008. This meant that players not in finals etc could start playing in the new season without such a long break, also bars would have games starting again 3 weeks earlier.

The end of season games should now read as follows:
22/06/08                    Last Games , 2nd division only.
29/06/08                    No League Games but a catch up week for postponed games
06/07/08                    Cricket Knockout Competition
13/07/08                    Unicorn Team Handicap Cup (El Sol & Los Toscales)
20/07/08                    Finals of all competitions and playoffs if required (Suters Bar)
27/07/08                    Presentation Night
16/08/08                    New Season Starts
RAF Explained that the Easter weekend was not a league day, but the Doubles knockout competition would take place.

Raf would change the fixture sheets and distribute them to the bars.


4. Sponsorship for the Knockout Competitions

As previously discussed a set fee of 100€, would be required for sponsorship of each knockout trophy. For this price the sponsor in return will get there name on the Cup, all fixtures and result will carry the sponsors name along with that they will also get there name on the new web site. Not only this but their name should appear in one of the island largest English language newspapers and they will be invited to present the trophy to the winners on the presentation night.

There were two suggestions on the table for the knockout competitions low entry problem. These knockouts provide a good proportion of the revenue the league uses at the end of the season, however with sponsorship been more forthcoming the committee considered the following:-

2 competitions , one for each league.

This would mean that players of the same league would play each other and in theory have more chance of winning (Especially those in the second division).

Reduced entry fee

Instead of paying 5€ per player per event the entry fee was reduced and offset against the sponsorship money.

After some discussion the committee felt that by introducing a Semi Blind draw, this would give players more incentive to play. The venues for the event would be drawn out at the meeting the actual draw would take place on the day at the venue. Although, opinions were still divided, the committee felt that as a trial with the singles knockout, the entry fee would be FREE and the draws to take place on the day. Raf was to compare figures on entry levels and financial income. Bars drawn for this venue are asked to provide raffle prizes and run a raffle through the previous week to raise fund for the league. Football cards could be run also at 2€ a team. David suggested that at the next meeting, all captains should be encouraged to get as many players as possible to join the knockouts, hopefully this would allow 4 venues to be used instead of 2, in doing so this allowed more bars more chance of a venue in the year.

5. Good News or should I say Good Newspaper
Steve was glad to announce that Mr Henry Cruz Island Connections Director of Sales has agreed to allocate a small amount of space in this very popular English language newspaper for the results. After many previous hours of discussion it was felt that this could work favourably for both parties the league and the Paper. Henry did not want to pressure bars etc into advertising, but he would give a favourable discount were possible for league bars, he would also be prepared to change his delivery schedule to include all the league bars were possible, however for the remote bars he would provide extra copies for Raf to distribute, when emptying the machines. In return all documentation produced by the league would include the island connections logo and a link to the island connection website, would be placed on the new web site. www.darts-tenerife.com . This is more of a trial run for both parties and could prove more beneficial for all in the future.

Raf asked the committee if they had any solution for those bars who sent in results late. This is an ongoing problem but this year he would be sending the results to the internet company and the paper. He felt that he needed these results by midnight on Sunday.

A number of suggestions were submitted:- These are as follows

a. A large fine is made on each bar owner for late results.
b. Teams get a fine.
c. Barc become illegible to host a meeting for a venue or a knockout.
d. Teams are asked to run bare arsed around the church square in Los Christianos.

It was felt to be unfair to penalise the whole team, when in reality the responsibility is with the captain and the bar owner. Fines always create bad feelings and we’ve all heard it before “That’s it we aren’t playing again”. So it was felt that bar owners should pay a forfeit by been lifted from the venues list, at the next captains meeting it will be decided weather this is for the next event or the entire season.

RESULTS

Raf said it took a great deal of time to get the results to every bar each week, however with the fortnightly edition of the Island connections this could help him. The committee decided that Raf should e-mail the results, bars without e-mail could use the captains or players e-mail. Other bars could collect them from locally situated bars. Raf went through the list of teams almost all teams had e-mail or were located close to a bar with e-mail. Suters bar would use the construction company located behind them. Raf realised that this would save him no end of hours each week.

Raf was asked to remember to include all bars with 2 teams, have 2 balls placed in the bag for any draws, and where 2 bars are close to each other included in the large venue draws. Raf Agreed

A point was also raised in that some bars had no meeting or venue last year. The current system starts the list afresh at the start of each season. It would be better to run the list until it has been completed even if this took a season and a half. The committee agreed that this would apply to all meetings and normal venues, the large venue draw would be looked at in more detail first.

It was felt that the league rules on players left a possibility for teams to cheat. That is to say a team may turn up with one or 2 of their A players, when there is no 1st division match or when a result was very important.

The rules state that a player for one team cannot play for another without captain agreement but this was intended for players who changed team mid season. It was felt to be awkward for captains to say no. At the next captains meeting we need to get agreement on this, maybe a player can be played but the point is not up for grabs.

It was also felt that even if say Phil Taylor turned up on holiday and played for a team, that team may win and take points of a team, normally the team using Phil would loose, the following week when Phil had gone home, they would return to there loosing ways. This would be deemed very unfair on teams playing them when Phil was here.

Steve mentioned that there are rules which applied in the contracts of professional and world ranked players but he was not 100% certain what these were, he would find out. However personally he felt the more superstars of Darts who play, gives more opportunity to many to play these stars, even if they loose they can brag for years about the day they just lost to the worlds number 3 for example. But he understood that this type of player change could cost team promotion or even relegation. This would be raised at the captains meeting, with teams reminded that the league is a fun league and fair play is expected.

9. Tournaments

Luc told the committee that he would like other bars to organise darts tournaments, as often when he took his posters people would say “Oh no, not at El Sol again”.

Luc went on to explain that he had arranged a tournament on the 18th January 2008; he said he had contacted the Friday league (Johnny Seal) since then he has discovered that a charity darts night had been arranged.

A few suggestions had been received.

        1. The Bananarium Canarian theme park.
        2. A large boat all inclusive
        3. An all inclusive hotel.

Steve would get quotes from all 3, although there is no immediate rush, it would be nice to get this sorted out well in advance. If anyone has any other suggestions please let the committee know as soon as possible. Raf thought it might be a good idea to play the Cricket knockout on a boat or even one of the ferries.

11. Next Committee meeting

The committee decided to try and visit all the bars in the league except those they ran, so the next meeting of the Sub Committee was to be held at Vibes Beach Bar on Thursday the 24th of January 2008 at 2pm. On this agenda the committee will review the league rules and deal with other issues arising.

This is not to be confused with the Captains meeting due to take place on 28th January at Veronicas bar. 6:30pm.

Everyone felt that in a few hours a great deal had been achieved and the suggestions of this and the next meeting would be presented to the captains meeting.