Report for Season 2010-2011
The Fixtures Pool website is still providing clubs with a facility to pick up games at the last minute. However with the increase in Merit Tables and Reserve Leagues for 2nd, 3rd, 4th XV rugby etc., demand for picking up these last minute games has taken a drop. I am sure that the severe weather we had this last winter also had a great deal to do with the fall in numbers and the fact that Christmas Day and New Year’s Day fell on a Saturday.
Richard Arney (Webmaster) has yet again responded immediately to my wishes for alterations and also to those of users needing help. Users are still commenting as to how user friendly the programme is and how much easier it now is to find out who is looking for games on either a Saturday (Senior) or a Sunday (Junior and Mini).
The bonus for Karyl and me though, is that all this work, thankfully, is going on in the background unnoticed. The time that I have to devote to administering the facility has diminished considerably, enabling me to branch out into other administrative duties with the North Midlands and the Midlands Leagues Organising Committeee, of which I am now the Secretary. The growth in membership of the Fixtures Pool has steadied this last season, but clubs are using a system that they all feel very comfortable with and all report that it makes the life of the Fixtures Secretary / Match Secretary so much easier than it used to be. What has been most pleasing is the increased use of the ‘Pool’ by the Junior and Mini Sections within clubs for their Sunday games, but it would be even better if more clubs, who are already members, realised that their Junior and Mini Sections can use the facility totally free of charge.
This season (10-11), we averaged 128 teams per week in the ‘Pool’, dealing with 4,478 teams in total – last season (09-10) the figures were 127 per week and 4,439 in total. What is still exciting about the future is that the more clubs in the Midlands and elsewhere that join, the bigger and better the site will become, still with the bonus of no queuing. In order that this may come about it needs all users to encourage non users of this facility to become members of this Fixtures Pool, in addition to any other that they may use. They would very quickly find out which one was the easier to use and which gave them the better service.
The monthly breakdown, showing the last two seasons for comparison purposes, was as follows:-
All registered clubs received an invitation to attend the Fixtures Secretaries’ Meeting at Alcester RFC on Wednesday June 15th 2011, where a buffet, paid for out of club subscriptions, was laid on by Karyl as usual. 35 clubs attended.
The Structured Season and League Fixtures for 2011-2012 were confirmed by the RFU and released to clubs via their League Secretary at the beginning of June.
The fees for next season will be the same as last year, in that there will be an all-inclusive, up front fee of £20 per club, with no extra charges for entry into the Pool or use by Junior, Mini and Women Sections. We hope this will encourage more clubs to use us, thus giving you more choice of opposition on the site.
If we could find some advertisers for the website, we would be able to reduce the cost further, only requiring a nominal registration fee at the beginning of the season. Potential advertisers please contact either Richard Arney (richard@briefclick.com) or me (rogerwrees@sky.com).
Have a successful 2011-2012 season.
Roger Rees