South Eastern Centre Motocross Combine Minutes October 1997

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SOUTH EASTERN MOTO CROSS C0MBINE HELD ON WEDNESDAY 15TH OCTOBER 1997

PRESENT : 15 Delegates were present representing the following clubs : Brighton, Crawley, GEST, Greenwich, Horsham, Sidcup, S.E. Marshals & Twickenham.

CHAIR : Mr.Eddie Herd took the Chair.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE : Apologies for absence were received from Mr. Alan Clarke

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING : It was proposed Mr. Dixon and seconded Mr Batten that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 20th April 1997 were a true and accurate record. Approved.

MATTERS ARISING THEREFROM : There were no matters arising that were not covered by the Agenda.

NEW ENTRY AND SIGNING ON FORMS: Mrs. Clarke read our letter to Geoff Wilson the Chief Executive at the ACU regarding our worries about the wording on both the new style entry forms and signing on sheets recently issued by the Union and anomalies between Centre's on the printing of parental agreement forms in the gazettes. She then read a lengthy reply from Mr Wilson which rather confirmed our worries that these forms were really not set on stone as we had assumed and they were waiting for reactions before changing them again. One quote really summed up the whole theme of the letter " The system is designed to be almost as flexible as you wish it to be …. Within reason I think". - Not the firm directive we had hoped for. After some discussion it was agreed that the Secretary write again and ask what had been learnt over the Summer and what changes were now to be expected.

ADULT 125 CLASS WITH EXPERT POINTS : Mr Horton spoke on a need from within their Club to expand the 125 Class to Centre Restricted events as a natural way to expand the Class up to British Championship level. Mrs. Simpson spoke on trying the class at a recent Greenwich meeting only to have to cancel it due to lack of entries. Mrs. Argent said she thought it needed a " minder" rather like the Ace Four Strokes have to encourage the riders to enter meetings and to approach Clubs to host rounds. This was generally thought to be a good idea but no one offered to do the job. Mrs. Clarke said she would count the 125's that had entered their forthcoming meeting to see if enough had entered that could make a decent line up.

PERMANENT NUMBERS : Mr. Batten spoke on how he had been unhappy with Crawley's about turn after it had been agreed that all Clubs would give the number system a trial run for a year. Crawley had then done another about turn and accepted some entries although they did not give publicity to the fact and so no other Clubs followed. Mrs. Simpson said she had recently acted as entry secretary for a Southend Meeting and had to wait for the whole entry to come in before she could acknowledge them as she had to wait to allocate numbers in the vacancies .She therefore could not endorse the idea from a Secretary's point of view. Mrs. Slight could not see that it would be worthwhile , whilst Brighton issued 3 figure numbers for Allcomers on purpose so there would be no confusion foe the First Aid personal or spectators alike. Mr Herd said before a vote was taken that all of the Clubs must be in favour to give the system a chance to work. It was put to the vote and lost there only being 2 in favour.

FOUR STROKE RIDERS IN EXPERT CLASS : Mr Batten said he had been approached by the Expert riders Steve Wells and Scott Robinson at a recent Twickenham meeting to complain about additional Four Stroke Expert riders who just raced in the last Expert race and caused riders to crash and loose places. There was much discussion to see how this could be resolved, Mrs. Slight said they must ride in all 3 Expert Races, Mr Horton said they should be booked into the class. In the end it was proposed Mr Dixon and seconded Mrs. Argent that anyone wishing to ride in another class must state on his entry form so that it can be inserted in the programme and he will have to pay an additional £10 on his entry fee which would not be refundable if he did not subsequently ride in both classes. Mrs. Clarke said she was against this idea and could not see what the £10 was for ,as overheads like toilets, PA and prize money all had to be paid for anyway, she felt it was taking unecessary money of the riders. It was put to the vote and passed with 1 against.

FAIR BALLOTTING SYSTEM : Mr Batten said there had been a lot of dissatisfaction recently at meetings about the allocation of places on the start line not being fairly distributed. After much discussion it was proposed Mrs. Argent and seconded Mrs. Slight that all Clubs use the same system of having pegs in a bag out of sight and being handed to the rider by the person in charge of the pegs and not self selection by the rider. Carried.

CENTRE CHAMPIONSHIP DATES IN 1997 : Mr Batten said he had asked for this item on the agenda because he was not happy with the number of rounds during the season and the fact they had not stuck to the published list. Mr Dixon [ keeper of the records ] responded that there had been amendments due to cancelled meetings.

EXPERT POINTS IN FOURSTROKE RACES : Mrs. Simpson said that recently some Juniors had scored Expert points in four stroke races via the finishing in the first 10 rule and this was creating Experts who were really not worthy of the title. There was much discussion with suggestions that the magic figure could be reduced or linked to a % of the number of Experts in the race. In the end it was agreed to leave the matter as it stood as the influx of the new Japanese Four Strokes might have a correcting effect next season.

MECHANICS SIGNING ON : Mrs. Clarke said she had contacted Bowrings to ask them about the cover mechanics enjoyed at meetings following the recent injury to Neil Barton.She had been told there was no cover at all at any meeting for a mechanic, even if he had signed on.This was just not part of the ACU policy because it had never been asked for. She said that we could get cover at any level but of course at a price, a team could take out cover, a club, the Centre or the ACU on the general policy, the only problem would be monitoring the mechanic as they would all have to be named before the event to be covered. It was agreed to write to Geoff Wilson and ask him to investigate it further for speed events.

NEW INSURANCE FIGURES : Mr Herd reported there would be new figures this year as the cover had doubled to £100 a week - it was thought that prices would go up by 20%. There had been some talk about an annual insurance being cheaper but it could prove difficult to administer.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS : Mr Lane [Greenwich] said he felt unhappy about cancelled meetings this year due to lack of entries at certain places like Golden Barn and wondered if the Crawley Club had thought about having a practice day there just to get riders to see the improvements that had taken place, Mrs. Slight said it was worth thinking about. Mrs. Slight wondered what had happened to the list of workers that was meant to give some reward in lack of marshalling duties.There was a general discussion on the general bad attitude of some people to providing marshals including one person who always writes exempt on his entry! Mr Wood [ editor of the gazette ) said there would be a new style of regulation and entry form in the gazette from January. Mr Batten was keen to see all Clubs unite and refuse to take any late entries to try and get riders better organised.He queried the fact that Brighton had paid their entry cheques in early which is against the rules. Mr Brown [ Brighton ] apologized for this oversight. Mr Dixon said he did not want to se "As per Championship Conditions" in regs any more when it related to prize monies - there were no Championship Prize Monies any more - it was down to each individual Club. Mr Herd enlarged on the recent meeting with the BSMA and Mr Horton said he was about to attend the Youth Conference and would appreciate someone filling him in on just what was going to happen. Mr Batten said he thought we were breaking ACU rules by allowing a newly promoted expert stay down to compete in our Junior Championship. It was agreed to discuss the matter further at the next meeting. Mr Dixon made sure everyone was aware of Chris Elderfield's riding status - that of an Expert, even though he rode a twin shock bike.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING : It was agreed to hold the next meeting at Blindley Heath on 26th November where amongst other things the Championship Rounds would be agreed. There being nothing further to discuss the meeting closed at 11.05pm.

Subsequent to our meeting things have progressed along the BSMA / ACU merger front and we have invited the East Kent Schoolboy Scramble Club to attend our next meeting on November 26th.