2020 the year the bins went out more than most of us did!
We as a Region had a great year planned and we were hoping to build on the 2019 Season that had been very successful for us as a Region. So we are looking forward to the 2021 Season and planning that this will be Covid-19 free and not affect our plans. However if we are unfortunate enough to be restricted in the activities that the Region and our local leagues can offer then please be assured that we will endeavour to complete as many activities as possible but they may be subject to changing dates and locations.
The degree of uncertainty that we are all facing is the major reason why for this year at least we are producing our Regional Handbook in a digital format that will be sent out as a monthly newsletter. The printed version of our handbook is expensive to produce and is funded by advertising, and as we collected advertising money last year but did not distribute the booklets we did not feel it appropriate to approach our advertisers again until we had offered them a return on their investment, so we are creating “a friends of Chiltern Petanque” page on our website and will feature one or more of the advertisers in each monthly newsletter and we urge you to consider using them if you require a service they offer.
In 2019 our membership grew to 275 members which made us the third biggest Region by number in the country and one of the smallest by geography. We cover Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and have a few clubs that border those counties. In 2020 approximately 170 people re-joined Chiltern Region of Petanque England. As many of you are aware your annual subscription is paid to Petanque England and we receive back a precept that we have set to run our Region, for 2020 this was set at £4. So of the £26 that you paid National keep £22 to run our National Organisation and we get £4 to assist with running our Regional activities. We as a Region Committee generally felt that our members had received nothing in 2020 for their membership fee. Petanque England did offer all members a £5 refund but we felt we needed to do more, so what we are doing is that for anyone who joined PE in 2020 and joins again in 2021 they will have a £10 competition credit that they can use to enter any Regional Competitions (entry is currently £5) or put it towards the cost of entering our Regional Qualifiers. We have also been informed by Petanque England that they are raising the annual subscription from £22 to £25. Therefore to lessen this increase we have dropped our Regional Precept from £4 to £3. This we believe is the best we can do and we hope that it encourages people to re-join Petanque England and in particular our Region. Therefore total cost to join Petanque England will be £28 for the 2021 season.
Our major plan as a Region in 2021 is to go to the Inter-Regional Championship, now to be held in Lowestoft and win for the fourth year in a row the Championship Trophy and to retain the Challenge Trophy and the Presidents Trophy. The Presidents Trophy is awarded to the most successful Region in England at this event and it was a great honour for me personally to collect this trophy in 2019. To make sure we build on this success our Inter-Regional Squads will as always be formed by a round robin competition that ensures our best players and best teams represent our Region and regularly come home as Champions. As we are currently the “double” Champions if Combined Squads are needed we will form the majority of them so we could be sending up to a maximum of our top 18 teams to Lowestoft in early September, so it is well worth entering our Regional Qualifiers.
The effect of Covid-19 on our Regional and League Competitions in 2020 was devastating, but both leagues and the Region intend to bounce back in 2021 and are making plans for a full season of Petanque so please support them and encourage others to join in. We may all have to be flexible in relation to playing formats, dates and venues but please bear with us and we will all continue to deliver top quality competition.
Our local leagues are always looking to expand and new teams are very welcome to join. Individuals, with or without playing experience can also contact the league secretaries who will put them in contact with a local team.
We are continuing to build a very strong Region which many other Regions in England would like to emulate us and we will continue to endeavour to build on this success. The ways in which we plan to do this are to support our local leagues, arrange Regional Coaching Sessions, arrange and run Regional Competitions, organise Inter-Regional Challenge matches, assisting our top players in playing for England and hopefully attracting people from all walks of society to play at all levels within our Region.
Off the Piste what we are currently doing we are doing extremely well, we are controlling the finances, running the competitions, organising coaching, and organising and running the Regional Teams very well. But we acknowledge that we do need to do better in increasing membership at all levels and getting the local publicity our Sport deserves, to do this we need your help, we have changed the way the committee meets and operates to put less onus on peoples time and we can co-opt onto the committee for specific tasks so if you think you can assist us in any way please contact us to discuss further.
Wishing you all a great year of Petanque in 2021
Neil Stevenson (Regional Chairman)
We as a Region had a great year planned and we were hoping to build on the 2019 Season that had been very successful for us as a Region. So we are looking forward to the 2021 Season and planning that this will be Covid-19 free and not affect our plans. However if we are unfortunate enough to be restricted in the activities that the Region and our local leagues can offer then please be assured that we will endeavour to complete as many activities as possible but they may be subject to changing dates and locations.
The degree of uncertainty that we are all facing is the major reason why for this year at least we are producing our Regional Handbook in a digital format that will be sent out as a monthly newsletter. The printed version of our handbook is expensive to produce and is funded by advertising, and as we collected advertising money last year but did not distribute the booklets we did not feel it appropriate to approach our advertisers again until we had offered them a return on their investment, so we are creating “a friends of Chiltern Petanque” page on our website and will feature one or more of the advertisers in each monthly newsletter and we urge you to consider using them if you require a service they offer.
In 2019 our membership grew to 275 members which made us the third biggest Region by number in the country and one of the smallest by geography. We cover Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and have a few clubs that border those counties. In 2020 approximately 170 people re-joined Chiltern Region of Petanque England. As many of you are aware your annual subscription is paid to Petanque England and we receive back a precept that we have set to run our Region, for 2020 this was set at £4. So of the £26 that you paid National keep £22 to run our National Organisation and we get £4 to assist with running our Regional activities. We as a Region Committee generally felt that our members had received nothing in 2020 for their membership fee. Petanque England did offer all members a £5 refund but we felt we needed to do more, so what we are doing is that for anyone who joined PE in 2020 and joins again in 2021 they will have a £10 competition credit that they can use to enter any Regional Competitions (entry is currently £5) or put it towards the cost of entering our Regional Qualifiers. We have also been informed by Petanque England that they are raising the annual subscription from £22 to £25. Therefore to lessen this increase we have dropped our Regional Precept from £4 to £3. This we believe is the best we can do and we hope that it encourages people to re-join Petanque England and in particular our Region. Therefore total cost to join Petanque England will be £28 for the 2021 season.
Our major plan as a Region in 2021 is to go to the Inter-Regional Championship, now to be held in Lowestoft and win for the fourth year in a row the Championship Trophy and to retain the Challenge Trophy and the Presidents Trophy. The Presidents Trophy is awarded to the most successful Region in England at this event and it was a great honour for me personally to collect this trophy in 2019. To make sure we build on this success our Inter-Regional Squads will as always be formed by a round robin competition that ensures our best players and best teams represent our Region and regularly come home as Champions. As we are currently the “double” Champions if Combined Squads are needed we will form the majority of them so we could be sending up to a maximum of our top 18 teams to Lowestoft in early September, so it is well worth entering our Regional Qualifiers.
The effect of Covid-19 on our Regional and League Competitions in 2020 was devastating, but both leagues and the Region intend to bounce back in 2021 and are making plans for a full season of Petanque so please support them and encourage others to join in. We may all have to be flexible in relation to playing formats, dates and venues but please bear with us and we will all continue to deliver top quality competition.
Our local leagues are always looking to expand and new teams are very welcome to join. Individuals, with or without playing experience can also contact the league secretaries who will put them in contact with a local team.
We are continuing to build a very strong Region which many other Regions in England would like to emulate us and we will continue to endeavour to build on this success. The ways in which we plan to do this are to support our local leagues, arrange Regional Coaching Sessions, arrange and run Regional Competitions, organise Inter-Regional Challenge matches, assisting our top players in playing for England and hopefully attracting people from all walks of society to play at all levels within our Region.
Off the Piste what we are currently doing we are doing extremely well, we are controlling the finances, running the competitions, organising coaching, and organising and running the Regional Teams very well. But we acknowledge that we do need to do better in increasing membership at all levels and getting the local publicity our Sport deserves, to do this we need your help, we have changed the way the committee meets and operates to put less onus on peoples time and we can co-opt onto the committee for specific tasks so if you think you can assist us in any way please contact us to discuss further.
Wishing you all a great year of Petanque in 2021
Neil Stevenson (Regional Chairman)
