Honorary Secretary's Annual Report
This past year has been the busiest I have experienced during the past fifteen years as your Secretary, and it has been very pleasing to see the way Lacrosse has increased in the UK, following the pattem throughout Europe.
I am also pleased to say that the Club received letters of thanks from the Woodcote School Partnership for the financial support provided over the past three years at the rate of £500 per annum towards the provision of a Community Sports Coach in the Croydon area. Thanks were also received from Spencer Lacrosse Club for a development grant of £250. I mention these letters of thanks because it is very rare these days to receive any communication after a grant of equipment or cash has been received, it only increases the work load to have to make contact with recipients to find out if they have received what ever it is we have promised to supply to them.
We have assisted the following Universities with equipment to enable them to start Lacrosse, usually the grant of equipment follows a pattern of 10 Lacrosse Sticks, 10 Helmets and 10 pairs of Gloves, in other words a starter kit, and to date this has been very successful with some 29 Universities now playing since we started this development program, and I am very pleased to. say that none of them have dropped out so far, but everything depends upon the current leader finding a successor when he leaves College to make his way in the World.
The Universities we have assisted this year are:-
Leicester, Northumbria, Lincoln, Bangor, Chichester, Brunel and Hull.
Variations on our usual theme are Helmets only to Lincoln (we supplied Sticks last year), Bangor received Sticks from one of our members and Exeter University having received a large grant of equipment from their University were kind enough to pass on the Helmets and Gloves we had previously provided them with, to Bangor along with shoulder and arm pads. Hull University have been playing for some years, without assistance from us, but the original players are leaving this year, taking their equipment with them, so in order to make sure the game continues under the new leadership, we have provided them with 12 sets of second hand equipment recovered from Stowe School, to whom we had loaned the equipment earlier in the year.
In addition to assisting Universities we have supplied 10 Helmets to Maidstone Lacrosse Club to assist them to start a new Club, similarly to Chester Lacrosse Club, and we have also made grants to three juniors fron Walcountian Blues Lacrosse Club to assist them to attend a training camp in the USA (3 x £100).
A Centurion sub-committee is also meeting to discuss ways and means of extending the season for those Universities currently playing in the BUCS Leagues who currently finish their season at the end of January unless they are fortunate enough to play in the semi—final or final games of their season. This to your Committee, is an unsatisfactory state of affairs from the Lacrosse point of v1ew, since students are left at a loose end, and if they are keen on sport will look to other sports to keep fit.
By the time of this meeting I hope to report further on the outcome of your Committees deliberations.
May l also take this opportunity to thank all those members who have assisted by visiting almost all of the Universities I have mentioned to ensure that we have been dealing with strong leadership and to make sure that our very limited funds will not be wasted. I would particularly mention Denis Hanks, John Maynard and Neil Forsyth who have taken care of the South of England. Those members from more distant parts include Geoff Fox, who visited Plymouth University and Marjons, both situated in Plymouth, in addition he supervised the transfer of equipment from Exeter to Bangor. We were also assisted by Keith Whitehead who visited Bangor University, and Doug Hague who interviewed the leaders at Northumbria University. I hope I have not left anybody out; if so my profound apologies.