ERC
Minutes of Meeting 13th March 2024
Present: Roberts Stafeckis – ERC Chairman, Andrés Alvarez-Sala – ERC, Duncan Catterall - ERC, Alan Looney - ERC, Michael Böer - ERC, José Alvarez-Sala – WCF President, Debbie Lines - WCF Secretary-General, Peter Paynes – WCF Treasurer, Begoña Elzaburu – WCF MC, Samir Patel – WCF MC
European Flags and Trophies
Flags: Will be delivered to all venues by the S-G. Needed - delivery address and contact persons from each hosting club.
Trophies and salvers: All events have perpetual trophies. Medals and salvers will remain similar type and size as last two years. Purchasing of the trophies and salvers shall be done centrally for all three events.
European GC, Sussex County Croquet Club, England - Event Lead Andres Alvarez-Sala
Ranking Places announced to players from 7 countries, no withdrawals so far. Members to submit names for their membership places by closing date.
European GC Women’s, Compton, England - Event Lead Begoña Elzaburu
Ranking Places announced. Members to submit names for their Membership Places.
European AC, Carrickmines, Ireland – Event Lead Alan Looney
Belgium did not claim membership place in due time. Therefore, there will be no membership place awarded to Belgium. Their player is validly added to the Replacement list and may get a space in this way if not all Members take all their requested Membership places.
European Club League - update on the entry fees
Entry fees from six (out of 28) participants are still missing.
Event agreement yet to be agreed and signed with the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.
Calendar of European Open events (Peter Payne)
The event list shall be uploaded to the website soon.
Initial discussion on the Member Place Limit for the ERC events (currently 15%)
Discussion was conducted on how the quality of ERC events can be improved and still guarantee membership places to all Members and RCOs.
Proposals were to increase the number of available Ranking Places or change the country limit but a full discussion is to be initiated and conclusion must be found in time to set rules for next year.
Invitation Dates
In order to better manage allocation of Ranking List places out of the RRL it was suggested that Invitations for the 2025 events are sent out earlier in the year.
Withdrawals clarification
Membership - It was clarified that in case of a withdrawal of a player with a membership place, the Member has the right to nominate another player within 14 days. If the vacancy is not filled the place will be offered to the highest ranked player from the RRL, subject to the country limit. Players can be nominated for the RRL at any time without time limit.
Ranking Places – it was clarified that when a Ranking Place withdraws, the highest place person from a country who has not reached their maximum limit, is offered the replacement. This may or may not be from the same country.
If not full - Only if the event is not otherwise full will replacements be taken from countries which have reached the maximum numbers. In which case the highest ranked available players are offered the position.
Other Business
It was discussed whether the ERC should have its own Secretary General to administer ERC events. This would attract a small honorarium. Treasurer shall investigate how funds could be raised to cover the cost of this. This issue would have to be discussed and approved by WCF.
Next meeting: April 16, 2024 18:30 London time.
The Management Committee (MC) are very pleased to announce that Corfu, one of the Greek islands, has requested to join the WCF. The MC have reviewed their request and can confirm that the Corfu Club meets the requirements to join the WCF as a Recognised Croquet Organisation (RCO).
