NWCFL AGM Round-Up

Once again the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool was the destination for this year's NWCFL Annual General Meeting.

The day serves as an excellent way of meeting and catching up with your peers as well as officially putting the season just gone to bed and opening the next.

Committee member Stuart Crawford: designated driver for the day

There was a handful of key points from the meeting but the main ones, that affect us directly, were as follows:

• we officially said goodbye to Hanley Town, Irlam and Barnton from the First Division as they were promoted to the Premier Division
• the relegation of AFC Blackpool, Alsager Town and Silsden from the Premier Division to the First Division was confirmed
• representatives from the six new clubs - City of Liverpool, Charnock Richard, Prestwich Heys, Oswestry Town, Sandbach United and Carlisle City - all got their moment to say hello to the NWCFL
• it was confirmed that Northwich Manchester Villa had resigned from the league
• Rochdale Town are appealing the decision to relegate them from the NWCFL. This meant that the draws for the League Cup and First Division Trophy could not take place. Once the outcome of the appeal is known, the league will commence with the draws and publish them.

A slightly more detailed breakdown of the news from the AGM can be seen by clicking here.

This means that we are definitely in a 22-team division next season and could quite possibly be in a 23-team one. Whatever happens it is going to be a busy season.

After the meeting was closed at 11.45am there is some time to kill before the dinner and presentation part in the evening.

There'll be a tram to Fleetwood any minute now. Any. Minute. Now.

Yours truly, Stuart Crawford and the chairman got "adventurous" and hopped on a tram to Fleetwood in search of lunch and to discuss a few operational matters relating to next season; the preparation for 2016-2017 starts now!

Back at the hotel there was time to take in Wales' excellent 2-1 win over Slovakia in the bar before the evening event: the dinner and the awards/presentations.

The early birds getting ready for dinner

We were sat on the same table as the committee members from First Division stablemates Litherland REMYCA and they were great dinner company; we look forward to seeing them again for the league fixtures this season!

The hotel had very kindly provided a big screen so that we could watch the England v Russia match and spirits were high when Eric Dier's free-kick flew in; such a shame that England couldn't hold on.

It seems that a dinner is not a dinner without some sort of "jus" on the menu thesedays....

Cabaret act Bernie Flint did his best to lift spirits once more before the denouement of the presentations and awards; congratulations to everybody that had the privilege of walking up to the stage when called by the league's Ian Williams. All richly deserved. A full list of who-won-what can be seen by clicking here.

Having set off from Cheadle at 9.00am we were finally back home at 1.00am, demonstrating what a long, but enjoyable, day the AGM can be....

If you want a selfie with the chairman (on the left in the picture), you have to catch him somewhat unawares....