Clubs in the MP Sports Cherwell League are being asked to submit views on rules and registration changes.

The move comes after the league’s first executive meeting since Clive Ricks became the new chairman.

Having been voted in at the annual meeting, Ricks immediately announced a series of forums on the league’s rules and constitution.

However, his opening gambit hasn’t been met with universal favour – especially with his fellow executive members.

Former secretary Peter Fenn, in a letter, questioned whether Ricks had acted in an unconstitutional fashion in arranging the meetings.

And treasurer Jim Lodge claimed that Ricks’s actions were indeed unconstitutional.

Ricks, who reported that members from 24 clubs had attended the forums, told the Oxford Mail that he had merely been carrying out a pledge in his manifesto.

“It seemed to me that having had the AGM there was a clear mandate that the clubs wanted them,” he said. “I think that was one of the major things.

“I think it was a very useful exercise. It was a shame that the majority of the committee members felt that as the forums had not been sanctioned, basically they shouldn’t take any notice of them.”

After much discussion at what appears a fraught executive meeting, Don Brooks’s proposal that the suggestions from the forums should be withdrawn from the meeting was passed by seven votes to two with one abstention.

Instead it was agreed that secretary Peter Tomlin should ask clubs to send in any points they wish to be discussed on rules and registration by Saturday, January 8.

The rules and registration sub-committee is to then meet before the next executive meeting on Monday, January 17 when the final decisions are to be taken.

In another twist, Ricks’s hopes of seeing David Pryor - one of his supporters who has been newly-elected to the executive – join the rules and registration sub-committee were thwarted.

With Ricks, as chairman, unable to propose Pryor, Dick Giles put forward the Didcot man for election, but no seconder was forthcoming.

Meanwhile, Cublington, who were elected to the league at the annual meeting, have been placed in Division 5.

And Kingston Bagpuize 3rd have been accepted into the league.