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    Update - Rule changes from the AGM and a question

    I need to give you an update on the question at the end of this previous message - about who goes up and who goes down between leagues. The overwhelming response was to go back to the top two going up one division and the bottom two going down one division. Moving two divisions is just too big a jump for most teams an interesting outcome considering some teams actually went up and down three divsions when we had the 2a/2b/2c arrangement!

    The only reservation is for some teams at the lower end of tables. If they are clearly out of place then I'll reserve the right to bump them up an extra division as long as they're happy with that.

    Thanks for the feedback!

    Cheers,

       Richard


     

    First of all, apologies that it's taking so long to get the minutes out. They're scrawled on bits of paper and ready to be written up when we get a bit of time. We'll get there.

    In the meantime, I'll post the changes we agreed to the rules along with a question which we decided should go out to the players in general as we couldn't make our minds up on the night.

    Rule changes

    If you don't agree with these, please kick yourself for not showing up at the AGM and voicing your opinion.

    • Playing up. This is to enable teams to show up even when short but not gain advantage when doing so. We agreed that up to two players from the team below can play in the team above even if they have already played that week for the lower team. They must be a lower level than the other players in the higher team playing on the night. This movement will be discounted from the order change rule.
    • Playing down. This is to prevent wholescale replacement of a lower team by a higher team if the higher team aren't playing that week. Up to two players can play from the higher team at the top of the lower team if they aren't playing that week. They must not have a level greater than 25% more than the highest ranked player in the lower team.
    • Play-offs. The winner of the first half will be the default home team for the play-offs though this can be changed if agreed by both teams. The play-off must be played in the first two weeks after Easter. The teams will arrange and agree on the date. If the teams cannot agree on a play-off fixture then there will be no winner and no trophy.
    • Fixing fixtures. If there is a good reason to change a fixture (at the discretion of the league secretary) then this must be done at the start of the league. The re-arrangement must be agreed by both teams and the new fixture date communicated to the league secretary within 4 weeks of the start of the league. The new fixture date must be within one week of the end of the league. After four weeks, unplayed fixtures will result in walkovers against the team that can't make it.
    • Bonus points. In the case of a walkover, the winning team will get 2 bonus points. Currently they don't get bonus points at all for a walkover.
    • England Squash membership. There need to be the same number or more members of England Squash in the team as players who have played three times or more over the course of the league (half). This will apply to the Autumn and Winter leagues only. This is a slight modification to the current rule that limits that number to 5 players per team.

    Question

    There was a lot of discussion around whether the winning teams of each division should go up two divisions and the losers going down two divisions. Some teams fell that's too much movement and they don't want to go that high that quickly. Most teams don't want to go down that far either.

    So the question is: do you want to carry on with the up two divisions rule for the winner or shall we return to the up one division for the top two teams? If you do like the 'up two' rule, which division should that start at?

    Whatever we decide (based on majority voting) will apply to the current summer league as well. Either way we will continue with two teams up and two teams down. The question is over how far the winners/losers go.

    Please let me know what you think.

    And finally

    We would like more people to come along to the AGM and contribute to the running of the county. Some come along for exaclty that reason and some come just to save a fiver for their team. We're wondering what we could do to make it more appealing such as:

    • Hold it on a Wednesday
    • Have nibbles
    • Make it more of a social occasion
    • Something else?

    What do you think? What could we do different to encourage you to come along? It's your county and we want your views on how it should run and there's no reason to not have a bit of fun while we're doing it!

    Cheers,

        Richard - on behalf of the committee