Minutes of the League Management Committee Meeting at Syston on Monday 6 November 2006

Present: Jim Bingham [JB], Peter Harrison [PH], Sean Hewitt [SH], Alan Jex (AJ - Chair), Jim Miller (JNM - Secretary), John Pattinson [JP], Mike Thornton [MT], Steve Wylie [SW].

1. Apologies

John Dawkins, Iain Dodds, Graham Hewitt, Cyril Johnson, Julie Johnson.

2. Minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 July 2006 were approved.

3. Matters Arising

None.

4. League Matters, 2006-7

4.1 JNM reported that Leicester University had successfully launched a team into Division 6.  SH added that they had paid their fees, had 6 players, and used Percy Gee building as their venue.

4.2 JNM also reported that, as a result of illness, Graham Lee could not currently take his players to away matches.  LMC reluctantly agreed to the postponement of the 9 November match at Ashby, and noted with concern the pile-up of Oakham's fixtures, which had also occurred on account of an apparent and mysterious shortage of rooms at the school.  AJ offered to help Oakham if he could and JNM promised to pass this message on to Graham Lee.  SW pointed out that a Littlethorpe team had travelled to Oakham only to find that there was no match – this had occurred because a last-minute postponement had been requested by e-mail, but the latter had not been received or acknowledged in time.  It was agreed that clubs would be reminded of the need to make personal contact (live phone call; returned phone message; returned e-mail; etc, etc) before such a last-minute postponement could be regarded as valid.  A note to this effect would be inserted in the Rules or Advice to Captains for 2007-8, though it was also re-emphasised that in the normal way postponements were not valid without the League Secretary's permission.

4.3 JNM summarised the request from DSS and Wigston for the remaining 3 DSS players to form a DSS/Wigston team for the rest of this season.  LMC agreed that (1) DSS should be regarded has having folded, and that permission would be given for the players to move to Wigston; (2) The team should be called "Wigston 4A/DSS" and should be regarded as the senior of the Wigston teams in D4; and (3) that the normal barring rules would apply to the new team and its members.  It was noted that Wigston had offered to re-arrange DSS fixtures from Mondays to Thursdays.  SH said that if this caused problems, Littlethorpe premises could be used on Mondays.  It was noted that DSS had only one more scheduled home match before Christmas, allowing plenty of time for fixture re-arrangements to be agreed.  All the above arrangements would apply for the remainder of the 2006-7 season, after which the players and the Wigston club could naturally review the position.

4.4 There was also extensive discussion about the barred players and board order for players in Wigston's 1st and 2nd teams.  It was noted that no formal protests had been received, but that there was general disquiet about some aspects of the present arrangements.  The only action currently open to LMC was to use the provisions of Rule 16(i) which allowed the committee to restrict players to certain teams.  After much discussion it was agreed unanimously that Alan Byron and Walter Dehnen should be allowed to play for only one of the Wigston D1 teams, the choice in each case being up to the club.  It was hoped that this would effectively remove the problems of some anomalous board orders, but a close watch would be kept on Wigston teams in forthcoming matches.

4.5 It was evident that, although significant problems had not arisen before the present season, Rules 10 and 16 needed re-examining in detail to eliminate some possible ambiguities.  JNM agreed to prepare a short paper on this Rules issue, which would be discussed at the next meeting.

4.6 SW reminded the meeting about an issue raised by Braunstone.  It concerned a D3 match in which one player had wanted a QP finish, but his opponent had not arrived at the start of the match.  It was agreed that in such cases an absent player's captain or stand-in captain would decide on the player's preference, the choice being entered on the match score sheet exchanged as always with the opposition before the start of play.  JNM agreed to circulate all clubs with this recommendation, and to insert it in the "Advice to Captains" section of the Handbook for 2007-8.

4.7 It was noted that the issue of League entry fees had been raised by one club, the suggestion being that, since 4-player teams paid less than 5-player teams, teams in smaller Divisions should also pay less than those in 8-team Divisions.  It was agreed that no changes could be made this season (entry fees are agreed by the LRCA AGM), and that the issue was part of larger discussion that would take place at the Policy Committee early next year.

5. Summer Cups

This item was effectively deferred until the next meeting.  JNM pointed out that the major issues were the exact formats of the [new] Wylie and Harrod Cups (numbers of boards and rounds, grading restrictions), and some possible rule changes to the Chapman and Birstall Cups.

6. Date of Next Meeting

Wednesday [NB] 17 January 2007.  JNM to contact CFWJ about booking the committee room.

JNM – 8 November 2006