Minutes of the League Management Committee Meeting at Syston on Wednesday 12 March 2008

Present: Alan Jex (Chair), Jim Miller (Secretary); Jim Bingham, Iain Dodds, Mike Thornton, Steve Wylie.

1. Apologies

Cyril and Julie Johnson, Mike Salisbury, John Pattinson.

2. Minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2007 were accepted as a correct record.

3. Matters Arising from the Minutes

3.1 JNM reported on the resolution of the Spinney Hill – Littlethorpe dispute over an "order of strength" issue, and thanked Mike Thornton, John Dawkins and David Reynolds for acting as members of the Disputes Committee.  AJ said that he thought that potential members of the Disputes Committee should be established at the start of each season, and not appointed on an ad hoc basis.  It was agreed to consider that as a possible rule change for 2008-9.  At the time of the Spinney Hill appeal the question had been raised as to what to do in the similar case of Hinckley, who had suffered similar penalties.  JNM reported that he had invited Hinckley to appeal, but they had declined to do so, accepted that they had made errors, and seemed relatively unworried by the penalties, so after some discussion it was agreed to take no further action.

3.2 JNM reported that, as expected, no suggestions had been received for new LMC members, and it was agreed to ask Peter Poolan and David Reynolds to join with effect from the AGM in May.  JNM would contact them.

3.3 JNM reminded LMC that he had circulated clubs to advise them that any players with no current grade could use a 2006 (normal play) grade to give suitable board orders.  A possible further dispute in this area had been settled without the need for further action.

4. Constitutional Matters

LMC agreed strongly and unanimously that the present structure, whereby LMC continued to run the League and Cups independently, while remaining closely associated with LRCA Ltd, was very satisfactory, and indeed a formal recognition of what had been the true situation for many years.  It was further accepted that, as a result, LRCA Ltd and the League would have to have their own separate AGMs – the date of Wednesday 28 May was suggested – and that the League needed a draft constitution.  JNM then presented such a draft, based almost wholly on relevant parts of the former LRCA (unincorporated), and members made a number of suggestions for changes.  It was agreed that the revised draft would be sent to clubs along with the advance notice of the League AGM.

5. Summer Cup Changes

JNM said that only one club had responded to his November message to all clubs outlining possible changes to the Summer Cups.  The single response was supportive, so it must be assumed that other clubs were also content.  The two main changes would be that - (a) There would be a flat fee for each team in each of the cup events (The Chapman and Birstall Cups count as one event) and no "per round" or "per game" fees.  The flat fee would be set on an approximately break-even basis.  (b) There would be a grade limit on the Wylie Cup teams, in the hope that more teams of all strengths might be encouraged to enter.  Initially a limit of 600 points had been proposed, but on reflection this was felt to be quite high, and after discussion LMC agreed on a figure of 550.

6. 2007-8 League Report

JNM reported that, in addition to the loss of Birstall in Division 1, one of the Littlethorpe teams had been disbanded, so that both Divisions 1 and 3 were operating with only 7 teams: there were 39 teams in all as a result.  The only other issue of significance was the worrying number of postponements and repeat postponements; in this respect one or two League clubs seemed to have reverted to the bad habits of two seasons ago.

JNM reported in detail on a disagreement between Littlethorpe and Syston over a Division 5 match, which had resulted in both clubs claiming the match by default.  It was fairly clear that there could be no agreement between the clubs on the exact facts of the case, so LMC agreed unanimously that the match should be replayed, if necessary at the end of the season.  A further complication was that the return match between the same two teams had been inadvertently scheduled for Easter Monday, a clearly impossible date.  Both matches would thus have to be re-scheduled.

7. League 2008-9 - Preliminary Thoughts

7.1 JTB pointed out that there had been some recent pressure for a re-casting of Division 1 of the League, to allow top players to get more League games.  SW pointed out that in the Coventry League, the scheduled matches were accompanied by a League Cup competition, in which the dates of matches were chosen by the clubs: the 8 teams concerned were divided into two initial groups for all-play-all mini-tournaments, with the winners of each of the latter playing off for the League Cup.  There was some support, at least in principle, for this type of initiative, and it was agreed that this and other relevant ideas would be put to the League AGM in May.

7.2 It was agreed to propose to the clubs that the experiment of allowing 3-hour playing sessions to be the default time limit at willing host clubs should be extended to Division 3.  This would bring the Rules for all the Divisions with 5-member teams more into line, and might further reduce the number of adjudications.  There was a feeling that the experimental Rule had mostly worked well in Divisions 1 and 2 in the current season.

8. Any Other Business

SW raised the case of a match which had been decided by the result of a game in which a draw under the Quick-play "2-minute rule" had been claimed.  It was accepted on all sides that such situations were rare, but always difficult, and liable to give rise to ill-feeling.  It was also noted that, in reality, claims of this kind are only very rarely going to succeed.  In this case, as in some others, there was also disagreement on the actual facts: fortunately it was accepted by both sides that the draw claim had been made at an invalid moment, so it had to fail without the need for the position to be passed to an external arbiter.  It was agreed that everything possible should be done to ensure that, in this area and some others, players were made fully aware of the Laws of the Game, especially those which, by the nature of things, did not arise very often.  JNM suggested, and it was agreed, that the next Handbook should have an "Advice for Players" section to supplement the existing "Advice for Captains" section.

9. Date of Next Meeting

To be agreed when the AGM date had been confirmed: LMC would need to meet first.

JNM – March 2008