East Leagues; Joint EWL and EML Management Meeting: Thursday 17th April 2008

Present

Russell Nutter	Ö	Neil Liversedge		David Roberts	Ö
David Burt	Ö	Sarah Mann	Ö	Pritpal Sagoo	Ö
Janet Goody	Ö	Samantha Menear	Ö	Robert Southgate	Ö
Cliff Gulbis	Ö	Jim Morris	Ö	Trevor Williams	Ö
Barry Harness	Ö	Richard Munns
Bob King	Ö	Rosemary Prince	Ö

Apologies: Neil Liversedge, Richard Munns

Minutes of previous meeting: Agreed as correct.

The Chairman made reference to the retirement of Jim Morris from the post of League Manager for the senior SE divisions at the end of the season, and thanked him for the ten years of hard work he has given to the East Men’s League in his own most positive and helpful way .

1. Correspondence

1.1. A letter from a Club had been received complaining about the contents of an intercepted email between two other Clubs critical of the first Club. Agreed that the correct response had been made – that the League cannot become involved in issues that are entirely between Clubs. TW had suggested to the complaining Club that directly raising the issue with the other two Clubs was by far the best way forward.

1.2. A concern had been raised about an entry in a web forum critical of the umpiring of an East League match by club umpires. Agreed that items in a public forum in which one Club criticises another are not issues in which the League should become involved. Forum moderators ensure that healthy debate does not stray into unacceptability.

1.3. Noted that a Regional Leagues/EH liaison meeting last week had reached a consensus on such web site issues. A Club website carrying material in its public area unacceptable to a league should be subject to league action. Material in a non-public area should not. Material on a public web forum should usually be ignored, and if there is an unacceptable entry this should be dealt with via the moderator and not directly.

1.4. Berkhamsted HC had informed the League that the Club had rejected the proposed merger with Tring HC and would therefore remain in the EML.

2. Playing matters

2.1. East Men's League
RS: Prem A, B, Div 1: no significant issues other than those in minute 2.3. There were more instances of poor Club administration, especially with teamsheets, in the second half of the season. Some Clubs will have to sharpen up in future.
RN: 1S and 1N: many Clubs were something of an organisational shambles in the period before and after Easter – the early date and split holidays clearly had an adverse effect.
CG: 3-5SW, 6NE: Again, there had been deterioration in Club admin in the second half of the season. Noted that St Albans Exiles may merge with St Albans next season. Discussions with RM had shown that concerns about fixture allocations involving strong/weak teams in 13-team divisions could not be addressed without unduly affecting the fixture structure overall.
JM: 3-5SE: There had been lots of complaints amongst Clubs about team selections and alleged cheating in the second half of the season, but most are already resolved.
PS: 3NE, 6-8SE: A number of teams had been deducted points, especially for late teamsheets, but otherwise there were no issues to report.
SM: 5NE, 9-10SE: Harleston Magpie 5^th team had been a difficult team to manage throughout the season, and had attracted a total penalty count of -5; the Club has undertaken to investigate and improve ready for next season.
BH: 5-7NW: Generally satisfactory, apart from the lack of effective admin at Rutland HC. The Club has however set up improvements for next season already
DB: 6-9SW: Berkhamsted 3 conceded five matches and were withdrawn from the League. A complaint from Luton Vagrants that a 1^st team player had unfairly strengthened Broxbourne 5 was not upheld; the player was returning from injury and has subsequently remained in the 5’s.
BK: Vets: Noted that there were likely to be only 12 teams in the League next season instead of the 13 this season, unless there are new applicants.
Following a query, it was confirmed that Vets teams are not part of the East Men’s League and as such are not governed by Rule 3.3.1, i.e. a Vets team is not considered as the bottom team of a Club and is not required to pass players up in the event of a shortage.

2.2. East Women's League
JG: Premier, Div 1S: no significant issues other than those in minute 2.3.

RP: Divs 1N, 2N: Noted that clubs cannot plan to use unqualified umpires – if no qualified umpires are available the match can be postponed. However, if a qualified umpire has to unexpectedly drop out, an unqualified umpire can be used as a replacement if both teams agree. It is a matter of judgement by the League Manager as to where the line is drawn between the two scenarios, depending on the circumstances at the time and knowledge of the club concerned. A club repeated having umpire drop outs would for example need some attention.

SM: Divs 2C, 2S: after three attempts to play the match, with the last fouled up by traffic problems, the Hadleigh-Welwyn match in 2C was voided. This has no bearing on promotion or relegation issues

2.3. EHL club 2nd teams
Following complaints from other Clubs, the selection policies of five EHL club 2^nd teams were investigated for potential breaches of rules 3.1, 3.3.1 and 3.3.2.
All the teams were found to be in apparent breach of rule 3.1, in that they had continued to include players on the starred player list when they did not continue to be regular 1^st team players. There are no specified penalties for breaches of this rule. It was agreed that the rule is inadequate and should be replaced (see minute 8 below).
Four of the teams appeared to have breached rules on team selection by selecting regular 1^st team players for the 2^nd team contrary to rules 3.3.1 and/or 3.3.2. The clubs concerned had been asked to provide explanations for these team selections, and had done so. The meeting reviewed this information, including club submissions, and agreed to endorse the decisions of the League Managers to award the results of the following matches as specified in rule 3.5 either 0-3 or 0-score against:
Ladies Premier: Ipswich 2: Dec 1, Dec 7, Jan 12, Jan 19, Jan 26, Feb 2, and Feb 23.
Ladies Premier: Old Loughtonians 2: Jan 19, Jan 26, Feb 2, Feb 23, and Mar 1.
Ladies Div 1S: Sevenoaks 2: Dec 8, Jan 12, Jan 26, and Mar 1.
Men Premier B: Chelmsford 2: Jan 19, Jan 26, Feb 2, Feb 9, Feb 16.
Clubs to be informed of these decisions (TW) *
No additional penalties under Rules 3.5 or 7.2 were deemed necessary.

3. League structure and organisation

3.1. EWL expansion: County League teams in line for promotions to East are being established.  There is some uncertainty around EHL promotions/relegations still, so the exact number of additional promotions needed from County Leagues cannot be finalized at present.  However, Essex Ladies League have agreed to provide 1, 2 or 3 teams for promotion as required, so balancing the numbers. TW will verify that the eligible promotion teams are committed to the East League for next season.

3.2. Coordination of Regional League Rules: TW is member of a working party charged with drafting relevant rule alignments for EHL feeder divisions, set up at the Regional Leagues liaison meeting with EH on April 8th. At the same meeting TW raised inter-league transfer issues, and there was agreement that the Out Club must agree a transfer before it can be finalised; this will be considered by the w-p, and EH also undertook to consider the implications for EHL registrations of players from regional league clubs after the start of the season.

3.3. Teams playing in other leagues: in response to identified problems with team selection rules Chelmsford had decided to move the Men’s 2^nd team to the London League. This raises the issue of ensuring that the 3^rd team complies with East League selection rules, which would require monitoring of EHL and London League team selections, and the effort involved may not be justified for a team in Division 3. Further problems could be foreseen with the anomalous situation that would arise if the 1^st team were relegated back to East from EHL.
There was also a general feeling amongst the Committee that the club should be committed to one league or another. TW to discuss these issues with Chelmsford and with the other two clubs potentially affected should the League decide to not accept or retain clubs participating in other leagues in this way.

4. Finance

4.1. Only one recent fine is outstanding.

4.2. £50 fines are to be applied to several clubs for late return of trophies (deadline was 31^st March).

4.3. A budget for 2008/9 had been submitted to ERHA.

5. Umpiring

5.1. DR noted that most County HUA pools had compared the League club umpires list with their own membership lists and were satisfied with the correlation.

6. Discipline

6.1. An Umpires Comments Form received from two ERHUA umpires had been highly critical of the attitude of players and spectators from Broxbourne during a recent match between the 1^st team and St Albans 1, and of the club for lack of hospitality and civility afterwards in the pavilion. The League had asked the Club to respond with proposals to deal with these issues. The Club had responded with a lengthy report referring to inaccuracies and falsehoods presented in the two umpires’ reports. This was being considered by ERHUA, who may decide on the withdrawal of umpires from the Club. Agreed that matches from which East umpires had been withdrawn for disciplinary reasons would be awarded 0-3 against. It is hoped that the Club will take a more constructive approach to these issues during the summer break.

6.2. Cards to date: 925 yellow cards in EML and 90 in EWL, 45 red cards in EML, 2 red cards in EWL. Overall this is an improvement on last season.
A number of players have yellow card bans to complete and these will be held over until next season. TW to advise the Clubs concerned.

7. Rule changes for 2008-9
The following proposals were agreed for the AGM. Full details are appended to these minutes.

7.1. League Management: remove as outdated the requirement for a League Manager to be of the same gender as the league in which they manage.

7.2. Club eligibility: remove as outdated the restriction to only one team per Club in a division.

7.3. Team selection re EHL clubs. Agreed that the starred player rule be removed and the subsequent rule be amended such that 12 of the players named on the EHL teamsheet cannot play down in the same weekend.

7.4. Bench players playing down for match practice: clarified.

7.5. Indoor postponements: dates of most postponed game slips now set down in the rules.

7.6. Club umpires: should be members of an umpires association.

7.7. EML and EWL promotions and relegation numbers redefined to take account of the more competitive nature of the EHL and the change in the structure of the EWL

Changes not agreed were:

7.8. Proposals from Chelmsford HC and March HC re playing down restrictions and warnings to be issued only to Club LLO’s, respectively, were not agreed, as believed to be impractical.

7.9. Having reviewed consequences during the season, agreed to withdraw the dispensation for a particular goalkeeper to additionally play on the field in a lower team for coaching purposes. Such a dispensation is unlikely to be granted again.

8. Presentation Day:

8.1. Progress:

· timetable (room from 12, AGM at 2, Buffet at 3, Presentations from 3.30) all arranged.

· catering for 90 people at approx £6 per head arranged.

· trophies return, purchase, engraving: in progress

· photography: SMenear will arrange, including backdrop featuring the Sponsor’s logo.

· pennants: 35 to be ordered. Sponsor’s logo to be incorporated. PS

· certificates: TW

· VIP invitations: Sponsor invited. Five ERHA Officers possibly. RN/SMann

· AGM agenda & papers: TW

9. East Management:

9.1. Nothing to report from the March meeting.

10. Future meetings: AGM: 8 June, Redbridge & Ilford Sports Centre, 2 pm

* Penalties accepted by Chelmsford, Ipswich, and Old Loughtonians. Sevenoaks penalties currently under appeal.