Access to Harlow HC: 5 Feb: Clubs travelling to Harlow should allow extra time as there are major roadworks on the A414 from Junction 7 of the M11 to the junction with the A1169 (Southern Way) and delays of 30 minutes are normal. These works are expected to last until autumn 2010.

EML - Bury St Edmunds : 5 Feb: BSE 5th team will withdraw from the East Men's League 6NE from 13th Feb onwards
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EML - Havering: 26 Jan: Havering 5th team has regrettably had to withdraw from the East Men's League 7SE with immediate effect.

EWL - Bourne:  22 Jan: Bourne 2nd team has regrettably had to withdraw from the East Women's League 2NW with immediate effect. There are not sufficient resurces to complete the fixture list, nor to play friendly matches instead.

Cancellations:  18 Jan: Results for a number of divisions were posted on the site late this week, because League Managers were waiting for the results of matches that were in fact cancelled.  If your match is postponed, you must telephone that information to your League Manager by the usual results deadline.  Failure to do so is not just ill-mannered, but a breach of rule 4.4 which can lead to a penalty.

Complete Rules Revision: 16 Jan:  The League Rules have been completely rewritten to provide greater clarity in their use.  In most instances the intent of a rule is unchanged.  Please take time to look through the current draft and email the webmaster with any comments or suggestions. The rewrite will be submitted to the AGM as a single proposal;  but there will additionally be a few specific proposals to change the intent of some rules.  The draft can be seen or downloaded in Word format here.

Entering results in EWL- postponed games: 11 Jan: Please take the trouble to read the instructions on the input page - do not put P in the score boxes to indicate  a postponed game. Report the postponment to your League Manager who will do what is necessary.  A P in the score box will prevent display of the league tables.

St Ives Leisure Centre:  8 Jan:  This Centre has recently be renamed to
One Leisure St Ives.  Alll references here to the old name are now deleted.

Postponements: 6 Jan:  When a League Manager agrees a postponment the club must enter the new date, time and venue in the website match times and venues section and confirm these details DIRECTLY to the other club, the league manager, the results coordinator, and ESPECIALLY the umpiring pool organiser if in a division covered by a pool.  Entering the new details on the website is not in itself sufficient. 
There have been a number of badly organised postponements recently, leading to a great deal of time wasting and irritation for clubs, the league, and umpires.  Our collective patience on this is currently running very thin.
Be fully aware of league rules 4.2 on postponements generally and 4.5.1 on indoor postponements, as failure to follow procedures might cost you the match.

With current weather, it is likely that most games this weekend will be cancelled. You should rearrange these to as early a date as possible, not to the end of the season.  For EWL cancellations on the 9th Jan, the February break should be used, or a Sunday.  Given the likelihood of more bad weather to come, we should keep March 30 and April 10 free for as long as possible.  The leagues are scheduled to finish by April 11th, and we are unlikely to extend that deadline or else we will run into problems with the already tight schedule for closing the season and setting fixtures for the following season early enough for clubs to book pitches. To say nothing of giving a short break to those fules wot do this work.

League Management Meeting: 14 Nov: Minutes of the Nov meeting are available via the Meetings link.  Main items were review of season to date, strength of promotions into EWL, and complete revision of league rules.

Brentwood HC Sawyers Hall Lane Pitch: 13 Nov:  The club apologises that the Sawyers Hall College pitch is currently unavailable due to sewage contamination.  Arrangements have been made to rectify the problem but these are not likely to complete until 4th Dec.  All current fixtures  will be moved to another pitch or may be liable to postponement.  If you need any further information please contact the relevent Brentwood Fixtures Secretary.

Spalding HC facilities: 8 Oct: The club apologises that changing facilities at Glen Park, Surfleet are still temporary and without showers. This will be sorted eventually, but your patience is appreciated in the meanwhile.

Brentwood HC travel issues:  8 Oct: Brentwood High St will be closed to for roadworks until Oct 30th.  If travelling to play Brentwood, please allow extra time for the journey.  

League Management Meeting:  5 Oct: Minutes of the September meeting can be found via the Meetings page. Main points were a review of rule suggestions from various clubs at the end of last season, various season preliminaries and notices, and returning the onus to clubs to monitor yellow cards.

Yellow card suspensions:  5 Oct: Reminders of multiple yellow cards will no longer be issued to Clubs. Yellow card bans are automatic, so clubs need to monitor cards and apply bans for themselves. League Managers will know from their own records when players should not be playing, and will apply match penalties when bans are not observed.

Top 3 EML Results 7th Nov to 12th Dec:  5 Oct: In the absence of Richard Munns, all results for Prem A, Prem B and Div 1 should be phoned to Chris Hillsdon on 01487 842286 by the usual deadline.

AGM and Presentation Day 2010: 5 Oct: This will be held on Sunday June 6th.  Offers are invited from clubs to host this event.  A room for 120 people, buffet facilities at reasonable cost, and bar are the usual requirements.  Location should be reasonably central within the Region.  Please email the webmaster if you are able and willing to host this event.

Postal Strike: 30 Sep
League fees: Because of the disruptions caused by random Royal Mail strikes, the deadline for the submission of league fees has been extended to the 2nd October.  Any penalties applied so far to clubs for failing to meet the original deadline will be withdrawn.  To help avoid such last-minute problems in future, the league will propose an additional rule in 2010 that fees must be paid by the end of August on penalty of a substantial surcharge, whilst the requirement to pay by the start of the season in order to be eligible to play will remain in force.
Team sheets: League Managers will be flexible so far as the Wednesday deadline is concerned, but will not tolerate clubs attempting to use the strikes to hide late postings.  If your area is affected by mail problems, as a minimum you should post teamsheets first class on Mondays so that Managers can see that best efforts have been made.

Gloucester Park, home to Basildon HC:  28 Sep: there are major redevelopment works underway at Gloucester Park from October 2009 through to April 2011. Car Parking will be extremely limited and we recommend car-sharing wherever possible. Should you require any further information please contact Sara Hills, Chairperson BHC,sarahills1@yahoo.co.uk

Transfer system: 28 Sep:  the system is now operational for 2009/10

Overseas players: 28 Sep: The new wording in League Rule 3.1 reproduces the new wording in the EHL Rules for this season, which adds the new Certificate of Sponsorship to the eligibility options.  The insertion of the new wording does not alter the required status for a work permit as described in last year's rules - to confer eligibility a permit must be issued for employment as a hockey player or coach.   Clubs are also reminded that the rules do not allow for one overseas player to be deregistered and another one brought in.  It is one name only for the whole season, even if that player stops playing.

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