New Season, New Rules!!!
Welcome everyone to the new season newsletter, the fixtures for the new season are now live on the website www.rackemapp.com/leagues/SettlePoolLeague and in your app, please note, the Season will commence on the 3rd September, a week earlier than last year, so please make sure your team and venues are aware.
Following on from the AGM, there have been a few changes brought into the league this year. These are detailed below, please read through these carefully, make sure your team is aware and if there are any questions please contact the League secretary.
League
We again have 12 entries to the league this season, the league format will remain the same as last year with the season commencing on Wednesday 3rd September, the team knockout and plate, will be played in full, taking us up to the Christmas break, we shall then recommence in the New Year with the remaining league games, followed by the Singles and Doubles Knockouts, again the presentation night will be held on the same night as the doubles.
Rules
Following the successful trial of “International 8 Ball Rules” in the team knockout competition last year, it was decided that these will be used for both League and Knockout games this year, the only exception to this is in the league, where we will not utilize rule 6j, “shot clock” to allow players to get used to the rules. The rules can be viewed/downloaded here or on the English Pool Association website here, there are a few additional documents on here which might be useful to some. I have enquired with the league app developers about a link in the app to the rules and although this is not yet available, if you click the link to view the league website, there is a link to the new rules at the top of the homepage.
Players/Playing order
Firstly, we have brought in the randomizing of the player draw, this is the same as we had in the team knockout last year, teams will need to enter their players names and once both teams have “locked in the players” the app will randomize the draw. Whilst every effort should be made to play the games in the order drawn, we know it is not always possible, captains need to make the opposing team aware of this before the games/draw are made.
We have also brought in the ability for teams to complete fixtures with only 4 players, there was a lot of discussion surrounding this at the AGM but below is what was decided:
· If teams are unable to raise a full team, they may have a maximum of 1 player (chosen by the opposing team) play more than once in each Match Segment (each set of 5 Frames)
· This should be used as a last resort and can be used a maximum of 4 times in any season.
· Teams using this will need to create a new player within the app called the team’s name i.e. “Talbot Arms” or “Social Club A”
· This is so the chosen substitute player will not have the win/loss record affected, and to enable easy recording of how many times a team has used it.
As mentioned, Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions regarding these changes.