Leamington and District Table Tennis Association
Rules 2006/2007
1. Name
The Association shall be called "The Leamington and District Table Tennis Association".
2. Objects
The objects of the Association shall be to foster and promote organised table tennis and to do anything that is incidental or conducive to this.
3. Government
a. The Association shall be governed by an Executive Committee comprising of the Officers, namely Chairman, Vice Chairman, General Secretary, Treasurer, League Secretary, Press Officer, Representative Match Secretary, Tournament Secretary, Competitions Secretary, Coaching Officer, County Representative, Headquarters Officer, Webmaster , Welfare Officer and Social Secretary, and up to six other members elected by the Annual General Meeting. The Executive Committee shall have the power to fill any vacancy which may arise.
b. The President and Vice Presidents shall be invited annually to serve and all other Officers of the Association and the Auditor shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting.
c. The Executive Committee shall meet at least once every six weeks during the playing season. An extraordinary meeting shall be held if called for by of the Chairman or six members of the Executive Committee. The General Secretary shall give every member of the Executive Committee reasonable notice of meetings.
d. The Executive Committee shall meet regularly during the administrative year. An extraordinary meeting shall be held if called for by the Chairman or five members of the Executive Committee. The General Secretary shall give each member of the Executive Committee reasonable notice of its meetings. e. The quorum of the Executive Committee shall be five.
e. The quorum of the Executive Committee shall be five.
f. The Executive Committee shall appoint such sub committees as it deems necessary
4. Annual and Extraordinary General Meetings
a. The Annual General Meeting of the Association shall be held in June or July of each year.
b. The Executive Committee may call an Extraordinary General Meeting at any time and shall do so within 42 days of a request by 25 members in writing.
c. The Executive Committee shall decide the date, time and place of a General Meeting.
d. All members of the Association are welcome and shall have power to vote.
e. At least 21 days notice of the meeting shall be given to each member through their Club Secretary together with the agenda and proposed alterations to the rules.
f. Any proposed alteration of the rules or other motion submitted in writing and received by the General Secretary by 30 April shall be included in the agenda of the Annual General Meeting.
g. The administrative year shall be the period from the day after the Annual General Meeting to the day of the next Annual General Meeting.
h. The financial year shall be the period from 1st June to the following 31st May.
i. An audited statement of accounts shall be submitted to the Annual General Meeting.
5. Registration of league teams
a. Each club wishing to enter teams in the league shall submit registration forms for them by the closing date printed in the previous edition of the handbook. The Executive Committee shall have discretion to accept late entries.
b. The annual registration fee for senior teams shall be £3 for the two-aside competition and £4 for the three-aside competition. The fees for a junior team shall be half those for a senior team. The fees for a team only entering the league for a Spring competition shall be half those otherwise payable.
c. ETTA and Warwickshire TTA fees due must be paid in addition to the above.
d.The Executive Committee may refuse to register or disqualify a team if it considers this to be in the best interests of the Association.
e. If a team is disqualified or resigns from the League without completing its fixtures its playing record shall be disregarded
f. A team may not play a league match until it has paid all its registration fees and any other sum due to the Association.
g. A team must state its home venue on its registration forms. Venues must be acceptable to the Executive Committee and shall be situated within a 12 mile radius of the Town Hall, Leamington Spa unless the Executive Committee expressly agrees otherwise.
6. Membership and Registration of players
a. The members of the Association shall be:-
(i) all registered players
(ii) Life Members elected by the Executive Committee in recognition of service to the Association
(iii) any other person the Executive Committee admits to membership on such terms as it decides.. Each team in the two-aside competition shall register at least three players. Each team in the three-aside competition shall register at least four players. Teams may register one less player if a registered player is eligible and available to act as a reserve.
c. A minimum of four players shall be registered for each team. Alternatively a team can register three players providing a reserve is available from a lower division in accordance with rule 6(g).
d. The Executive Committee may refuse to register a player either for a particular team or at all if it considers such registration would be contrary to the best interests of the Association.
e. No player may take part in a league match until the League Secretary has accepted that player’s registration. Should a non-registered or ineligible player take part in a league match, that player’s individual matches shall be awarded to the opposing team.
f. Players may register for teams in any or all of the Association’s competitions for which they are eligible and shall only be liable for a single player registration fee.
7. Reserves and Transfer of players
a. A player may only play for one team in the two-aside competition and one team in the three-aside competition except either as a reserve or if the Executive Committee approves a permanent transfer to another team.
b. A player may play as a reserve:- (I) only for a team from the same club except that juniors with the permission of their own club may play as a reserve for a team from another club; and (II) only in a higher division; and (III) only for one team in any division; and (IV) only up to four times in any division (or, where separate Autumn and Spring competitions are played, up to twice in each competition).
c. The closing date for the transfer of players shall be 31 December or, where separate Autumn and Spring competitions are played, half way through the competition concerned.
d. A transferred player may not play against a particular team more times than would have been possible had that player represented a single team throughout the competition.
8. The League competition
a. All matches shall be played in accordance with the ETTA laws of table tennis.
b. League matches shall commence in September on a date decided by the Executive Committee
c. There shall be a two-aside competition and a three-aside competition. The number of divisions in each competition, the number of teams in each division, the number of times teams shall play each other in each competition and the number of competitions each division shall hold in the administrative year shall be decided by the Executive Committee.
d. The top two teams in each division shall be promoted to the next higher division and the bottom two teams relegated to the next lower division. The Executive Committee may depart from this rule in exceptional circumstances if it considers it to be in the best interests of the Association.
e. In the event of two teams tying with equal league points their relative positions shall be determined by a deciding match which shall be played on a date and at a venue chosen by the Executive Committee. The deciding match shall be the best of the five individual singles and doubles matches in the two-aside competition but the best of the nine individual singles matches only in the three-aside competition. In the event of more than two teams tying with equal league points their relative positions shall be determined by the ratio of games won to games lost.
9. League Match arrangements
a. All teams must state their home match night on their registration forms. Except where these rules provide otherwise matches must be played on the date specified in the fixture list printed in the handbook and notification by home or visiting team is not necessary.
b. In the two-aside competition teams shall consist of two singles players and one doubles pair. In the three-aside competition teams shall consist of three singles players and one doubles pair.
c. The doubles pair may be, but need not be, chosen from the singles players.
d. Each league match shall consist of each singles player playing an individual match against each of the opposing team’s singles players and the doubles pair playing an individual match against the opposing team’s doubles pair
e. The order of play shall be decided by the team captains who shall alternate in nominating their players first before the commencement of each individual match. The team to nominate first in the first individual match shall be determined by the toss of a coin. The winner of the toss shall choose to nominate first or to require the opposing captain to nominate first in the first individual match.
f. One league point shall be awarded to the winning team for each individual match of a league match. Except where the rules expressly provide otherwise league points shall only be awarded for individual matches actually played.
g. League matches shall start not later than 7.15pm. Players arriving after 7.30pm shall not be permitted a knock up with their team
h. Where there is no sign of a team or explanation as to its absence by 8pm the opposing team is entitled to leave and report the position to the League Secretary.
i. Except by prior agreement of the opposing team a player not present by 8pm may not take part in the match
j. If a team is only partially represented the resulting unplayed individual matches shall be awarded to its opponents. No league point shall be awarded for an individual match where neither side is represented.
k. All the individual matches of a league match shall be played on the same table unless the teams agree otherwise.
10. Postponed and Unplayed league matches
a. Postponement of a league match will be allowed only if: (I) The opposing team agrees; and (II) The postponing team immediately informs the League Secretary.
b. If a dispute arises in relation to a postponement the league match shall be deemed to be unplayed.
c. A penalty of two league points may be imposed if the above is not strictly adhered to.
d. League matches may be brought forward from the date specified in the fixture list by mutual consent of the teams concerned.
e. Postponed league matches not played by 30 April (or in the case of an Autumn competition by the date specified by the Executive Committee) shall be deemed unplayed.
f. No league points shall normally be awarded for an unplayed league match. Where exceptionally a team satisfies the Executive Committee that it has made repeated efforts to play and is in no way responsible for the league match being unplayed the Executive Committee shall award that team alone the most league points it could reasonably have expected to have won had the league match been played.
g. The Executive Committee may impose a penalty of five league points where a team fails to field any players for a league match without prior notice causing its opponents a wasted journey.
11. Results cards
a. The home team shall send one result card to reach the Executive Committee’s nominee within ten days of a league match being played and in any case not later than the last day for playing postponed matches.
b. No penalty shall be imposed on a team for its first infringement of this rule. A penalty of one league point shall be imposed for each subsequent infringement in the same competition.
c. Each team shall retain a record of its results in case a result card is lost.
12. Leamington Closed Championships and other competitions
a. The Leamington Closed Championships shall be held annually on or after 1 January in the Administrative Year concerned.
b. Unless the regulations for a particular event permit otherwise entries will be restricted to registered players who have either played three matches by 31 December or who are not registered with any other Association.
c. Registered players not meeting these requirements may be considered for entry by the Executive Committee in exceptional circumstances.
d. The Coronation Trophy and Southwell Cup competitions shall be competed for annually by teams of registered players. e. The Association may organise other competitions.
f. Regulations and control of all competitions shall be in the hands of the Executive Committee whose decisions shall be final.
13.Trophies
a. All perpetual trophies are the property of the Association. Clubs and players holding perpetual trophies are responsible for their safe custody and cleanliness and must return them to the Association in good clean condition by the date of the Leamington Closed Championships.
b. The Association shall provide the winners and runners up of each division with three personal trophies in the two-aside competition and four personal trophies in the three-aside competition
14. Representative Matches
a.The Association’s colours shall be royal blue.
b. An Association badge shall be awarded to a player after five appearances in representative matches excluding friendlies
c.All Clubs shall inform the Representative Match Secretary by the date printed in the handbook if any of their players wish to play in representative matches or in events to which the Association is entitled to nominate
15. Ball
The ball shall be of a type licensed by the ETTA. A list of ETTA licensed balls shall be printed in the handbook. The home team shall provide the balls for a league match.
16. Conduct
Should a club, team or member either be in breach of these rules or bring the game or the Association into disrepute they may be asked to appear before the Executive Committee and be liable to expulsion or such other sanction as the Executive Committee decides. If this happens all club secretaries will be notified of the Executive Committee’s decision.
17. Match balls
A trophy shall be awarded to the player with the highest percentage of wins in individual singles matches in each division. Individual matches not actually played (for example because of the absence of an opponent) shall be ignored. In the event of a tie it shall be resolved in favour of the player with the greater number of wins in individual singles matches. If the number of wins in individual singles matches is also equal the prize shall be shared. To qualify for the trophy a player must take part in not less than 65% of the total number of individual singles matches possible.
18. Alterations to the handbook
Clubs and teams shall inform the League Secretary and the secretaries of all other relevant teams of any changes to the information about themselves in the handbook.
19.General
In the event of any question not provided for in the rules such question shall be referred to the Executive Committee whose decision shall be final.
20. Dissolution
The Association may only be dissolved by a motion carried by a three quarters majority at a General Meeting, such motion having been included on the agenda given to members through their club secretaries at least 21 days before the meeting under rule 4e. On dissolution all assets of the Association shall become the property of the English Table Tennis Association.