1. The League shall be known as the “Whitfield’s Building Services Ltd Durham & Cleveland SRA League” and there shall be an entrance fee for each team to be paid before 1st October each year.
2. The Competition shall be arranged in divisions
3(a) All clubs taking part must be affiliated to England squash. Team players must be registered as a club member and be recognised as a member by England Squash. If a player is found not to be registered, a 3-0 win will be awarded to the opposing team for the ineligible player and all those below.
3(b) The following shall be eligible for a club: a member liable for and paying full subscriptions for squash rackets and being a member on the 1st September in any season or of at least 14 days standing before playing in any match.
4(a) Each affiliated club may enter one or more teams. All players including reserves shall be nominated according to order of merit within the club and the selection of teams shall conform to the nominated club merit order. Each team shall play its players in strict nomination order.
4(b) Team nominations shall be submitted to the League Secretary in writing on the forms provided for this purpose (“ Nomination forms”) before the first match played by any of the Club’s teams. A maximum of three nominations will be allowed: (i) before the first game of the season (ii) November or December (iii) January, such nominations shall be notified to the League Secretary 24 hours before any match affected. Each Club’s current nominated order of merit shall be clearly displayed at the Club on the nominations form. A list of nominations will be available on the website www.dcsra.co.uk
4(c) Players nominated for one team will not be eligible to play for a lower ranking team. Within the club merit order described in rule 4(a) players may play for a higher ranked team than that for which they are nominated but shall not represent their Club in more than 20 matches per season. If a player exceeds their full quota of matches that particular tie will be forfeited to the opposition.
4(d) Clubs shall give 14 days notice in writing of intention to nominate players who have not previously been nominated during the season. If it is not possible to give this notice Clubs must notify the League Secretary.
4(e) A nominated player in Mens Division 1 must play at least 3 games before Christmas to be eligible to continue for the rest of the season. If injury prevents a Division 1 squad player from competing in the first half of the season, the committee should be made aware of the situation as soon as possible. The Committee will rule on any disputes: this may, on rare occasions, include substantiation of claims.
4 (f) No player may represent any team of a Club in the League after 1st January if they have not previously been nominated for that Club. The League Secretary has the right to override this rule in extenuating circumstances.
5. No person shall represent more than one club during the season, except as allowed by the association.
6 (a) Clubs will receive their new season’s fixtures within July. They will then have 3 weeks, with a cut off of the end of July to rearrange any of those fixtures, which then must be reported to the League Secretary so that those changes can be included in the handbook. Once the season starts, all fixtures must be played on the nominated date.
CANCELLATIONS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED
In such an event, an immediate and non reversible penalty of 10 points for the cancelling team will be imposed. Note: The Committee will rule on individual cases e.g. severe weather warnings, damage to courts making them unplayable but not non-emergency court repairs. Single team clubs may occasionally require some leeway: the Committee must be informed promptly.
6(b) All League matches must be played before the 1st April unless there are exceptional circumstances as approved by the Association.
6(c) All Mens Division 1 matches must be played on a Tuesday night.
6(d) Each team shall play 2 matches, one at home and one away against each other, unless determined by the Association
6(e) Where a Club has 2 teams in the same division those teams must play one fixture before 31st October and the second fixture before 31st January.
6 (f) Ladies teams may enter the Mens Leagues as well as the Ladies Leagues.
6 (g) Junior boys under the age of fifteen on the date of the match will be allowed to play in the Ladies Leagues. The junior will be allowed to be placed in any position in the team based on his playing ability and agreed by both captains. Only one junior boy per team will be allowed to play in a match.
6(h) Unless agreed by the two captains (or their representatives) the playing order shall be 5,4,3,2,1 and any player arriving more than one hour after the appointed match state time may have his/her match forfeit. This may result in every individual match below this forfeit string also being forfeited. The adjudicator in such cases will be the League Secretary
7(a) Scoring system: Teams shall score one point for each individual game won. The winning team will score an additional four points for a win
Example: A v B 3-2,2-3,3-1,0-3,3-0.
A 11 points + 4 points = 15 points
B 9 points + 0 points = 9 points
8(a) All matches shall be marked/refereed and the organisation of suitable officials is the responsibility of the home team captain. Both captains shall agree results and scores after the match. The winning team captain is responsible for sending the result to the League Secretary in an e-mail format.
8(b) The Dunlop Double Yellow dot squash ball will be used unless both Captains agree to an alternative Dunlop squash ball.
8 (c) A match must be played in its entirety- that is to say all ties must be played at the scheduled match time on the nominated courts.
8(d) For any fixture which is not played, the Committee will act as a panel at the end of the season and award points for walkovers.
9(a) At the end of the season the team in Men’s Division 1 with the greatest number of points shall be the winner of the League Championship. In ladies division 1 the team with the greatest number of points shall be the winner of the League Championship.
9(b) In the event of a tie on points affecting the promotion or relegation, the team winning the higher number of matches will be placed above the other team. If each team has won an equal number of matches, the aggregate score of the two matches between the two teams concerned shall decide the issue. In the event that the aggregate score is level the teams shall be required to play off; the deciding match shall be played at a time and place determined by the Association. The teams shall play in the nominated order of merit at the end of the season.
9(c) At the end of the season promotion and relegation shall be decided as follows:
The bottom team of Mens Division 1 will be relegated and the top team in Division 2 will be promoted. The runners-up in Division 2 will challenge the second bottom team in Division 1. The play off game must be played within two weeks of the final match of the season. The 1st Division team will have home advantage.
The bottom two teams of Mens Division 2 will be relegated and the top two teams of Mens Division 3 will be promoted.
The same principle applies to all other Mens divisions except in Division 6 where the bottom three teams will be relegated and the top three teams from Division 7 will be promoted.
The winner of Ladies Division 2 shall be promoted and the bottom team of Ladies Division 1 will be relegated.
10. Vacancies caused by any club ceasing to compete and consequential vacancies, if any, shall be filled at the discretion of the Association provided all the promotions and relegations under rule 9 are effected.
11.Clubs wishing to withdraw a team can only drop the bottom team.
12. All disputes and queries shall be submitted in writing to the League Secretary, within seven days. The decision of the Association shall be final.
13. England Squash Rules and Code of Conduct will apply to all League matches.
14. England Squash Clothing regulations will be applied, unless otherwise stated
Copyright © 2007 Mike Green