• Competitions & Events

Bad Weather Guidance

We are into December  and we already have a number of games from last weekend to re-schedule. The weather for this weekend looks equally cold and we thought it would be a good idea to send out some guidance on what to do.  You may find this surprising, but the Regulations are fairly detailed in this area (No 13) so a quick glance might be helpful. However, if you could please read the following that will be great and try to think ahead to help your team, your opposition and your umpires.....and don't forget the all important caterers

This has been emailed to everyone listed as a Club or Team admin for a West Adult League team or club and posted on twitter

 If the weather is cold / freezing:

  1. You all know your own pitches better than your Divisional Secs do, have a look at your fixture lists and decide where the risks are, if you've a 10am on the pitch in shadow, its probably more of a problem than 2pm in the sun - can you make a decision on Friday if the temperature is already below freezing.
  2. Have a look at where your opposition are travelling from, reach out to them and agree what time a decision needs to be made, to try and avoid their travel; obviously long distances need more warning than local derbies. Its actually in the regulations that it is the home teams responsibility to reach out to the opposition. Away sides - you could be proactive!
  3. Agree who is making the decision and who needs to be told. Get phone numbers, speaking to someone is the best way to make sure you have confirmed the decision.  Make sure all you admins details are visible on GMS (with phone numbers) , if they aren't and there is a row about who should have contacted who, the first thing we will check is can someone actually find a phone number. Your Divisional Secretaries will help if they can, but remember they either play, umpire or have a life on a Saturday morning too!
  4. If a game is postponed, start the process for re-arranging it immediately, you need to agree within 7 days when the match will take place. We have an available week on the 16th December and 9th Dec for some teams. Please ensure these matches are re-arranged before the re-start on 13th January 2024 - we do not want an overhang of postponed matches going into the second half of the season. The league match takes preference over any previously arranged friendlies. Please keep your Divisional Secs in the loop on the re-schedule, they will update GMS for you and step into mediate if you cannot agree ( yes, we do understand if it snows on Jan 6th then you will have to use a February date, but we'd look daft if we told you to use February and it snowed then and was gloriously sunny on the 6th Jan). Remember you have 7 days to organise the re-arrangement - if you haven't even attempted to reach out to your opposition by that point the game may just get awarded. 
  5. Please, please, please remember your umpires, club umpires might be on the team whatsapp, or they might not, but appointed umpires definitely aren't. Please remember to keep them in the loop on what's going on, again a phone call is better than an email. All the appointed umpires details are visible on GMS, but please check you can find them before Saturday.
  6. If your opposition has travelled unnecessarily then they are within their rights to ask your Club for compensation on their travel costs. Whilst we all want to play, finding out you have a free Saturday early, and no travel, is also a lovely little win!

As always, if you have questions please reach out to your Divisional Secretaries or opposite numbers at other Clubs.