Welcome everyone to the new season newsletter, whilst we are still quite away off the new season yet, I’ve been busy starting to implement some changes to the league as was decided at the AGM back in April. All things that were discussed/decided on, will be mentioned later, but the big change for next season will be the trial migration of the league to the new “RackEmApp” platform for league administration, I personally trialed this system in the team knockout last season, it is also the same platform we used for the individual knockouts and although we did have a few teething problems, most of this was down to operator error, and the support received to rectify these was excellent. I will go into more detail with the new software later but below are the rest of the info from the AGM for the new season:

  League

We have 12 entries to the league this season, with 1 new team playing at the Knights Table and the Talbot B team no longer playing. We have made a slight amendment to the league format, this year the League will commence on Wednesday 11^th September, we shall play the full 1^st half of league fixtures, followed by the team knockout, this will take 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.

We have also altered the scoring format for the league for this season, teams will be awarded 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw, instead of a point per frame as it was last year. Bonus points, or frames would be a better description, shall still count, for a clearance, from the break or your opponent’s first visit to the table after the break i.e. if the frame score is level at 5 each, but 1 team has a break clearance, that team shall win overall and be awarded the 2 points for a win.

Team Knockout

The Team Knockout will stay the same as last season, with the format of 6 singles and 2 doubles, with a random draw, we will also see the re-introduction of the “Plate Knockout” with teams knocked out in the 1^st and 2^nd rounds, of the main knockout, being entered into this competition.

Cancelations/Postponements

Over the past few seasons, we have had an increase I n the number of cancelled/postponed games, with a growing number of these being cancelled last minute, this is not only unfair to the opposing team, but also to the host venues, who may have prepared suppers etc.

So, teams are reminded that 24hrs notice should be given to the opposing team and league secretary, for any games wishing to be postponed, along with 2 possible alternate dates for the fixture. If a team postpones a game with less than 24hrs notice (unless there are extenuating circumstances), the opposing team will have the right (if they so wish) to claim the game as a 6 – 4 victory and 2 competition points, please note if the game/points are claimed, these scores will not show in any players individual statistics.

Individual Knockouts

We are again going to hold the Singles and doubles knockouts at one venue, utilizing the same format as last year, including the shot/match clock, due to the increasing popularity of these knockouts, and reaching the table capacity at the venue, the knockout entries will be capped at 40, entries will be on a 1^st come 1^st served basis.

The entry fee for the knockouts will increase this season to £5 per player per event, it will be the 1^st increase in 15 years, but with the increase we are also going to introduce some cash prizes. It is hoped the increase will help stop late cancelations/no shows, which make the task of organizing the knockouts very difficult, as well as helping with the added cost of hiring in a table etc.

Presentation Night

This year’s presentation night, will again take place on the same evening as the Doubles Knockout, this will be held on Wednesday 2^nd April 2025

Rules

Various amendments to the rules were discussed at the AGM, most of which centered around the “Combination Shot” as it allowed for players to unintentionally pot,” fluke”, an opponent’s ball, we also discussed other rule changes including the removal of the 2 shots, changes to the break and the introduction of the shot clock/timers, below is a list of the discussions and outcomes:

Combination shot           -           Voted to stay as is.

Shot clock/Timers.          -           Voted against this, but teams can opt to use the 1 min shot clock (as per current rules) if teams are taking excessive time.

All other amendments discussed were decided to stay as they are in the league, however, if we were to implement some of the other suggested rule ammendments, we would be virtually playing to the full “International Rules” which have been adopted by all pools major governing bodies, we therefore decided to trial this rule set in the Team Knockouts, this would then enable us to get some feedback and potentially use them again in the Individual Knockouts and/or in future season. A copy of the rules, along with some helpful videos, shall be sent to all team captains, as well as being made available on the pool website, all teams, captains and players are urged to ask the league secretary if they require any more info/help on these rules.

New Software/League Administration

Part way through last year, I stumbled upon some software, by accident, after quite a lot of research and discussion with the software operators, I decided to run the software for the Individual Knockouts and I also trialed it in the team knockout, in general the software worked well, as with any new products, it took me a while to sort out and we had a few glitches, but all was easily sorted. At the AGM we discussed swapping the full league administration over to this system, I explained all the pros/cons of the system and how it would all work, the main advantage of the system is the massive reduction in my own personal time to administer the league as the new system requires team captains to administer their fixtures/games, via the “RackEmApp” App. This removes the need for a physical “pool card” to be filled in, and sent back to me, for entry into the league software. I know this may take some getting used to for some teams, but I have now managed to get all teams and a captain registered on to the system, each team will need a minimum of 1 other player registered to the system as a vice captain, I have pre-entered some players onto their teams for this coming season, although I have not done all players and some I have entered may no longer be playing, if team captains could please check what players I have entered, let me know if anyone needs removing, and have a go at entering new players, if I have not added them already, all players are encouraged to register with the system, as this will enable them to see all the info on the APP, registration is via invite only and requires either myself or your team captain to send the invite via email.  I will be forwarding out some instructions to all captains on how to use the system in due course, but please do contact me should you have any queries, the sooner we can get you all up to speed on the system, then hopefully the easier it will be, come the first game night.