Now the season is over we’ve had our final League Committee Meeting and it’s time for a few comments on the completion of this season and preparation for next season.

Red/Yellow card Review
I’m glad to say that, even though there were no games, no clubs exceeded our focus level of an average of one card per game, red cards count as two. But there has been a worrying increase of red cards in the lower divisions. Unfortunately, the majority of these were offered violence or abuse to umpires. Something to work on for next season. Here is a comparison of the last two years.

Level	Season	Games	Red	Yellows
1st	2017-2018	1706	11	574
1st	2016-2017	1556	17	632
2nd	2017-2018	1578	5	163
2nd	2016-2017	1360	1	154
3rd	2017-2018	1448	4	79
3rd	2016-2017	1450	3	94
Central	2017-2018	2386	5	50
Central	2016-2017	2272	1	122
Totals	2017-2018	7118	25	866
Totals	2016-2017	6638	22	1002

Pennants/Hospitality/Behaviour Awards
Pennants for all teams that were either Champions or Runners Up in their respective Division are in the process of being distributed either by League Committee members, at County AGMs or via post.
The recipients of the Hospitality and Behaviour Awards are decided on the feedback from appointed umpires and congratulations to Sikh Union (Coventry) for looking after your umpires and Boots for their attitude on the pitch.

League Tables/Outstanding Results
As you are all aware, last season was plagued with bad weather. As a result, not all clubs were able to complete all fixtures. Thanks to those clubs who managed to complete by the end of the extended season. The League Committee has made the unprecedented decision to leave all outstanding fixtures as just ‘unplayed’. This was seen as the best way so as not too effect the ranking scores for next seasons positioning for Open League.

So that leads me on the next season.

Invoices
As usual Invoices will be sent out to Club Secretaries on 1st May and deadline for payment by 1st June. Please be aware that is payment is not received by 1st June a fine will be automatically added and I’ll supply the late clubs with a revised invoice. Change of club officials is not an acceptable reason for late payment. Due to our understanding of the new GDPR requirements, we will be requiring all clubs to confirm that they have the permission of the individuals identified in all the details that we publish in the Handbook and website. These include: contacts details; photos; names in Discipline Reports; scorers and Team Sheets. I’ll put a statement in invoice letter for you to confirm and return.

League Dates
Having been burnt by a bad winter we are making some changes to League Dates for the 2018/19 season, see below.

Week No	Date	Re-arrangement date by
Week 1	29/09/2018	14/10/2018
Week 2	06/10/2018	21/10/2018
Week 3	13/10/2018	28/10/2018
Week 4	20/10/2018	04/11/2018
Week 5	27/10/2018	11/11/2018
Week 6	03/11/2018	18/11/2018
Week 7	10/11/2018	25/11/2018
Week 8	17/11/2018	02/12/2018
Week 9	24/11/2018	09/12/2018
Week 10	01/12/2018	13/01/2019
Week 11	12/01/2019	27/01/2019
Week 12	19/01/2019	03/02/2019
Week 13	26/01/2019	10/02/2019
Week 14	02/02/2019	17/02/2019
Week 15	09/02/2019	24/02/2019
Week 16	16/02/2019	03/03/2019
Week 17	23/02/2019	10/03/2019
Week 18	02/03/2019	17/03/2019
Week 19	09/03/2019	24/03/2019
Week 20	16/03/2019	31/03/2019
Week 21	23/03/2019	06/04/2019
Week 22	30/03/2019	13/04/2019
	Free	06/04/2019
	Free	13/04/2019
	Easter - 19th Apr - 22nd Apr

and finally

Open League
Now that we are in position to finalise the League tables we are also ready to work towards defining the new League Structure. With Cannock being relegated from the EHL and 11 teams joining the League, 3 x 1st XIs, 2 x 2nd XIs, 3 x 4th XIs, 2 x 5th XIs and 1 x 8th XI and 4 teams withdrawing from the League, we end up with 344 teams. As this is not wholly divisible by 12, there will be some divisions not completely full, but we’ll balance as much as possible as per the methodology previously communicated.
We know that you will all be anticipating the new divisions and understanding your teams’ new opposition, so we are planning to give you a view as soon as we can, but ALL positions are final and not negotiable.
The dates to look forward to are:
1st June – Communicate a list of all the divisions and their teams to club secretaries.
4th July - Target for all fixtures on the website.
18th August – Handbooks distributed.
29th September – Season starts.
30th March – Season ends.

Nick Haynes
MRHA Men’s League Honorary Secretary – April 2018