Winter League 2012-13: Draw and Format / Rules

WINTER LEAGUE 2012-13 DRAW

GROUP A
Peter Jaco / Alex Wood
Maurice Laidlaw / Paul Turner
Daniel Laidlaw / Dorian Wiszniewki
Gordon Syme / Brian Watters
Stuart Mackenzie / Keith Smith
Jason Coughlan / Gordon Mckee

GROUP B
John Hope / Christie McNaughton
Phil Docherty / Alan Gough
Brian Dobson / Gary Crosbie
Mel Clarke / David Gray
Alan Harper / Graeme High
David Bryce / David Harrold
Damion Corrigan / Callum Regan


Winter league format


1. Organisation of matches:

- All players confirm mobile number contact details with their own partner and with me.
- Each team has a main contact who will organise matches.
- Every so often I will send out an email to each main contact asking them to let me know which sat/sun's both players are available over the next 3-4 weeks.
- Once i've had responses from each team, I'll suggest fixtures where dates correspond with other teams.
If you have to cancel for any reason, just let me and the other team know and we can re-arrange. There won't be any 'walk-overs' resulting from this, we want to keep it flexible and not too formal.
- As things progress, I'll leave it to yourselves to organise ties with other teams directly.


2. Format for each match:

- 18 holes fourball better ball
- matches to be played to conclusion of all 18 holes for league formatting. results will be based on the number of holes each team has won, i.e. 'Team A' beats 'Team B' by 11 holes to 4 [with 3 holes halved], or 'Team C' draw's with 'Team D' 7-7 [with 4 holes halved]


3. Handicap allowance:

- Under 'Summer' conditions, where at least 12 holes where both summer greens and tees are in play - the handicap allowance will be 3/4 difference for each player.
- Under 'Winter' conditions, where 7 or more holes are played to winter greens, or, from winter tees which significantly reduce the length of the hole - the handicap allowance will be 1/2 difference.
- Maximum playing handicap allowed for calculating handicap allowances is 18 - except where matches are played over the full measured course i.e. from the White Medal tees.

4.Competition format:

- 2 seperate mini-leagues with 6 & 7 teams respectively, where each team plays one another once between October and April, with the top 2 teams progressing from each group to Semi-final stage.

League position will be based in order of the following criteria:
[1] points accumulated - 2 points for a win. 1 point for a draw. 0 points for a loss
[2] where ties in points scored between 2 or more teams occur, the results between those teams only will decide the league ranking in the following criteria:
__(a) points accumulated against those teams tied,
__(b) hole difference between those teams tied (total holes won minus total holes lost),
__(c) highest number of holes won in matches against those teams tied,
[3] if none of the above criteria seperate the teams tied then
__(d) hole difference from all matches (total holes won minus total holes lost)
__(e) highest number of holes won in all matches.
(I seriously doubt we'll have to go past 2(b) in any scenario!)

- Semi-finals:
SF1: Winner Group A v Runner Up Group B
SF2: Winner Group B v Runner Up Group A

- Final:
Winner SF1 v Winner SF2

Winter League Entries Announcement

The 3rd installment of the Winter League will be starting again in October and an open invitation is extended to all in the group to get involved and join in the fun.

There are a couple of reasons this was set up in 2010-11 and then re-run in 2011-12 and they still apply this year:
- There are still a few folk in our group that I've as yet not had the opportunity to play with. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this position, so it would be good to consciously make that happen so we're not just another name on an email thread.
- Obviously there are not many comps over the winter, and longevity in the winter greensomes isn't something that can be guaranteed [!].

Due to the difficulty in arranging some of the concluding matches last year, the format will be modified so each team has to complete fewer fixtures than 2011-12. The exact format will depend on the number of entries.

So without further ado…ENTRIES ARE NOW OPEN ! ! !

If you would like to be included but don’t have a regular partner – let me know and I’ll do my best to sort you out with someone suitable.

Please note – for the courtesy of other players / teams – entries are only available to players who are able to commit to playing matches fairly regularly at weekends over the winter. That doesn’t mean you have to be free ‘every’ weekend - but - it becomes extremely difficult to organise ties if for example you are only free 1 weekend day of every month. Last season each team had to complete 8 league matches between October and March. That is approximately 6 months… or 26 weeks… so hopefully if there are fewer fixtures there should be no trouble… unless the weather decides to get nasty.

Entries close on Friday 21st September – please let me know by then if you are interested.

Due to the issues experienced with the organisation of matches this year, next year's competition will only be open to those able to commit to playing regularly over the winter. It's been a particularly disappointing edition from my perspective, having only played 2 matches on route to the knockout stages - hopefully next year's competition will reflect more closely last years where we succeeded in playing a full league of fixtures with 9 teams in a single group - 8 fixtures each! Any suggestions are welcome - please drop me an email.