Major changes in red.

1.     DEFINITIONS

a. The "League" shall mean the league formed by these rules and it shall be called "The Mercian Home Counties Colts’ Hockey League".

b. The "League Committee" shall mean the Committee created by these rules to administer the League.

c. Club shall mean the Organising body for any team whether from a Hockey Club or a School.

2.     CONTROL & ALTERATIONS OF RULES

a. The control of the League shall be vested in the League Committee.

b. The League Committee shall have sole power of amending these rules.

c. The League Committee shall consist of a President, a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Web Site Co-ordinator, Area Secretaries and Premier League Secretary who shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting.

d. The League Committee shall be empowered to divide the League into Areas if and when the membership of the League make this step advisable.

e. Matters raised in the League Committee shall be decided by majority vote, but should voting be equal on any matter, the Chairman of the League Committee shall have a second vote.

f. All decisions of the League Committee shall be binding on the clubs in the League, but shall be subject to appeal. The League Committee may delegate its right to hear appeals to a Committee of three persons nominated by it.

g. Four members of the League Committee shall form a quorum for the transaction of business.

h. At least seven days’ notice of meetings of the League Committee shall be given to members.

3.     MATCHES & CONDITIONS OF PLAY

a. All matches shall be played in accordance with the current Rules of Hockey.

b. All matches should be played on a Sunday unless otherwise agreed between the two teams or on such a day as may be approved by the Area Secretary.

c. Each team playing in this competition must be under the care of a responsible adult at all matches.

4.     FIXTURES

a. Each Area Secretary shall arrange all League matches and shall send to each club details of its opponents and grounds for their League matches for the next season by 1^st August in each year, provided that such information is available.

b. A League fixture may be postponed due to adverse weather or ground conditions, or any other justifiable reason acceptable to the Area Secretary; the home team having the sole right to determine whether the weather or ground conditions make play impossible and shall give notice of such postponement immediately to the opposing team and umpires and, thereafter, to the Area Secretary.

c. Any League match not played on the due date will be declared null and void unless the appropriate Area Secretary is informed. See 5 below.

d. Any club running a team in more than one age group must have sufficient players and officials to enable teams to play simultaneously if required. No postponements will be permitted if this condition cannot be met.

e. A match may be abandoned once it has been commenced by the unanimous decision of the umpires.

f. In the event of any team refusing to commence a match that has not been properly postponed or refusing to continue a match that has not been properly abandoned, such a team shall be deemed to have lost that match by a score of 0-5.

g. Any other matters arising from the re-arrangement of fixtures shall be decided by three members of the League Committee not directly involved with the fixture or fixtures concerned.

h. Any team playing in an Area League can only win a game by a maximum of 5 (five) clear goals.

5.     RESULTS

Results of all matches or their postponement must be advised by BOTH TEAMS to the Area Secretary within 24 hours of the scheduled or rescheduled date by e-mail or telephone.

6.     CLUB COLOURS

a. Every club must register its name and colours with the League.

b. In the event of any two clubs having the same or similar playing Colours meeting in a league match, the away team shall change its colours unless otherwise agreed.

7.     UMPIRES

a. Each club will appoint an umpire for each match; where possible such an umpire shall be neutral and registered with a County Association.

b. In the event of the appointed umpire not being on the ground at the time of the commencement of the match, then the start of such a match may be delayed for a period not exceeding 30 minutes by the agreement of the opposing manager, or team representative, and the other Umpire, and subject to such power to delay the start, the manager of the team, or team representative, whose appointed umpire is not available, may nominate another available person to umpire and such an umpire is hereinafter referred to as a ‘temporary umpire’.

c. When a temporary umpire is officiating any match, he shall cease to umpire if the appointed umpire arrives on the ground and takes over. A temporary umpire may be changed for any person available to umpire with the agreement of the opposing manager or representative of the opposing team.

8.     PROMOTION & RELEGATION

See 19 below.

9.     APPLICATIONS TO JOIN AND WITHDRAW FROM THE LEAGUE

Clubs wishing to join the League shall notify the Secretary by 1^st July prior to the start of the season.

10.     QUALIFICATION

a. A club must be affiliated to its County HA and to England Hockey.

b. Each player taking part in the League must be a bona fide member of his club.

c. A player, having already played in a League match for one club, may not play in a League match for another club in the same season without first obtaining written consent from both clubs and the agreement of the Area Secretary. Without this agreement the second club will be deemed to have lost any match 0-5 in which the said player takes part.

d. Players shall all be under 14, 16 or 18 according to the League in which they are playing by 1 September of the season.

e. The League Committee has the right to refuse the registration of any player if it so wish or the rescind the player’s registration.

f. The League Committee shall be empowered to instruct a club to produce documentary evidence of player’s dates of birth in the event of a dispute.

g. Any team playing an ineligible player may forfeit to the opponents any point(s) gained from the match in question and may otherwise be dealt with at the discretion of the League Committee.

11.     DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES

a. All question of eligibility, qualification of players, or interpretation of the rules shall be referred to the League Committee.

b. All player discipline will be handled by the club in the first instance. In the event of further action being required then the matter will be referred to the League Committee.

c. Disputes between clubs will be referred to the League Committee via the Secretary.

d. Protests must be lodged, in writing, within seven days of the match, or the occurrence to which they refer, to the Secretary. No objections or protests shall be withdrawn except by leave of the League Committee.

e. Any protests or appeals under this clause must be heard within one month of their being lodged, by the League Committee, who must forward its decision to all parties within seven days of hearing such an appeal.

12.     FINANCE

All clubs belonging to the league shall pay a subscription, the amount of which will be determined at the Annual General Meeting of the League.

13.     CORRESPONDENCE - PRESS STATEMENTS

a. All formal communications from clubs to the Mercian Cots League must be addressed to the Secretary, who shall conduct the relevant correspondence of the League.

b. Statements to the National Press or "Hockey Sport" may only be made by the Secretary.

c. Teams are encouraged to produce reports of their matches for their local press. However these may not contain criticism of the umpires or the opposition.

14.     BREACH OF RULES

The League Committee may order a particular game deemed to have been won 5 - 0 by one club and lost by its opponents or expel any clubs from the League for a period up to three years for the breach of any rule hereof.

15.     BINDING FORCE OF RULES

Each club by its entry into the League shall be deemed to have given its consent to the rules of the League and to any amendments which may, from time to time, be adopted in proper form and shall be deemed to have agreed to abide by the decision of the League Committee subject to the right to appeal specified in Rule 12.

16.     PUBLICATION OF RESULTS

Results of all matches will be published on the Web Site by the Area Secretaries in the week following the scheduled match date. League tables will not be published for the Under 14 Development League which is entirely non competitive.

17.     LEAGUE TABLES

The League table shall be compiled as follows:

Win - 3 points
Draw - 1 point
Loss - 0 point

In the event of points being equal, goal difference shall determine the final placing. Should there be no difference, goals ‘for’ will decide and if this is still indecisive, the lower of goals ‘against’ shall decide.

18.     DATES OF QUARTER-FINALS, SEMI-FINALS AND FINALS

The date of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will be published on the Mercian Home Counties Colts Hockey League Web Site.

19.     UNDER 16 PREMIER LEAGUE

The following rules also apply to teams playing in the Premier League.

a. The league will be known as the "Mercian Home Counties Colts Premier League" and will consist of eight teams. The two top teams will be invited to play on finals day against the two finalists from the Area Leagues.

b. Age groups:- The League will be for Under 16 only.

c. Relegation at the end of the season:- Two teams will be relegated to the Area Leagues. These will normally be the two lowest placed teams. However, if two or more teams in the relegation zone have equal points then the team(s) having played more matches will be given preference to avoid relegation. Should a team or teams from a higher position wish to drop out, then the lower placed team(s) will retain their place(s).

d. Promotion:- The two winning teams from the Under 16 Area semi finals will be promoted to the Premier League in the following season. If either club wishes to forfeit its promotion opportunity it must do so in writing before the AGM. The vacant place(s) will be offered to the third and fourth placed semi finalist(s) or to other teams as decided by the League Committee.

e. Pitches:- All matches shall be played on artificial turf pitches.

f. Umpires:- Umpires must be qualified to at least Level 1. Normally each team should provide an umpire but the away team may ask the home team to provide both umpires if it so wishes. However, it is not incumbent on the home team to comply with the request.

g. Start times:- The home team manager must contact the opposition ten days before the game and confirm venue and starting time. Matches should be played on Sunday mornings unless otherwise agreed by both team managers. When arranging the starting time for a match the home team is expected to take into account the distance the opposition has to travel.

h. Hospitality:- The home team will be expected to provide refreshment for an away team which has to travel a long distance. However, the manager of the away team must liaise with the home team over the numbers in his team and their willingness to stay, or return to the clubhouse afterwards if the pitch should be at a different venue.

i. Players:- If the club enters a second team in the Area League it is expected that the club will run two distinct squads of players. In particular, the club shall nominate before the start of the season seven outfield players who will usually be in the Premier League team and will never appear in the Area League team. The club shall also send the Premier League Secretary a full team list after each Premier League and Area League match.

j. Fixture dates:- The dates for all fixtures will be chosen at the beginning of the season and wherever possible will avoid County and Regional training and matches, England Hockey Youth Cup and indoor competitions.

20.     QUARTER-FINALS – IN THE EVENT OF A DRAW AT THE END OF NORMAL TIME

a. Extra time of 10 minutes each-way shall be played.

b. In the event of a tie at the end of extra time, the result shall be decided by the following sequence:

• i) Five members of each team will be nominated to each take one penalty stroke against the opposing goal-keeper. The teams will alternate and all five strokes must be taken – if the teams are still tied, then

• ii) Sudden death penalty strokes, with five nominated players from each team, until a conclusion is reached.

21.     SEMI-FINALS AND FINALS

The rules for the semi-finals and finals will be distributed to all teams before the commencement of the tournament. In summary the rules are:-