Cheltenham League Notice Board

• 02/03/2007 - February 2007 Newsletter

1) Charity Cup Semi Finals

The schedule for the Semi Finals of the three Charity Cup Competitions is shown below.
Senior Charity Cup

Thurs, March 8th, 2006 - Endsleigh v Finlay Rovers, St Peters Field, K.O. 7.00 pm

Junior Charity Cup

Tues, April 10th, 2007 - Broadway United v Tivoli Rovers, Newlands Park, BishopsCleeve, K.O. 6.00 pm
Thurs, April 12th, 2007 - Charlton Kings v Whaddon United, Newlands Park, BishopsCleeve, K.O. 6.00 pm

Minor Charity Cup

Tues, April 10th, 2007 - FC Electrics Res v Sherborne Harriers, Newlands Park, BishopsCleeve K.O. 6.00 pm
Thurs, April 12th, 2007 - Finlay Rovers Res v Northleach Town Res, Newlands Park, BishopsCleeve, K.O. 6.00 pm

The first Senior Charity Cup Semi Final was played at Kayte Lane on Wednesday, February 21st, when Hatherley Rangers overcame the challenge of Moreton Rangers by gaining a 1-0 win after extra time.
As you will notice, all the matches other than the Senior Cup Semi Finals will be played at Newlands Park, with two matches, one from each competition, being played on both of two evenings during the course of the same week.
Please support these matches if at all possible. Entry to the Senior Charity Cup match between Endsleigh and Finlay Rovers, which promises to be an excellent game, is only £2 and every penny of this entry fee goes towards the League's designated Charities. Entrance to all the other games at the Newlands is free but there will be collections taken on both nights and we would ask all those people who attend to be as generous as they feel they can be when asked if they would like to make a donation

2) FA Cup Final Tickets

Please note that the deadline for making application to the League's General Secretary for FA Cup Final tickets passed on March 1st and that, as a consequence, no further applications will be considered this season.

3) Entry Forms

All clubs should, by now, have received their application forms for the 2007-2008 season, along with the declaration form that the Chairman and Secretary of each club are asked to sign every year. These were included in the envelopes that were handed out to club delegates at the last Clubs meeting, on January 31st, 2007. The envelopes that were not collected at the clubs meeting were posted to member clubs at the beginning of this month.
If your club is not in receipt of these two forms, please contact the League Secretary, Nick Oram, and ask that copies be sent to you. These forms, fully completed, must be returned to the League Secretary by March 31st at the latest otherwise your club will be in breach of League Rule 14a. The fine associated with this is £25 so please ensure that you return your form on time!
PLEASE NOTE THAT, WHEN RETURNING THE ENTRY FORM FOR NEXT SEASON, IT ONLY HAS TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY A CHEQUE FOR £30 (OR A MULTIPLE OF THAT AMOUNT) IF YOU ARE HOPING TO ENTER A NEW SIDE INTO THE LEAGUE FOR NEXT SEASON.

4 Appeals

It is encouraging that, after the clubs meeting in January when all clubs were instructed to utilise the League's appeal process to progress grievances or concerns about decisions made by the League, the number of appeals has increased whilst the instances in which the League's officers have been obliged to listen to complaints down the phone have gone down. However, it would seem that there is a certain degree of confusion with regard to manner in which to go about making an appeal. In accordance with League Rules, all protests or complaints must be lodged with the League Secretary within 7 days of the instance to which they refer. For the purposes of fines that have been imposed, it would be usual for this to be considered to be a week after notification of the fine had been received. As notification is issued in the form of the Management Committee minutes, detailing all fines imposed, and these minutes are invariably distributed by the Saturday morning after the meeting, this would be the following Saturday - in other words, the deadline for appealing against fines is usually 10 days after the meeting.
To lodge an appeal, the reasons for the appeal must be put down in writing and sent to the League Secretary. For the appeal to be registered, this must be accompanied by a deposit of £10. If the written appeal is sent to the League Secretary via email, which is perfectly acceptable, then the £10 must also be in the possession of the League Secretary before the deadline date. Any appeal which reaches the League Secretary after the date of the day that is 10 days after the meeting to which it refers, or for which the deposit is not received until after the expiry of the same deadline, will not be considered by the Management Committee. All valid appeals will be heard by the Management Committee when it next meets and it will be at this juncture that the individual merits of the particular case will be taken into account, as detailed in the written submission provided by the club. The result of the appeal will be communicated to the club on the day after the meeting. The appeal deposit will be returned for every successful appeal and may be returned if the appeal is unsuccessful, at the discretion of the Management Committee

5 Awarding Marks

Following the announcement, in this newsletter before Christmas and at the Club's meeting in January, that fines would henceforth be incurred by all clubs for every instance in which they failed to award Referee's Marks and Sportsmanship marks correctly, it has been noticeable that it has been necessary for a huge number of fines to be applied for offences that really are entirely avoidable. Please note that, on the Match Result Cards that need to be sent to Terry Onions, the League's Registration Secretary, Sportsmanship Marks for opponents should be awarded out of 10. Meanwhile, the marks allocated to the Referee for his performance must be awarded out of 100.
This requirement really is quite straightforward and, at £5 for each offence, just taking a little more care when awarding these marks and writing them on your Match Card could save your club a significant amount of money.

6 Registration Dead-Line Date

All clubs are reminded that, under the provisions of League Rule 8(L), no player may be registered with a Club nor transferred to another Club in the League after Thursday, March 1st , except by special permission of the Management Committee.

7 Handbook Changes

AC Olympia have a new secretary. This is Mike Clayton, 0f 11 Hisnams Field, Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, GL52 8LQ. Mike's telephone number is 01242 676367 and the email address upon which he can be contacted is chowlin10@hotmail.com
Northway's Secretary has a new address. This is now 58, The Hopyard, Northway, Tewkesbury, Gloucester. GL20 8RR

8 Fixture Confirmation

Will all clubs please note that all postponed, cancelled and abandoned fixtures that required rearrangement have now been given new dates. All details have now been entered on Full Time and all clubs are required to check these fixtures and send their acknowledgement to John Hunt, the League's Assistant Secretary, by Saturday, 10th March at the very latest. For further information, please refer to John in the first instance.
Please also note that, other than in the most extreme and extenuating circumstances, the League will not now agree to the cancellation of any fixture, even if the club requesting the cancellation has given the necessary 4 weeks notice.

PLEASE NOTE THAT KICK-OFF TIMES FOR LEAGUE GAMES REVERT TO 3.00 PM FROM THE BEGINNING OF MARCH

Regards,

Nick Oram
General Secretary,
Cheltenham Association Football League