Tolchards Devon Cricket League clubs meet to fine tune rules and regs for new season

TOLCHARDS Devon League clubs will deal with some unfinished business at an extraordinary meeting on March 1.

Ed Leverton, the league secretaryWhen clubs met in November for the competition’s annual meeting, a number of rule and regulation changes were withdrawn.

Clubs and league officials realised there were anomalies and in some cases ambiguous wording in a handful of the proposed changes and amendments put before the meeting.

Rather than vote for changes that might be difficult to implement or enforce, it was agreed on the night to revise the proposals and have a fresh look at them before the new season starts.

The EGM will be held in the Devon Suite at the Exeter Court Hotel, Kennford on Friday, March 1. The start time is 7.00 pm.

Ed Leverton, the league secretary, is confident the hitches and glitches have been ironed out.

“Most of the proposals made were those which the league withdrew from the floor of the annual meeting,” said Leverton.

“Additional work has been done on those and others have been added through consultation with colleagues on the league management committee.”

On the agenda are proposals to modify:

  • Registrations and transfers
  • Applying a time limit to transfers to avoid delay
  • The use of loan players and casual players
  • And the implementation of the new laws of cricket that come into force on April 1
  •  The full list of rule changes and amendments can be viewed here

It was the issue of the new laws that caused the biggest headache to clubs and league officials at the annual meeting last year.

League rules contained guidance on unfair relating in particular to the bowling of non-pitching deliveries. Bowlers faced discipline sanctions if they bowled two non-pitching deliveries in a match.

By an unlucky co-incidence the new laws from MCC came out on the day of the annual meeting – which left no time for clubs or league officials to consider their impact.

Leverton said the new laws had been examined and the league’s rule book brought into line.

“In the light of the revisions MCC have made, and are effective from April 1, 2019, the league management committee no longer believes there is a need for our playing rules to provide alternative guidance,” said Leverton.

Flashback! Club representatives at the Tolchards Devon Cricket League annual meeting last November