White Horse withdraw..........

Hot off the press from the Old Fella:

This afternoon, we were advised by the landlord of the White Horse in Ditchling that his bar billiards team had withdrawn from the Mid-Sussex Bar Billiards League.

The results of the Charity Cup matches already played will be expunged, those teams affected are The Laughing Fish, HHUSC and Plough LB

As far as the league program is concerned, it will remain as is except that each team will now have 6 byes per season instead of 4.

Best regards
Roy

[iang]

This is a great shame as we lose a long standing team & another Pub venue, lets hope that maybe they will return in the future as it was always a good nignht out.

[bobhall]

not what any one wants to hear but the price of beer was always so high maybe they will find a newer venue

[BB Warrior]

Sad news to lose a team..... and I expect nothing to do with the price of beer! ::)

Perhaps this is a silly question to ask..... but if we now have 16 teams rather than 17 and the League Season has not yet started, would it not be sensible to make it either 2 Divisions of 8 or "all plays all" again..... and avoid having 6 bye weeks? :o ::)

[bobhall]

The St Francis club has been nice enough to drop down to the lower league so it will have 2 divisions of 8

Still all the 'bye' weeks, though, unfortunately. Ah, well - at the risk of sounding like a Warrior - extra practice nights, I suppose. ;D

I'm all for symmetry, though, and at least we now have a balance of 8 + 8.

Always a shame to lose a team, a pity they couldn't keep the interest going there.........

[BB Warrior]

That is very kind of SpecialOne and the St Francis team to be willing to drop down and make it 2 equal divisions of 8...... 8-) ;D

But, why is it then necessary to still have the "bye" weeks..... ??? ???

If the fixtures were re-arranged, the League season could either be shortened by 6 weeks, or the Individual Competitions could be played on the "spare" Wednesday evenings (which would probably mean more people would enter them!) or you could even run another Cup Competition (maybe an off-the spot knockout?) to create something different for people to try......

Only a thought, but it seems crazy for teams to have 6 byes during the season when it seems totally unnecessary.....!! :-X

..........or, if the Fixtures Secretary really wanted the challenge of some extra work, by extending the season by just three weeks we could have 'all play all' again! ;D ;D

[iang]

Thanks to The Saints.
2 X 8 is a better solution.
I shall ignore Tommo's last post as it had smilies & enjoy not having to make that decision.

[specialone]

Many thanks to all involved in this speedy decision. I honestly believe us taking the White Horse fixtures is the best way forward at this short notice. All plays all, plus Charity is too much for some teams.
We were more than happy to step down, however this was nothing to do with looking for easier games. The issue was purely the travelling. I have 3 Haywards Heath based players, non of which drive, and the rest are based in Burgess Hill. My BH players now have 4 games they can walk to, HH players 1 game they can walk to with 4 that will involve a reasonable taxi fare. 2 games will take a bit of sorting out. In the prem we had 1 game at the Watermill, the rest were all problems. Last year a taxi the the Hurst was costing us £18 or £19 pounds one way.
At the end of the day we failed to get promoted, despite giving it our best shot, think I even resorted to be a bully near the end of the season.
I realise the more serious prem players will be gutted at missing out on there annual game on the Saints top, can't be helped
Exprez

Oct 7, 2009 17:18:17 GMT specialone said:

The issue was purely the travelling. I have 3 Haywards Heath based players, non of which drive, and the rest are based in Burgess Hill. My BH players now have 4 games they can walk to, HH players 1 game they can walk to with 4 that will involve a reasonable taxi fare. 2 games will take a bit of sorting out. In the prem we had 1 game at the Watermill, the rest were all problems. Last year a taxi the the Hurst was costing us £18 or £19 pounds one way.

Ian's right, I was being flippant. Fixtures Secretary's job is unpaid, and difficult enough as it is without the extra annoyance of having to rip up the first lot of fixtures.

And I can identify with Shaun's reasons above to do with the travelling - speaking as one who has benefitted greatly himself by having been able to curtail his own travelling (now playing for local pub within walking distance of house. 8-)).

Shame about the loss of a team, but it seems that the ideal solution has been reached, with some good coming from bad. :-/

[Sparky]

It is a pity to loose any team and hope some good comes of it for the team members themselves.

Shaun and his merry men have provided a good and honourable solution to the imbalance and for that I thank them and look forward to seeing them again this year as otherwise we would not have played each other at all this year (TCKO is unknown).

Theoldfella, and committee, do the best he/they can and I respect that he did not or could not completely revise the League schedule and ensure that EVERYONE became aware of it and can imagine the number of individual cases of going to the wrong venue or similar that would have ensued with such a late replacement fixture list that would have meant that a new Charity schedule would have been necessary too.

For my part I would have had to make a load more copies for all my team mates and re-do our 'easy-to-follow' team schedule and still make extra phone calls to check everyone.

'Yes' a shorter season would have been better for me but I accept what has been done.