ENER-G Hockey League
Circular October 2012
Dates. There are two big dates marked on my calendar: –
24th April. Send league’s invoices and handbook pro-formas to club secretaries (ie you, at the
address in the League Handbook unless you inform me of a change).
1st June. Deadline for payment and return of pro-formas.
Transfers.
Players from outside MRHA who played in another league last year do not need a transfer.
Players from outside MRHA who have played in another league this season – please e mail
me 7 days before he becomes available.
A player from another MRHA club who played last season or this in the ENER-G
League or EHL needs a transfer.
A player from say Kingswinford who goes to Nottingham University does not need a transfer
to play for the university. After 3 years when he leaves university he is a free agent and can
join any MRHA club without a transfer.
A player at university who has played for the university in his first year and now wants to join
a local club while still at university must transfer. That way the university would be able to
recover any monies owed etc which is the whole point of the transfer system as it prevents
players from leaving clubs still owing subs, match fees etc. Transfers are put up on the
website in “Clubs Plus” – Transfers 2012. If he is there he can play, if not he cannot.
League Handbooks.
Thanks to
1) Clubs who sent information in by 1st June,
2) A small team from the LC,
3) Our friends at Warwick Printing and
4) Sending out the handbooks by parcel delivery they were with clubs in August.
I hope you like the 2012/13 edition. Please send any updates, additions, corrections etc to me
and we will put them up in “News and Views” on our website. I asked clubs to supply photos,
the quality goes up every year and Khalsa ordered an extra 50 copies of the handbook!
Guidance notes and Rules
You and your officers should be aware of the league’s rules. If you check pages 15 to 26 you
will see some heavy black lines down the left hand side. These indicate changes from the
previous season
Red/Yellow Card Reviews after 7, 15 and 22 weeks.
The request for this comes from MRHA Council but after 15 seasons it is very much part of
our league. If your team is collecting yellow cards at or approaching 1 per match or double
the average of the other teams in your division, it risks having point(s) deducted. Please take
this as a “warning” letter.
Benches.
If your pitch does not have a cage or barrier to separate the spectators from the playing area
send the “benches” (subs, managers, coaches, kit etc) to the opposite touchline from the
spectators. Trust me, they will benefit from this as in the past and sadly already once this
season spectators comments and behaviour have sparked off trouble with benches.
Hail and Farewell.
The League Committee welcomed two new members – Andrew Dale representing Northants
CHA and Rich Sharpe replacing David Hourd as the EMHUA representative and Paul Baxter
(Rugby & EW) and Ian Nicholls (Sutton Coldfield) have joined the Second Team League as
Divisional Secretaries.
Your club‘s AGM.
It is a requirement of Midland clubs to hold their AGM before the Midland CHA AGM which
is always the third Wednesday in May (15/5/13). Do this and your handbook return will not
be full of those embarrassing 1st XI TBA or Match Sec TBC
Please make a note of 24th April and 1st June.
Sponsorship.
I have deliberately left this to last. Our happy relationship with our sponsors ENER-G is now
in its third year and is unlikely to be renewed. The link with our sponsors has always been
through links with Midland Hockey: - BodyKraft, Coaching Solutions, DTZ, Ernst and
Young. Who, among those present, will ever forget the Seamless Surfaces presentation
evening at the end of the 1980/81 season?
We need to find a new sponsor, many on the leagues committees are retired and/or worked for
local authorities but I am aware that there are hockey people in every major company in the
Midlands. That could be our link. We can offer a sponsor his name on our league that has
results and tables plus club match reports in national and local papers, a league handbook with
a print run of 13,000 copies and a website that receives over a million hits in a year. Could
you ask your members to have a serious word at work and if their might be an opening to get
in touch with me.
Sorry this was not with you in September, I have been a bit busy with transfers which have
passed 180, this time last year it was 135. Not for me to comment.
I hope you have a good season
Peter Cranswick
(Hon Sec)