2013-2014 League

12/18/2013

 

Attending: 

ALPINE –  Hank Attanasio                                            DAVIGNON 1 – Rodney Mudgett - President

DAVIGNON 2 – John Laliberte                                     DAVIGNON 3 – Paul Cere – Vice President

DAVIGNON 4 – Rich Soares                                        DEERHEAD 2 – Paul Martin, Mike Neveu

EASTSIDE – Kim Janelle                                              RIMMON – Frank Labrie       

Ray Paquin – Treasurer                                                Sue Davis – Secretary

 

OTHERS – Gary Gramatikas, John Saitas, George Tsoutsas

 

Absent:  Keith Laliberte, Tom Leblanc, Ed Caswell, Lenny Pappas Jr, Ron Michaud, Mike Delisle. 

The meeting was postponed from 12/17/2013 due to weather which caused some issues for some captains.

 

New Business:

 

1.        Some second half preliminary rosters were turned in.  Sue stated that Workmen’s is changing team captain and co-captain and added/removed players.  Pericles also sent in roster changes prior to the meeting.  Sue presented the changes.  Please call or email any roster changes to Sue Davis.  (email is sukie93@yahoo.com)  Also if you change your roster in the first four weeks report the change with the score.  Do not wait until the next meeting. 

2.        All teams should be calling in scores not just the home team.  In this way roster changes will be reported, six pocket runs will be reported, and any score discrepancy will be caught before it is posted.

3.        Rule #7 – finishing a match/game when unable to complete before club curfew.  The current rule states:

No game shall begin after a club's curfew.  If a match cannot be completed during the allowed time, the opposing captains shall establish a date to complete the game(s) prior to the next Friday night’s play.  If the game(s) are not completed because the captains cannot agree to a make-up date, the league’s officers shall set the date that the game(s) is to be played.  The team that does not comply with the make-up date shall forfeit.  If a game cannot be completed/played before the curfew, such game shall be completely replayed at a later date agreed to.  The same players shall participate and follow the same order of play at the same site at which the suspension of play occurred because of curfew.

It was agreed that the rule should read:

No game shall begin after the club’s curfew.  If a match currently in progress cannot be completed during the allowed time due to a club’s curfew the game shall be played until the next spot shot. The match will be suspended at this point. 

The opposing captains shall establish a date to complete the game(s) prior to the next Friday night’s play.  If the game(s) are not completed because the captains cannot agree to a make-up date, the league’s officers shall set the date that the game(s) is to be played.  The team that does not comply with the make-up date shall forfeit.  The same players shall participate and follow the same order of play at the same site at which the suspension of play occurred and the suspended game will resume with a spot shot.

4.        Handicaps for second half, any changes?  Lots of discussion occurred on this issue!

Sue mentioned that the handicap seems to be working - we had only 6 handicap-adjusted scores which exceeded 30 points in the half (6 of 91 matches 7%).  Of the teams that finished 1st - 5th there was only a 14 point difference.  The first and second team had a 4 pocket difference and the 3rd - 5th place teams finished with one point separating each and only 6 points behind the second place team.   The teams that finished 7th-9th all had the same score and other rules for determining who finished where were applied.  There is still a wide range between the first place team and the last place team 86 points!  Is there any other way of getting more consistency and competitiveness?

John Laliberte does not like the handicap.  He felt that it is an unfair advantage to the higher handicap teams and that the better teams cannot possibly make up the spot.  He also stated that he is not having fun playing in the league any longer. 

Rodney Mudgett brought up the idea of playing every team without a handicap and having a two tier playoff with the teams finishing 1st - 4th playing off and the teams finishing 5th – 8th playing off and having two winners. 

Gary Gramatikas stated that he felt the handicap is causing teams to have to play their best players every week just to make up the spot and therefore the lesser quality players are not getting the chance to play.  Paul Martin felt that teams were being penalized for having higher quality players on their roster.  He stated they were forced to only play their quality players simply to make up the spot given to the opposing team thereby not being able to play their lesser quality players.  Both higher quality and lower quality players were upset by this.

Paul Cere also commented on the handicap.  He felt that it was designed to make it more competitive.  And although it is not perfect it is still in its infancy.  We just need to “tweak” the system.

Sue also brought up the idea of handicapping the players which Ron Michaud had mentioned to her.  We would give everyone (individuals) a base handicap from 1-10.  Each game will be handicapped not the whole team.

This is only an example and we would need to adjust based on more opinions:

 

Assume John Laliberte is a 9 and he plays with Shayne Cote also a 9 that = 18 points for the match.  Their opponent is Ron Michaud a 7 and Cori a 6 that is 13 so we have a 5 point spread so lower team gets 2 pockets based on the chart below. 

spread = min pocket

 0-2         0

 3-4         1

 5-6         2

 7-8         3

>8          4 

 

If Ron and Cori beat John and Shayne 6-2 they would get only the six pockets and the score would be reported as 6-2.  However, if they lose the match 6-1 they did not meet the minimum pockets so the final score would be adjusted to the minimum pockets or 6-2.  If they lose the match 6-4; they have made more than the minimum pockets so they would only get the pockets made, no additional adjustment.  In this way no match score would exceed 30 points, each game is handicapped not the whole team.  The team that is “stacked” with quality players would not be penalized if the quality players did not play.   

 

The problem with this is how do we handicap every player?  How do we adjust a player’s handicap if they are “improving” or “declining” as their years progress?  Will this be a logistical nightmare for the captains and/or league scorer?  Who is responsible for determining the point spread and minimum pockets for each game?  How does the score get reported each week? 

 

Rich Soares felt that in order to grow a league it has to change with the times.   You can’t continue with “what has always been” just because that was the way the league began.  By having a handicap the new teams have a chance each week and are not get “blown out” by the higher quality teams that have players that have played for years.  For those lower quality teams it is no fun to play when they are getting beat 30-6.

It was suggested that we should put the issue of “handicap or not” to all the league players for a vote.

Ray mentioned since those teams that never have a chance of winning will never get a payout from the league than we should not be paying out to the teams that win but go back to having a banquet and any moneys raised will go to paying for the banquet and any extra money would go towards prizes for those in attendance. 

A lot of discussion was given to every idea raised.  However we did not have a quorum of teams (75% of teams = 10 teams; only 8 teams present) so no vote could be made to a rule change.  The issue was tabled to another meeting.

5.        Since this meeting was to establish initial handicaps for the second half all handicaps were adjusted. Every team, with the exception of the two “zero handicap” teams, were adjusted down at least three points.  It was felt that no team should be able to score more than 30 points.  Paul felt that this was panelizing the higher handicap teams when they did well on a given night and since only 7% of the matches exceeded the 30 points it wasn’t a real issue.   It was brought to a vote that no score exceeded 30 points and passed (more than half the teams were in attendance).

6.        Sue will post all minutes on the web site www.nhroundy.com.

7.        The next meeting will be at the Eastside on Wednesday, January 22, 2014 at 7 PM– before the fifth week of league play.

 

Respectfully,

Sue Davis