…….. = changes made in 16/17
Rules of Match and Play
Hills Tennis Association Inc
Season 2016/2017
It is recommended all teams have a copy of these Rules of Match and Play available to them
PLEASE REFER TO THESERULES OF MATCH AND PLAYWHENEVER YOU
EXPERIENCE APROBLEM
If problems remain unresolved contact relevant Committee – Senior or Junior Activities, Midweek or Night Tennis via a written request on the “Complaints Form” – Appendix 6 (2) or download from HTA website.
CONTENTS
1.INTRODUCTION...... 3
1.1Glossary
1.2Application of these Rules
1.3General Penalty Clause
2.REGISTRATION & RESTRICTION OF PLAYERS – all Seasons...... 3
2.1Registration – HTA and Tennis SA; Junior Age Limits
2.2Restrictions on Players
3.TEAM NOMINATIONS...... 5
3.1Nomination Forms
3.2 Grading of Teams/Setup of players in results recording software
3.3Withdrawal of Teams
3.4 Other Tennis Association participation - Junior and Senior
4.MATCH PROGRAMME...... 6
4.1Competitions
4.2Match Dates and Venues
5.SELECTION OF TEAMS...... 6
5.1Team Members
5.2Order of Merit
5.3Alteration to Order of Merit
5.4Bye
5.5Forfeiting Matches
5.6Eligibility for Finals
5.7Finals Matches
5.8Drawn Finals Matches
5.9Team List for Finals- Senior and Junior Comps only
6.PROVISION OF EQUIPMENT...... 10
6.1Provision of Tennis Balls
6.2Net
6.3Nets Straps
6.4Wet Weather Equipment
7.CONDUCT OF MATCHES...... 10
7.1Completion of Scoresheet before Commencement Time
7.2Match Times
7.3Hit-ups:
7.4Late Arrival or Non Attendance
7.5Forfeiture of Sets
7.6Order of Play
7.7Match Format
7.8Tiebreak:
7.9Right to Commence Serving:
7.10Umpires
7.11Clothing
7.12Morning & Afternoon Tea
8.CONDUCT OF PLAYERS AND SPECTATORS...... 13
8.1 Player Behaviour and Rules
8.2FootFaults
9.CANCELLED, UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED MATCHES...... 13
9.1Cancellation of Matches Due to Hot Weather
9.2Abandonment of a Match Due to Emergency Services Duties
9.3Abandonment of Matches Due to Wet Weather
10.MATCH RESULTS...... 14
10.1Lodgement of Results
10.2Printing of and Forwarding of Completed Match Scoresheets
10.3Forwarding Abandoned Match Scoresheets
11.PREMIERSHIP POINTS...... 14
11.1Determination of Winning Team
11.2Allocation of Points for Decided Matches
11.3Allocation of Points for Forfeited Matches
11.4Allocation of Points for Cancelled or Abandoned Matches
11.5Allocation of Points to Teams Affected by Programme Changes
11.6Premiership Tables
12.PREMIERSHIP AWARDS...... 15
12.1Presentation of Shields/Cups
12.2Presentation of Pennants
13.COURTS...... 15
13.1Association Use of Club Courts
13.2Two Courts per Allocated Match
13.3Court Preparation
13.4Court Obstructions
14.COMMUNICATION/SUBMISSIONS TO THE RELEVANT COMMITTEES...... 16
14.1Communication
14.2Submissions
15.APPENDIX 1: Code of Conduct Policy...... 17
16.APPENDIX 2: Tennis Australia Rules for Non-Umpired Matches...... 18
17.APPENDIX 3: Tennis Australia Etiquette...... 19
18.APPENDIX 4: Outside Interference...... 19
19.APPENDIX 5 (1): Foot Faults...... 19
20.APPENDIX 5 (2): HTA Foot Fault Report Form ...... 20
21.APPENDIX 5 (3): Foot Fault Flow Chart ...... 21
22.APPENDIX 6 (1): Tennis Grievance Procedure – Flowchart...... 22
23.APPENDIX 6 (2): Tennis Grievance Procedure - Complaint Form...... 23
24.APPENDIX 7: Beginners Skills Checklist
25. APPENDIX 8: Five Player Rule Interpretations...... 25
26.APPENDIX 9: One Relative Position Explanation ...... 26
1.INTRODUCTION
1.1Glossary
Throughout these rules the word “Association” shall mean the Hills Tennis Association Inc.
The term “Management Committee” shall mean the elected Management Committee of the Association.
The term “Junior Activities Committee” shall mean the elected Junior Activities Committee of the Association.
The term “Senior Activities Committee” shall mean the elected Senior Activities Committee of the Association.
Relevant Committee means either the SAC, JAC or Night Committee whichever one is relevant to the query/issue being raised
The word “Club” shall mean any Member Club of the Association.
Seniors have no age restriction
The word “Junior” applies to aspects of the Association which have an upper age limit. (For more detail see Rule 2.1).
The term “Cancellation of Matches” shall mean any matches officially cancelled by the relevant Committee.
The term “Abandonment of a Match” shall mean any match not completed for some reason, but by mutual agreement of both participating Captains and Supervisors.
The term “One Relative Position per Week” shall mean one position where the players named are the same as those named for the previous week.
A “week” shall mean the time between one programmed Saturday match and the next.
1.2Application of these Rules
1.2.1These rules shall be read in conjunction with the constitution of the Association and shall apply to all Association players unless the rule indicates otherwise.
No deviation from these rules shall be permitted by any Club unless prior authorisation has been obtained from the relevant Committee – Senior Activities Committee, Junior Activities Committee, Night Committee or Midweek Committee. The SAC, JAC, Night and Midweek Committees have been given authority to interpret these rules when necessary and to sanction exemptions for their relevant competitions. The decisions of the relevant Committees shall be final.
1.2.2All matches shall be conducted under the rules of tennis and the tennis etiquette and rules for non-umpired matches as adopted by Tennis Australia except as otherwise stated herein. Any player continually breaching the rules, or a single serious breach of the rules shall be reported to the relevant committee for action.
1.2.3Any changes made to these rules by the Management Committee shall be forwarded to Club Secretaries after grading is complete and at least two weeks prior to the start of the season in which that rule shall apply.
1.3General Penalty Clause:
Violation of any rule contained herein may attract a penalty.The Management Committee may impose a financial penalty upon any Club, or a premiership point penalty upon any team, for any breach of the rules of match and play. Any such penalty shall be decided by the relevant Committee and may be applied in addition to any specific penalty mentioned elsewhere herein.
2.REGISTRATION & RESTRICTION OF PLAYERS – All Seasons
2.1Registration – HTA and Tennis SA; Junior Age Limits
2.1.1HTA: all players shall be registered on playing their first match. Details required are name, contact telephone number and, for junior players only, date of birth, to be provided on either:
a)An Association team nomination form forwarded by the club concerned in accordance with Rule 3.1 or
b)Any additional players may be registered by entering their full name and details into the Results Recording software program.
c)All players need to be registered with Tennis SA by their first match each year. This is done via the Tennis SA approved player registration software, currently “My Tennis”. Any player not registered is not insured, therefore, it is in the club’s best interest to register all players, including Hot Shots, occasional fill-ins, coaching only participants, volunteers, committee members and life members. Cover does not start until payment is received.The HTA recommends that clubs pay Tennis SA by the beginning of the season, or the due date of the official Tennis SA invoice at the latest.
d)Clubs also need to affiliate with Tennis SA, based on the number of homecourts usedplus any other courts hired/rented/used that are not already affiliated with Tennis SA), These additional venues must be included on the club’s Tennis SA affiliation form to ensure insurance coverage (this does not apply if hiring courts from another HTA affiliated club).If a club is using courts managed by another club, it should gain evidence from that other club to prove that they are affiliated with Tennis SA and that those courts are covered. This evidence is to be submitted to the HTA and those courts do not need to be included in the court count required for affiliation.
Penalty: Forfeiture of all sets played after 1st November in the current seasonfor those players not registered with Tennis SA
2.1.2Junior Player: for the purpose of Tennis SA registration a “Junior Player” is defined as being 18 years and under as at 30 September prior to the beginning of the current season.
The date of birth of all players aged 18 years and under must be provided to indicate eligibility for Junior “membership” and inter-association team selection.
2.1.3Junior Age Limit: Players 17 and under as at 30 September prior to the beginning of the current seasonare eligible to play in the current HTA Junior Saturday morning competition. No player aged 6 and under is permitted to play competitive tennis without an “Exceptional Talent Permit”from the JAC. These players may participate in Hot Shots (red ball) at club level only. Players who are aged 10 and under as at 30 September prior to the beginning of the current seasonmust not commence playing in the yellow ball competition without an“Exceptional Talent Permit” from the JAC. Junior players who played yellow ball in previous season may continue to play yellow ball in the current season without a permit.
Age restrictions apply to the Junior Beginner Orange Ball Competition. Players who are 8 under as at 30 September prior to the beginning of the current season are eligible to commence playing Saturday Morning Junior Tennis in this division. This division is a modified competition – smaller court and low compression balls.(refer to orange ball guidelines for further details).
Age and skillrestrictions apply to the Green Ball division. Players who are 10&U as at 30 September prior to the beginning of the current season are eligible to play in this division if they have achieved the skills as per the Beginners Skills Checklist.
Both the Orange and Green Ball competitions are mixed competitions with their own divisions – 1, 2 etc.
2.2Restrictions on Players
A player may:
2.2.1Play for one club in the junior competition and play for a different club in the senior competition.
2.2.2Play for one club in the Saturday competition and for another club in the Night, Midweek or Winter Pennant competitions.
2.2.3Juniors only -In emergencies only, play in both junior 8.30am and 10.30am timeslots.
2.2.4Play for 2 teams from the same club in the same division, but only if they are regular number 3 or 4 position players in that division. All players may cross between teams for the first 4 weeks only. Fill-ins may fill in for any team, but once they have played 5 matches for one team, that is deemed to be their regular team.
A player may not:
2.2.5Be permitted to play for more than one club in the same competition.
2.2.6Play for 2 different Clubs in this Association in the same season and competition, unless written clearance is obtained from the player’s former Club.
2.2.7Play in more than one senior match in each series of matches.
2.2.8Play for more than one tennis Association in the same series of competitions (ie, any Junior comp, Friday night or Saturday morning, any Senior Saturday competition, morning or afternoon) during a season.
Clarification 1: Players playing in an Association deemed to be an extension of the HTA(excluding Metro League) will be permitted to fill in for a HTA club (Division 1 only) a maximum of 3 times per player per season. This applies to the lowest 2 players as per the nomination form.Permission for any other player to fill back to the HTA must be expressly given by the SAC/JAC. Only one player per higher Association is permitted to play back to HTA on any given week. Order of merit must be followed at all times. These players are not eligible to play HTA finals under any circumstances.
Clarification 2: HTA club players may fill up to another Association a maximum of 3 times per player per season, provided order of merit is adhered to.
Clarification 3: Where the HTA is seen as an extension to another Association (ie seen as having a higher standard of play), players may fill-in between the 2 Associations, provided written permission has been given by both the outside Association and by the relevant HTA Committee.
Clarification 4: Junior players participating in the Summer EDTA Friday night competition as nominated and approved by the HTA are exempt from the above. All players in any EDTA Friday night team must be a HTA Saturday player (Junior or Senior) or have had significant history with the HTA to be eligible. This is at the discretion of the JAC. This applies to nominated players only. Fill-ins must comply with the above rule.
2.2.9Carry or consume alcohol, or other illicit drugs on any courts within the Hills Tennis Association.
Penalty: Forfeiture of all sets played by the player.
3.TEAM NOMINATIONS
3.1Nomination Forms
3.1.1All team nomination forms shall be made using the nomination forms issued by the Association. The form must be completed in full (including player singles stats for Junior comp and Senior trad comp and doubles stats for Snr doubles comp), be in order of merit and forwarded by the subscribed date to the Association Officer named on the form. Any team nominated without all relevant information being supplied may not be accepted.
3.1.2A player may be nominated in one team only for each series of competitions (e.g. one team only for Saturday afternoon tennis, one team only for Tuesday night tennis etc.)
3.1.3Order of Merit will be played from the first Saturday of the competition and should reflect the order as listed on the nomination form. From the first week players may only move one relative position per week. A permit may be applied for in exceptional circumstances if a new player has been placed in the wrong position by several positions.
3.1.4A player who is not named on team nomination sheets at the beginning of the season must obtain permission from the relevant Committee by the end of January within that seasonif intending to be a regular player or to qualify for Finals. If the player is considered significantly above the standard of that division then permission will not be granted regardless of how many matches that player has played.
Penalty: Forfeiture of all sets played by the player in breach of the above rules
3.2Grading of Teams/Setup of players in results recording software
Once teams have been graded and the program is set up on the results recording software then clubs must enter their players into their teams. This is to ensure the players “populate” the results entry screen each week to assist with printing of score sheets, player eligibility for finals, order of merit, etc. There will be a two week grace period at the beginning of each respective season, after this time any team who has “TBD” showing instead of players’ names, after the Confirmation of Scores deadline, may lose two premiership points per occurrence(at the discretion of the relevant Committee). The Management Committee is willing to assist Clubs who are having difficulty with setting up teams on the recording software (written instructions are available).
Penalty: Clubs may lose two premiership points if teams are not set up aftertwo weeks
3.3Withdrawal of Teams
In the event of a withdrawn team the remaining players shall not be permitted to play lower than one relative position per week without permission from the relevant Committee.
For senior competition clubs can only withdraw teams from their lowest division upward, unless the SAC accepts an alternative arrangement.
Penalty: Loss of points for offending player/s.
Any team withdrawn after the program is drawn up will be fined $100
3.4Other Tennis Association participation – Junior and Senior
Prior written permission must be obtained each and every season from both the HTA Management Committee and the other Association if clubs wish to participate in a competition within another Association. This must be received no later than 4 weeks prior to HTA nomination closing dates. This applies to both winter and summer competitions.
The following conditions apply for summer competitions:
3.4.1If nominating to a higher Association, nominations must be for Division 1 only, or another division if the team is deemed stronger than the highest relevant HTA division by the SAC/JAC. Acopy of the nomination form for the other Association, including a full list of all intending players’ names is to be submitted to the SAC/JAC with the club’s other nominations. This is to ensure the strength of the HTA competition continues and that higher level players are retained.
Penalty for breach of the above conditions – 4 premiership points deducted from the highest like-division in the HTA competition for each breach of this rule.
4.MATCH PROGRAMME
4.1Competitions
4.1.1The Association shall organise Competitions each consisting of a minor round and a finals round as specified by the Management Committee.
4.1.2No finals will be played in the Orange Ball (Under 8’s) divisions of both boys and girls. Premiership points will not be awarded.
4.1.3No finals shall be played in the midweek competition, where the team finishing highest on the premiership table at the completion of the minor round will be deemed the winner.
4.2Match Dates and Venues
4.2.1The dates and venues of all minor round matches shall be as shown on the Association programme including all scheduled venue rotations. All scheduled venue rotations must be notified to the Relevant Committee prior to the start of the relevant season. The Relevant Committee may, at its discretion, cancel, reinstate or reschedule any part of the programme.
4.2.2The approval of the relevant Committee is required before a Club can amend the venue of a match shown in the programme.
Penalty: 2 Premiership points per team concerned per breach for any breaches of the above rules.
4.2.3The higher ranked team will have home court advantage for Semi and Preliminary Finals rounds. This will also occur for JuniorGrand Finals. If there are insufficient courts, or the courts and/or lights are deemed unsuitable for finals play, the venue will be determined by the relevant Committee.
Senior Grand Final venues will be determined by the SAC.
All member clubs of the Association will make their courts available for finals and will ensure the courts are open and ready to play on 30 minutes before the scheduled start time.
5.SELECTION OF TEAMS
5.1Team Members
All persons playing for a club must be registered players of that club (see rule 2.1)
SENIORS ONLY: A Fifth/Sixth Player: may be used in any competition. The “fifth/sixth player” must be named on the scoresheet and the opposing captain/supervisor notified before play commences. A “fifth/sixth player”, male and/or female, may share the sets with any other team member and must observe the order of merit. (see Appendix 8) In Saturday doubles competition a “fifth/sixth” man and a “fifth/sixth” woman are allowed.
A seventh player is not permitted to play under any circumstances.