OCC’s 2012 General Playing Regulations
The OCC's General Playing Regulations are the nuts and bolts that keep the competitions running. They don't provoke as much interest as leg side wides, bouncers or switch hits, but they are what keeps adminstrators in clubs happy (or maybe sane).
This year's General Playing Regulations have now been published (and can be viewed here) and there are seven areas where there have been major changes.
They are as follows
- Players playing from Munster, Connacht, the NCU and North West. For many years there has been a regulation preventing players from playing in more than one province. This is thought to be out-dated, and has hence been removed
- A regulation was introduced in 2011 that may have escaped many. If a player plays after July 1st, they will be considered to be in good standing with that club, should they then move clubs the following winter.
- Cup starrings have now been abolished. Each club need only submit one starring list per month. For the "long cup" competitions (ie not the T20 competitions), each team can play one player down on a lower team.
- There are to be tighter controls on the refixing of matches. The full details can be read in the regulations, but there will be points penalties for clubs who do not refix matches, and in Divisions 5-14, matches that are postponed for non-weather reasons can be refixed as T20 matches - should both teams agree
- There are also to be harsher penalties for those teams who give walkovers. The previous regulations only penalised clubs as if they had had a bad loss.
- Regulations have been put in place (to be read in conjunction with the competition regulations) that mean matches that are abandoned for non-weather reasons will be reported, and sides can be penalised as a result.
- Resulting from the LCU's Spring AGM, a Working Group has recommended that a series of regulations pertaining to the surface that matches are played on shall be in force for 2012 only.
Any questions on these General Regulations can be directed to Kevin Gallagher. Any comments can be left below this article, or why not take part in a discussion on our Facebook page?