VETERANS INTERCLUB LEAGUE


Minutes of the meeting held April 8, 2017 at the Monkland Tennis Club

Chair: N. Hartenstein

Present:
Cary Willson Monkland
Jake Woloshen MRTC
Patrice Rousso Dorval
Richard Viau Ste-Dorothée I
Pierre Dicaire Ste-Dorothée II
Fred Ross Valois
Warren Hersh Hampstead
Jeff Hashen CSL

Regrets:
Alex Brzezininski Montreal-West
Pierre Vezina Monkland




1) INTRODUCTION

Norm opened the meeting by welcoming everybody to the new season, and stated we will have 9 teams, with Montreal-West confirming their team and captaincy last Thursday. They will act “solo”, as Baie-D’Urfé will no longer partner with Montreal-West (lack of support at their own Club).

Norm then circulated a sheet asking all teams to update Club information for the 2017 season, including name of captain, applicable e-mail, home and cell phone numbers as well as Club phone number.



2) OTHER BUSINESS RAISED AT LAST YEAR’S MEETING

-Social aspect:

We all agree that the social ‘’after Tennis’’ is an integral part of our league. We ask that teams with special dietary concerns communicate with the opposing captains before the match so that proper arrangements can be made.

This request was made last year and seems to have been well respect by everybody. It remains the responsibility of the Visiting team to advise the captain of the home team in a timely matter.



3) OVERVIEW of 2017 SEASON

- Teams:

As stated earlier, we are looking to field 9 teams for the season.

Start times:

All start times for matches will be at 6h30pm.
Note: Because of potential issues with the Blue collar workers in the city of Hampstead, their home matches may actually start at 6h45.

- Home matches:

All teams will be hosting matches on TUESDAY night, with the exception of
Dorval, who will host on Thursday night.

- Schedule:

We have 14 weeks in the season, and we reduce this by 3 to accommodate the Designed Provincial and National tournaments, as well as the week for the Rogers Cup at “Jarry Park”. This leaves us 11 weeks to schedule play. That said, there’s a desire to find ways to play more matches in the season, as our summers tend to be longer. However, this extra time is challenging as people return to their “normal” activities once September rolls around.

A lengthy discussion was had around two options: having all teams in a single group, playing one another once and having a balanced schedule of 8 fixtures per team. This would be complemented by teams organizing extra friendly matches, to play more tennis. The other option was to have 2 divisions, one of 5 “stronger” teams playing 8 matches (“Home and Home”) and 4 “weaker” teams playing 9 matches (3 times each).

After much discussion, it was agreed to try out option #2 this year.

Group #1:
Ste-Dorothée I
Ste-Dorothée II
Valois
Dorval
Monkland

Group #2:
MRTC
Hampstead
CSL
Montreal-West

There will also be a Relegation match scheduled between the team that finished #5 in group 1 and the team #1 in group 2

The season will run from be the week of May 22 (Victoria Day week -our usual start date) to the end of August. Friendly matches are encouraged to be scheduled when there’s opening in the schedule or after the official season.

Norm will prepare the schedule in the coming weeks.

-Rules and Regulations:

The topic of re-introducing a 3rd set tie breaker when matches are at “one set all” was once again discussed. After much discussion, it was agreed that since we are trying a new format this year (see above), we also try out having a 10 points tie-breaker at “one set all”. To complement this, all fixtures will have 12 points available, which means a victory in 2 straight sets will be worth 3 points, and a victory with a tie-breaker will have 2 points for the victor and 1 point to the loser.

Complete Rules to be published on the “Votre Tennis/Find your Tennis” website.

- Playoffs:

This was another topic that had a lengthy discussion. While the regular single grouping of 9 teams playing each other once might be more conducive to adding playoff matches, since we are trying the two divisions approach (and teams will be playing each other at least twice), it was felt by the majority that adding playoffs would be redundant.

- Stats:

Pierre Vézina, who has been our statistician for many years, was not present at the meeting. While we could not confirm his return at this point, we all hope he will come back. Norm to follow up.

A motion was made and unanimously approved the warmly thank Pierre for his diligent work. Un gros Merci Pierre!

Going on the assumption that Pierre will be back and once again continue to use the “Votre Tennis/Find your Tennis” website, we ask, as in the past, that all teams make the necessary efforts to send an e-mail to Pierre reporting the score of a fixture “by noon of the day following the match each week” (Rule #9). We’re also asking Clubs when e-mailing Pierre with the results, to also “cc” the opposing team they just played.

Pierre’s e-mail address: pvzina@gmail.com

Follow-up: Subsequent to the meeting, Pierre confirmed he will once again continue on as statistician.



4) “VOTRE TENNIS/FIND YOUR TENNIS” WEBSITE:

See above.


5) OTHER BUSINESS

-Super Seniors:

Jake once again introduced the concept of a 60+ years old league to accommodate this growing age group. There’s seems to be an appetite from MRTC, CSL and possibly Hampstead and Dorval. Because 3 of these teams will be playing against each other in group 2, it was decided to leave it “as is” and see where it lands.


6) ADJOURNMENT

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 2h35pm.