Southend & District LTA Junior League
Event Grades: Mini Green will be Grade 6. U12's will be grade 6 or 5. An application has been made for U16's and U14's to be Grade 4.
The Leagues will be divided by age groupings as follows
16 years & under, 14 years under, 12 Years & under, Mini Tennis Green. They will be further divided by gender, being Boys and Girls divisions. Each team shall consist of a single gender, all of which must be of the relevant age or under at 1st January of the year in which the league is played.
The League will be an LTA sanctioned event and players participating should hold an LTA Rating card. LTA Rating with the BTM are still currently free of charge and can be obtained by contacting the LTA or Essex Tennis
PLAYER QUALIFICATION
Players who are full bona fide junior members of the club may play for a team.
Players must be of the age or under at the 1st January of that year being played. EG in 2009 a player must be 16 or under at the 1st of January 2009 (born 1st Jan 1993 or later).
A player may only play for one club and one team. A player does not have to be registered before the start of the league as registration is considered automatic as soon as they play a match for you.
Players are automatically registered to the team they play for and may not play for another team or club in the same league during that season.
EG: Player X represents Old Southend 1st Team in the opening game. Player X may not play for Old Southend 2nd Team or any other team for that club. Nor may that player represent another club. The player can only play for Old Southend 1st team. ADDENEMDUM: PLAYERS MAY STILL PLAY IN ANOTHER AGE GROUP PROVIDING THEY ARE STILL UNDER THE AGE FOR THAT LEAGUE.
Players must have an LTA rating card and should let their captain know their LTA number and rating at the start of the match. Ratings are currently free for juniors with the BTF. This may change between time of print and application.
The Clubs and Centres will earn recognition for the events too. Captains need not know their club/centre number as The League Secretary already has a full listing and will submit these with the results as they come in
LEAGUE FORMAT
The League will operate on an American style format.
Teams will be placed into Box conferences and play each other tema on a home & away basis. Clubs will nominate their preferred home day and the league secretary will arrange the fixture dates. For Midweek matches it is asked that games do not start before 4.30pm unless is it in the school holiday periods. Away plauyers should be prompt as many clubs have senior matches that start at 7pm. Where a match conflicts with a prior arranged event for the home club, then both fixture secretaries should re-arrange amicably a new date. Please advise the league secretary should this be the case. We want Tennis to be played, not points grabbed without hitting a ball. Re-arranged matches can be played anytime during the league season.
The Conference Winners and Runners up will go forward to the play-offs for a place in the Grand Final. Where there are not enough conferences then the top two teams will go straight to the Grand Final. Either way the League Championship will be decided by a Final Match in each age group.
Failure to attend - Players or indeed teams that do not show up for a match within 30 mins of the start time risk conceeding the match. The team present may claim their rubber after 30 minutes. Conceeded matches will result in points deductions of 1 point per rubber. Therefore a full team not showing up would conceede all 4 league points as well as being deducted 3 points.
Players: All players should be of the correct age for the team they are playing in. A player may be entered into a team the next age group up if their coach feels they are ready to do so. All Matches are a best of 3 sets Singles game. However, the third set is replaced by the "Championship" Tie Break.
Mini Tennis is the best of 3 short sets (played to 4 games), with the 3rd set being replaced by a standard tie break.
Each team will consist of 3 players who will play one singles rubber against the player of equal standing in the opposing team. EG, rank 1 team A plays rank 1 team B.
1 League Point is awarded for each rubber won. The Winning team is the team that wins the most rubbers. The winning team will be given an extra bonus point for their win.
Where teams finish level on points they will be separated first by Play-Back**, then matches won, then by Games Difference.
**Play-Back - this is where all other results are scrubbed and the match results between the two teams compared. Whoever won that match over the 2 games will be given the higher place. EG Westcliff V Southend. Westcliff won 2-1 at home but then lost 3-0 to Southend when they played away. The net result is 4-2 to Southend. (bonus points are not included in the calculations) Therefore Southend are given the higher league position.
League Match results can be submitted by post by completing a match card or by e-mail to geoff@southenddistrictlta.org.uk. You will still need to provide the information contained on the match card.
The League Season will run from May 2009 through to September 2009 and should average 1 or 2 League Matches a month. The Play-Offs will take place in October, with the final being held at a Neutral Ground on the last weekend of October. Any club may apply to host the final. So far only Rochford have applied. The Closing date for applications to host the final is 31st May 2009. Clubs must have at least one team playing in any one of the Southend & Dsitrict Leagues (Junior or Senior) to qualify for hosting the finals.
THE PLAY-OFFS: The play-offs will operate exactly as the league matches. The team that finished 1st in their group will play at home against the team that finished 2nd in one of the other groups. The winner of the match progresses to the next play-off round.
GIRLS LEAGUE: Due to the lower entry numbers a club that enters will still be able to play even if there are too few teams. Instead the girls will represent themselves on the League Table. The Club will still earn the recognition for having their girls in the league and playing. EG: If Westcliff Hard have 4 U16s that want to play and only two other clubs manage to get 4 girls in the same age group then all the girls will still play. They will all be individually represented on the table and they will play the other girls (even the ones at their own club). The top two girls in each group will go to the play-offs and follow the same format as the boys team events.
All matches are otherwise played under the Rules of Tennis as governed by the ITF.
