League practice and policy (Updated on 23/2/24)

In addition to Law of Sport of Bowls and LBA bye-law, League panel follows a series of practice and policies to manage the league competitions.

These practice and policies are summarized below for bowlers easy reference.

Ref Subject Details
1 Entry fee Premier League (3 teams) – 4000 per side
Triples league (3 teams) – 2200 per side
Mixed Fours (3 teams) – 2900 per side
2 League format Premier league – 3 teams per side, Fours in 18 ends with 2 bowls per player
Triples league – 3 teams per side, Triples in 16 ends with 3 bowls per player
3 Preparation of league fixtures No league games on public holidays
Fixture has to be fixed 3 months in advance, otherwise LCSD will cancel the pencil booking and release to public
Club having more than 1 side in same division will have their direct matches playing first.
Special request (e.g. exam period, bowling trip, company event) for reschedule submitted in the entry form will be handled.
4 Addition of new entry Clubs can submit the request to League panel anytime when there is a vacancy.
5 Withdraw an entry No penalty before the draft fixture is issued.

After the draft fixture is issued, an entry fee will be charged.

After the final fixture is issued, the club has to bear any paid green fee loss.

 

6 Time for fixture approval and confirmation No advance booking before fixture approval
VP League will issue a mail to declare the time of fixture approval, such that public green booking starts. <reference>
7 Home/Away ratio For Single round-robin league, the acceptable ratio is normally within 2 games.
Not a preference for double round-robin league. <reference>
8 Public green usage priority It defines which side has the right to play on original fixture dates. Lower priority sides have to reschedule their games. <reference>
9 Auto allocation
(for home side only)
If Saturday afternoon green is full, games will be allocated to other slots in following order depending on green availability:
Men: Sat night >> Sun pm >> Sun am >> Sun night >> rearrange
Women: Sun pm >> Sun am >> rearrange
No women games will be auto allocated in the evening.
Opt out choice is available for home side only<reference>
Clubs can apply opt out, but not for individual side.
Private club can have separate allocation period, but must be defined in the entry form.
10 Prefer day for reschedule game <Not use>
11 Postponed game offers Offers should not overlap and all in one day <reference>
Game date is Day 0 of the 22 days offer. <reference>
12 Reschedule game confirmation The mutual agreement is in effect once it was confirmed by both captains. An approval mail will be issued afterwards as a communication proof. League panel will only reject invalid agreements (e.g. more than 22 days, change of venue).
Home side can start green booking as long as the agreement is valid and in effect, no need to wait for HKLBA approval mail.  <reference>
13 Neutral green Any green not being the home green nor away green is a valid neutral green <reference>
14 Public green provision and incomplete match 4 hours is reasonably sufficient for a league game.

If booking is 4 hours and the game cannot finish, no penalty. However, if the booking is less than four hours, penalty will be imposed. <reference>

After booking hours, the game will stop and postpone immediately, unless the rinks are available to continue the match. If the subsequent booking is a league match, finish the incomplete end and postpone. If the end burns during the extended period, the match will stop immediately.<reference>

15 Thunderstorm If both sides mutually agree, the match can be continued
16 Extreme weather Can consider postpone if reach 35oC or below 8oC
If both sides mutually agree, the match can be postponed outside this range <reference>
17 Heavy green can consider postpone if pace of green is outside 9 to 18 seconds
If game postpone, the challenge side will be responsible for any additional green fees. <reference>
18 Game continuity Game will continue if green is open
19 Rink assignment In a resumed game, use original rinks as much as possible, draw for new rinks only <reference>
20 Substitute Maximum one substitute per rink. HKYDT seconded player treated as normal player.
If two players in one team are not available in a resumed game, use one substitute plus one BLANK player.
21 Result capture with substitute If a substitute is used, capture the player who played most number of ends <reference>
22 Score cards Kept by clubs in hard/soft copy.
VP League will advise to destroy the scorecards after the season.
23 Registered player The registered players list is in effect once a side starts its 4th match. <reference>
No change of registered players after the 4th match starts.
24 Transfer of player Case will only be considered on extremely rare situation. So far, no successful application since 2008. <reference>
25 Prize money 40% of collected entry fees goes to prize money, while 60% goes to LBA income/fund <reference>
Prize money allocation:55% for champion side, 35% for runners-up, 10% for champion team.
26 Prize eligibility of a winning side Players must play at least 1/3 of games
Trophies awarded to each side(3 teams) : Premier League – max 16, Triples League – max 11, Mixed Fours – max 15
27 Promotion/ relegation for more than two sides Adjustment to make up number of sides for each division in a new season, more than two sides may be promoted or relegated. <reference>
28 YDT Secondment Clubs can apply to loan YDT players only when they are less than 9 players in premier league, or 6 players in triples league. The loaned players will make up the side with minimum players, and the league game can continue as scheduled.
– max 3 loaned YDT players per side, max 1 player per rink, loaned player cannot play skip
– cannot be an ex/current HK squad member
– the application should arrive at least 3 days in advance notice
– no specified player, selection of player by YDT coordinator.
– an administrative charge of $150 per player.