Dear TML member
As communicated over a week ago, your Executive Committee have been considering what to do about the 2019/20 season in the light of announcements from Basketball England about the suspension of all games for the foreseeable future. Many of you will be aware that Basketball England announced on Friday, 27 March, the formal closure of the 2019/20 season for Junior and Senior competitions. BE also announced how they have dealt with the issue of unplayed league games. This involves simply crediting both teams in every unplayed league fixture with half of the total available points.
What your Exec has decided to do
Your TML Exec Committee has decided to follow Basketball England’s lead. This means that the 2019/20 season has now officially closed, and there will be no Handicap competition this year.
The league tables as they stand on the website currently have been manually adjusted by allocating two league points to each team for every unplayed fixture, for all of the thirteen unplayed TML fixtures that remained when our season was suspended. For example, if Team A had one unplayed league fixture we have added two league points to Team A’s total; if Team B had two unplayed fixtures left we have added four league points; if Team C had played all their league games we have added zero league points. This matches the BE methodology exactly.
We have then also adjusted teams’ league points if they have not met the referee duty quota of nine duties this season. We have deducted one league point for each duty less than nine that teams have fulfilled. This was agreed at last year’s AGM. We have used nine duties, rather than the ten agreed at the AGM, to account for the weeks in the season that could not be played out.
Where can I see the adjusted league tables?
We have posted a simple table called 2019-20 Adjusted League Tables March 2020 on the TML website. You can read and download this document by going to the website and clicking through from League > League Resources in the banner at the top of the page.
Congratulations to the following provisional Division Champions 2019/20:
Division 1 winners 2019/20 = Newcastle East Griffins
Division 2 winners 2019/20 = CSSC Cyclones
Division 3 winners 2019/20 = Cardinal Vipers
We will deal with trophies and the pro- and demotion of teams for the 2020/21 season at the AGM as usual. Further details about the AGMs will follow in due course.
What can I do if I am unclear about or unhappy with the adjusted tables
If you have a question or think your team has been unduly affected by any of the adjustments described above and as seen in the table visible in the League Resources part of the website, please set out your question, or your concerns and proposed remedy, clearly in an email to chairman@tynemetbasketball.co.uk and the Exec Committee will consider this and respond. The deadline for registering such queries or concerns is 5pm on Friday 17 April 2020.
The Executive Committee hope that you’ll agree that we have arrived at a solution for the 2019/20 season which closely mirrors the methodology used by our National Governing Body.
Yours in sport
Mark
Chair TML