League Rules & Bylaws – PLAY Table Tennis

FOCUS

The focus of the Inter-Venue League is always on development. This means that the top players will always be eventually filtered out to a higher platform to make way for newcomers at the bottom end. The aim is to keep the level of play between the bottom and top players close enough to promote a competitive league where few results are a foregone conclusion.

The Inter-Venue League is played between teams consisting of three players.
Nine singles matches are played (3×3), followed by one doubles match. The doubles match is played with the teams’ choice of pairing on the night.
At least one full round robin is played in home and away fashion.

In the case of 6 or more teams in the league, playoffs will consist of two semi-finals (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3) and a final.
In the case of 5 teams, 2 and 3 will play a semi-final for a spot in the final against the top team.
In the case of 4 teams, only a final will be played between the top 2 teams.
In the case of 12 or more teams, the top 6 teams will participate in playoffs, with the top 2 automatically advancing to semi-finals.
In the case of 16 or more teams, the top 8 teams will contest quarterfinals.
In case of a tied score at the end of a playoff match, the equal match-up scores will be considered to determine a winner.

In the spirit of development, no player participating in the provincial body’s highest league may participate in the Inter-Venue League.
No player that has participated at senior national level, representing any province or body within the past 5 years, may participate.

Prior to the start of the league, all team lists will be finalized. Any player that does not form part of the team of three at the start of the league will classify as a reserve.
A player from another team may fill in as reserve for another team from the same venue only once during a season, providing that his level is not higher than that of the substituted player.
A reserve may fill in for up to 25% of a team’s regular-season matches (before playoffs) before becoming a registered member of that team.
A reserve may not fill in for another venue’s teams after filling in once.
For each round of the playoffs, a venue is allowed to put their best team(s) forward by mixing players from its different teams.
Reserves may be used in the playoffs, providing that they have played a minimum of 25% of the fixtures up to that point for any of the venue’s teams.

No postponements will be considered unless at least two of the players are unavailable.
Postponements must be cleared with the league administrator and the opposing team at least 4 hours before the scheduled start of the fixture.
The postponing team is not entitled to a postponement, however it is common courtesy for the opposing team to try and accommodate such postponement.
A postponed match must take place at least 72 hours before the scheduled start of the playoffs, failing which the opposing team will receive full points for the match.

Individual rankings will be calculated on a player’s best 70% of performances, up to and including semi-finals (where applicable). This means that all players are eligible for individual league winner, but semi-finalists have more opportunity to improve on lower scores than the rest.
Team rankings and standings will be calculated on all of their available results. Playoffs are always based on the highest seed versus the lowest seed, second-highest against second-lowest, and so on.

Exact scoring for the league for both individual and team rankings will be decided and announced by the league committee at least one week prior to the start of the first matches.

A league committee will be formed before the start of the league, and will be tasked with decisions regarding league scoring, substitutes, league format, eligibility of players and other general and disciplinary issues concerning the league as may arise from time to time during the course of the league and the playoffs.
The committee will consist of the venue coordinators as well as a league participant from each venue.
Decisions pertaining a specific venue will exclude the venue’s coordinator, and decisions pertaining to a certain team or player will exclude the player.