National Leagues – Season 2004-5
The coming season will be organised, subject to the number of
applications, as follows;
The Premier League is restricted to 7 teams.
The National League Division 1 is restricted to 7 teams.
The National League Division 2 is restricted to 7 teams.
The National Inter-Regional Leagues continue on a 3-
tournament basis, where only 2 Regions attend each
tournament.
For example: -
Tournament 1 Southern and Northern Regions Held in the
South
Tournament 2 Northern and Eastern Regions Held in the North
Tournament 3 Eastern and Southern Regions Held in the East
Formats
Premier League will be played on a home and away basis and the
timing of each game will remain as 2 x 25 minute halves, stop
the clock, with a 1 minute time-out for each team in each half.
Division 1 & 2 will remain as tournaments and the timing of each
game will be 2 x 20 minute halves, running clock, with a 1-
minute time-out for each team in each half.
Timings
The minimum time required to be booked for a Premier League
game is 90 minutes.
The minimum time required to be booked for a tournament for
ND1, ND2, Veterans, Juniors or Ladies is 50 minutes per game.
The minimum time required to be booked for a tournament for
Schoolboys, Intermediates or Minors is 40 minutes per game.
The number of games per tournament cannot be determined
until the entry level is known.
Promotion/Demotion
At the end of the season, the bottom 2 teams from Premier will
play-off against the top 2 teams from ND1 for the right to play
in Premier, and the bottom 2 teams in ND1 will play-off against
the top 2 teams in ND2 for the right to play in ND1.
This guarantees that the best teams in the country are playing in
the highest leagues.
Qualification for League Entry
Premier
All teams currently playing in the Premier league will
automatically qualify for the Premier League next season.
The selection of any additional applicants will be decided either
by a play-off or by the ability level of the teams.
Should the latter option be necessary, a suitably qualified panel
will make the decision.
National Division 1 & 2
As with the possible over-subscription to the Premier League,
the decision on team entry to divisions will be made by a
suitably qualified panel.
The number of teams applying will dictate the number of teams
in each division and this will of course affect the tournament
formats.
Referees.
All existing referees will be assessed each year at the NRHA
League Cup event.
The responsibility of appointing referees for games or
tournaments will rest with those teams taking part.
No referee will take charge of a game where his or her own Club
is involved.
No NRHA League game will be refereed by less than two
referees.
For Premier League each Club involved will be responsible for
appointing one referee.
For all other Leagues the home Club will be responsible for
appointing 2 referees and the participating away Clubs will be
responsible for appointing 1 further referee each.
Information/Updates
Once the entries have been received and the programmes
arranged, each participating Club/Region in each league will
receive a complete list of fixtures including dates, start times,
venue addresses, contact details and a league table. The results
and League table will be updated through the season, posted on
the web-site and e-mailed to the participating clubs.
Important Note : All this can only be achieved with the co-
operation of the Clubs.
More info: Submitted by Keith Allen
Reporter: Kos Galtos
