Rules
League Rules
BCDBA league rules
The league rules are listed below but can also be downloaded as either a Microsoft Word
document or a PDF
document.
Participation
(1) The league shall be open to all member clubs. Clubs must advise the Committee of new team entries or withdrawal of teams no later than one week before the Fixtures Meeting. Entry fees for teams entered by a club shall be determined at the AGM and be payable to the Treasurer at the Fixtures Meeting.
Fixtures
(2) All matches must be arranged at the Fixtures Meeting, which will be held before the commencement of each season. Matches between teams from the same club must be completed before they play any other team. All matches to be completed before the date announced at the Fixtures Meeting (usually towards the end of April).
(3) Fixtures arranged at the meeting must be advised at the meeting to the Fixtures Secretary. If a club does not send a representative to the meeting, except in special circumstances, the Committee will not allow the club to compete in the league for that season.
(4) Rearrangements of matches can only be made by a club:
- in the event of the non-availability of playing facilities;
- in the event of exceptionally bad weather conditions preventing teams from travelling;
- by mutual consent between the two clubs involved.
The Fixtures Secretary must be notified of the rearrangement and the new date. The Committee reserves the right to ask for the reason for the change to be declared, to make the rearrangement void and to award the match to the non-offending team should the reason for the change be considered unsatisfactory.
(5) The fact that players were not available will not be considered to be an adequate reason for rearranging a match. Any club unable to send a full team of eligible players should, if possible, complete the team with non-eligible players, the games played by such players being forfeited.
Format of matches
(6) All matches shall be played according to the laws of the Badminton Association of England.
(7) In each division, all clubs will play each other in two fixtures, one home and one away. The home club shall bear all the expenses of a fixture except the away team’s travelling expenses. It is recommended that refreshments, which the home team is expected to provide, will be limited to cold drinks, tea and/or coffee if possible, and biscuits.
(8) Each match will comprise nine rubbers, each being the best of three games to fifteen points, setting if necessary. The club that wins five or more rubbers shall be declared the winner of the match and be allocated two points for that win. Each team will comprise three appropriate pairs, with each one playing in three rubbers.
(9) Matches will be played with shuttles to be provided by the home team and which conform to the Badminton Association of England rules. Clubs must indicate at the Fixtures Meeting whether they will be using feathered or synthetic shuttles and for which team. The use of feathered shuttles is preferred and is encouraged.
(10) Every team will have a captain or, in the absence of a captain, will nominate a representative from those present to carry out the duties of a captain as specified herein. A match card must be completed by the home team captain, signed by the visiting captain, and sent to the Fixtures Secretary within seven days of the match. The Association reserves the right to penalise repeated delays in submitting match cards.
Eligible players
(11) Clubs may only select players that are full members of that club, have been registered with the Fixtures Secretary by that club before the first match of the season and have not been registered by any other club (except as covered in Rule 12, see below). Clubs may not register any player who has not consented to such registration. In addition, a player joining a club during the season may be selected providing that player has been registered one week before the first match for which that player has been selected. Any player that has not played in a league team, cannot play in the last two fixtures of any team. Registrations should be made with the Fixtures Secretary in writing or by e-mail, such that records can be kept. Phone or other verbal evidence is not an acceptable method of registration.
(12) A player may be registered and selected by more than one club, as long as Rule 11 is followed. However, a player may not play for more than one club in the same category of play (Mixed, Mens or Combination) within the same season.
(13) If a club has entered more than one team in a category, it must nominate the alphabetical order of the teams together with four appropriate players for each team in excess of one who will not be eligible to play in any lower team. A player shall be ineligible for a team or teams for the remainder of any season during which that player has played a combination of more than two league matches in one or more than one higher nominated team.
(14) If a club plays an ineligible player in a match without declaring so to the opposing captain before the commencement of the match, that club will forfeit the whole match.
Doubles match procedures
(15) Before the commencement of a match, captains should agree any amendments to these procedures and should exchange details of their team pairings in the order of first, second, and third pairs. In the case of combination matches, pairings should be ranked 1, 2 and 3 in order of their mixed doubles playing ability.
(16) Unless the captains have agreed a revised order (for example, if more than one court is available), the order of play will be:
(17) All matches must commence at the time agreed by clubs at the Fixtures Meeting. Both clubs must ensure that they are aware of the need to have enough players present at the start of the match for the number of courts available.
(18) If play has not commenced within 15 minutes of the agreed starting time because of the unavailability of a player or players, the captain of the offending team should be notified by the other captain that if any rubbers remain unfinished when play has to cease, the offending team will forfeit such rubbers on the basis of the other team receiving up to 15 points for every game not completed.
If play has commenced within 15 minutes of the starting time and all players have been ready when required, any games not concluded will be forfeited by the home team with the away team’s points being made up to 15 per game.
(19) If the home team has not been responsible for a delay in starting not exceeding 15 minutes, and providing less than one third of the total court time available remains, the home team captain after consultation may require the last three rubbers to be played on the basis of one game to 21 points, with setting if necessary, the winners being scored as having won by two games to nil.
(20) If any player required to play shall be absent, the opponents will receive rubbers by two games to nil and 15 points to nil as follows:
- 1st opponent after a delay of 30 minutes from the initial time required on court
- 2nd opponent after a delay of 60 minutes from the initial time required on court
- 3rd opponent after a delay of 90 minutes from the initial time required on court
These times will be halved for matches taking place at a venue with more than one court in use.
(21) The home team will provide a scorer for any game at the request of any player in that game. The scorer is only provided to score, not to state opinion on any other matter.
(22) The existence of any dispute between teams should be noted on the score card, which should be sent as soon as possible to the Fixtures Secretary, and the decision of the Committee, having considered the views of the clubs concerned, will be final. In making its ruling, the Committee will have expected the parties to have employed understanding and goodwill in their interpretation of the matter in dispute.
Criteria for the number of divisions and teams
(23) This procedure will be used by the Committee to determine the number of divisions in each category, the number of teams in each division and the allocation of teams to each division, but subject to revision in what the Committee may decide are special circumstances.
(24) In each existing division, the final team positions will be settled by applying the following tests, in order:
- matches won;
- rubbers won;
- games difference;
- points difference;
- 1 to 4 above, applied to the matches between the teams concerned.
In the event of a tie on matches won, the remaining tests will be applied after eliminating the effects of matches having been forfeited by other clubs.
(25) Having determined the position of each team within each division, the Mixed, Mens and Ladies teams will be written in a ‘ranking’ order with one team promoted and one team relegated from each division. This will provide a list from top to bottom of all the teams in their new order.
Any teams withdrawing will then be crossed out and any new teams entering will be added to the bottom of the list. The list will then be divided equally into divisions (i.e., 28 teams would be split 7/7/7/7, 26 teams 7/7/6/6, etc). The maximum size of any one division will be nine teams, the minimum will be four teams.
Unfulfilled fixtures
(26) Once a club becomes aware that a team it has entered will be unable to fulfil its fixtures programme, it must notify the Association immediately. If the club has more than one team in the league in the same category, the fixtures of the higher nominated team or teams must be given priority.
In the event of a team forfeiting more than one quarter of its matches in a season, all results of that season involving that team will be declared void. If any team completes less than half of its fixtures, it may be eliminated from the league.
General
(27) Any club not abiding by these rules may be subject to disciplinary action as determined by the Committee.
