The North Staffs League switched from promotion and relegation to divisions grade limited on a whole team basis for the start of the 2006/7 season. To avoid a line by line rewrite of our rules the first rule for the new system was
Except where they are inconsistent with the rules below, the previous regulations shall continue to apply.
Next set up the divisions - obviously you choose your own numbers. These are our original values, which were changed when the grades were altered.
There shall be an Open league (division 1) for 5 board teams.
Three grade limited sections shall be established with team grade limits of at most 650, at most 440 and at most 360 for respectively 5, 4 and 4 board teams and known as divisions 2, 3 and 4 respectively.
These limits apply to the team fielded in each match.
There are no grading restraints in the Open section.
Grade limiting by team is equivalent to limiting the average grade of the players in a team. We were not happy with the idea that using a very weak bottom board would allow all the other players in the team to be noticeably above the average (eg four 160s and a 10 in an average at most 130 division). Also need to cover defaults. Hence
When calculating a teams total grade, minimum counting grades of 100, 80, 60 will apply respectively to the 3 grade limited divisions - any player with a lower grade will be counted as having the minimum counting grade, as will defaults.
Rules on reserving are needed. We are happy to count each division as a separate competition, allowing players to participate in as many as they wish and their club allow. We were also aware that some clubs would enter more than one team in a given division and might need/wish to make use of reserves from one of these teams to the other. A partial restriction on this was placed.
There are no constraints on the use of players who are graded at least 10 points below the average grade limit in divisions 2 to 4, or less than 120 in division 1. No other player may play in more than one team in a given division, but may play without constraint in as many divisions as they choose.
Grade limiting introduces a rule that can be broken, so this needs to be covered. We decided that such breaches would arise inadvertently through poor arithmetic or misreading of a player's grade rather than through deliberate flouting of the limit. Consequently our rule here sometimes leads to no penalty - other leagues would doubtless prefer something stronger.
An ineligible side is one that breaches the grading limit for the competition. The penalty for fielding an ineligible side is that the lowest board whose grade exceeds the minimum counting grade by at least the teams excess over the limit has their game automatically scored to the opposition.
In effect look for the lowest board that could be defaulted to make the team legal, and default it.
Dealing with ungraded players:
Ungraded players for whom the grading officer is unable to give a provisional grade shall be given an estimated grade by their club. The grading officer may review estimated grades from time to time in the light of results.
Changes to published or estimated grades will not be applied retrospectively.
You will also need to decide what notice, if any, to take of January grades. We only use them for those without a published August grade, as we wish to minimise the risk of disrupting established teams.
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I'm not the best person to ask how well this system works as I am biased, being the person who steered the changes through the AGMs. (It was introduced as an experimental system with the promise that there would automatically be another vote the following year). I am not aware however of any pressure to revert to promotion and relegation.
Previously we had had three divisions, the third being relatively large. Our motivation for change was the increasing feeling amongst promoted teams that they would be cannon fodder in their new division, so we attempted to set the new limits to match the natural divisions in ability between the then current teams.
By switching to grade limited divisions you lose control over their size, with each club each year deciding where to place its teams. However by allowing players to compete freely in more than one division they have the opportunity to tailor their commitment to their wishes.
Be aware that the existence of the grade limited divisions may well have an effect on the top division as teams that have been out-gunned there may choose to play further down the structure. Our top division currently has five teams, all of whom can beat each other, as opposed to the eight of rather disparate standards we normally had under the previous system. Clearly it is a matter of opinion as to whether the loss of frequently one-sided matches is important.
Having upper but not lower limits means that teams are not denied the opportunity to test themselves against stronger opposition if they wish, and a small minority of our teams do precisely this.
No club likes losing strong players (or any players come to that), but under the grade limited scenario they can at least adjust their level of entry to match their new resources rather than being forced to promote all their remaining players against their wishes. This is particularly useful for educational establishments whose player turnover is likely to be higher than for other clubs.
