WPA Committee Meeting to be held on Thursday, 17 November 2016 at the Kapiti Pétanque club, Aorangi Road, Paraparaumu.
The meeting will start at 7:30 pm.
The match must take place within 31 days of the conclusion of the previous match except for the months of December and January which will be disregarded in the calculation and the 31 days will continue into February. i.e. December and January will count as zero days.
The holder must give the challenger at least 3 dates2 (playing days) from which to choose a suitable match date. Two of the dates offered must be separate weekends.
If the challenger cannot accept one of the days offered, the holder will win the match by default. If the holder cannot offer the required number of dates, the challenger will win the match by default.
Note: the requirement to offer 3 playing days is waived if there is a clash with a regional or national championship3. However, a minimum of two dates must be offered.
The intention of this article is to provide a moving window for challenges. For example, if a match is played on the 10th of the month, then the next challenge must be played within 31 days. If the next challenge is played on the 17th of the same month, then the subsequent challenge must be played within 31 days of the 17th. Under this system it may be possible to play 3 or 4 challenges within a calendar month.
2 The exception to this rule is the condition set out in article 5 and if there has been a legitimate change to a challenge date due to a clash with a regional or national championship tournament.
3 The applicable regional and national championships are the singles, doubles and triples championships. The WPA Women’s Doubles and Triples competitions were added to this list (29 August 2013).
The incidence of defaults/forfeits has grown in recent years and I believe that we don’t want to get into the situation where the Jacques Cochonnet Trophy changes hands due to a strict interpretation of the rules rather than playing an actual match.
With regard to the offer of three dates per challenge period, the convention has been to hold matches during the weekend. However, with the increase in the number of retired players it is feasible for weekday matches to be played. Weekday match dates should be offered alongside the weekend dates by the holder and should certainly be considered prior to enforcing a default due to tournament clashes during the weekends.
A query has been received from the Manawatu club regarding unlicensed players taking part in the Inter-club competition.
Michael Rocks
Secretary