CDNL Rules (2022) - Cambridge and District Netball League

IMPORTANT: THESE RULES ARE ONLY APPLICABLE TO TEAMS PLAYING IN THE CAMBRIDGE & DISTRICT NETBALL LEAGUES

Name
1. The League shall be called Cambridge and District Netball League.
2. The League players will be members of England Netball.
Aims and Objectives
1. To promote the personal development for all Club players, participants, volunteers and officials of the League in relation to netball and, where appropriate, provide routes to opportunities to enhance and increase individual skills.
2. The aims and objectives of the League shall be to:
  1. Promote netball within the local community and further the interests of netball within Cambridgeshire
  2. To offer competitive opportunities in netball
  3. To ensure a duty of care to all players of the League
  4. To provide all its services in a way that is fair to everyone
  5. To ensure that all present and future players receive fair and equal treatment
  6. Adopt and enforce the rules, regulations, resolutions and rulings of England Netball (where appropriate)
Membership
1. The League shall consist of the officers and the players.
2. Membership of the League shall be open, and not unreasonably restricted on the grounds of sex, race or of political, religious or other opinions to any person in the area prepared to accept and support the objectives of the League. No member, participant, volunteer or official will receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, marital status, social class, colour, race, ethnic origin, creed or disability, or will be disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be relevant to their participation in the League in accordance with the equality act.
3. In accepting membership a person agrees to abide in the constitution of the League and the rulings of the League Committee.
4. Players may resign from membership at any time.
Management
1. Cambridge and District League shall be played under the rules of England Netball.
2. The CDNL Committee (Committee) is a group of individuals who form a group to collectively govern CDNL and deliver the objects on behalf of the Players and to oversee the investment of CDNL’s funds.
3. The composition of the Committee shall be the following officers (positions (a) to (f) shall be collectively referred to as the “Elected Officers”)
  1. Chair
  2. Secretary/Communications Officer
  3. Treasurer
  4. Officiating/Umpiring Officer
  5. Membership Officer
  6. Disciplinary Secretary (reports to Committee)
  7. up to 3 (three) other officers appointed by the Committee (ex officio members)
4. The Committee shall meet at least 4 (four) times each year.
5. Minutes of each Committee meeting shall be taken by the Secretary and shall be available to Players by request to the Secretary.
6. The Chair, Treasurer and all the Elected Officers shall serve until the end of the AGM immediately following their appointment, when all Elected Officer positions shall be re-elected. At the end of their term of office any Elected Officer is entitled to stand for re-election to the same position.
7. The Committee may fill any vacancy that may occur during the year. If this involves filling the position of an Elected Officer then that person must offer themselves for election at the next AGM following their initial appointment if they wish to continue to serve on the Committee in that position. Officers of the Committee filling a vacancy have the same rights and responsibilities as all Officers of the Committee.
8. Officers appointed by the Committee under 4.3 (g) will serve for a period of 1 (one) year. At the end of that period, they must relinquish their appointment but may be reappointed at the discretion of the Committee.
9. Committee officers must act in accordance to the powers set out in this Constitution and must exercise independent judgement.
10. Committee officers must, at the commencement of their appointment and each year thereafter, declare any pecuniary interest.
11. Committee officers must avoid conflicts of interest, not accept benefits from third parties, and must declare any actual or perceived interests to the other Committee officers as soon as they arise.
12. At Committee meetings each Elected Officer present shall have 1 (one) vote. In the event of a tie of votes, the Chair shall have a second and casting vote.
13. All Committee officers must be members of England Netball for the entire duration of their term in office.
14. Any person seeking election to the Committee must be nominated by 2 (two) Players (of CDNL) entitled to vote at an AGM. All nominations must be received 7 (seven) days prior to the date of the AGM at which the election is due to take place. In the event that no nominations are received for a position prior to the relevant AGM, then nominations may be made to fill vacant positions at the AGM itself. Such nomination should be made by 2 (two) Players (of CDNL) entitled to vote at the AGM.
15. All vacant positions and those up for re-election will be openly advertised.
16. A post on the Committee may be vacated if the officer:
  1. gives 28 (twenty eight) days’ notice in writing of their resignation from the post;
  2. is absent for 2 (two) consecutive meetings, at the discretion of the Committee; or
  3. is requested to resign by a majority vote of the Committee.
17. The quorum of the Committee shall be 5 (five) Elected Officers.
18. England Netball staff, League representatives and other invited individuals may attend, speak at, provide advice to and support the Committee meetings at the agreement of the Committee officers attending the meeting but only the Elected Officers can vote at the meetings.
19. Where it is not possible to convene a meeting of the full Committee for a particular decision to be made, an Emergency Committee, consisting of the Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer shall decide. Their findings shall then be put to the full Committee for ratification.
20. The Disciplinary Secretary shall be appropriately qualified and appointed by the Committee. The Disciplinary Secretary will serve for a period of 1 (one) year . At the end of that period, they must relinquish their appointment but may be re-appointed at the discretion of the Committee.
21. Committee Officers or any person duly appointed by the Committee to act with its authority shall be paid their expenses necessarily incurred through their role in the form of mileage at the current Netball East rate and directly incurred and necessary out of pocket expenses for attending Committee meetings and conducting Committee business, as approved by the Committee.
22. Where an action is to be taken in writing this shall include email to the recipient’s nominated email address unless that recipient has expressly excluded the use of email and has requested to be contacted by another method of communication.
Financial Matters
1. The CDNL financial year shall end on 31 March.
2. CDNL is a ‘not for profit’ organisation, all funds generated will be paid towards the furtherance of its objects. All funds or other property of CDNL shall not be paid to or distributed among Committee officers, with the exception of the dissolution clause below.
3. The Committee shall be empowered to appoint any bank, building society or other financial institution to be bankers for CDNL. The Committee shall be empowered to authorise the Treasurer of the Committee and any person or persons who are Elected Officers to:
  1. sign any cheque and
  2. to give directions or instructions by any means (including without limitation in writing, telephone, internet banking) to such bankers whether in respect of making any payments to the debit of any account of CDNL or in respect of any other transaction or matter of any kind.
4. Any cheques drawn against CDNL funds should be signed by any 2 (two) signatories as designated on the bank mandate.
5. Every past, present and future member of the Committee shall be indemnified by CDNL to the full extent of CDNL’s resources and it shall be the duty of CDNL wherever funds permit, to pay all damages, costs, losses and expenses which any such person may properly incur or for which they may become liable by reason of contract or otherwise entered into or act or any other thing done by them during their term in office on the Committee in the proper discharge of their duties.
General Meetings
1. Annual General Meetings
  1. An annual general meeting shall be held once per year (“AGM”). The Committee shall decide on the date of the AGM and shall send notice of the chosen date to Member Players.
  2. All nominations and proposals from Member Players must be received by the Committee at least 30 (thirty) days prior to the date of the AGM.
  3. Formal notice of the AGM together with a copy of the formal Agenda, together with all proposals and details of nominations for office, shall be circulated to Member Players in writing not less than 28 (twenty-eight) days prior to the date of such a meeting.
  4. The quorum for an AGM shall be 30 (thirty) Member
  5. Member Clubs must be represented at the AGM.
  6. The minimum business to be transacted at the AGM shall be:
    1. receive the annual report from each Committee Officer;
    2. adopt a Statement of Accounts (Statement of Accounts shall be an Agenda item, with the audited accounts available to Players at the AGM or as soon as possible thereafter);
    3. adopt the minutes of the meeting from the previous AGM;
    4. elect the Elected Officers as appropriate;
    5. consider any proposed resolution submitted in writing in accordance with this Constitution, which has been proposed and seconded by two Players entitled to vote at General Meetings.
  7. No Club representative attending shall be permitted to cast more than 1 (one) vote per Team per voting issue.
  8. Member Players are entitled to attend, speak and vote at the AGM.
  9. Non-attendance at the CDNL AGM will incur deduction of points, to be determined by the Committee.
  10. Clubs failing to send two representatives to the CCNA AGM will not be allowed to participate in any Member League until they have paid a fine of £50 to CCNA.
    A 10 point deduction will be applied at the beginning of the next season.
2. Extraordinary General Meetings
  1. All general meetings other than AGMs shall be Extraordinary General Meetings (“EGM”).
  2. The Committee may, whenever it deems appropriate, convene an EGM by giving 28 (twenty eight) days’ notice to Member Players.
  3. A group of Member Players no less than 40 (forty) in number may also convene an EGM by giving 28 (twenty eight) days’ notice to all other Member Players and to the Committee.
  4. The Chair shall convene an EGM at any time, within 28 (twenty eight) days from receiving:
  5. an order of the Committee or
  6. a written request of a minimum of 20% of Member Players.
  7. At general meetings all resolutions shall be passed by a simple majority of those present and entitled to vote. In the event of a tie of votes cast, the Chair of the general meeting shall have a second and/or casting vote.
  8. The minutes of all general meetings will be taken by the Secretary. In the absence of the Secretary the Chair will appoint a member of the Committee to cover this role.
  9. At all general meetings, if the Chair is not present then the Chair of the meeting shall be a current Committee member elected from those present at the meeting.
Rules
1. A player may play for one League Club within the same County at a time. A player may move to another Club only once during a season. The player may not return to the original Club in that season. Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches.
2. A player who is not a member of England Netball may play as a guest player once in a season, the name of the player must appear on the scorecard with “GP” marked next to her name. Only one guest player may be used in a Team at any one time. If she wishes to play again for the same Team or a different Team (regardless of if that other Team is in the same Club) she must become a member before the match. Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches.
3. All matches must start within 5 minutes of the agreed time or at the discretion of the Committee. Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches.
4. Clubs must pay the specified entry fee to the appropriate League Treasurer by the date laid down by the Committee.
5. The signatures of named players, where appropriate, must be sent to the Membership Secretary by the date specified by the Committee.
  Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches.
6. Clubs are responsible for any inappropriate behaviour of their supporters. Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches.
7. No smoking (including e-cigarettes) on or around courts that are being used for League matches.
8. Regional Players may not play in the CDNL league. Cambridge Premier League players are allowed but are subject to the playing down rules.
Entry to League/League structure
1. A new Team shall be defined as a Team with less than five original players of a previous Team or at the discretion of the League Committee if deemed appropriate.
2. Where Clubs have more than one Team, it must name a minimum of seven first Team players and when appropriate a minimum of seven second, seven third etc. Team players. All players must be named to a Team and registered with the League Committee prior to playing. A named player may play down in the Team immediately below once per season but may not return to her former Team for the following 2 (two) League matches. If she plays down more than once, that player will be deemed a member of the lower Team and will not be permitted to play up for the remainder of that season.
3. Only one named player may play or be named on a scorecard for the Team immediately below at a time.
4. If a player plays up for 2 (two) full consecutive League games she will be deemed to be a named player of that particular Team. The word “consecutive” refers to matches for the higher ranked Team, NOT matches played by the player. Therefore if a player plays up to a higher ranked Team for one match and also plays up again for that higher ranked Team in the Club or another higher ranked Team in that Club, she will be deemed a player for the last Team she played for.
5. The relevant League Membership Secretary must be informed, in writing, of a proposed change in named players at least 36 hours prior the relevant fixture.
  1. The number of times a Team may make such changes will be at the discretion of the League Committee.
  2. Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches.
  3. If a player plays up for any part of more than 6 (six) league matches in one season, she will be deemed to be a player for that particular Team.
  4. The last Team a player plays up for is the Team they will then be renamed to and they cannot then play down for the rest of that season.
6. If changes are necessary to the League structure in terms of number of divisions / number of Teams per division, the League Committee will be responsible for placing Teams in the relevant divisions.
7. The Team at the bottom of their Division will automatically go down to the Division below, the Team at the top of their Division will automatically go up to the Division above. The second from bottom of one Division and the second from top of the Division below will play a match to decide which Team either goes up or remains in the higher Division. This will happen with all Divisions, with the exception of the top end of Division One, there are no playoffs to get up into County Premier Division. In some cases this may not be possible once entries to the League have been received, in which case point 8.6 will come into force.
Scoring System
Win
6 points
Draw
4 points
Within 5 goals of winning score
3 points
50% or over of winning score
2 points
Less than 50% of winning score
1 point
Conceding
-4 points
League tables.
League tables shall be compiled in descending order of points obtained. Where two teams have accrued the same number of points the positions should be decided on the highest number of matches won. If this is still equal than final positions will be decided on goal average. Where all points, matches won and goal average are equal the teams will share equal positions in their league.
Appointment of Umpires
1. Clubs involved in Central Venue Divisions are responsible for supplying an umpire for their own match. However, Division 1 and 2 will be allocated by the Committee. Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches.
2. Umpires are expected to conform to a standard of physical fitness, which allows them to keep pace with the speed and variability of the game. If age, injury, illness or pregnancy is likely to affect the umpire’s movement and positioning to the detriment of the game, she/he is required to withdraw from officiating. It is strongly recommended that pregnant umpires do not officiate beyond the 20th week of pregnancy.
Officiating over matches
1. Umpires for Division 1 matches must be at least C Award standard.
2. Umpires for Division 2 matches must be at least C Award standard.
3. Umpires for other Division matches must be at least Beginner Award standard.
4. All Teams must provide a scorer for the match either before or after their own. Scorers must have attended a CDNL scorer course, be a qualified umpire or have attended an Into Officiating course.
Club membership
1. All Clubs must have an England Netball Member who is an umpire qualified to the level required to officiate over matches within the highest division to which the Club enters a Team. Exceptions are at the discretion of the Committee.
2. A side without an umpire must withdraw a player, suitably qualified to umpire.
3. Clubs will be allowed one season’s grace in order to gain a suitably qualified umpire for any newly promoted Teams within their Club.
4. New Clubs to the League will be allowed one season’s grace in order to gain a suitably qualified umpire.
Score cards
1. All players must print and sign their names, and indicate if they only played part of a match. Guest players must be indicated as GP. Score cards must indicate if players are playing up or down. Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches. All cards to be completed with full team name and date of match. Umpires to sign directly underneath the last named player on the card before the game starts to avoid any additions after the game. Cards to be correct at time of being submitted – no additions/amendments accepted after close of play.
2. Teams are responsible for ensuring that the results cards are filled in correctly.
  i.e.:
  1. The scores are correct
  2. That each participating player has signed the card, including substitutes (indicating portion of game played ¼, ½, ¾) and guest players (indicating GP) and confirmed with umpire’s signature.
  3. The umpires have printed their name and signed the card, stating their qualification.
3. Score cards must be deposited in the bin at the end of the match.
  Penalty: points deducted for relevant matches.
Cancellation of matches
1. Rearranged matches
  1. Matches cannot be re-arranged except for other netball commitments at the discretion of the Committee or extreme weather conditions. Penalty: 4 points deducted for relevant matches.
  2. In the event of a National / Regional / County event coinciding with a League Fixture and player(s) and/or official(s) from one Team being involved, the two Teams have up to ten days to play the match from the fixture date, with the consent of the LMC (League Management Committee).
  3. Re-arranged matches may be played two weeks either side of the original fixture date. The Team re-arranging the match will need to inform the Committee of the new fixture date.
  4. For re-arranged matches which fall at the end of the season, Teams may only use players named to their own Team or below. NO players will be allowed to play down.
2. Conceded matches
  1. A Team conceding a match will automatically be deducted 4 points.
  2. In the event of a match being conceded, the average goals against shall be added to the conceding Team’s goals against. For the opposing Team, the average goals for shall be added to goals for. These are to be calculated after all matches have been completed.
3. Extenuating circumstances
  1. As there is no precedent for what constitutes an “extenuating circumstance”, each request/circumstance will be considered and decided upon individually by the League Committee.
Misconduct
1. CDNL adopt England Netball Code of Conduct. For clarification please see England Netball’s code of conduct.
2. If a complaint regarding the conduct of a Club or player is made, this will be investigated on receipt of the complaint in writing, accompanied by any relevant evidence. If misconduct is found to have occurred, a Club may have points deducted or, in exceptional circumstances the player or Club may be suspended or expelled from League competition. The affected player/Club will have the right of appeal to the CDNL Committee, whose decision shall be binding.
3. If a Club’s supporter/s is/are using inappropriate behaviour or language contrary to the spirit of our sport, in the first instance the match may be stopped and the supporters will be asked to refrain. In the event this fails, the match will be stopped and the supporters will be asked to leave the area. Failure to comply will result in the Team they are supporting to concede the match automatically thereby losing 4 points. Action can be taken by either of the officiating umpires or any League Committee Member. Penalty: Misconduct investigation which could result in points deducted and possible suspension or permanent exclusion from League competition.
Dissolution
1. In the event of the dissolution of CDNL where there are funds remaining after satisfying all the debts and liabilities, the Committee can nominate to distribute funds to:
  1. England Netball for the benefit of Netball East in line with the object detailed within the Netball East Constitution;
  2. Any organisation within the boundaries of Netball East with similar objects to those of CDNL; and/or
  3. Member Clubs of CDNL
2. No Committee members will receive any personal gain as a result of the dissolution of CDNL.
Amendments to the Constitution
1. Proposals to alter the Constitution shall be submitted in writing not later than 30 (thirty) days before the AGM by:
  1. the Committee; or
  2. a Member.

Version 2022.04.29
END OF DOCUMENT

Win	6 points
Draw	4 points
Within 5 goals of winning score	3 points
50% or over of winning score	2 points
Less than 50% of winning score	1 point
Conceding	-4 points