There is a Notice of Breach report submitted by Baulkham Hills over a game in Leonard North against Carlingford. The notice started as a protest but was altered when Baulkham Hills did not follow any of the procedures in relation to lodging a protest:- the Umpire was not advised: there was no note in the scorebook at the time of the incident: and the procedure for lodging a protest was not followed: no fee was submitted.

• The process is that Breach of Notice will be dealt with at a general meeting and not by Competition Secretary as would be the case with a protest. This can create a nasty precedent – it is not what the Breach Notice was intended for.
• It is our view that this type of mistake is common what is unusual is that the club has officially reported it. As such the recommendation is that the result stand.
• The argument is over the umpire calling a batter out on an infield fly (to the pitcher) in the first innings– the ball was not caught.
• The batter was given out … what happened to the runners I simply don’t know I have not seen the score book of the game, despite advising Baulkham Hills that we would need the score book in time. The Umpire’s report on the incident is in the mail.
• Your will read the Baulkham Hills’ coaches report that his team was disadvantaged by the Umpire’s error and further his team has not been taught the Infield Fly rule and this confused the players for the remainder of the game.
• Peter Schmidt advises that the rules have altered between the start of the season and when the game was played. The deletion of the infield fly rule in this Conference being the change. It would appear that the umpire was operating from the old rules.
• If there were errors they were: one by the Umpire made in good faith second by Carlingford for not having the current Conference Rule sheet, and third by Baulkham Hills by having no Conference Sheet at all.
• There is a view that the defensive team would have executed an out on the play whether the ball was caught or not – players have been long coached not to run on balls hit in the air – so you would assume the base runners held up thereby making it an easy out at third.
• Without the protection of the Infield Fly rule (which protects the hitting team) it would be a relatively easy task to ‘manufacture’ a double or triple play out of an ‘infield fly’. Offensive teams never see it that way though.
• It can almost be guaranteed that the infield fly rule will apply to all live- ball competitions next season.

The game in Street South between Schofields and Rouse Hill that was ‘called’ prematurely has been concluded. The result did not alter.

Last meeting I alerted you to the fact that our volunteer umpires ranks are thinning. We have struggled to supply umpires for representative games at Northmead, Castle Glen, Murray Farm and Sutton. We were in dire trouble for the Youth League game against Ryde and it was not until late in the morning of game day that Peter Theos and Nigel Henderson volunteered to umpire, otherwise we had a real possibility of having no umpires for the game against Ryde- certainly no accredited ones. We owe both Peter and Nigel a big vote of thanks for getting us out of deep trouble. Unfortunately the situation will only continue to get worse. Two more representative games to go – Colbee and Kellyville plus a one off Under 16 game against Cumberland.

Hills has good representation in the ‘All Star’ teams with the following players selected.

• Under 16 – Byron Aird, Travis McDonald, Mitchell Bray, Mark Trau and Blake Palmer.
• Under 14- Jacob Younis, Joshua Blanco, Ben Mascerola, Kirby McIntosh, Ben Cone, Nathan Webster and Kyle Darroch.
• Under 12- Zachery Shepherd, Hayden Bray, Eamon Davis, Tim Wakefield, Graham Clark, Hayden Webster and Victor Woo.
• We are unhappy about the non selection of Mark Hern in the Under 16 squad. It is pleasing that Mark does not need outside recognition to know how valuable a player he is to the Hills’ squad. The same goes to the other player who missed selection – Scott Cone.
• I have a problem with the term ‘All Star’ team as how can a concept that involves over one third the players involved in the competition being ‘tagged’ as All Stars and that the format ensures that the best players are never on the field at the same time.

There are a number of midweek and washed out games remaining as outstanding. Of particular concern is Under 14 Hay League which has a number of games outstanding and it is thought that there may be difficulty in playing these games in the available timeline. Clubs may well want to play at least one game before Christmas.

There are two representative games to be played in January and the finals of that competition scheduled for mid February. This means that representative pitchers will be shut down from Tuesday nights – if they threw a substantial on the Sunday then they are unable to pitch on that night either.

• Just so everyone understands the process – if rain or for that matter anything prevents the games being played by 14 February then the games will be declared as ‘no games’.

Basically we are happy with the overall closeness of the competitions. We offered Winston Hills the opportunity to be regarded from Youth League and Kellyville from Hay League. Both clubs declined the offer.

We will be conducting a camp in January School holidays. The date will be between the 15 and 19 January. Cost will be $40 for the five days. Not intended to have T Shirts or caps at this camp.

The Under 12 Leonard South competition has been redrawn following the round of 25 November. I had gone to clubs seeking input as to individual club’s wishes and received no reply apart from Carlingford, Kellyville and Winston Hills.

• This redraw resulted in ‘a chain reaction’ when the two T Ball teams Kellyville Mustangs and Winston Hills Xenas were re-graded to Under 10 Daisley which was then split into a top six and bottom four.
• Once that was achieved it was decided that Daisley North would play the last five rounds of the competition live ball (to Under 12 Leonard South rules). The Under 10 Daisley League South will continue to play Mod Ball.
• It is not intended that the Southern Conference will be a competition that trophies are awarded. It is after all a Conference for the bottom teams in the age group. Anything else, the teams playing in the Northern Conference would consider themselves disadvantaged.

There is an instance where players changed clubs this season and there was no check made to ensure that the players did not owe their previous club money or equipment. As it turned out the players did owe money.

• We certainly do not want to get into a paper war with a complex clearance system (clubs cannot get their paperwork done now). The exercise is always to ensure that the clubs get the money owed. This can be easily achieved if clubs advised the Association of moneys owed by players not re registering. This notice can then be sent to all clubs.

We have received a reply to our application for a VSEG grant (Volunteer Sports Grant). We were unsuccessful. There were some 15,000 applications and only 1,500 successful ones. The application was good enough to be placed on some sort of reserve list as the application will be automatically re- submitted next year.

Under 17 Brian Cashmore League continues to be an irritation. Castle Hill has some problems with its Archers team which first did not want to be regarded when it was offered: then wanted to be regarded: to amalgamate the two teams and place one in North and the other in South. In the end it was resolved and the teams remained in Northern Conference - however, two players left the club as a result.

Guildford has its own problems with the club withdrawing the team from the Southern Conference- citing differences between coaches, parents and players. At least one of the parents is attempting to have the team play again this year but the club is standing by its decision.

We had a coach sent off in Youth League for basically arguing an Umpire’s judgement call claiming interference to a runner. The coach is presently on holidays, the Judiciary will be held on his return.

• NSWJBL has received an invitation to play in a tournament in Taiwan in March, 2007.  Hosts have guaranteed to meet all land costs.  The tour is for players leaving Juniors in 2007.  There has been an invitation for players to express an interest in trialling.

• The meeting discussed the demand from the ABF for NSWJBL to change its name.  The meeting refused to accede to the demand claiming that the organization owns its name and the domain name.  The decision was unanimous.

• Castle Hill was paid its grant under the NSWJBL Capital Works Grant.  In all four Hills’ clubs received over $19,000 from the program.

• None submitted in the absence of Mr Catt.

• Statement of Financial Position tabled and accepted.
• Accounts for payment approved.

Notice of Breach:  The notice of breach submitted by Baulkham Hills over the umpire’s ruling of infield fly in Under 12 Leonard North was explained and discussed.

• The meeting was concerned by (a)  creating a precedent   (b)  how to resolve it.

• What was clear was the umpire was operating from an outdated conference Sheet and neither team had a copy of either Conference Street.

• It was resolved by the meeting that there was no certainty that the result would have altered if the umpire had not called “infield fly”.  The result stands.

As a result it was resolved that Hills write to clubs insisting:-

a)      that relevant Conference sheets be attached to the team’s scorebook

b)      that a complete set of Conference sheets be available from the canteen.

It was further resolved that the notice of breach needs a time frame in which the complaint can be considered.

 J. Catt:  Mr. Yard reported that Mr. Catt’s mother passed away on the day of the meeting.

Ashley Brown:  there is a meeting between Blacktown Council, Demons Soccer Club and Kings Langley re the future use of Ashley Brown.

Government Grant:  Hills was unsuccessful in its VSEG application – however its application will be considered again next year.

Sutton:  Mr. Hook advised that there is to be remedial drainage work carried out at Col Sutton to overcome the ‘flooding’ that occurs in heavy rain.  The problem has been caused by the concreting of the large area in front of the clubrooms.

Mini Ball:  Mrs. Trau advised that Carlingford may have a mini ball team text season.

Baseball NSW Invoices:  It was reported that the invoices issued by Baseball NSW for player registration was in a lesser amount than expected.  This has resulted in some overpayments.

Double Booking:  Mr. Bray advised that Castle Glen has been double booked on 4 February with a representative Youth League game and the Castle Hill Graduation tournament. The alternative is to move the Youth League to Knights Field or request use of a back diamond at B.O.P. – the later not being favoured.

Washed out games:  There were reports that some of the unplayed games had actually been played but  no results submitted.  Mr. Yard commented that while this may be the case, there is some evidence that the draws were being read incorrectly.

Legal Bats:  Mr. Tossell queried the legality of use of softball bats.  Mr. Yard replied that they would be legal if they conform with weight to length differential, length and barrel diameter.  2¼” dia and -10 weight to length differential.

Rules:  Mr. Bray commented that the Association cannot continue to work with two different sets of pitching restrictions.

Dispensations:  Mr. Tossell suggested that the decision to refuse dispensation to allow M. Rogers-Faulks to play Under 14 Street South be reviewed.

• Mr. Yard advised that the Association has to be fair to all players in the age group and the conference the player (an Under 15) is wanting to play in is the lowest division of Under 14.  The situation would have a better chance of being granted, in his opinion, if the player wanted to play in a higher conference. The voting was 4-3 against approving the dispensation.  There is a view that maybe there needs to be a ‘hard and fast’ rule to cover what conferences can overage player can play in.