At the last meeting the Association was presented with an Australian Little League shirt. We have no where to display the shirt. While it will form part of our history it is suggested that we have the shirt mounted and presented to the team’s coach Greg Giffin. The cost of mounting the shirt will be borne by the Association. We will take a photo of the mounted shirt and place it on our website along the photo of the LL trophy

I sent Clubs an email on Sunday outlining the requirements of Baseball NSW in relation to entering player registration and payment. It appears that clubs have ‘lost’ the prompt payment discount and in its place a financial penalty for late payment. I also understand that the system of data entry may have changed and as a result will take make longer to enter the details.

There are two ‘new’ competitions this year- Under 9 and Under 11. It is proposed that the competitions be named Wendy Vigenser League (Under 9) and Jim Bergan League (Under 11)

The six Kenko bats that I purchased in Japan have been sold. I can purchase similar bats, but at a dearer price. My concern is that they may be too long for the Under 10 and 11’s.

The representative teams have been selected. They are :

• Under 16 Youth League is Josh Blanco, Ben Cone, Kyle Darrock, Harrison Garrett, Josh Guyer, Ian Lewis ,Ben Macerola, Kirby McIntosh, Matthew Olson, Nathan Webster, Dominic Woodward and Jacob Younis .
• Under 14 team is Bradley Agnew, Hayden Bray, Graham Clarke, Eamon Davis, Joel Dyer, Morgan Giffin, Jordan Greenlees-Brown, Cameron Power, Scott Richards, Nathan Robson, Zachary Shepherd, Hayden Webster, Tim Wakefield and Victor Woo.
• Under 14 Association Cup was as usual by invitation Jason Bugdalski, Matthew Cantrell, Bryce Clarke, Ben Graham, Matthew Hennessy, Sean Jones, Ben Mawbey, Stephen Murdocca, Alex McAlonan, Evan Power, Sam Ralston, Mitchell Thomson, Mitchell Williams and Aaron Wright.

The Under 16 trials were anything but impressive – in fact they were extremely disappointing. They were disrupted once we cancelled our trial in favour of the State Team trials which were cancelled at virtually the last minute without any notice to the Associations. We then had to work around Sydney Winter League Finals.

The team lacks any depth in pitching. In the end the selectors selected Harrison Garrett who could not trial as he was overseas holidaying with his parents. The selectors were looking for back up in the pivot positions especially as Josh Guyer is going to have to pitch for this team.

 We are still seeking an Assistant Coach for the representative Youth League team. Andrew Woodward has accepted the position of Manager for Under 16 team. Dennis Grogan has accepted the position of Manager of the Under 14 team. Raff Petrone and Steve Holloway are the coaches of the Under 14 Association Cup team. Owen Mawbey is the Manager

At the last meeting I reported that we had been approached by a Cumberland player to transfer and play Youth League for Hills. The player attended the following Hills’ trial. It was explained to him and his father that an Association we supported the rule regarding the eligibility of players and that he could not trial.

Obviously our views are not shared, even though the rule remains unchanged since originally drafted by NSWJBL I note that the JLSC Agenda includes an item from Ryde to allow it a player transferred from Macarthur. Jeff Catt will vote against any dispensation being allowed to the rule.

We were approached by Macarthur to supply up to six Under 16 players so it could enter a team in the Representative Youth League competition. We were able to nominate four players, they being: Jordan Kerry, Nick Leahy, Jackson Reynolds, Keegan Zografos. Unfortunately when Macarthur went back to its players they refused to play Youth League.

Macarthur’s problem in Youth League came about when they decided to move the better Under 16 to Under 18. This was brought about by the fact that when they asked for dispensation to not field an Under 18 team they were advised that the dispensation would be granted however they would have to merge with Canterbury at major League level within two years.

In the correspondence is a note about the change in venue for the fundraising night for Dennis Castle who suffered a serious stroke some time ago. The night will be in the form of a Trivia Night. Date is 8 November at St Marys Rugby League Club commencing at 7pm. Cost $15 per person. Hills has indicated that it will have a table (10 people). Anyone interested can contact Jeff Catt or myself. We are anxious to be well represented at this function.

During the month I contacted clubs seeking applications to host rounds of the Representative games. We were allocated four home games in Under 12, 14 and 16. There were five replies – Castle Hill, Hawkesbury, Kellyville, Baulkham Hills and Winston Hills. It was decided that the first criteria would be to award a round to those clubs which did not host a round of the representative competition last year. That ‘gave’ rounds to Baulkham Hills and Winston Hills. Castle Hill was exempt from any ballot as the Association continues to base all its trials and development at either Castle Glen or Knights Field. The remaining opportunity to host was given to Kellyville. In doing so the decision was made that the Association’s Grand Finals will again be held at Benson’s Lane this season.

This year’s draw is becoming an absolute nightmare. Clubs were extremely slow in replying to the requests to confirm the team nominations. That delayed the preparation of the draw by almost a week. We still have clubs procrastinating about their actual team numbers and it is only five days to the start of the competition.

It is being further confused by a request to alter the date of Champion of Champions. That should be known by next Thursday. The suggestion suits our draw but why cannot there just be a decision that Baseball NSW that is adhered to!

The seasons draw is being prepared on the following basis

• Youth League- five teams are going to have trouble when either Blacktown or Castle Hill are drawn away or have the bye as they are the only two teams that have lit grounds.
• Castle Hill wish to play at 7.45pm at Knights on Saturday 6th December as part of its Anniversary. They are drawn to play Quakers Hill.
• Cashmore North and South –Only total of nine teams and I am not convinced that they are not all third Division strength. Competition will be conducted as one for one round and re-grade if necessary?
• Hay League – only four teams
• Under 14 Street North- again only four teams
• Under 14 Street South- nine teams but with two queries among the nine.
• Under 12- Douglass – five teams (which is a real bad number)
• Under 12 Leonard North - again only four teams
• Under 12 Leonard South- 11 teams in one competition.
• Under 11 – Took a lot of doing to get four teams. Actually had five but Castle Hill moved a team from this competition to Under 12 Leonard North.
• Under 10 Modball Don Petroff Col Daisley League To be played as one division of 10 teams - 18 weeks. No final series. Rounds on 27th February 7th and 14th March will be a graded draw to live ball rules.
• Under 10 T Ball Jeff Catt League Nine Teams. Rounds on 27th February 7th and 14th March will be a graded draw…1v4, 1v3 1v2 etc. All games are for Competition points. Still to T Ball rules
• Under 9 T Ball - again another struggle and another disappointing five team League. Castle Hill wish to play about 6pm at Knights on 6th December Drawn to play Baulkham Hills (at this stage).
• Under 8 Virginia Akers North ( the three out Conference)- start date 20th September. Only four team competition- Baulkham Hills x2, Kellyville and Castle Hill
• Under 8 Virginia Akers West, South and East are equally graded and based on a geographical split
• West – Rouse Hill x2, Oakville, Kellyville, Hawkesbury, Schofields
• South – Castle Hill x3, Carlingford, Rouse Hill, Winston Hills
• East- Carlingford x 2, Castle Hill x2, Kings Langley, Winston Hills
• We will draw games in some Conferences on the 4th October if teams do not want to play on this date then they can play the round as a Midweek.

Our team numbers are below 100. That is a considerable fall in the number of teams. What I expect will be even worse will be the actual drop in player numbers as a number of clubs still have player vacancies. The two clubs that will ‘grow’ are Rouse Hill and Castle Hill which appear to have full rosters.

We were able to place the three Kings Langley Representative players. The placement was not to entirely to our satisfaction, nor was it was we brokered. Kyle Darrock goes to Castle Hill. Kirby McIntosh and Ben Macerola have joined Winston Hills. We were promoting that Winston Hills, Baulkham Hills and Castle Hill would have each taken one player. Please note Baulkham Hills did not refuse to take a player – there were other forces at play.

Clubs are going have to expect severe pitching restrictions over next three to four weeks. The work load for prospective State Players is ridiculous. State Trials Thursday night, Club Competition Friday night, State Trials Saturday play Youth League Sunday. It is repeated the following two weeks except they play on the Thursday night. Guess the decision to cancel State Trials in early August was a real ‘bummer’

The preliminary changes to the rules are

• Rule 11.5(j) In Modball, amended and upgraded to include a batter hit by a pitch in the definition of a “Ball”.
• Rule 11.2(b) Now prohibits split-finger fastballs in U/14s.
• New Rule 11.3(g) Prohibits breaking balls in U/12s as well as U/14s [equivalent to 11.2(b) above]. This is a housekeeping issue the old rules did not explicitly apply this protection rule to U/12s as it was always assumed that it applied.
• Rule 3.11(c) Drafting error corrected.
• Rule 8.1(b) Restrictions in multiple games changed to reflect absolute pitch counts (rather than innings pitched), and the time-window re-defined in hours instead of days.
• Rule 8.1(f) The concession to allow a pitcher to “finish the batter in the box” is removed. This saves confusion between the restrictions on rep players and non-rep players
• Rule 10.2(c) Expanded to clarify the intent of the rule regarding headfirst slides.
• Rule 4.7(b) Re-worded to clarify the calculation of the For & Against ratio when trying to split teams tied at the end of the Regular Season, other than teams tied for fourth place. Affects the Minor Premiership and placement of the top three teams for the playoffs.
• Rule 6.7(f) Bans the use of softball bats.
• Rule 2.8(c) Breakaway bases are now mandatory for live-ball and mod-ball. They are optional for teeball, but if not available at a particular field, then teeball will use throwdown bases instead.
• Rule 2.8(b) viii The tee-ball & mod-ball “minimum distance” circle is now set at 25’, up from 15’ previously. This is the distance a ball must travel to be regarded as fair.
• NOTE No changes have yet been made to the Conference Rule Sheets. We can’t finalise this until team nominations are complete and the draws done. Bats in Under 14 will be -8 rather than -7. No change to 2 1/4”dia. bats in Street South
   

Under 9 Competition will be played to Under 10 T Ball Rules

Under 11 will play to Under 12 Leonard South Rules

Barry Shipley has been moved from Intensive Care at Westmead Hospital to a High Dependency ward. He is suffering from meningitis. His test results have been promising.

The under 16 Youth League team are seeking a venue with lights to train late afternoon or night.

Since the last Hills Meeting ‘Chikka’ Stockton passed away after suffering a massive stroke.

The Development plans for summer. The pitchers and catchers training mid week which was badly disrupted by rain last year – will commence again in October. I just need to confirm the availability of a venue with lights.

The Recorder is again Wendy Sloggett.

Wendy will request that all results must be in by 10:00am on the Sunday after the games. This will give her time to enter all the results in and chase discrepancies before sending the results to be placed on the web site on Monday.

Hopefully we will not have the same clubs/teams that are lax with sending in their results this season. We shall be looking at fines for those clubs/teams who fail to send their results in on time.

The Secretary’s report was accepted.

Mr. Schmidt reported on the August meeting.  The meeting reported that:

• The visit by the Japanese had been and gone; 

• the death of Chikka Stockton; 

• the Singapore tour is back on.

• Mr. Catt advised that there is aggravation between the Associations and the leadership of JLSC. The Associations are unhappy with the way Baseball NSW wants to conduct Little League.
• Despite the opposition to the way Little League was to be conducted, the following night  Baseball NSW emailed the altered rules, which in itself is against its own procedure of the approving of rules.
• Round One of the representative games have been washed out twice.
• Mr. Catt added that he had spoken to G. Weir re Little League concerns. Mr. Catt is to send the queries with the rules to him.

• Statement of Financial Position was presented.
• Payments were approved.
• Debtors and liabilities were disclosed.

Naming of Under 11 and Under 9 competitions: It was resolved that the two new competitions be named: Under 11 – Jim Bergan League and Under 9 – Wendy Vigenser League

Terms of Trading - It was agreed that the Association impose a financial penalty on overdue accounts (30 days).

Rule Changes – The changes to the playing rules were approved.

Selection of Under 14 State Cup Team – Mr. Whatson queried the selection of the Under 14 State Cup team, particularly the selection of Bradley Agnew over Ben Graham. Mr. Yard replied saying that as he was not a selector he could not comment. Ben Graham only attended one full trial, he was give a ‘special solo trial’ on the final day. He saw there was a difference between the Under 14 and 16 teams where Harrison Garrett was selected even though he was overseas.

Competitions – Mr. Clapson advised that Rouse Hill need another four players for its Under 10 team. Without these players the team may have to be withdrawn.

Mr. Yard advised:-

• Under 8 competition will commence on 20th September
• Koala League 18th October
• Mini Ball 17th October

Thanks – Mr. Blundell thanked Baulkham Hills and Winston Hills for accommodating its Under 17 players. It was a difficult situation for Kings Langley. Kings Langley is down four teams, losing a lot of players to 20/20 cricket.

Regrading – Mr. Brown asked whether Schofields could change the players in its two Under 17 Cashmore teams. Mr. Yard replied that once players are registered in a team they should remain in that team unless there were mitigating circumstances. It was left in abeyance and see what happens.

Night Games – Mr. Petrone advised that the Kellyville Cashmore League was prepared to play Friday nights.

Plugs for Breakaway Bases - Mr. Frew enquired whether you can purchase plugs for the anchors of the breakaway bases.