• The main topic of conversation was the replaying of washed out and midweek games.

We have refused to even consider any extensions in the dates games had to be played by – it would create an unnecessary precedent especially with so many games still to be played. When the dates of wash outs are determined they are done so as to not clash with other replays – and most importantly that they are all completed before the last weekend of normal competition – this year 25 February.

There are five games that have already been awarded as forfeits. The games are-

• Youth League: Baulkham Hills v Winston Hills.
• Under 17 Cashmore: Kings Langley Rockies v Carlingford. 
• Under 14 Street North: Baulkham Hills v Kings Langley.
• Under 12 Douglass: Winston Hills v Hawkesbury.
• Under 12 Leonard South: Rouse Hill v Winston Hills.

Now for the tricky ones:

• Under 17 Cashmore: Castle Hill v Baulkham Hills.
• Under 10 Petroff: Baulkham Hills v Baulkham Hills game scheduled for 25 January
• Under 12 Leonard South: Baulkham Hills Rosellas and Kings Langley are both claiming forfeits for the same game.

If in the end it is too much trouble we can always rescind the rule and not replay washouts. Finish up with the situation Ryde finds itself in with an Under 16 team only playing five games up to end of last year.

Other Competition matters:

• Any play off necessary to determine fourth place will be held Tuesday with Wednesday and Thursday wash out dates. Most likely venue is Kellyville. Play offs are possible in Under 14 Street South and Under 12 Leonard North.
• The disputed result of a game between Rouse Hill and Schofields has been determined as a 6-0 win to Schofields. The original dispute was over the ending of the game but on investigation it was determined that Rouse Hill had overpitched.
• Leonard North has two problems: Winston Hills v Baulkham Hills – Baulkham Hills had a win taken off them when they played an ineligible player. Winston Hills were not awarded the win (should have they been) Score 13-7. Winston Hills v Kellyville – Winston Hills overpitched a player in an 8-7 win over Kellyville. It was a scorer’s error. The point score still shows a win to Winston Hills this has to be adjusted. Winston Hills consider that as both scorers were at fault Kellyville should not be awarded the win. The three clubs involved in the battle for the two remaining places in the ‘four’ are aware of the problem.
• Kellyville Under 14 Peter Street North has requested a deferment of its game against Baulkham Hills as it has two players in Under 14 representative team. The request is within the rules and has to be granted - all that there is to be done is determine the new date.
• In December we indicated that that we would be lodging a complaint about Ryde’s Under 16 coach sledging two Hills players. The complaint was not proceeded with after the parents of the players declined to supply a statement.
• The Under 12 and 14 State Cup teams have qualified in first place for the finals of the respective competitions. The Under 16 team can qualify for the finals but they have to defeat three teams ranked above them in their last three games to ensure fourth place.
• The Under 14 Association Cup team has won that competition defeating Greater West 7-5 in the final. What was pleasing is that in addition to the State Cup team finishing in first place after the round robin, loaning North Shore five players for its State Cup team we were still able to win Association Cup for the second successive year. We only enter the competition to provide players with opportunities – unfortunately it does not guarantee success for Under 14 next year even though there were 10 two year players in the squad.
• Kellyville participated in the Baulkham Hills Council Australia Day celebrations. The hitting cage drew a steady flow of children. They handed out a lot of scattercards as well as collecting a considerable number of names for prospective players next season. It was a lot of hard work particularly for Raff Petrone, Greg Giffin and Pauline Tan. Hopefully they receive a good result for their efforts.
• Sydney Metropolitan Baseball League has a second hand Jugs machine for sale. The machine complete with tripod and a dozen yellow machine balls are for sale at $250. Interested clubs can contact info@sydneymetrobaseball.com.
• In winter we will offer an ‘Academy’ style Development program for 14 and 15 year olds. The program will be by invitation. It is acknowledged that some players will prefer to go to Baseball NSW’s program. Players will not be physically able to participate in both programs. We will also conduct a midweek Under 12 program during winter. Invitations for Under12 Development program will come mainly from those players involved in the second of the January camps. It appears that the standard of those few nine year old players playing live ball is superior to that of most of the 10 year olds. Venues and days have to be confirmed. Hopefully Under 12 will be at Knights on Tuesday and Under 14/15 at Kellyville on Thursdays.
• Baseball NSW is so short of umpires for its final series that is mandatory that Associations nominate one umpire per team participating in the finals. There was a meeting of Association’s Umpires Convenors in the last fortnight – only two attended. Hills were not one of those – we submitted our thoughts on a large agenda. Those comments are in the correspondence.
• We need to discuss participation of teams in the City v Country games in April.
• As a result of an enormous amount of work by Peter Schmidt we have issued the first issue of the Hills Newsletter. It will improve communication between the League and its members and convey general information. We are looking for someone to take it over. It may suit someone in year 11 or 12 doing computer studies at school would be able to use this as part of their coursework.
• This weeks restrictions for Hills Under 16 Youth League players will be severe. Hills have a game against Bankstown on Thursday night and another against Manly on Sunday. Pitchers who throw more than 29 pitches on Thursday evening will not be allowed to pitch on either Friday or Saturday.
• Players are certainly being confronted with a number of choices for overseas tours this year with both NSWJBL and Baseball NSW offering overseas tours.Hills have traditionally supported the NSWJBL/ IBA program and our players have benefited greatly. Last year there were 36 Hills players involved in NSWJBL program. Copies of the notices have been forwarded to clubs.
• I have forwarded to all clubs and some coaches of a pitching lecture at BOP on Wednesday night. The speaker is Rick Knapp of Minnesota Twins.
• The private coaching has recommenced at Castle Glen on Monday afternoons. If there is sufficient interest we are prepared to conduct sessions on Friday afternoons.
• ٠ It is disappointing that not all results were received by yesterday. We had that problem earlier and threatened to fine clubs who fail to submit the results on time. It is important that we have this information as soon as practicable at this time of the season.
• Tonight we will discuss an opportunity for fund raising for Hills and the clubs.
• We have settled on the two pitching machines we want to purchase. It is just a matter of ordering them. Total cost is over $2k

• NSWJBL is to apply for the use of BOP for the Pan Pacifics.

• Trial forms are available for the various tours organised by NSWJBL:  Under 12 – Under 13 – Under 16, Japan and Under 15, U.S.A.

• There is further action being taken to recover the moneys owed by D. Dawes.

• Baseball NSW are seeking an update of clubs’ officials in My Club database.

• Some clubs have the ABF Loyalty Card – some haven’t. 

• Delegates were concerned that the cost of the tours was not advertised, making it difficult for parents to make a decision whether their child should trial. Estimated costs will be published in future.

•  We need to supply an umpire (contact Brian McDonald) for each team we have in the Association Cup and SJC finals.

• Delegates need to supply a list of Attributes, Functions, Qualities etc that the JLSC should have.  Working toward strategic plan. Any ideas? Any input gladly welcomed. Contact Jeff Catt.

• Country v City games. Using their rules.  Weekend will be called State Cup and all will be using 9” baseballs.  Hills not happy with some of this.

•  Country v City probably at Newcastle or Fred Finch.  U12 – 1.75 hours or 7 innings and U14 & U16 – 2 hours or 7 innings.  Round Robin Format plus final on Sunday afternoon. 

• Discussed the draw for SJC format.  Rule change for finals – if you pitch a substantial on Sunday and without pitching on Saturday you can play in the field Sunday afternoon.

• A tender for the operation of the BOP canteen is open.

• Baseball NSW still doesn’t have any K400s. Discussed the importance of Kenko and Japanese connection in putting money into BNSW, as they are in Victoria.

• Macarthur are going to trial iridescent red balls which they say is beet for night baseball under lights.

• Discussion re Brother Lambert Shield.

• Financial matters discussed.

• Women’s baseball is encroaching on JLSC territory inviting them to play in a girls only comp. Three year age groups.  Concerns raised.  CEO to follow up.

•  April Meeting will be at BOP and will be a SC/YL coaches' debriefing session.  Details later.

•  Level 1 and 2 update pitching lecture, February 15.  First 120 to book via Website, phone etc. - $15 – Bring coaches update booklet.

• Coaches for the Victorian and New Zealand  tours were named with the exception of two.

• The CEO says that he is very concerned about dual affiliation being a real problem and that only the BNSW faithful (not dual affiliates) will be looked upon favourably when applying for coaching jobs etc. Addressed by P. Schmidt below.

• Statement of Financial Position tabled and accepted.
• Accounts for payment approved.
• New bank account approved.
• No change to the expectation that The League will trade this year at breakeven or a small loss.
• Proposal that the club of any player owing money or equipment will be ineligible to participate in the Finals. Approved

• The concept has been publicly announced in the February newsletter, and it’s been an "open secret” for a couple of months. It’s time for the Hills clubs to consider it more fully.
  • Resources:- Website (www.hillsteeball.org.au) – click on the MiniBall link.
  • Action:- Preliminary Expression of Interest from clubs by April meeting please. I’m available to attend club meetings and present the concept, answer questions etc.

Internal Boundaries

• We’ve talked about this for some tine, and the opinions of several clubs have been built into the documents. It’s time to get serious. None of us know what the future holds, but this project is one way to prepare for it.
  • Resources:- Current version of the Spreadsheet to be distributed later tonight via email.
  • Action:- Further review by clubs, final document to be issued in April
  • Discussion:-What use will we make of the information? One way is in budgeting, another is in recruitment analysis, another is in territorial focus when planning recruiting activities. What else? How will we deal with “territory” regarding shopping centres and other non-school targets?

Hills 21st Birthday

• Nothing much has happened lately. Mainly my fault for not pursuing the people who have volunteered to help, and we’ve not managed to have a meeting yet. The silly season got in the way. Also, Baulko has declined to get involved in the programme at all, which is a shame – I would have liked the Programme to involve all Hills clubs. No matter – we shall press on regardless. Another update next month, and regularly from then on throughout 2006.

Newsletter

• We’ve now issued two newsletters and hope to maintain the monthly frequency, at least during the playing season. The content will mature as more material becomes available. One minor problem – the email addresses were harvested from the BNSW My Club system. Only about half of our members provided email addresses to BNSW when registering. The rest won’t receive a newsletter unless they subscribe to it.
  • Resources: Subscription Page: (www.baseballnews.org.au/storynet/issue1/subscribe.htm)
  • Action: Could all clubs please pass the word (via your own newsletter or just word-of-mouth) that to get a newsletter, people need to provide an email address. If they’re not getting the newsletter now, go to the Subscription Page above and follow the instructions. Thanks.

Ongoing issues with BNSW and unaffiliated leagues (eg:- NSWJBL)

Something happened at last week’s JLSC meeting that needs to be aired here tonight. The BNSW CEO (Glen Willott) made a statement in General Business, without any context and without prompting. It was that any dual-affiliated Associations (meaning affiliated with both BNSW and NSWJBL) should think long and hard about their position, because BNSW would move to favour those Associations who pledged absolute loyalty to BNSW. None of is un attendance really understood what this meant at the time. Some of us felt that it was aimed at coach selection for State teams and others believed it was aimed at players who have State aspirations.

I spoke to Glen today and he was crystal clear that the statement was aimed at adults (coaches and administrators) who chose to work for unaffiliated organisations as well as maintain membership of BNSW. He was adamant that this would in no way affect a child’s chances when, for example, trialling for a BNSW team (State or touring). It would also not affect affiliated organisations (Clubs and Associations) nor those people involved with them, unless a particular individual was actively working for an unaffiliated organisation as well.

This means that, as a whole, the policy should not affect our kids nor the vast bulk of volunteers working for your clubs. Thos people who choose to work for NSWJBL as well as Hills or NBSW have probably been aware of an undercurrent along these lines for some time now, so it shouldn’t be a particular shock.

It is certainly a less threatening position, for our wider membership, that I had thought when it was announced.

Ejection of L. Axford: Baulkham Hills are querying the ejection of L. Axford. Mr. Yard advised that Hills has received no umpire's report and without that report it was not prepared to go to Judiciary. The secondary issue was the fact that when ejected, the player went or was sent away from an area where he was under adult supervision.

Wet weather rule: Mrs. Fox suggested that Hills look at the wet weather rule in relation to the playing of replays. Mr. Schmidt advised that upon re-reading the rule, the happier he was with the rule. Mr. Yard advised that from memory there was only one general wash out in the season, the others were isolated to particular areas with Hawkesbury-Oakville-Schofields being the worst affected by rain. The wash outs were staggered so as not to have games needing to be played on top of each other. Whether the games are played on time or not is a result of the coaches action or inaction as the case may be. Some are proactive, others are ‘really slack’. Once it reaches mid December the games are often put off until late January – a time when teams find it difficult to field teams.

Letter re State Trials: The Association has received a letter of complaint – re the conduction of the State Trials. It was agreed that the letter be forwarded to Baseball NSW.

Umpires: Mr. Yard advised that we still have to find an umpire for the Sydney Junior Competition finals.

City v Country: Mr. Yard expressed his doubts about Hills’ teams competing in the City v Country games. His particular concern was the Under 12 given that the ball to be used is a 9” hard ball. In addition there is an extremely high work load on that age group – Hills grand final; Baseball NSW trip to Victoria, which includes three or four double headers and then come back to play the next day in City v Country. On top of these obstacles there will be a real problem in having enough pitchers to play four games in three days, which Mr. Yard considered as being impossible, especially with the pitching restrictions. There was no decision as to Hills’ participation.

Cashmore League: There was a report that Blacktown are not playing the correct distance for Cashmore League (57’ x 85’) when playing at Laybutt, rather playing the full distance of 60’6” x 90’. It appears to be a deliberate decision on its part.

Knights Field: Mr. Blundell advised that the globe in the visitors dugout at Knights requires changing as there is no light in that dugout.

Fundraising: Mr. Schmidt spoke in favour of the fundraising offer. Hills is prepared to co-ordinate the supply of the book with all the profits going to the clubs that sell them. The problems with the books are:

• it is outside our season
• Schools, in particular, use the same method for fundraising

NSWJBL Development Grant: Mr. Bray advised that Castle Hill is obtaining another quite for the refurbishment of the batting tunnel at Knights Field.

Washout Games/replay: Mrs. Fox submitted a copy of an email from S. Robson, coach of Baulkham Hills Under 12 Rosellas. The email was to support the claim of a forfeit against Kings Langley. Baulkham Hills claimed the game was scheduled for 25 January,and Kings Langley claim the replay was scheduled for Australia Day, 26th January. The email was a recollection of Mr. Robson. The game was declared as a ‘no game’.