Important Changes to Masters Circuit Tournaments

General News

Important Changes to Masters Circuit Tournaments

The Masters Committee held their annual meeting in April 2018 and have decided to make some changes to the Guidelines, which will affect tournaments in the Season starting September 2018.

At the Federation's Annual General Meeting in Wroclaw in Poland on Saturday 5th May, Rosie Barry(Ireland), Hugo Hannes (Belgium) and Thomas Troedsson (Sweden) were elected to join existing Vice-President Jackie Robinson (England) and President Zena Wooldridge, OBE (England). Rosie Barry, a physician by profession, is a former Irish junior and current masters' player and manager of the Irish Team. She is currently the Honorary Secretary of Irish Squash.

Rosie will lead on Masters' Squash within ESF from 5th May.

The Masters Committee held their annual meeting in April 2018 and have decided to make some changes to the Guidelines, which will affect tournaments in the Season starting September 2018.

These changes are necessary, because the Masters Circuit tournaments are becoming “too successful” – which is a good reason to have to make changes!

1. Previously a tournament had a “Closing Date for Entries”. Because all tournaments actually have a limited capacity of courts etc., we are going to allow a TD to optionally have a “Maximum Number of Entries”, if they wish. This must be clearly stated in the invitation. Example:

Closing Date for Entries is dd.mm.yyyy  Entries may be closed before this date if the maximum number of entries – xxx – is reached.

If this option is used, then the TD must update the internet regularly, especially when approaching the maximum.

2. Hotel Packages. Times have changed since the system of “packages” was installed, particularly regarding the possibilities of the Internet. TD’s are having more and more difficulties reserving rooms and offering packages with hotels. At least one tournament has had to pay for hotel rooms, which were not needed. We are therefore allowing TD’s the following option, which must be clearly stated in the invitation: The TD may have two closing dates. The first closing date is for packages with hotels. The second closing date for entries to the tournament without a (hotel) package

3. Transport: The wording of the Guidelines will be changed. Currently the Guidelines state that transport must be offered between the tournament hotel and the venue. This is not necessary if the tournament hotel is within reasonable walking distance of the venue. Alternatively, the TD can supply tickets for public transport if this is suitable and convenient.

4. Previously the TD had to offer an entry form and could optionally offer online entries. We are going to allow a TD to only use online entries and not have an entry form. In this way the quality of the data about the players will be improved and the amount of administrative work for the TD reduced.

5. Starting immediately: The Guidelines contain an explicit reference to the ESF Code of Conduct so that possible incidents can be dealt without delay.

We are modifying the Guidelines to incorporate the above changes and will be publishing them soon. This information is being released now, so that TD’s and players know now, which changes we are making for the new season starting September 2018

Alan Hathway

alan.hathway@europeansquash.com

Director Masters Committee May 2018

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