ECRHA | Eastern Counties Roller Hockey Association

From time to time 'Out of Region'clubs also join our league, but they must hold their home tournament within our region.

Rules
The rules of the Association are based on the Federation Internationale De Roller Skating together with the NRHA updated version. The ECRHA like the other regions have additional supplementary rules. The international rules have recently been updated and we are in the process of adopting these. So as you can see the rules of the game and its structure are constantly evolving.

National Leagues
The main National leagues vary from year to year depending on interest, but always consists of the Premier league, this is played not as a usual league tournament but as only the One game per meeting.
The National League is played in the same way as the ECRHA tournaments.

Regions in the NRHA
At one time there were five Regional Leagues:

Northern
Eastern
South East
South
Kent

Kent being the oldest and the founder of our type of rink hockey.

The Eastern Counties Leagues
The real start of our season begins with the Regions fixture day usually around June-July.
The season's League structure is solely based on each clubs registration data & offers a wide as possible Senior Division Range - Divisions 1 to 4.
Each division can have a maximum of Nine teams but the norm is usuually Five or Seven. The playing format will only work with an odd number of teams with the exception of a six team format which, because of its unusual structure is normally avoided. After the Senior Divisions we have other divisions depending on the availability of teams:

Junior
Ladies
Schoolboys
Intermediates
Minors
Under 11's

Playing Formats
Each Division will play using one of the following formats:

Nine Team Format

There are Nine Tournaments throughout the season with each team having its own home Tournament. Eight games are played at each tournament with each team only attending Five tournaments.
By the end of the season each team plays 16 games having played each other twice.

Seven Team Format

Seven Tournaments throughout the season each team having its own home Tournament Nine games are played at each tournament with each team only attending five tournaments.
By the end of the season each team plays 18 games having played each other three times.

Six Team Format - Not Recommended & only to be used at a last resort

Five Tournaments throughout the season only five teams have their own home Tournament Nine games are played at each tournament & each team only attends four tournaments except the sixth team who attend all five but don't actually have a home tournament.
By the end of the season each team plays 15 games having played each other three times.

Five Team Format

Five Tournaments throughout the season with each team having its own home Tournament Eight games are played at each tournament & each team attends all five tournaments.
By the end of the season each team plays 16 games having played each other four times.

Playing Format Calculation
Each of the above formats are constructed using two formulas, these works out the playing cycle, part of which can be see on our fixture listing & ensures that everyone ends up with a identical playing pattern, with the exception of the 6 Team League structure.

If there are more than 9 teams within each category they are then split into two groups forming Divisions 1 & 2 for that age group.

EC Select Team
This team is created when we have one team short of a league ie only eight real teams in a nine-team league (We have no playing format for eight teams). The EC select team is a permanent competitive team which can be formed by players from any club who meet the rules of that league. Once a league has started all players must stay in their original teams.

EC Guest Team
Again this is created when we have one team short of say a 9 team league. As each team plays only five of the nine tournaments this always leaves three teams not attending any one tournament, so any free team can offer if required, to be the Eastern Counties Guest Team for the day. The bonus of an EC guest team is that their games are deemed friendly therefore a club can field their less experienced or new players without losing points.

Another way of adding a team when the league is short of a team is to invite a guest team to fill in the space place in any tournament. This will allow say a Div 2 team to play in division one as a friendly team and thus gain experience in a higher league. Note a friendly team although they can score goals no points are awarded therefore their opponents are awarded the highest competitive score of the tournament. This scoring anomaly will even itself out over the whole of the season.

The Ladies County League Cup
This new League was added to give the Ladies a chance to play in a Ladies Only League.
(At one time we could field a Ladies Division)

The number of Ladies playing in the region is normally lower than the Lads making it unlikely for individual clubs to raise Ladies teams. The format is based on four counties. Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Peterborough. So teams are formed from clubs in each county. This league being a four team league and goalies could be if they wished lads from a Minor's team. The league can be staged together with the Anglia Shield.

Leagues Offered On Fixtures Day (NRHA Competition Age Rules Dated 5th September 1999)

Category	Age Range Calculated On 1st September Of Each Season
Under 9's	Under 9 unless playing in goal. Female players can be one year older
Under 11's	All Players must be Under 11
Minors	Over 9 & less than 13 for All Players (From 2012 Season)
Intermediates	Over 11 & less than 15 for Male players. Female players may be two years older (Only 1 yr from 2010 season)
Schoolboys	Over 13 & less than 17 for Male players. Female players up to 25 years from 2012 Season
Junior	Over 15 & less than 20 (Female players can be one year older)
Senior Division 4	Over 11 (For Male & Female) but no previous Div 1 & 2 players without agreement
Senior Divisions 1 - 3	Over 15 For both Male & Female
Ladies	Female players over the age of 13 (Can be younger by agreement)
Veterans	Over 38 & under 99 Dead or Alive (calculated on the day of the event)

Notes:

Division 4

If played this League has a lower entry age to allow younger players to prepare for the senior leagues.
The age ranges can be confusing.
The lower age groups have two different age ranges for Male & Female players.
The u11 & u9 groups do not mean everyone must be under 11's or 9's but as in the other groups there is a wider age range for females.

Playing Up Or Down

This rule allows a club to field a player from a lower division team into one of its higher division teams to fill a temporary gap caused by an injury or some other problem. However, if a player plays up more than once they have to stay in that higher team and cannot move back to his old team. It is only a recognized emergency stop gap & has to be sanctioned by the region's Competitions Secretary.

The Anglia Shield
A small tournament with only four teams only usually run by Cambridge on a Saturday evening.

David Sears Memorial Tournament
A two day tournament run by Cambridge at the beginning of each season and is by invitation only.

Inter Regional Competitions
These were introduced around 2001 to encourage players to meet & to compete against the other regions. It was initially planned to play 4 regions and three categories Schoolboys, Intermediates and minors. Ideally one tournament played in each region to reduce travel.

Match Times
Leagues 1 - 4 & schoolboys all play 20 minutes each way.
Intermediates, Minors and under 11's play 15 minutes each way.

Goal Difference
With Schoolboys, Intermediates Minors & u11's Goal Difference is not applicable & in the event of a points draw in the League, the following remedy is applied:

The highest number of wins, but only between the level teams
If time allows a play off to be played before Cup Finals Day
Failing the above a playoff match is scheduled on Cup Finals Day

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