Join League

To join a league you need to be a registered member of London Tennis.

Please click here to register, or login above.

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Season	Registration Deadline	Leagues Published	Play Starts *	Play Ends **
Summer 2012	13 Jul 2012	15 Jul 2012	17 Jul 2012	07 Oct 2012
Autumn 2012	04 Oct 2012	06 Oct 2012	08 Oct 2012	29 Dec 2012
Winter 2012/2013	24 Jan 2013	26 Jan 2013	28 Jan 2013	20 Apr 2013
Spring 2013	23 Apr 2013	25 Apr 2013	27 Apr 2013	18 Jul 2013

How the Leagues Work

Players

London Tennis Leagues are for men and women sixteen years and over of all playing standards. Players are placed in leagues with other players of similar standard and locality.

For information about standards please take a look at the ratings information page - you will need to choose a rating when setting up your profile. Players are asked to use best judgement when rating themselves and read the ratings section carefully when choosing a rating.

We aim to put all players into an appropriate league for their playing level based on many players chosen ratings, however a more accurate placement is usually given when a player plays in their second season and has obtained a site ranking by completing matches with up to five unique opponents.

Mixed Gender Leagues

Category	Description
Ladies	Exclusively for ladies.
Men & Mixed	The men's leagues. Ladies can request entry into this category if there is a league that matches their level of play.

Seasons

Leagues run in four seasons throughout the year in the London regions - West, SW, NW, North, East, SE and the homecounties of Surrey & Middlesex.

League play format

Players are placed in league divisions of approximately eight players and will have up to eleven weeks to play all of the other players in their division.

Each match will have a pubilshed deadline by which time one of the following must have happened:.

• The match has been played and the result entered on the site.
• A walkover has been claimed by one of the players. Please see the section on walkovers below for details of when a walkover may be claimed.
• A message has been sent to the London Tennis admins giving details of when the match will be played. The deadline for all delayed matches to be completed is the start date of the next season.

In situations where none of the above has occured, the match will be declared void.

For each match one player will be the home player and the other the away player. The home player will choose the match venue.

Example League Schedule

Trophies and Prizes

The winner and runner-up in all divisions will receive a London Tennis Tee Shirt.

Arranging Matches

We strongly urge players to try to complete all of their matches in fairness to all players.

Both players are responsible for contacting each other using the email addresses and telephone numbers provided in the match schedule. Players are required to complete the "League Profile" section of their profile (visible only to other members of their league) to provide this contact information.

Matches should be scheduled by the Thursday preceeding the week of play. Contact with your opponent should be made via the telephone as well as email and online diaries can be used to assist in scheduling matches. You must respect the "home" player's choice of venue. If you genuinely believe their choice to be unreasonable, please let us know.

If you have attempted to contact your opponent at least twice, at all listed numbers and received no reply by the end of Thursday preceeding your scheduled week of play then you may claim a walkover for that match.

Match Format

Best of three sets with a tie-break at 6-6 in all sets. At 1 set all, if both players agree, the match can be decided by a tie-break to 10 points, by a 2 point margin.

League scoring

Players receive three points for winning a match and one point for a draw (an unfinished match, agreed by both players).

If any players are tied, in any position within the league, we resolve the tie by looking at what would have been the outcome if the tied players had played in a mini league. For example, consider division two of the SW Men's Winter 2008/2009 leagues.

In this division, five players are all tied on eleven points. If we extract those five players and consider their results as if they had played amongst each other in a league of five, we find that three players - pistolpete, tomjessup and Neilbb would have finished top of that league each having six points.

We then imagine the outcome of this mini-league of three players and we still can't find a winner because both pistolpete and tomjessup finish this mini-league with three points.

A final showdown between pistolpete and tomjessup gives pistolpete top place.

In situations where no resolution can be made in this manner, the positions are assigned at random.

Players Retiring from a League

We highly discourage all players against pulling out of a league but in the event that it is unavoidable all the retiring player's remaining matches will be awarded as walkovers to their opponents. Existing results will stand.

We understand that this has the potential to act to the disadvantage of some players and to the advantage of others. However, there is no perfect method and this does reflect the reality that effictively the player is simply conceding the remainder of his or her matches.

Automatic Voids

As of the Autumn 2009 season, any player who has not yet completed a match nor claimed a walkover against any of their opponents by the mid-point of the season will be automatically dropped from the league.

Balls

Both players should bring a new can of four tennis balls to the match. You can then toss a coin to open a can. The match winner gets the unopened can and the loser gets the balls used in the match.

Court Fees

Costs must split equally between the two players with away players not being expected to pay more than £6. Club guest fees should be paid by the away player up to £6, the rest made up by home player.

Warm Up

Players should spend a maximum of 10 minutes warming up for the match.

Line calls

Please give the benefit of your doubts to your opponents. Only call the lines on your side of the net.

Unfinished Matches

Unfinished matches can be completed on another date and can be resumed where play has finished to the nearest game, though the match must be completed by the required deadline unless rescheduled in accordance with the rules.

Results

Results should be entered by the winning player within a day of the match being completed. For matches played on the last day permitted results should be entered immediately or will be inadmissible.

Conduct

All matches prior to finals are played without officials, so players must conduct themselves in a sportsmanlike manner both on and off the court. This includes:

• Responding promptly to phone calls/emails from opponents
• Playing matches on time and reporting scores accurately within the given time period
• Notifying opponents in advance when a match cannot be played for any reason
• Arriving on time for matches
• Uderstanding and abiding by the rules
• Refraining from swearing or aggressive shouting

We ask that all league players should report any incidents of unsportsmanlike conduct to us, so that we can monitor such players and remove persistent offenders from the leagues altogether.

Players who use physical abuse or threaten to use physical abuse or enter false results will be immediately removed from the leagues.

Disqualification for not participating

All players should be committed to the league and any players who have not completed a league match after 4 weeks from the start of any league will be disqualified from the league.

Walkovers

To signify a walkover, please enter the result as a single set match scoring 1-0 to the winner.

Walkovers can be claimed when your opponent:

• Doesn't respond to their opponent's phone calls at all numbers after two attempts over at least two days or by noon of Thursday preceding the scheduled week of play; or is unavailable for any reason to play the match during the scheduled week of play.
• Doesn't show up for the match.
• Shows up more than 20 minutes late.
• Doesn't give four hours notice for match cancellations.
• Cancels a rescheduled match at any time.
• Doesn't complete the match.
• Offers you a walkover due to unavailability.

Refunds

If you sign up to play and for some reason do not play please do not request a refund or to be moved to another season.