This is an overview of where we are and may be overtaken if further restrictions are applied.
This 2020-21 season will be run in two halves. The Covid19 restrictions have resulted in some clubs struggling to gain access to their venue. The possibility of further restrictions leads to concerns whether it will even be possible to complete all fixtures.
In order to allow some competitive table tennis for the first half we are running a league with 6 divisions of up to 14 teams with each team playing the other teams in the division once. This will run from 19th October through to January 2021. The second half will start immediately after the first half and will allow clubs and players who could not play in the first half to play the second half.
2020 Winter Season
For this season we will be running both the TT Leagues and TT365 systems and mirroring content on both.
https://bristol.ttleagues.com/
https://www.tabletennis365.com/Bristol
There will not be a printed handbook. It is not practical due to the splitting of the season and there is insufficient time to arrange for printing for either half of the season.
Some venue COVID19 specific guidelines have been added to the system for SGS Filton at WISE and Bristol Civil Service and can be linked from the returning to play article and via the venues tab on TT League and the Clubs and Venues tab on TT365. If other clubs would like to have any of their own instructions on the website please let us know.
https://www.tabletennis365.com/Bristol/Clubs
https://bristol.ttleagues.com/venues
Some clubs have changed venues for the first half. Fromeside are playing at Almonds and Page are playing at the Pyramid Youth Centre (AVSPOL/Southmead). Winterbourne will be playing at Civil Service. Three St George teams will be playing at Civil service and 2 will be playing at the Pyramid Youth centre. Some Thornbury players are running a Table Tennis Daily (TTD) team at Failand.
There have been further changes to fixtures over the last few days but only for start times. Both Page and St George have requested a 7.00pm start time at Pyramid and Fromeside have requested a 7.00pm start time at Almonds. Nailsea originally requested a 7.00 pm start but have now revised it to 7.30pm. Cleeve Mambas have changed to a 7.00pm start time. It will become much more difficult to amend fixture schedules once match scores are entered so we need to know about any changes before matches are played.
Discussions about the University team have resulted from the Covid19 outbreak at the student halls. The University team will not now be playing at Civil Service but will play at Failand instead. It was necessary to swap them in the division 1 with the Failand C team to make the fixture matrix work. The division 1 fixtures have been changed in line with the revised matrix where University moved to position 12 in the division and Failand C moved to position 6.
Page Editors have withdrawn from division 4
The home night for St George Bandits was wrongly set on TT Leagues now corrected to Tuesday.
Cleeve Rattlers have withdrawn from division 1 fixtures are updated
Portishead Corvettes have withdrawn from division 5 after playing 1 match. The fixtures have been unscheduled/voided on the 2 systems but we are leaving the 1 result in place for a few days.
Portishead Clippers have withdrawn from division 4 after playing 1 match. The fixtures have been unscheduled/voided on the 2 systems but we are leaving the 1 result in place for a few days.
We were notified about a fixture issue in division 5 on TT Leagues that impacted the Bristol D team. The fixtures have now been fixed. The TT365 fixture list was not affected.
Almonds Wales, Almonds F and Almonds S have changed to a 7.00pm start time - fixtures are updated.
We have all expected players assigned to teams on TT365. It is possible to check team/player assignments on TT365 in case a player has been missed. Reassigning players to a different team in the same club is straight forward.
We are able to use TT365 to identify players assigned to teams who have not paid their TTE fees and have provided secretaries with the latest details. We have discovered that some players have registered on Sport80 as "Club Play - Senior" or "Club Play - Cadet & Junior" which are the equivalent of the old Associate Member type. These players will not appear in the pick list for a fixture so it will not be possible to record scores for those players on the system. Similarly there is at least one player who has registered as a "Supporter" who will also not appear in the pick list.
We have also loaded fixtures and contact lists to the TT Leagues system.
Players were loaded to their teams on TT Leagues and we have since fixed those who we could not initially load because they were not recorded as being a Bristol League player on Sport80 or were against the wrong club on Sport80.
It is very common for players who are new to the Bristol League to fail to link themselves to the league on Sport80. A player needs to be linked to both the league and their club in order to be set up on the TT Leagues system. Failure to do this will add to our work load and usually requires phone calls to TTE to get the player set up correctly on Sport80. It should be possible for the players to do this themselves but most fail to do so.
Last seasons results are archived on both TT Leagues and TT365.
For captains contact details it will be necessary to refer to the lists produced by the systems. The list produced by TT Leagues is limited and only provides a single phone number and email address. The list produced by TT365 is much more comprehensive and provides multiple phone numbers and email addresses where appropriate. TT365 also has the capability for captains to specify if their contact details are public or private (logon to view) so access to TT365 contact lists will require players to logon to the system to view private details. If contact details are wrong it will be possible for captains to change what appears by logging onto Sport80 membership and onto TT365 and amending their details.
We have checked all the captains assigned to teams on the 2 systems. Where information was not being displayed on TT365 we have amended the player permission so the information on TT Leagues (ie one email and one phone number) also appear on TT365. On TT365 the player is able to login and define what is displayed. To meet GDPR requirements we must be able to remove access to contact information as easily as we make it available. On both systems we can do this by deleting the player as a captain though that defeats the purpose of them being captain. On TT365 there is considerable flexibility about which contact information is visible and how it is visible either publicly or via member logon.
The login for TT365 is based on the players TTE Id which is different to the Sports80/TT leagues which use the players email address. Logon to TT365 using the button at the top right of the screen. New players will be able request a password which will be sent to the email address on the system. The email address used will be the one used for Sport80 logon. The following process explains results entry onto TT365.
https://www.tabletennis365.com/Bristol/Pages/365_scores
Both systems will be available for results entry. We do not require the results to be entered twice but it will not be a problem for us if they are entered on both. If results are entered on one system there will be a delay until they appear on the other. We understand there is a new version of the TT Leagues App for results entry but do not know if it is implemented. Most players who used the App liked it but last season people had trouble with scores entry on TT Leagues and we had well over a hundred queries. If people find problems with TT Leagues then TT365 is now an alternative.
There is a known problem with the TT Leagues App where people start but are unable to complete the scores entry. This has already happened three times since the 19th October. Our preference is that the match is then submitted on TT365 and we are able to use that entry to complete the TT leagues entry. Sending images of the scores to us is a hassle both for the person entering scores and to us which just adds to the workload of everybody.
We are running the 2 systems for several reasons and not least because TT365 gives us control of league set up and membership using facilities that are entirely absent from Sport80/TT Leagues. The result entry will however lead to additional work to keep the 2 systems in line and we are working out how best to handle this. Results entered on TT Leagues via the App require approval because we cannot set the App for automatic approval.
Results entered via the browser on TT Leagues also have approval enabled. There is a button that will be at the bottom of the screen to allow approval once the scores have been submitted. However we notice that some results which are entered via the browser are not approved so people may not have noticed how to do this. Logon to TT Leagues using Internet Explorer has not been working since May 2020 so people with an old computer and no phone for the app may need to use TT365. There is also an issue with TT Leagues using Firefox where the browser results entry screen is different. It is possible to use this screen but it works differently and is easy to run into problems.
Other results submitted via TT365 are automatically approved.
There will be no doubles this season. The scores entry on both systems has been modified to exclude doubles.
There are no spare weeks at the end of the first half for completing postponed matches. There are 2 spare weeks over the Christmas holiday. While we would like the matches to be all completed the Covid19 situation makes it likely that not all matches will be completed. If matches are postponed then it will be up to the teams to try to fit them in. There have been 2 postponements so far and are visible on both systems. We do not intend to chase postponed matches but we do ask that teams notify us if they are postponing and also try to give the opposition as much notice as possible. If a match is rearranged please notify us because the TT Leagues system requires the date in order for scores to be submitted.
We require players to follow the normal rules for playing as reserves but will not limit the number of times they play as a reserve if that will help to get matches completed.
Players must be TTE registered in line with the Bristol League rule. It will not be possible to record results on the systems if players are not TTE registered.
Players must pay their Bristol registration in order to play. The registration for the first half carries over and covers the second half.
This winter season started out with 80 teams registered compared with 106 that finished last season. We have 346 players allocated to teams compared with 480 that were allocated last season. Two teams have withdrawn due to Covid19 and the impact of Covid19 is very apparent in the reduction in the number of players and teams.
2021 Spring Season
We will be setting up the 2021 Spring season in December and January while the 2020 Winter matches are still being completed. We cannot overlap schedules from 2020 Winter into 2021 Spring and do not want a gap between the two halves. Fixtures for 2021 Spring will need to be produced by early January. The League makeup may be considerably different to the first half with missing clubs and players rejoining. All this means there will not be automatic promotion or relegation based on the first half.
Brian Ellison
League Administrator
