Good evening, members of the County Championship Council! The purpose of this new fortnightly bulletin is to inform you of the goings on in the league, and also to discover opinions on certain matters.

This fortnight saw the beginning of the third round of matches for Cycle 1 in the Open league. Six of the nine scheduled matches have at least been accepted, and two of these are underway. However, this is a far cry from the ideal situation; we still have three matches not even sent, and the remainder also yet to start. This seems, to me, a massive case for Back-Up admins, which we shall go into in a moment.

As a quick note, the matches yet to have their challenges sent/accepted are Gloucestershire vs. Surrey, Cambridgeshire vs. Middlesex, and Devon vs. Somerset. If you are the admin of one of these teams, please send a challenge to the opponents ASAP.

Now for a quick informational point on what happens at the end of the cycle. The winners of Division 1A and Division 1B will play-off in the Championship Final. These two teams will also be guaranteed to be in separate groups during Cycle 2. The bottom teams in Division 1A and 1B will be demoted into D2.

Due to the unique situation of Division 2A (they seem to be out of the loop entirely, and haven't played ANY matches) they will be exempt from promotions/relegations this cycle. Instead, it is proposed that the top two teams in division 2B are promoted, and the bottom one team is relegated. This will result in 10 teams being in division 2 next cycle; we need opinions on this, so feel free to comment.

Finally, the winner of each D3 group will be promoted into D2. Division 3 will be comprised of a smaller number of groups (most likely 2) next season, with a reduced number of teams (down to 10 currently); this may be further affected by group mergers, which we shall look at in a moment.

Now to one of the new proposals; Back-Up Admins. This would be a person affiliated with the Council (such as myself), quietly sitting in your group (with admin status), much as Baseballfan does for the World League. The positive effects are clear to see; we would not have the current situation, with 3 matches yet to be challenged and others still in sign-up, as the Back-Up can make up for the present inactiveness of the current team admin.

The back-up would ONLY act if the team runs the risk of exceeding a deadline, etc. and would not actually truly be a part of your team. We obviously need opinions on this; do you think the idea is worthwhile, and if so, is SA status (rather than just admin) required, in case a team's SA leaves the site altogether? Once again, please comment.

The last topic to discuss is Group Mergers. A couple teams have dropped out of the league this cycle, and others are struggling to cope with the 5 players per match required. The proposal is that small teams (i.e. under 10 active players) are able to merge into larger teams, thus allowing them to fill out a full team quotient each match. Blackfirestorm666 is currently creating a list of teams, with membership numbers, so we can study this possibility.

There are a couple factors to consider; for example, what is a precise definition of 'active'? Do we allow any teams to merge, or only those that are close together geographically? Comments on these matters would be appreciated.

Admittedly, this was a long bulletin but I promise that it will be shorter in the future. A lot has gone on these two weeks, but future times will be much quieter. If you have read all the way through, then firstly well done, and secondly please do give your opinions on the matters within. This is a democratic Council, after all.

Nytik