UNDER AGE PLAYERS

Sadly, some players and teams still think it is acceptable to play under age players. This season we have caught the following players:

Mrjay Darcy – caught when changing Clubs had used a different date of birth and falsified proof of date of birth

Ben Hoskyn/Stannard – caught when changing Clubs. Had used different names and dates of birth and falsified proof of date of birth

Ben Thompson – played under a different players registration

Dean Noble – Played for six seasons under age using an anagram of his name and falsified proof of date of birth

Ryan Brown – Played two seasons using a variation of his name and falsified proof of date of birth

Nana Osei – Played under his brother’s name

Even more disappointingly four of these player’s were playing for Over 45 teams when they could have been legitimately playing in the Over 35 Competition. Some of the above cases have lead to May & Baker Over 45's going from the top of their Division to sixth and Rouge Over 45's going from top to bottom and being relegated, as well as being removed from their Cup Semi Final.

Clearly the £250 fine for the player and £250 fine for the Club isn’t a high enough deterrent. The Committee will be discussing a proposal next season to toughen the sanctions on players and teams who decide they think it acceptable to play players who are underaged.

It does also help the League if people have information about suspected underage players they contact the League Secretary with as much information as possible please. Just saying “A team is playing ringers” doesn’t help us, we need some facts to go on so we can investigate. One of the above cases I had to go back to the League records from 2016/17 to trace information to prove the case. I could not of done that without a date of birth I was supplied.

We always keep sources of information confidential

Martin Berry