Changes to National Carnival Format

At the Association's AGM held on Monday 27 May, President Terry Howard reported that the National Council meeting held during the National Carnival at Marion BC voted in a major change to the make up of the Jack Hamilton VC Trophy side.

From the next carnival at Tweed Heads, the Hamilton side will be reduced from 20 to 16 players (plus reserves). The reasoning is that smaller states such as Tasmania, South and Western Australia will have less difficulty fielding a full side. New South Wales also reported they are struggling to fill a side of 20 which was a bit of a surprise. This is more likely to be due to the clash with Pennant Competition in NSW than to a lack of numbers.

The consensus at the Council meeting was that this change should help keep the carnival going for years to come. It should also make the overall competition stronger and hopefully more fun.

If it is found to be detrimental to the competition in the future, it can be changed back to 20 players by a simple majority vote at a properly constituted meeting of the National Council.

The Dr Sydney Krantz competition side remains unchanged.

It was also agreed to set a time limit for matches. This should see all sides finishing play at the same time which will make serving of lunches much more efficient and give plenty of time for post match camaraderie after the second game.

A proposal to change the conditions of play to align with NSW, which states that thirds be at the head at the start of each end, was defeated.