Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Ask Linda #1389-Finalists in match miss deadline

Hi Linda,
Thanks so much for your column and great research. I have learned so much.

I have looked everywhere I can think of and cannot find any similar situation - probably because it so unbelievable it happened!

In our Ladies League we have a trophy for the Match Play champion. Each year ladies sign up and a chart is prepared all leading to 2 players who have won their matches so far playing for the championship. In the posted rules for the match Play tournament participants are told it is the players’ joint responsibility to arrange a date to play so that their game is played by the published deadline for each particular round. There is usually a 2–3 week window, plenty of time.

The deadline for playing the last (championship) round was September 18. Both of the participants knew the date and who their opponent was. The game was not scheduled or played! Then after the date one of the participants was called out of town on a family emergency and will not be back in time to play before the closing. 

I think this means we have no champion this year - neither player met the obligation to arrange the game, no extension of time was asked for and when the committee called to find out the winner they were given “reasons” (excuses?) why the game had not been played. 

It is unfortunate but, we don’t know how else to resolve this but to say there is no Match Play champion this year.

Have you encountered this before? Is this the correct way to deal with the issue?

Thanks again for all your hard work in educating us all.
Lulu from Toronto, Ontario

Dear Lulu,

The Decision that addresses this question is so straightforward that I am going to simply paste it below:

33/3 Match-Play Finalists Both Disqualified
If both finalists in a match-play competition are disqualified, the Committee may decide to conclude the event without a winner. Alternatively, the Committee could elect to have the defeated semi-finalists play a match to determine the winner of the competition.

Linda
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