mmg.com.au

Goulburn-Murray Lawn Tennis Association’s no nonsense stance on score sheet submission has continued, with teams in the two premier grades penalised last round for late score sheet submission.

Premier One team Kialla Park Demons and premier two team Shepparton Black were penalised six points and three points, respectively, in round 11 for submitting score sheets late.

Rule 12 in G-MLTA’s by-laws says the home team is responsible for forwarding the original score sheet to the ladder secretary no later than the Thursday following the match and failure to do so will incur a loss of points.

Association president Brian Gledhill said he had been informed via email by the association recorder that he was going to deduct points because score sheets had not been received.

‘‘(Clubs) can appeal that sort of stuff anyway ... points can be reinstated if there is a genuine reason,’’ Gledhill said.

‘‘The teams are informed via email prior to the points being deducted and if they haven’t got a legitimate reason, then the points are deducted.’’

Kialla Park and Nathalia lawn tennis clubs were caught up in the association’s stance on late score sheets earlier in the season.

Gledhill said the issue had occurred about half-a-dozen times this season and no team had successfully appealed the loss of points.

He said the association was lenient early in the season, but clubs should be on top of the issue at this stage of the season.

‘‘We’ve taken points off earlier in the season and there was really no legitimate excuse for it,’’ he said.

‘‘There was a couple of times where there’s been a problem with either scores or submission of score sheets and they’ve rang up to explain the situation, so we haven’t deducted the points.

‘‘It’s more a matter of the clubs getting their act together because the recording job really has to be kept up to date all the time.

‘‘Every week’s got to be signed off, so the following scores for the week after can be put on the website, and they can’t be signed off fully until the score sheets are in.’’

Kialla Park president Braden McIntyre and Shepparton Lawn president Malcolm Thiel could not be reached for comment.

Shepparton District Tennis Association has also deducted points from teams this year for submitting incorrect and late score sheets.