Weekend Mixed Rules

LEAGUE PROFILE

• The league can accommodate a maximum of 80 Teams consisting of 10 Divisions (A to J) with a maximum of 8 Teams in each Division.
• Each Team is to be made up of 2 male and 2 female players.
• All Team players must be members of the Oakville Curling Club in good standing, eligible to play in the Mixed League and must be a minimum of 17 years of age as of December 31 of the current season.
• Prior to the start of the season, teams will be seeded based upon prior year’s results.
  A team’s position is retained by any two returning team members with priority given to the skip. Returning teams are required to have at least one team player registered and to have identified at least one other member of his team by the early payment deadline to continue to preserve this position.
• Individual or team entries will be accepted on a first come first serve basis by the Convenor (preferably via email) who shall assure the application date shall be maintained for this purpose. A minimum of three players must be provided to accept a new team on the waiting list. New teams will be seeded at the discretion of the league Convenor/Director. Keeping the total number of teams to an even number will be a priority.

RULES FOR PLAY & MEMBER CONDUCT

The Board of Directors has approved and adopted a formal Rules for Play & Member Conduct policy. This policy will encompass all League play. The policy document is posted on the Club's website under “Resources” / “Policies and Waivers” for ease of reference.  All games will be played under the OCC Policy Rules for Play and OCA regulations unless otherwise specified. 

PLAY / SCHEDULING

The regular season will consist of a scheduled 21 games over 3 Draws.

The schedule for each Draw and updated Team standings following each Draw will be posted/distributed as soon as possible following the end of each Draw.

• Regular game times will be Friday at 6:40 and 9:00 pm and Saturday at 3:30 pm, 5:45 pm and 8:00 pm. Game times and assigned sheets will be rotated on a best effort basis to ensure an equitable schedule for all.
• To play a regular season game, teams must have a minimum of three curlers with a maximum of two spares
• Teams must alternate male/female or female/male when delivering rocks even when curling with only three players. When playing with only three players, the first two players will deliver three rocks each.
• The five-rock rule is in effect (i.e. any of the first five rocks located in the “free guard” zone may not be removed from play by the opposing Team until the sixth rock).

LATENESS

The club clock is the official clock. If a Team does not commence play at the designated time (and has not cancelled the ice time and notified the opposing team) the following will apply:

• If the delay of the start of play is 5 minutes, then the non-offending Team receives last rock in the first end of actual play.
• If the delay of the start of play is 10 minutes, then the non-offending Team receives 1 point and will have last rock in the first end of actual play. One end is considered completed;
• If the delay of the start of play is 20 minutes, then the non-offending Team receives 1 additional point and will have last rock in the first end of actual play. Two ends are considered completed;
• If play has not started after 30 minutes, then the non-offending Team is declared winner by forfeit. The final score will be recorded as a "Win" for the non-offending Team and a "Loss" for the offending Team.

BELL RULE

The Club clock will be used for all games. The bell will sound to start the countdown clock at the beginning of each draw. For the first game of the evening, that will be at the scheduled start time. For other draws that evening, the clock will start when the last game on the ice starts.

• After 1 hour and 35 minutes the bell will sound again as a reminder for teams to finish the end in play and complete one more end.
• In the interest of safety, an end will be considered underway once the last stone of the previous end is in motion.
• The Club’s objective to have all games completed within 2 hours remains in place. Deliberately delaying a game while playing is not an acceptable practice and is not in keeping with proper curling etiquette.

CANCELLING / RESCHEDULING

Please login to the website to postpone and/or re-schedule games. Ice time is valuable and other teams may be able to utilize your sheet for make-up games. Any team member can do this but skips are responsible for ensuring this happens. There is a similar online process to book/cancel practice ice. If you do not have online access or are having difficulty with the process, contact the Club Office (905) 844-6982.

• Skips are responsible for the rescheduling of games.
• If a regular season game has to be rescheduled, the makeup game must be played prior to the Sunday on the last weekend of scheduled games for the current series. The cancelling team is responsible for finding a make-up time that works for their opponent. The cancelling team should mark the game as a "Loss" if they are unable to make-up the game for any reason (including not being able to find a time agreeable to their opponent). All teams should be as flexible as possible in scheduling make-up games. Marking a Tie for a game not played is discouraged. The Convenor will arbitrate any disputes.

SPARES

• Spares must be members in good standing of the Club and a minimum age of seventeen.
• Members who have registered on the Weekend Mixed Spare List should be given first priority when recruiting a spare.

Spare eligibility rules during the regular season

• As above, there must be at least one regular member of the team playing with a maximum of two spares
• A player must spare in the open position or lower (subject to Division rule below)
• Using the lowest ladder league Division played in as the guidepost (“Division Designation” in the grid below), spares can play any position within their own Division, no lower than two Divisions below their current divisional level or any higher Divisional level. Spares who are asked to play for a team which is more than two Divisions lower than their team’s lowest Mixed or other Ladder League standing must play front end. See the grid below for convenient reference.

• Spares who are not part of a regular club ladder league may spare at any Divisional level at the position they are sparing for or lower.
• Please consider the opposition and respect the spirit of the game with spares. Sparing Rules are deemed to be “self-policed” but the league Convenor/Director will arbitrate any disputes.
• See PLAYOFFS heading below for supplementary rules in effect for these games.

SCORING

Tied games will not be broken.  Games will be scored as follows:

• A Team’s vice will be responsible for ensuring each win, loss or tie is recorded on the website.
• Upon completion of each series, teams will be awarded points in accordance with their win/loss/tie record as per the table above and teams will be re-seeded accordingly for the following series. If this is for series 1, then this point total will be their first cumulative point total. If this is for series 2 or 3, the current series point total will be added to one half of the previous accumulated points total to determine the new cumulative point total for each team.
• Should teams be tied in points after the W/L/T calculations, the seeding tie will be broken by:
  • The head-to-head record(s), where the winner is ranked higher
  • If still tied, the absolute number of wins this series, where the team with more wins (regardless of Division) is ranked higher
  • If there is still a tie, the teams will be seeded based on their ranking at the beginning of the round (higher ranked team at the beginning of this series will remain ranked higher at the end of this series).
• A team cannot move up or down more than two divisions at the end of a series.

PLAYOFFS

Playoffs for each Division will be scheduled following the end of the regular season.

• All Teams will participate in the Playoffs which will be a single knock-out format.
• Each team must ice a minimum of three players, two of whom must be regular team members.
• Higher seeded team will have hammer for each game
• Bell rule will be in effect except for Championship Final games.
• Spares:
  • may only be obtained from the published Spare List or from Mixed teams eliminated from the Playoffs.
  • from the published spare list must adhere to the “Division Designation” and ladder grid rule used for the regular season
  • from Mixed teams eliminated may only be obtained from Teams in the same Division or a lower Division with the exception of Divisions I and J which may obtain spares from Divisions up to two levels higher.
  • from other Teams must play their regular position or a higher position.