General

• Reciprocal Drinks (buying a drink for opposing team) are not enforced or required in this league.
• League prize fee is $25 per official player (this includes rostered 5th players). All prizes fees and sponsorship go back to the players for series wins, playoff positions, and overall rankings.
• Please submit all game scores electronically, via text message or email, to the league convener. Convener contact information can be found on the Home Page or Dundas Valley G&CC Website.

Teams

Team rosters posted on the website will be considered the official team and all spare rules will apply based on the listed (registered) players. Any team changes requested after the season starts will require approval from the convenor.

An optional 5th player may be registered for each team. 5th players are exempt from standard sparing rules, can play any position at any time, and count towards the "two registered players" minimums. Except in rare, pre-approved circumstances, teams may not have more than 5 registered players (6th players are not listed on the website).

• A player can only be a registered member of a single team; this includes 5th players.
• A player who often spares for a particular team but is not on the team roster is NOT considered a registered player and will be subject to normal sparing rules.

Season Seeding

Teams will be seeded into the league based roughly on previous year results (regular season and playoffs). In order to be as fair as possible, all new teams will be seeded into C flight regardless of skill level.

A new team is defined as:

• A team made of players completely new to the league.
• A team made of players who have previously played in the Open League but from different teams.
• Returning teams with 2 or fewer players returning from the previous season. 5th players count as returning players.

Note: Varsity / Academy Teams are exempt from "new team" re-seeding rules and are considered "returning" teams regardless of roster changes.

Rules of Curling

All rules not mentioned on this page are based on the standard Curling Canada Rules for General Play.

• Delivery Aids (sticks) are permitted.
• All synthetic broomheads (and associated "directional sweeping" techniques) are allowed in this league.
• As of the 2018-19 season, hair brooms are banned from Dundas Valley as both a sweeping tool and delivery aid.

Scheduling and Re-Scheduling

Regularly scheduled game times are:

• Wednesday @ 6:30PM
• Wednesday @ 8:45PM
• Thursday @ 6:30PM
• Thursday @ 8:45PM (if required)

Team schedules are balanced across all timeslots and ices as evenly as possible, meaning you will likely play during all possible game times during a single series. Schedules are relatively random and generally do not follow a particular "rotation" (eg. you may play the same timeslot twice in a row).

Whenever possible, games that are cancelled due to weather will be made up during regular game times, potentially resulting in playing two games in one week. There may be rare occurances where games are required to play on a day other than Wednesday/Thursday.

Games can be rescheduled if both teams agree. All games must be played PRIOR to the end of the current series.

• Any rescheduled games must be communicated to the convener and curling manager to confirm ice availability.
• The team being asked to reschedule is not required to agree to the rescheduling. However, in the spirit of sportsmanship, some effort should be made to try and accommodate the request.

Time Clocks and Game Times

Timeclocks are used and strictly enforced for both 6:30PM and 8:45PM draws. The clock is set for 1h55min and will start as closely to the scheduled draw times as possible. If the ice is ready prior to draw times, you may start your game early to bank additional time. It is the responsibility of both teams to monitor the timeclock (using the guidelines to the right) and keep the game at a reasonable pace.

When time runs out, teams may finish the current end in play but may not start another end.

• An end is considered complete if the final skip rock of an end is in motion (the skip in the act of delivering the rock) before time runs out. Some discretion is expected for the enforcement of this rule.

It is recommended that all teams should be on the ice 5 minutes ahead of gametime for practice slides and handshakes so that the game can start exactly at the scheduled time.

Spares

Teams MUST have at least TWO registered members present for each regular season game. A maximum of two spares may play in a regular season game; The first spare may play any position while the second spare must play front end. Failure to do so will result in a forfeit of that game.

• Spares may only play up to the position they have been asked to fill in for (eg. A spare asked to play vice can play lead, second or vice, but cannot skip the team).
• Spares may be from any flight in the Open League or from any other member leagues, including junior players, run at Dundas Valley.

Winning and Losing

All games are 8 ends, unless shortened by timeclocks, with points distributed based on Wins and Losses. (See Regular Season Structure below for more information)

Ties after regulation will be broken by skips rocks. You may only sweep your own teams rocks during skips rocks.

• Should skips rocks not determine the winner, the game will be determined by Vice rocks (and so on).

General

Playoffs will follow the standard regular season rules with the exceptions of the items listed below.

Scheduling and Re-Scheduling

Playoff game times are:

• Wednesday @ 6:30PM
• Wednesday @ 8:45PM
• Thursday @ 6:30PM
• Thursday @ 8:45PM

Due to the time-sensitive nature of the playoffs, rescheduling games is not permitted unless pre-approved by the convenor. Finals games are NOT permitted to be rescheduled. Teams will typically have to play multiple games in one week during the playoffs (typically Semi-Finals and Finals).

If your team is aware that you will be unable to legally field a team during any game of the playoffs, you are required to inform the convener who will then decide the appropriate action to take.

Time Clocks and Game Times

The timeclock is not enforced for playoff games (although, hopefully, it will be running as a guideline for teams). This does mean that playoff games tend to run longer, however, it is preferred over losing a game on a technicality (and the convener needing to deal with the fallout).

Spares

Only ONE spare may play in a playoff game and must play front end (if 3 registered team members present) or lead (2 registered team members present).

Winning and Losing

In the event of a tie, a full extra end will be played towards the glass. Should a winner still not be determined, the game will be decided by skips rocks.

Points and Overall Standings

The regular season will consist of four five-week series of round robin games between teams in each flight.

Points are awarded for each win and loss with higher, more difficult, flights receiving more points per win:

• A Flight Win = 10 pts
• B Flight Win = 8 pts
• C Flight Win = 6 pts
• All Losses = 1pt

The winner of each series will receive a bonus of 2 points. Teams in a three-way tie for the series that cannot be broken by head-to-head results win will receive 1 point each.

The team with the most points after the regular season is crowned the Regular Season Champion.

Understanding Flights

For each five-week series, teams are grouped into similar skill levels called flights. Some flights contain multiple divisions (referred to as X1, X2, etc). Each division is identical in terms of skill level and exist to allow more teams to participate in that flight. For example moving from X1 to X2 should not be considered a demotion, nor moving from X2 to X1 considered a promotion; They are equivalent and could be viewed as simply "X Flight East" and "X Flight West".

At the end of the each series, teams will be re-seeded into flights as determined by series Win/Loss records:

• Teams finishing with the most and least wins in each flight will be promoted and demoted to higher and lower flights. While this can slightly change depending on the number of teams entered in a particular season, typically this is the top 1-2 and bottom 1-2 teams.
• Flights with multiple divisions will then be re-shuffled for skill-balance and exposure to a maximum number of different teams.

Ties for positions within the flights that will result in a team being promoted or demoted will be broken in the following order:

1. Current Series Head-to-Head Results
2. Current Season Head-to-Head Results
3. Accumulated overall league points
4. Convener Discretion

All teams at the end of the regular season qualify for playoffs

Due to the nature of recreational curling, the playoff structure can vary depending on the number of participating teams, season length, and any previous weeks lost due to weather / unforeseen issues.

Optimally, playoff formats will be one of the two following options:

• For shorter post-seasons (2-3 Weeks) / (1-3 Games): Teams will be seeded into flights of, preferrably, 6-8 teams (based on regular season results) and play a bracket-style, single elimination, playoff.
• For longer post-seasons (4-5 Weeks) / (3-5 Games): Teams will be seeded into flights of, preferrably, 8-10 teams (based on regular season results) and play a two pool round-robin, where the top two teams from each pool advance to the Semi-Finals / Finals.

Ties for post-season seeding will be broken in the following order:

1. Season Head to Head result
2. Season Total Wins
3. W/L records from Series 3 and 4
4. Convener Discretion

The winner of the A Flight Playoff Series will be considered to be the Club Champion.

The winner of the B - E Flight Playoff Series will be considered to be the B - E Champions.