|
CHAPTER I--GENERAL
REGULATIONS.
1. Any local curling club
consisting of not less than eight members shall be admissible into the Royal
Caledonian Curling Club, and must have a designation and sheet of ice for
its operations, and be governed by office-bearers elected in accordance with
the rules of this club.
2. The designations of clubs desirous of joining the Royal Club, together
with a list of their office-bearers and members, and also the names of their
proposer and seconder, must be lodged with the secretary a week previous to
the general meeting in July, or with the assistant secretary a -week
previous to the adjourned meeting of the Representative Committee, at any of
which meetings they will be baIIoted for. ( Vide Chap. II., Section 11.)
3. Clubs asking admission ought to have, at least, one of their number at
hand to be initiated in case of admission, who will be empowered and
instructed how to initiate the brethren of his club; but if no one can
attend, it shall be lawful for any member of the Representative Committee,
along with any two initiated ordinary regular members of the Royal Club, to
initiate the club afterwards.
4. Two kinds of admission tickets or diplomas shall be issued, both signed
by the secretary, the one to he given to each club on initiation, the other
to be furnished to the initiated members of the local clubs by their
secretaries, who shall countersign and date them.
5. No new law, except with regard to prizes, shall be enacted, nor any
existing law altered or repealed, until approved of by at least two-thirds
of the members present at the Annual General 'Meeting of the Club. (Vide
Chap. II., Section 7.)
6. Every ordinary member of an associated club shall be a member of the
Royal Club, and entitled to vote at general meetings.
7. A general meeting of the Royal Club shall be held annually, in Edinburgh,
or such other place as may be appointed at the previous general meeting, for
the transaction of business immediately after the meeting of the
Representative Committee has been concluded. These meetings shall take place
on the 25th of July annually, or in case the 25th of July happening to be a
Saturday, the meeting shall be held on the previous Friday. If the 25th fall
on a Sunday or a Monday, it shall take place on the Tuesday following, seven
to be a quorum. Provided that the Committee of Management shall have power
to alter the day of the general meeting if circumstances should render it
expedient to do so, within the month of July; and in case of alteration of
(late fourteen days' intimation of the meeting shall be given.
8. None but initiated ordinary members of associated clubs shall be present
at business meetings of the Royal Club, or at any of its convivial meetings,
while curling ceremonies or mysteries are being practised.
CHAPTER II.—REPRESENTATIVE
COMMITTEE.
1. Each local club shall,
under a penalty of not being allowed to draw for prizes, elect annually two
of its ordinary members to be its representative members for the ensuing
year, it being understood that the second elected member shall act only in
absence of the first, and that both shall be held as coining into office on
1st October in the year of their election. The first representative must be
a resident and ordinary regular member, in whose practical knowledge the
local club can confide.
When a club finds that, from its distance from Edinburgh, or other causes,
none of its members can be present at the meetings of the Representative
Committee, it ought to admit as an ordinary occasional member some member of
another club, who can conveniently attend, and elect him their second
representative member; the first or principal one, however, ought to be a
resident and regular member, in whose practical knowledge the local club can
confide, as he will be occasionally called on to be umpire in matches. The
same individual can represent two clubs.
2. It shall be competent for a representative member of any club, in the
event of his not being able to attend the Annual Meeting, to grant a mandate
in favour of any member of the same club to attend and vote for the club,
said mandate to be signed by the president or secretary of the club.
3. The representatives of local clubs shall constitute the committee above
referred to as the Representative Committee ; and this committee shall have
the entire management of the affairs of the club, which management must be
strictly in accordance with the rules and regulations in force at the time.
4. An Annual General Meeting of the Representative Committee shall be held
for the transaction of business, at eleven o'clock A. M., or such hour as to
the Committee of 'Management may seem most suitable, on the same day as the
General Meeting of the Club ; seven to be a quorum. This meeting shall
appoint a president, a president-elect (who, if present, shall preside in
the absence of the president), two vice-presidents, a chaplain, a secretary,
and a treasurer of the Royal Club for the ensuing year. These shall also be
the office-bearers of the Representative Committee, and their duties shall
begin immediately on their appointment, and continue until next Annual
Meeting, at which the president-elect shall become president for the ensuing
year. The vice-presidents must be elected from the representatives present.
Every office-bearer of the Royal Club must be an ordinary member of some one
of the associated clubs. A general meeting of the club shall take place
immediately after the meeting of the Representative Committee. ( Vide Chap.
I., Section 7.)
5. Clubs shall only be admitted at the Annual General or Adjourned Meeting
of the Representative Committee, and must be proposed by one member of that
committee, seconded by another, and balloted for in the usual manner, when,
unless there are five black balls against them, they shall be admitted and
initiated according to the usual form.
6. No new law, alteration, or repeal of an existing law can be carried up to
the General Meeting of the Club unless approved of by two-thirds of the
representatives present at July Meeting. All notices of business to be
brought before the Annual Representative Committee Meeting shall be sent to
the secretary on or before the 1st of July, who shall, on or before July 15,
send to the secretary of each club a note of the business to be taken up at
the said Annual Meeting, and also the terms of any proposed new law, or
alteration or repeal of an existing law.
7. All arrangements regarding prizes shall be made by the Representative
Committee, and shall come into operation immediately after being made.
8. The Representative Committee, at their Annual Meeting, shall proceed to
business in the following order:—
1. Admission of clubs.
2. Reports on xiedal competitions. 3. Decisions on complaints or appeals. 4.
Reports of committees. 5. Alterations on the constitution, rules, &c. 6.
Appointment of committees. 7. General business. 8. Election of
office-hearers. 9. Distribution of prizes.
9. The Representative Committee shall, every year, cause an Annual to be
published, under the title of The Annual of the Royal Caledonian Curling
Club. It shall contain a list of the office-bearers of the Royal Club; its
rules and regulations ; the local clubs associated with it, with the names
of their office-bearers and members; proceedings of the club during the past
year; reports of the prize competitions, and any other matter Connected with
curling which may appear of general interest to members. They shall also
appoint a select committee from among the members of the Royal Club to
superintend the publication of the Annual.
10. The Representative Committee shall annually appoint a Finance Committee,
who shall audit the treasurer's accounts, as hereinafter pro. vided, and
whose docquet shall be published along with them in the next Annual. ( Vide
Section 16.)
11. The vice-presidents, finance committee, and committee on the Annual
shall form a committee, to be called the Committee of Management, to assist
the secretary in all matters relating to the business of the Royal Club.
This committee to have power to admit new clubs after the July Meeting up to
the 1st of November in each year. Three to be a quorum. The secretary to be
convener of the committee.
12. The Representative Committee shall have power to elect, from amongst
their number, sub-committees to manage the various parts of the club's
business.
13. The Representative Committee shall, on the conclusion of business,
adjourn to meet at such place and time during the winter as the meeting may
deem most expedient. They may also appoint an assistant secretary in the
locality determined on, in order to aid the general secretary in making
arrangements for the adjourned meeting. The president or president-elect, or
one of the vice-presidents, and six representatives to be a quorum. No part
of the expenses of any adjourned meeting shall be defrayed from the general
funds of the Royal Club, except such as are strictly necessary for convening
the meeting, and carrying on the business of the same.
14. No business shall he transacted at adjourned meetings except the
admission of new cubs, drawing for extra medals, and appointing umpires to
superintend the extra competitions. The general secretary shall, if
possible, attend these meetings, and receive £2, 2s. in full of his personal
expenses.
15. The secretary shall be convener of the Representative Committee, and
shall call special meetings thereof by circulars addressed to local
secretaries, at any time he may deem it to he necessary, and also upon the
requisition of twenty-one or more representative members.
16. The secretary shall, previous to 20th July in each year, prepare a note
of what business he has ascertained is to be brought before the meeting.
17. The treasurer shall keep a classified account of his receipts and
disbursements on account of the club. His books shall be balanced annually
on 30th June, thereafter audited by the Finance Committee, and an abstract
thereof published in the next Annual. The books shall be open for inspection
to all members of the club for five (lays previous to the General Meeting in
July, and to members of the Representative Committee at all times.
NOTE.—At the Annual .Meeting of the Representative Committee held on 25th
July 1882, the Committee of -Management were instructed to have the accounts
audited by an accountant outside of the committee.
CHAPTER III.—ENTRANCE AND
ANNUAL FEES.
4. A common fund shall be
formed from these and other sources, to be under the management of the
Representative Committee, and from which shall be defrayed (1) the printing,
advertising, and incidental expenses of the club; (2) prizes given to be
competed for by the associated clubs.
5. Clubs failing to pay the
fees due at entry, or the subsequent annual fees, shall not be entitled to
draw for medals, nor shall any associated club compete for a medal without
producing to the umpire of the match satisfactory evidence of all fees due
to the Royal Club having been paid.
6. If any club fall three
years into arrear of its annual fees, it shall be struck off the list of the
Royal Club, and not reponed except as a new club.
CHAPTER IV.—LOCAL CLUBS.
1. Printed forms shall be
transmitted annually on 15th September, by the secretary of the Royal Chib,
to each of the local secretaries, in order that they may enter therein a
list of the oflice•bearers and members of their respective clubs, for
publication in the next Annual. And any local secretary failing to return
this list to the secretary of the Royal Club by the first (lay of October
following shall not only forfeit the right of his club to draw for medals,
but the list will not, after that date, be receivable for publication in the
Annual of that season.
As great uniformity is
desirable, the lists of office•bearers ought to include, so far as the club
has them, the patron or patroness, president, vice-president, representative
members, chaplain, treasurer, secretary, and committee or council, arranged
in the order given in the printed form.
2. The list of members shall
be classified under the titles of honorary, extraordinary, and ordinary. The
ordinary members may be divided into regular and occasional.
Each name to be arranged, as
far as possible, chronologically, and the office-bearers to be inserted a
second time in the list of members.
3. Clubs associated with the
Royal Club shall, in all matches, adhere to the rules and regulations of the
game in force in the Royal Club at the time, unless otherwise mutually
agreed to in writing under the hands of the secretaries of the competing
clubs.
4. All disputes arising
between clubs or players associated with the Royal Club, except as
hereinafter provided for, shall be referred to the award and decision of two
neutral representative members resident in the district where the disputes
arise. They shall act in the capacity of arbiters, and be chosen by the two
disputants, each of whom shall name one ; and said arbiters shall
immediately on their appointment name an oversman, being also a
representative member, to act and decide in the matter in the event of their
differing in opinion ; and whatever the award of said arbiters or oversman
may be, even though informal, if in writing, it shall he final, and binding
on all parties, provided that the Representa- tive Committee of the Royal
Club shall not find the procedure (not that regarding the merits) irregular.
The umpire to have the right of appeal. Any complaint as to irregularity, in
order to be received, must be lodged with the secretary of the Royal CIub
within ten days of the date of the award. In case the procedure be found
irregular, the Representative Cornmittee shall set aside the award, and
order the disputants to begin the reference anew. Should either of the
disputants allow three days to elapse without naming an arbiter, after being
required in writing by the other so to do, both arbiters may be appointed by
the other disputant; and failing the arbiters, when appointed, being able to
agree upon an oversman, the secretary of the Royal Club, acting under advice
of a committee, shall be bound to name one, on application being made to him
by either of the disputants.
5. Provincial
Competitions.—All rules and regulations relating thereto must be made by the
province itself; and in no case will the Royal Club interfere, by appeal
made to it or otherwise.
6. No curler, though
belonging to two or more associated clubs, can be or appear on a list
published in the Annual as an ordinary member (regular) of more than one of
them at the same time; and unless otherwise previously agreed to in writing
by the secretaries, or the acting skips present at a match, each club shall
select its players from the list of ordinary members (regular) appearing in
the last published Annual, or from those players whose naives had been
returned as regular members to be published in the next forthcoming Annual,
as supplied to the secretary of the Royal Club for publication, and for that
purpose a list of such players shall be furnished previous to the match by
the secretary of each club to the other; and any club having a player thus
disqualified engaged in the game shall forfeit all right to the Royal medal,
even if awarded to it.
7. In all matches, other than
those for district medals, all members whose names appear in the Annual may
play.
8. In case the match be
played on the ice of either of the parties, the strangers may select the
rinks, subject always to the approval of the acting umpire.
9. Every challenge given by
one club to another, and its acceptance, must be conveyed in writing by the
respective secretaries.
CHAPTER V.—RULES OF THE GAME.
Vide pp. 391-394.
CHAPTER VI — MEDAL
COMPETITIONS.
1. Only one class of medals
shall hereafter be distributed by this club (except as after provided). They
shall be called District medals, and be competed for according to the "Rules
of the Game," by two clubs. The number of district medals to be issued in
the first year of a rotation to be, as nearly as possible, a fourth of the
whole associated clubs. The number awarded in the second year to be whatever
is required, in conjunction with local medals, to complete the rotation.
2. Local medals will only be
awarded daring the second year of a rotation, in lieu of district medals, to
such clubs as are, in the opinion of the Representative Committee, too far
distant from other clubs to compete for district medals. Local medals shall
be contested for by the members of the club, according to the rules for
local competitions.
3. The drawing for medals
shall take place at the July meeting ; but if several clubs be admitted at
the adjourned meeting in the first year of a rotation, a district medal may
he given for each two newly-admitted clubs, to be balloted for between them,
and such clubs as were unsuccessful in obtaining medals in July. No club
shall receive two medals during the same rotation ; and after a rotation has
been completed, the .whole clubs shall he arranged anew into pairs, and
medals balloted for ; it being understood that, before the very sane clubs
be again brought into coin1)etition, three years at least must elapse.
4. The Representative
Committee shall have the sole power of disposing the clubs into pairs,
balloting for medals, and appointing representatives to superintend
competitions ; but in any case where one of the competing clubs has become
defunct, or has ceased to be a member of the Royal Club, the Committee of
Management, along with the umpire, shall have authority to decide what club
shall play with the other club for the medal. In arranging all competitions
for district medals, distance shall be taken into account, and all
specialties, including the relative number of the regular ordinary members.
Clubs so situated that others cannot be found sufficiently near to compete
with theta shall not he included in the ballot of the first year of a
rotation, in the hope of other clubs joining, which can be classed with them
the following year ; but they may receive local medals.
5. The representative
appointed to be present at a district medal competition shall, at the
request of the secretary of either club, fix the (lay, the hour, and the ice
for the match, most suitable and mutually convenient, giving at least
twenty-four hours' notice in writing to the secretaries of both clubs; and
if either club fails to appear at the place and time appointed, without an
excuse which is satisfactory to the representative or his deputy, and which
had also been forthwith, after notice received, intimated to the opposing
club, the medal shall be awarded offhand to the club which appears on the
ice, and the club failing to appear on the ice shall be liable for the
expenses of the club against whom they were to play (or appearing), unless
they can give to the umpire a satisfactory reason for their non-appearance,
provided the umpire be satisfied of its having complied with all the
regulations. Should a district medal be awarded between two clubs for
competition, and no umpire appointed by the Royal Club, the two clubs shall
appoint an umpire, who shall have the same power as if appointed by the
Royal Club, and should they fail to do so, the medal shall be awarded to the
club willing to appoint an umpire, by arbiters chosen in accordance with
Chapter IV., Section 4, of the Club Laws.
6. The representative
appointed to act as umpire shall, in the event of his being unable, from any
cause, to give notice of the match, or to attend thereat, depute a curler
associated with the Royal Club, believed to be well acquainted with the
rules of the game, and not connected with either of the competing clubs, to
act in his steal ; but the report of the match to be transmitted to the
secretary of the Royal Club shall he countersigned by the representative.
7. Should, however, the two
clubs agree on the clay, the hour, and the ice, notice shall be given
thereof in writing by either secretary to the representative ; and they may,
in the event of his not being forward personally, or by deputy, at the hour
intimated, appoint any associated curler, properly qualified, to act and
report in his stead; and along with the report shall be transmitted the
party's authority to act, which must he in writing.
8. When no ice can be had
during the season within which the clubs have received medals, they must be
competed for the first following opportunity.
9. All district medals shall
be contested by at least eight players a side. If no arrangement in writing,
fixing the number of players, takes place between the clubs, that number
shall not be less than one-half of the (regular) ordinary members of the
smaller club, as appearing in the last published Annual.
10. The representative
superintending a district medal competition, and the umpire of a local one,
or their deputies, must, under the penalty of having their names struck off
the lists of the Royal Club, prepare a short statement, and forward it
forthwith to the secretary of the Royal Club, giving the information
required by schedule sent for said purpose.
11. Umpires in all cases are
enjoined to hear objections from the losing party before awarding medals ;
and if they shall find that neither club has complied, nor appears willing
to comply, with the regulations, they shall return the medal to the
secretary of the Royal Club, and report the circumstances, provided always
that nothing contained in this rule shall affect the regulations contained
in Chapter IV., Section 4.
CHAPTER VII.—RULES FOR GRAND
MATCH. Vide pp. 276-277.
LOCAL 'MEDAL COMPETITION
(POINT GAME). Vide pp. 414-416. |
