Clubs - SEMLA

This page outlines the main responsibilities of SEMLA clubs and teams. This page is a brief guide which is hopefully useful but is not meant to replace the need for clubs to be familiar with the Constitution and Bye-Laws.

Club Affiliation

All clubs must affiliate annually with England Lacrosse. Clubs in their first three years receive a discounted affiliation fee. England Lacrosse will invoice each club via email at the beginning of the season with an invoice for affiliation.

All clubs must pay the annual competitions fees. The SEMLA Treasurer will invoice each club via email in October.

Individual Registration

All players, referees, officials, and coaches, both senior and junior, must be registered with England Lacrosse. This should be done before even the first training session for them to be properly insured, and needs to be renewed each new lacrosse season on or after August 31st. Teams may not field unregistered players.

All persons who registered the previous year will receive an email inviting them to register for the new season. For all new registrations and for individuals who have not received a renewal email please go directly to the England Lacrosse membership system.

You can find more details at their membership page and video how-to guides.

Transfers

Player transfers between clubs are allowed under the SEMLA bye laws before the day of the first league game simply by changing your club affiliation on the England Lacrosse membership system.

Player transfers after the date of the first league game of the season must follow the prescribed process using the Player Transfer Form.

Any player transferring clubs must ensure that he/she has paid all outstanding debts to the former club. If not, then the former club can apply for an immediate prohibition on playing for the new club. If such a player were to play for the new club before the situation was resolved, this would risk the new club being penalised which may include the loss of league points.

Club Contacts and Details

Please make sure that your Club's details on the SEMLA Website are correct, including officials' contact details, location of your ground, and directions if needed. Your club's page can be found on the clubs list. Please send any amendments to semla.secretary@southlacrosse.org.uk.

Please include the following contacts (if you have them):

All Captains and Vice-Captains. Please make sure that you send email addresses and mobile numbers as they may need to be contactable on match days (and could one day save you a long journey to a game that's been called off)
A Chairman or other main contact
A general contact, usually the Secretary
Junior Coordinator or Manager

Note that we do not need your other internal roles, such as Coach or Treasurer (though these may need to be notified elsewhere, see below).

If your club has moved ground please provide:

The pitch type - grass, 3G, Astro, or Sand-based Astro
Directions if the route is complicated or confusing, for example if the postcode would take you to the wrong location
Basic directions via public transport if those would be useful to the oposition, e.g. which is the best station to use, if the nearest station has no linking buses or taxi rank, or if there is a back way in to the ground which would save 5 minutes walking
Anything else about the ground you'd like to know if you were the opposition, e.g. if the changing rooms or pitch are awkward to find

The change of address should also be notified to England Lacrosse at info@englandlacrosse.co.uk.

Changes of Treasurer should be notified to the England Lacrosse at info@englandlacrosse.co.uk and SEMLA Treasurer at semla.treasurer@southlacrosse.org.uk.

Game Start Times

By default, games start on Saturday at 2pm. If your home fixtures need to start on another day or time please notify both the SEMLA Fixtures Secretary at semla.fixtures@southlacrosse.org.uk, and your opposition. See Bye-law A5 for more details.

By agreement with both teams, and availability of match officials, games may be scheduled at any time in the week of the scheduled fixture. For example, on Friday evenings or on Sundays.

Exchange of Team Sheets

Starting from the beginning of the 2024/25 field lacrosse season (early October), team sheets must be exchanged before the commencement of a SEMLA game.

Byelaw 5(f)
Team captains must exchange lists of their dressed players before the game can start. Failure to provide a team sheet shall result in a forfeited game. If both teams fail to provide a team sheet (and this is evidenced by a neutral party such as a referee) then the game shall be declared void. On receipt, the team captain is responsible for retaining both team sheets as they may be required for future reference.

A PDF template is available for team captains to print, complete by hand, to either exchange as a paper record, or take a photo and exchange electronically with the opposition captain/coach.

A Google document template is also available for team captains to either print or 'save a copy' and complete online.

Reporting Results

Both home and away teams should inform the SEMLA Fixtures Secretary of their results as soon as possible after the game so that their results can be included in that week's update of the tables.

You should send an email to semla.results@southlacrosse.org.uk with the score, e.g. "home-team-name 10 - away-team-name 12", and the home team should also provide the names of all referees and CBOs.

Postponed/Cancelled Games

If you are unable to fulfil your fixtures please give as much notice as possible to your opponents. It has always been important to make contact with an opposition captain early in the week leading up to a game to iron out any issues and ensure a game of lacrosse is played.

Remember, conceding a game within 24 hours of face-off is a one point deduction. New Bye-law A6(b) passed at the 2022 AGM allows a home team to impose a financial penalty on an away team who concedes or postpones a game within 48 hours. We hope this bye-law does not need to be actioned but many clubs have occurred financial losses through to unused pitch hire.

Advice from the Fixtures Secretary (who can be contacted at semla.fixtures@southlacrosse.org.uk) is that:

If the first fixture between 2 teams is postponed due to bad weather or unplayable pitches, then the reverse fixture later in the season will be played for double points, unless either team objects to this. Where clubs do not want to play the reverse for double points then the responsibility for rearranging matches lies solely with the clubs involved. Only if no agreement can be reached and 4 weeks has lapsed then the affected clubs may refer the rearrangement to the Fixtures Secretary, who will have absolute authority to decide the date of the rearranged match.

Teams wishing to play separate fixtures must advise their opponents and the Fixtures Secretary in plenty of time before they are next due to play.

Where the first fixture is played but the reverse fixture is postponed due to the weather then this game will not count unless it is rearranged and played.

Where Flags/Plate matches are postponed because of the weather the teams involved need to arrange a date prior to the date of the next round. Flags/Plate matches do not take priority over League matches, and any unplayed games will count as void.

If any club is unable to make any fixtures for other reasons then they have 3 options:

Concede the match
Agree with the opponent to rearrange the fixture
Agree to play the reverse for double points

Before you concede a match please consider Bye-law A7(e) that allows for 'pool players' in a squad, now up to a maximum of 12 players within the squad.

All changes must be agreed by both teams prior to the match.

Appeals over disputed results and ineligible players will be dealt with by the Disciplinary and Complaints committee.

Club Referees

It is a condition of every Club's membership of SEMLA to have one official qualified to Level 1 for every team entered in the League plus one extra within the Club, the expectation is that one of them at least will referee the game. See SEMLA Bye Law B4 for more details on refereeing requirements.

Level 1 Refereeing courses can be taken on-line. There is no physical assessment required for level 1 officiating, and all learners will also receive an officiating pack complete with a guide book, official’s shirt, whistle and more.

Before officiating Club Referees must pass an Annual Rules Test which can be accessed via the England Lacrosse membership system. Select your profile, then on desktop click 'Access Learning Platform', or on mobile click 'Profile' and then select 'Access Learning Platform'.

Referees

As specified in Bye-Law A2c, every competitive game shall be officiated by at least two qualified referees. All home teams are responsible for supplying a minimum of two referees. If two referees are NOT supplied, the game will not go ahead.

There are a limited number of neutral Panel Referees available each week. You can see where they are assigned for the next few upcoming weeks on the Refereeing Assignments page.

If you have an especially important game, and would like to have a Panel Referee, then please contact the Referees Secretary at semla.referees@southlacrosse.org.uk, however it may not always be possible to accommodate you.

Please remember that the Home team is responsible for providing a home referee regardless of whether there is a Panel Referee present.

As per Bye-Law B3, referees are paid match expenses of £40 each, per referee, per game.

First Aid Kit / AED / Concussion

It is an England Lacrosse rule to ensure that a first aid kit is available for all home games. This can be in the Clubhouse or on the side of the field but must be available if needed.

Do you know where you nearest AED/defibrillator is located where you play and where you train? There are grants available to help buy AEDs such as London Hearts (you don't need to be a London club to apply).

Clubs should be familiar with England Lacrosse's guidance on concussion.

Respect Code of Conduct

Clubs should me familiar with England Lacrosse's Respect Code for all participants in lacrosse to follow to provide a safe, enjoyable competitive environment. It can be found on the England Lacrosse policies page.

Safeguarding

Guidance from England Lacrosse:

The best practice guidance is that all individuals who deal in close proximity with children and vulnerable adults (including club volunteers, coaches and officials) have a volunteer DBS check.

To not have this in place leaves the clubs open to potential safeguarding issues, it is therefore prudent for clubs to be in the best positions possible.

It is also best practice for DBS holders to attend a safeguarding workshop within the last three years.

Playing Ages & Gender

England Lacrosse national rules for men's lacrosse state that the minimum age for senior participation is 16 years. This applies to all competitive lacrosse, whether as part of a SEMLA competition or club organised tournament such as Bluesfest, Bath 8s, etc.

Youth lacrosse participation has a maximum age of 15 years. Club-based youth programmes will determine age-based competitions applicable to their membership, e.g. U10, U12, U14 and/or U16.

England Lacrosse national bye-laws do not designate gender to specific competitions. All SEMLA competitions are open to players of any gender or who identify as any gender or as non-binary, subject to the age constraints above.

The captain or committee member of a visiting team fielding female players or those who identify as female, must notify the opposition home captain leading up to a game of such. This allows the home team to ensure separate changing facilities are available for such players. If only a single changing room is available, arrangements must be made so that such players have private access to changing rooms, e.g. before or after other players have changed and vacated the room.

Match Balls

The Home team is responsible for providing the match balls.