Games taking too long

[dickydag]

The June 30th game that took one hour and forty five minutes to complete was WAY too long.  I thought there was a rule about suspending a game in progress after a period of time and resuming it after all games were complete. This did cause a change in the schedule of courts to be played on and possibly was the reason I was still playing bocce after 11:00.

[Len]

I feel that slow play is annoying and takes the fun out of the game.  I may be in the minority here but we did have a rule regarding this at one time.  Maybe the rules committee should take a poll to see what each team's feeling is on this. 

[Jfrat]

I totally agree about the frustration with the long play. At one time we did have a rule that stated that games would be suspended until the end of the last game if they took more than 1 hour and 20 minutes but it seems that the rule was abandoned 2 years later. In talking with several people it seems that there were a few reasons behind the decision to abandon the suspended game time limit:

• Momentum could be broken or even switched by stopping a game that was in progress.
• A team may have a player or players not able or willing to stay at the end of the night for the time necessary to complete the suspended game.(essentially forfeiting the game)
• One team may have multiple games that need to be completed at the end of the night which could result in some teams waiting around to resume a game that was suspended.
• There were arguments as to what time the game actually started.
• In most cases you are penalizing a team for the slow play of their opponent.

The situation is further complicated when you have a team or teams that would just assume play their games at midnight knowing full well that it may aggravate its opponent by doing so.

Another option is calling an end to a game after a certain number of minutes with the winner being who ever is ahead at that time. Teams could use this rule to their advantage as well. A team that is ahead while approaching the allotted time could intentionally delay game play knowing that it will win it's game at a certain time.

And Yes, I hate to admit it but I do believe our league has teams that will try to manipulate and take advantage of whatever measures we put into place.

*The rules already state that the team is to deliver its ball "without delay" after it is determined which team has the point and each team is allowed ONE two minute time out per frame. The problem here is, what exactly is "without delay" and how do we police the problem? Maybe we need "League certified" referees?

This along with the "going over the line" thing seem to be the two biggest problems I hear about. I am going to call a meeting with the rules committee to discuss the issues brought up by this thread but if anyone has any other options, I am completely open to suggestions.

Joe