ASA Tme Question

[Chess Ref]

18U tourney. Thses game have a "no new inning after 1 hour 30 minutes". So it gets to be bottom of 6th. Visitors are winning 2-0. Home team has 2 outs and the clock is right about 1hr 28 minutes. The visitors then want a conference, then an injury time-out. Etc. Should I just let the clock run out or it there some kind of policy in place ? Any personal philsophies in dealing with this ?

It all worked out. They played a 7th inning and the V won 2-1. i was a little unsure of how to proceed when this occurs in the future. Thanks M

[Skahtboi]

To me, legal clock management is all part of the game when there is a time limit.

[tzme415]

In this case I think I would have permitted the conference, but would have stopped the clock for the injury. The conference is a legal part of clock management; just like using a full amount of time to warm-up, the allowed time between pitches, or even throwing balls or taking strikes to waste time. I stop the clock for injuries. Injuries should not be part of clock management and teams should not be encouraged to fake injuries in order to waste time. Whats to stop the team who is ahead from having a player pretend to twist an ankle and lay on the ground for 5 minutes having it looked at then get up 'shake it off' and keep playing, but now just needing to get the last out to win the game. Even if they substitute for the player, it still served the purpose of possibly causing a game to end that may not have ended otherwise. I usually annouce that injuries will not take away from playing time allowed. This also encourages those that are truly hurt to get help since it won't cost their team.

JMO

[Andy]

In the ASA rulebook, there are two rules that address time limits. I don't have the book handy, so I cannot provide the references, but the paraphrased version of each is:

1. Time limits may be used.
2. Tactics used to hasten or delay the game may result in forfeiture of the game by the team using said tactics.

Since the rulebook does not provide much information on how to deal with the administration of time limits, it's left up to the local areas or tournaments to establish their own guidelines. The best advice is to contact your local UIC and ask how time limits will be administered in your area. That being said, here are some of my personal comments.

The rule does not differentiate between "illegal" and "legal" tactics, so requesting a perfectly legal conference could be a way to delay or hasten the game.

The penalty for this infraction is quite severe, so be very judicious about using it.

Often, a quick word to the coach will get the point across; "Coach, are you aware of the penalty for trying to stall so the time will run out?" This may have been the way to go in the situation you described.

I have had UICs tell me that I had the authority to stop the clock if I felt a coach or team was stalling.

I will use an element of judgement when dealing with injuries at any point in a timed game. Initially, the clock will continue to run. If I feel that it is going to take more than a few minutes to treat the injury or the player cannot be removed from the field, then I will stop the clock.

As I said, these are personal observations based on the way we do things in my area. They may or may not work for you in your area. There have been several discussions on this and other boards about dealing with time limits. If you want to look around a bit, you will probably find more information.