Every year I go through a list of updates for the website to accommodate any rules changes, add functionality and to make it easier to manage/use. I'll update this article if/when I make additional changes throughout the season. If you want me to make any changes, then ask.
There may be a few more things to fix once the Comp Sec starts to create the new season's fixtures, but here's what was changed over the summer for the upcoming 2025/26 season:
Visuals
- Added a counter to the Recent and Upcoming blocks to give you an idea of how far through the season we are.
- Both those blocks also feature an 'i' to indicate a fixture which has additional comments against it. That might include important match details for an upcoming fixture or remarks from the scoresheet or feedback from the HVA on the match/scoring in general for a fixture that's been played. It's worth checking these comment for matches you're involved with - just click on the match number.
- The Recent block now displays a description, rather than the score, if the match wasn't played for whatever reason. You'll see 'Away Team Forfeit' rather than '25-0, 25-0, 25-0' for example.
- Added a player count to the 'Club Roster' heading on each club page so you can see how many registered players a club has.
- Added Male, Female, Boy, Girl indicators to the club roster, match list of eligible players (pre-match) and list of players (post-match) to make it easier to check player classifications and avoid playing ineligible players in a match. Sorry for the stereotypical blue and pink for these, but that seemed the easiest option.
- Added a block for season stats going back to 2017, which you can see on the Homepage and About page.
- There's a similar stats block for the current season at the bottom of the All matches page.
Content
- A 'Town/City' field has been added to every Club and displayed on the Club's page and list of All Clubs. This is useful for people new to the HVA who don't necessarily know where clubs are based.
- Added a 'Club affiliation' field to the Referee list. As with the rest of the site, you can only see this personal information if you're logged in.
- A new 'Mixed League' column is added to the Roll of Honour page. Unfortunately, we don't know whether the entries for 2012-2015 were for Mixed or Men's Div 3 as they were recorded on the old website as 'Mixed/Men's Div 3'. I've just left those under Men's Div 3 as marked them with a '?'. If anybody remembers, let me know!
Functionality
- As matches no longer need to be confirmed in advance, the content of emails sent out to team managers have been re-worded accordingly.
- On match pages you may see messages to warn you about players who cannot play in that match. This was already clearly indicated on the eligible players list, but this was still missed by some team managers who fielded ineligible players and so forfeit matches because of it.
- A new 'Match Void' status has been added. We'll use this when a match remains un-played at the end of the season, and we feel both teams are equally to blame. No league points are awarded for a void match. We updated one match from last season with this status.
Administration
- You can no longer edit a player after 1st Feb. It was already the case that you couldn't edit a player once they had played in a match. This is to stop player names being changed to get around the deadline for Cup player registrations. We're not aware of this loophole ever being abused, but we've locked it down just in case. If you need to edit a player's details and the site says you can't, contact the Comp Sec.
- There is a new list of all team managers' email addresses available to logged in users on the All clubs page. This is to make it easier for the HVA to contact a wider selection of HVA members where we think it's necessary.
- When a match date is added, there is new validation to check whether it's on the usual day of the week for that team. In the past, particularly when creating 100s of fixtures at the start of the season, mistakes are sometimes made. This new warning should help prevent that.
- The batch upload of a club roster now correctly validates for duplicate names! As a reminder, names have to be unique across the whole season. If one club has a 'Smith, J', then another club can't also have a 'Smith, J'.
- The batch upload instructions have been changed slightly, although the process remains the same.
- The signature of emails sent from the website includes a link to the HVA rules as a reminder.
- A heap of changes to help the new incoming Comp Sec manage a new season with no need for any technical help from me, the outgoing Comp Sec!
The website is written in Drupal 7 which reached end-of-life in January 2025. It's unlikely to get upgraded to Drupal 11 by me as it's a massive job (1000s of hours). I don't expect it to suddenly stop working though 
Regards
Duncan (webmaster)