Well it hasn't been just one person in the past, Colm was very able and knows a lot more about TOM than Dave or I. Unfortunately he was driven out of the league by spiteful individuals more interested in themselves and what they wanted than the good of everyone. More worryingly I have not heard from Colm for a number of months.

Individual league presidents is fine but the league doesn't need power struggles again. What we have at the moment is a democracy where everyone's ideas hold equal sway, I haven't had a great deal of input for this season and that's been great.

Once the schedules are uploaded onto TOM it is very easy to start new seasons from scratch and I would think that a month's break inbetween seasons would be perfect.

Rich can we find out if Colm is ok?? He was fantastic for the league imo. And that's not a slight on you Rich, I think you are doing a good job too, just a little fustrated at the moment.

Things are not good in Ireland at the moment and in particular those who are self employed so I actually think getting away from the league was a blessing in disguise. If I hear from him I will of course let you know, I hope it's just because he is knuckling down doing some serious hours rather than anything more serious.

So Rich have we got any sort of time frame then?, what stage are we actually at? Dodgy is great for doing what he does for us so i would never knock him but do you know how far along he has got with coding, schedules etc? If its going to be a good while yet then i can leave the game alone for a while and play it again at a later date.

I'm afraid I don't know. I do not think it will be a long time though.

We all wish Colm was around still - I dont know much about what went on as i was a newbie trainer then but its bad that he was forced out or disrespected etc.

The problem is in that you dont know rich - ITS NOT YOUR FAULT YOU DONT KNOW BTW!!!!!!!!!! - but its not good sign when the league president cant have an idea of when things can start. Its a sure indicator that we need to find new programmers for TOM or to try and get a new website going. which is why my vote would be to run this league season manually until TOM is sorted properly or get a new website put together. It isnt fair putting all the weight on DD's shoulders when he has more pressing matters on his mind

Have no idea what it takes to be able to put something like TOM together but i also think we do need to look at something for the future at least, another site or somebody else to help DD when he has pressing matters. Problem is does anybody know someone? , How much for a new site? Would we then be relying on that one person to do all the stuff on the new site? Could just end up in the same situation.

i know a computer programmer who is a regular customer in my restaurant who works for a lot of very big companies - i could ask him. The TOM website would be bread and butter to a qualified computer programmer.

It just isnt working having only one person knowing the crack with the website, which needs major changing and is already riddled with problems.

IMO we should be looking for alternatives which will ensure that in future league runs smoothly and consistently with a reliable website. In the meantime we should continue with the forthcoming season manually. It isnt hard to do

Surely it would do no harm in you asking the bloke find out a bit about cost and so on, when you get some answers Ryan come back and put whats on offer here and see what people think?

Rich.... I saw some comments on one of the topics that it is complicated SQL that is required to implement these changes. Does that mean there are people here with some SQL knowledge, but not enough to implement these changes??

I work in IT and am a programmer of sorts. Not a SQL or Web developer by trade, but I do a little bit of this from time to time in my work. I'm by no means an expert but I'd be willing to take a look or try to help out in some way if I could.

I didn't really have any time until now but might be able to spend a little bit of my free time if I though I'd be able to help.

Could we not try and source a racing fan, who is also a programmer and has the capabilities. Offer them the game for free, in return for his services?

Also, wouldn't the game creator have the knowledge of how to do such TOM related work?

Dont think the game creater had anything to do with creating TOM but i could be wrong.

The problem is, we have a computer programmer, with long experience in TOM with a love of horse racing and who is willing to do it for free. Dave! Unfortunately things in his life at the moment are a bit crazy and yes, it's not ideal from a league point of view but I am happy to wait a few extra weeks which would probably be as long as it would take to find someone new and get them up to speed.

If I knew it was going to be August or similar then we would already be getting ready for a manual season but in my opinion that would be a massive step backwards and I don't think it will take that long.

Is there much point in me asking Dave how long it will be every day?

The problem is Rich real life problems are un-predictable and are very hard to put time scales on. Dave has done some amazing things with TOM and without him the league would of been a difficult job. Colm l believe had a big part of TOM too and understood it a little. For all we know dave could be weeks even months you just couldnt say with any certainty. Colm said he was going to stick and round and be a big part of the league and that wasnt the case, as l say real life you never know whats round the corner.

I honestly think we need to make a new TOM which is simple to use or get someone in that knows how to programme this one. The league cannot rely and put the pressure on one person (Dave) when it sounds like he already has more important problems than an online league

I understand the frustrations but I also understand that TOM is no easy task and a new person tackling it for the first time would take a long time to sort it out. It will be fine, patience is appreciated.