2016 Vets League reorganisation

Memories

The year was 2016 and the veterans League had a lopsided structure with 14 teams in the top two divisions and only 8 teams in Division 5. This saw the Division 5 teams playing each other three times in a season to fill the gaps in the fixture programme.

But even with this unpopular format the Division 5 teams were still playing 5 league matches less than their top tier counterparts. A not unsimilar structure to that constructed by the present Management Committee over the past few years. However the 2016 Management Committee were pushed to resolving this imbalance unlike their successors.

And so it was that after repeatedly avoiding resolving the imbalance of teams in the 10-Man League the Management Committee finally were taken to task by the new League Secretary to sort the matter out.

For several years the Division 5 team numbers had varied between 7 and 9, with teams playing each other three times in the effort to extend the season to an acceptable number of matches.

Finally the choice of two options were placed before the Committee in preparation for the 2016 season and they ended up supporting Option 1 which resulted in 6 teams being relegated in total that hadn't finished the previous season in the relegation places. Option 2 provided a solution in which 18 teams would have been relegated although not finishing in relegation places the previous season.

Another major reorganisation was undertaken two years later to satisfy a fast increasing membership of teams in the League. The chart below shows the options presented to the Committee for the start of the 2016 season along with the 2015 final league tables.