Winter League
The fact that the Winter League bowls on 4 different days every week is both a strength and a weakness in managing league affairs. The fact that host clubs can select different days of the week to run their allocated divisions means that they can rouse their catering, admin and raffle personnel to perform when it is most convenient to them. This also means that matches are spaced out Monday to Thursday with spectators able to attend more than one set of matches every week. This in turn means more revenue to the host clubs.
This can also be a weakness as some teams can only raise a full quota of bowlers on certain days of the week. So if their team gets promoted or relegated then this can result in them being put in a Division which plays on a day in the week when they cannot raise a team
New General Rule 15 voted in at the 2024 AGM was supposed to help such situations offering teams the opportunity to Decline Promotion / Avoid Relegation. Unfortunately the rule got approved in haste and some teams have subsequently found loopholes in the wording to cause confusion by offering a different interpretation on the original intent.
The Management Committee didn't want to tinker with the rule mid-season so ruled that any team in an end-of-season promotion or relegation place could submit a written bid to Decline Promotion or Avoid Relegation. This would then be judged on by the Management Committee as to its validity and a decision made on the submitted bids.
All teams in those top two/bottom two positions have been contacted by the League and asked to submit any bids before the end of the month. The Management Committee will be meeting on Wednesday 5 March to work through any such bids and passing judgement on them.
Four such bids have already been submitted from teams. Two are bids to Decline Promotion and two to Avoid Relegation. The full details will be placed before the Management Committee members at that meeting and decisions made on each submitted bid. There may be more bids to come before the end-of-month deadline.
General Rule 15 A host green team cannot be relegated from the division it plays in unless it opts to do so. In addition any team can elect not to be promoted but all its players will begin their games on minus 2 points in the following season. Should they again win promotion the following season then the handicap will be doubled to minus 4 points in each game and doubled each subsequent season.
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