Memories
TEN NEW TEAMS BOOST FOR LEAGUES
Both of our Leagues have received huge boosts with great interest in joining our competitions in 2019 from new teams. No less than 10 new team applications have been received with 7 of those being to join our 6-Man League.
Amongst these seven applications are re-entry bids from three teams that stood down last year, those being Longwood, Lockwood Con and Shepley B. The first named two being the dominant teams in our League winning the top Section title between them every year from 2013-2017. Both withdrew last year on entering new teams in to the 10-Man League where they have both enjoyed some success.
However with a growing number of bowlers attracted to these two clubs they now wish to re-enter the 6-Man League to ensure that all their bowlers get the opportunity to play competitive matches every week. Neither expects to be operating at the previous level or to enjoy the success of seasons gone-by although some opponents with view that stance with a certain amount of suspicion! Teams from Marsh United, Greenhead Park, Lindley Lib B and Marsden Park make up the seven new 6-man league entries.
In the 10-Man League new entries from Marsh Lib, Hemplow B and Kirkheaton Con B have to be balanced against the withdrawal of Marsden Park but again a generally positive outcome and taking the overall number of teams in both our Leagues from 85 up to 94.
With so many new teams to accommodate, major surgery is required in restructuring our leagues and what that means is covered in detail in this newsletter along with the final configuration of all our Sections which now total eight.
The ten new team applications are a tremendous boost for Veterans’ League bowling in Huddersfield and is a reward for the adoption of less stringent rules about player eligibility that have been introduced over the past three years. These changes recognize that some form of control on clubs playing their top bowlers for lower Section and 6-Man League teams is always going to be required but the previous controls were much too stringent and were stopping bowlers bowling and teams were reluctant to join a league with over-zealous rules.
The three applications for new 10-man teams come from teams representing Marsh Lib, Hemplow B and Kirkheaton B. We had one withdrawal from Marsden Park due to team raising difficulties but they had sufficient bowlers to enter a 6-man team.
Once the Management Committee had agreed that the best structure for 64 teams was 14 teams in each of the top two Sections and 12 in each of the other three and that all three new teams should start life in the bottom Section then things were quite straight forward. This brought the total number of teams in the 10-Man League to 64 which is a very good number for the Competition Secretary to ensure a clean Knock-Out set-up in all three team KO competitions.
To attain these numbers and to compensate for the loss of Marsden Park six teams got an unexpected promotion. Lockwood Con B (to Section 2), Slaithwaite and Outlane (to Section 3) and New Mill B, Elland C&BC B and the Rugby Club all to Section 4 being the beneficiaries.
Life was a lot more complex in the 6-Man League with 7 new teams bringing the total to 30 for the 2019 season. The Management Committee quickly agreed that this required the introduction of a third Section as to remain with two Sections would have resulted in a 30-week season when we only have 26 weeks open to us, Clubs are generally against playing on days other than the traditional Monday so that was never a serious option.
Once that was decided it only left to agree which teams should make up each Section. It was agreed that five of the new teams – Marsh Utd, Lindley Lib B, Greenhead Park, Marsden Park and Shepley B - should all start at the bottom in the new Section C. Then the dilemma of where to place our returning teams from Lockwood Con and Longwood. Having dominated the top Section for the five years between 2013 and 2017 the logical fit would be to put them both back into the top Section. However both clubs had stated that their reason for re-entering was to ensure a weekly game for some of their fringe players from their 10-man teams and neither anticipated operating at the former title chasing levels of their previous membership years.
This coupled with the fact that the Starred Bowler rules will deny both teams access to their top bowlers led the Management Committee to decide that they should both re-join the league in Section B. Only time will tell if that is the right decision and if it is totally wrong then both will presumably get promoted or relegated this year to attain their real status so a one-year hit is the worst-case scenario.
All-in-all these are exciting times for both our Leagues and we can now look forward to the future with high expectations of strong competitions in both, with confidence that the future is good for Veteran’s League bowling in Huddersfield. The full set up of all Sections is included on the next page of this newsletter.
Your complete copy of the 8-page February 2019 Newsletter is below for you to download and read at your leisure.
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