'The Season in a Day League'

Bowling News

Following on from Alan Hobson's personal view on why we have such a reduction in the number of bowlers, teams and leagues, to come up with an alternative suggestion on what to do about it. Like Alan I am leaning on the Winter League experiences to come up with a model that might be a glimpse into the future.

With the knowledge that things are getting worse not better it is time to get radical about tackling the problem with a whole new model to provide a better fit with the needs of the younger bowlers. The table below shows the falling number of entries to the two prime County competitions for the last 3 years. Colourful tables cannot hide the alarming rate of decline our top team competitions are suffering.

Table provided by Dave Parkin

Despite tinkering with the format so that the Yorkshire Cup is now a mixed gender competition, although not promoted as such, the decline continues. Maybe the insistence on running 12-player team competitions when all league competitions discarded this format a number of years ago, has contributed to this falling interest. The County refuses to acknowledge this change in team numbers by matching the leagues response in addressing the situation.

Alan Hobson correctly identified a number of reasons about why we are where we are. I would like to add to that list and look at the reasons why young people are not taking up the sport. Two regular reasons put forward is the slow pace and length of a game. These are the exact opposite of what attracts us old-timers to the sport. In addition I really like the challenge to tease out my opponents' weaknesses before, hopefully, they suss out mine. Also the fact that you may be 0-20 down but can still win the game. The no time limit which attracts the current generation of bowlers seems to be one of the factors that puts the young ones off the sport.

So bearing those two things in mind I offer an alternative model to that currently in place. What do you think about running a competition where a full season is played in one day - 'The Season in a Day League'?

A simple model of what this could look like could include:

• All matches in a Division are played at the same time on the same green

• Divisions of eight teams

• Each team plays all the other 7 teams in their Division on one day

• A match consists of 2 singles games

• A team can have up to 4 bowlers that can play on the day

• Each game consists of 7 ends

• Two points to each winner

• One point each in the event of a draw after 7 ends

• Two points for the best aggregate total in each match making a total of 6 points available in every match

• At the end of the day the top two teams in each Division are promoted and the bottom two are relegated and 4 teams stay in the same Division

• The next week a new season starts with each (except the top and bottom) 8-team Division having 4 new teams and 4 teams being the same as the previous season

• Bowlsnet Live is used to record all results as they happen for instant updates throughout the day

This would result in a two-man team playing 49 ends in a day - about twice the number they do now but with the option for any 4-man team to play less than that by sharing games out. The Winter League has gone half-way to producing something similar with four matches on the green at any one time. Maybe the time is ripe to take the next obvious step in addressing the points that are putting youngsters off entering our sport.

Here is a breakdown of a model for a three-division league although it could be any number of divisions.

Season 1

3 Divisions (1,2&3) each of 8 x 2person teams

Each match consists of 2 Singles games

Each team plays the other 7 teams in their Division on the same day

Each match consists of 7 ends

Top 2 teams get promoted

Bottom 2 teams get relegated

Season 2

Same format as Season 1 with Division 2 getting 4 new teams and the other two Divisions each having two new teams.

There are potential variations on the format with the opportunity to play pairs or even triples as well as singles for some, or all, of the fixtures. A major shake-up of the traditional format that addresses the perceived need for more involvement, shorter matches and a faster pace for results.

There is potential to introduce a new Sunday League to play to this format. All the top bowlers are involved in lucrative knock-out competitions most weekends but that doesn't matter as this is initially aimed at attracting the average or new bowlers. What do you think?