Thongsbridge out of BCGBA Club Championship

Bowling News

Earlier this month we shared the details of the opening rounds of the newly named 2025 BCGBA Club Championship. It used to be called the BCGBA World Championship until someone pointed out that it was a bit of a misnomer as only teams in Great Britain could enter it. Since that early announcement of the draw and venues, 3 of the 32 qualifying teams, including previous winners Thongsbridge BC, have withdrawn from the competition. No explanations have been offered and no indication yet if they will suffer a penalty in future years in the BCGBA's leading club competition. There are still two Yorkshire teams in the competition and they are Pudsey and Whitkirk.

Since that early March announcement of the draw and venues which covered the 32 teams and with 3 withdrawing that leaves 29 teams necessitating a reshuffle of the previous draw.

The three teams that have withdrawn are Thongsbridge BC (Yorkshire), Parkfield Labour (North Lancs & Fylde) and Wigan Parish (Lancashire). It seems that a change in the early round arrangements hasn't gone down well with everyone as can be seen from this entry on the BCGBA Facebook page announcing revised details of the 2025 competition.

Comment on the BCGB Facebook page So another team has dropped out. I wonder why. Is this because the original fixture dates have been changed? Is it because it has been changed back to March/April. Who voted on this change? The club championships were played September/ October last year by teams who had qualified for it in 2024 season so what right have counties got to put forward teams that have not won anything yet as the season hasn't started. Surely with moving the dates it shouldn't be played until March /April 2026 when counties can elect their county Cup and league winners from 2025. Would love to know other Counties thoughts on this. Joe Melvin

The revised draw now looks like this: