Winter League
The format and make-up of the 8 divisions of the Winter League have now been completed with 64 teams in 8 divisions with 8 teams in each. This is a very different formation from last season when we had 54 teams in 6 divisions with 9 teams in each. This was dictated by the number of host greens we had at that time.
Since then Cowcliffe and Lockwood Con have stepped forward to offer their greens to enable the further expansion of the League. Divisions of 8 teams provide a 14-week season which suits everyone. Getting down to 8 divisions of 8 teams from the previous format has inevitably resulted in a number of teams being relegated even though they didn't finish in relegation places at the end of last season.
All the teams that finished in the top two positions of each division have been promoted. although at first glance it doesn't always look like that. However the division number may not have changed but the level of opponents have so effectively they have been promoted to a higher standard of opposition. The 10 new teams joining the League have been put into divisions where the League believes they are most suited.
When you factor in the demands of host clubs in ensuring that they have admin and catering teams available on matchdays and some teams that can only play on certain days of the week it creates a real challenge to satisfy everyone. I know that we haven't done that in all instances but we haven't lost any teams because of that yet.
This has been a major restructuring of the divisions with the peculiarities of a multi-day fixture programme causing more complications all of which have taken many hours to work through which a Sub-Committee tackled and completed.
There has been a call from some teams to stop trying to accommodate every preference of every team which admittedly has become increasingly difficult. Whilst the League has been growing it wanted to encourage as many teams as possible to join the League and felt it could best do that by working around any demands that teams put on their involvement. We may have come to the end of offering that level of flexibility as this may well be the last year that we are able to do that.
At the end of the day, we have a vibrant League involving over 250 bowlers playing every week through the winter months which far exceeds any vision we had at the outset. In addition, the League is now reaping a total of over £25,000 per season which is going directly to the host clubs. Bringing in much-needed funding for our sport when previously very little happened for 6 months of the year. All that has got to be worthwhile all the effort put into establishing the League from scratch over the past 4 years.
COMING NEXT: Start dates for all 8 divisions of the Winter League
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