Huddersfield Veterans Bowling Association

10 Feb RE-BALANCING OF LEAGUES

Posted at 11:13h in General News by Richard Armitage

In July 2022 the Management Committee agreed to balance the divisions from the 14,14,12,12 and 10 format of previous seasons and informed clubs of this decision. We advised clubs that 2 promotions from each division would be honoured and that it was likely that more teams would be relegated but that depended upon the number of teams registering in 2023.

This was easier said than done!

5 divisions of 12 would result in an extra 9 teams to be relegated in addition to the 2 finishing bottom of each division. The committee were sensitive to the large number of relegations being thrown up. They therefore decided upon 2 divisions of 16 and 2 of 14 teams with all teams having extra fixtures to be squeezed into a 26 week season. This decision has been roundly criticised as many teams felt that they could not honour all these fixtures.

The Management Committee met again on Monday 6 February and decided to eat humble pie and start again but endeavouring to minimise unplanned relegations and ensuring Division 5 have more matches.

The committee decided that the following solution offered the fewest forced relegations – only 3 with this format, gives Division 5 more games and causes very few teams to play fewer games. The format is:

Division 1 – 13 teams playing 24 matches

Division 2 – 13 teams playing 24 matches

Division 3 – 12 teams playing 22 matches

Division 4 – 11 teams playing 20 matches

Division 5 – 11 teams playing 20 matches.

In 2024, assuming a similar number of 10-man teams participate it is our intention to equalise the number of teams in each division. Two teams will be promoted and at least two teams will be relegated. This gives all team captains notice that finishing third or fourth bottom is no guarantee of survival (except in Division 5).

It has proven a more difficult challenge than expected and we apologise that we’ve had to revisit this. We trust you agree that this solution satisfies many of the tangible problems encountered both with a 2 x 16 and 2 x 14-team solution and with a 5 x 12-team solution.