27 Nov NEW FORMAT FOR 2023
The Yorkshire Veterans’ Crown Green Bowling Competition, aka the Hickson Trophy after the original sponsors, will have a new format for 2023.
The 2021 competition was hosted and won by Huddersfield whilst the 2022 event was hosted by Skipton and won by Sheffield. It has traditionally been a one day competition with quarters, semis and the final all played on the same day. The 2023 hosts Halifax thought it would be better played over two days after the experience this year when the quarter-finals started at 10 am and the final between Halifax and Sheffield finished at 9.30 pm, a long day for everyone!
In addition to the 8 districts playing in 2022, West Riding have come back into the fold for this competition, Leeds have re-entered the Inter-District League and wish to play in this comp and Harrogate have expressed a wish to enter – 11 clubs compared to 7 in 2021. The committee are now actively looking for a 12th club to slot into the new format.
On Friday 7 July there will be 4 groups of 3 teams playing a round robin format, each team will have two games on the same green. The winner of each group will then go forward to the semi-finals and final to be played on Friday 14 July. Venues for each game will be announced by the hosts approximately a month before the competition. It is hoped that this will avoid excessive travelling between venues.
The groups are:
- Castleford, Wakefield and A N Other
- Leeds, Halifax and Barnsley
- Huddersfield, Bradford and West Riding
- Harrogate, Sheffield, Skipton
The minimum age for the players has now been reduced to 60 to harmonise with the Inter-District League.