40th Anniversary of the 6-Man League

Veterans League

The Huddersfield Veterans 6-Man League was formed for the 1985 season when New Mill won the single division league competition. They have never won it again since then. The 6-Man League was a spin-off from the 10-man League which was first formed in 1970 although it took 10 years before it introduced promotion and relegation between the two divisions.

Division 2 of the 6-Man League was formed in 2007 with Division 3 being added in 2019 and this year for the first time there is a Division 4 to add to the success story.

Over the years the 6-Man League has struggled to attract teams with a history of rules being introduced to stop bowlers bowling. Those hurdles have been mainly removed over time with the ending of Starred Bowlers status the final nail in the coffin of the diehards who resisted change which protected the League from attracting good bowlers. That has opened the door to a new generation of bowlers who can now bowl in both the Veterans 10-Man and 6-Man Leagues which had previously been discouraged to the point of bowlers being barred from competing in both Leagues..

Whilst this is the 40th Anniversary of the League it has not been run for 40 years as the COVID gap saw one barren year of no bowling altogether. The complete list of all the Division 1 winners over the last 40 years is below.