Winter League
The realisation that Winter Leagues are competitions that bowlers are increasingly interested in joining is further enhanced by the idea of a new League in Elland. Below is a circular from Les Holmes the Secretary of the Elland & District Bowling Association to local clubs testing out interest and providing some fundamental basics about how it would work. Ironically Les Holmes is captaining a new team, Lower Hopton, in the Huddersfield Winter League this season. Some good ideas are included below, I wonder where he got them from? Good luck to them and maybe we could end up having Inter-League Winter matches sometime in the future, you never know!
ELLAND & DISTRICT BOWLING ASSOCIATION
Dear Delegate
On behalf of the Elland Bowling Association, I invite your views on the following subject ‘Winter Bowling’. It has become apparent that there are many people who now bowl during the winter, as our climate has changed to a much milder type, so am thinking of organizing a league for teams (not clubs) of 4 people from a maximum of 8 registered players ( must have valid BCGBA numbers ), to play in divisions of 8 teams on Friday afternoons, possibly starting at 12 noon in the months of October to end of January (14 games ) open to all players of any age and gender. Games to be played as 2 single and 1 pair, all 21 up. Scoring system to be the same as our summer system.
The next item to discuss is the greens to use, these would be totally voluntary with adequate PLI, volunteers to provide refreshments, and personnel to organize procedures on the day.
As an incentive, the winter league would charge every player £2 per game each playing day, making a total of £64 per playing day. A sum of £60 would be given to the host club, with £4 to the league. This would generate £840 per winter season to the host club, the clubs that would presumably look at this source of income would probably be those greens that already stay open during the winter months. If enough greens are made available, divisions would move to different greens each round of matches.
There would also be an entry fee of £25 per team, a total of £200 per 8 team division. All of which would be given back as prizemoney (£125 to winners, £75 to runners up) Promotion / relegation would be the norm. All games must be played on the date, unless the weather makes the green unsuitable.
Naturally, it would seem that if we got enough interest, we may be able to launch a pilot league this winter, but realistically we are looking to start in 2022/2023 winter.
Please let me have your views, either by email or phone, and also if your club are willing to be considered to host a division. Naturally I do know that council greens will not be considered for use.
Best Regards
Les Holmes
Secretary
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