Veterans League News
Don't know if it is because of being late in the season and waning interest or not but the number of walkover results seems to be on the increase in the Veterans 10-Man league. Last Tuesday no less than 9 bowlers from 58 teams were missing from league games resulting in 7 'walk-over' wins for their opponents. Although the points get awarded that is little consolation for the opponents where a bowler misses out on a match they had expected to play in.
This all adds weight to the case for the proposed rule change which will be put before clubs at the October Half-Year Meeting when they will vote on changing the number of bowlers in a team from 10 to 8.
In the 6-Man League there were 26 teams in action last Monday and just Paddock were short of a full team missing two bowlers from their line-up so no-one should assume that reducing the number of bowlers in a team will automatically see the problem go away.
The full list of 10-man teams short of a full complement of bowlers this Tuesday is:
Other Leagues are also experiencing similar difficulties with three matches called off in the final round of Saturday fixtures in the Huddersfield League due to teams either 'refusing to complete' or 'unable to complete'. These three matches have been declared Void on the League's Bowlsnet pages. It is unclear for what reason the games were called off but it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that team raising difficulties may be involved. It is of little consequence this season with the impact minimised with no promotion or relegation involved in any division this year but is that another indication of teams struggling to field a full complement every week?
It is also worth a mention that none of the teams in the list are vying for promotion and some have very little chance of relegation so maybe a little apathy has crept in and the perhaps the thinking is that we are where we are so why bother it won't change anything this late on the season.
Bob H
7 walk over wins in the embers of the season is hardly conclusive evidence to slash the number of bowlers in ALL team by 20% for EVERY single game for EVERY week of the season.
As stated previously to reduce the number of bowlers from 10 to 8 would deprive OVER 100 bowlers a game EVERY week - all for the sake of ensuring eg there wouldn’t be 7 walk over wins.
This is not logical and not the way forward.
This season has been a one off, with many bowlers delaying their return to playing and some bowlers, because of Covid, giving this season a miss.
So, logically next season will increase the availability of bowlers making the reduction…