Bowling News
Today (Thursday 12 January) the Council of the Yorkshire CCGBA will discuss a proposal to make all the county team competitions, including the Yorkshire Cup, mixed-gender. This proposal has been put forward by Ossett Flying Horse and is included below in its entirety.
It also reads to me that entry into the Yorkshire Cup becomes mandatory for all teams in the county. With fewer and fewer teams entering the prestigious competitions each year there is perceived to be the need to provide a stimulus to create more interest and more entries. This is seen as one way of doing this. With an entry fee of £40 per team, this will become quite a good fundraising scheme as well.
The Council will discuss and vote on this proposal before it can be placed before the Yorkshire CCGBA AGM in February.
The Council of Yorkshire CCGBA is made up of County Officials and elected representatives from all the Districts, including Huddersfield. I am told that Huddersfield is no longer represented at these meetings since the passing of Ian Kinloch. I wonder how many Huddersfield clubs have been canvassed for their views on this proposal so that those views may be heard when the Council meets if any of our representatives should happen to attend.
I am sure that many will view this proposal as the first step to other leagues and competitions becoming mixed-gender. They may well be right.
I should add that I receive my copy of the Yorkshire Council agenda and papers through a Halifax contact and I have never ever received any such information through the proper channel of the Huddersfield representatives, has your club?
This is the full proposal from Ossett Flying Horse.
Appendix 2 Council Meeting 12th January 2023
Proposal from Ossett Flying Horse
Regarding Cup Competitions
Yorkshire Cup entries are at possibly a new time low with only 16/18 entries last season. I think the following should be the system put forward for members to vote on.
Rules to be changed to allow females to play in Yorkshire Cup and all cups.
All clubs will enter the Yorkshire Cup Round 1 and the entry fee will be £40 per team.
Any club that loses in the first round of the Yorkshire Cup will automatically go into the draw for the Henry Taylor Cup.
Any club that loses in the first round of the Henry Taylor will automatically go into the Hutchinson Cup.
Any club that loses in the first round of the Hutchinson will go into the Radley Cup and should they lose then they will be now out of the cup comps for that year.
The positives of this are that all teams will play 4 games for £40 (Can be higher if needed) so in effect £10 per game, this will no doubt get more entries across the board. The formats will remain the same in player numbers etc.
For this proposal to go ahead it will require at least 3 rule changes.
1. To make it mandatory for all YCGBA registered clubs to enter the cup competitions.
2. To allow females to bowl in ALL competitions.
3 To remove the rule stating there has to be a minimum of 2 persons of the same gender in a team.. (Especially in the current climate)
I'm not sure of the ruling regarding the voting structure but lets say for a proposal to be passed it needs 66.6% in favour then there will be absolutely no chance of it happening.
How can a club be forced to enter a team competition that fields 12 bowler's when they might only field an 8 man side on a Saturday. Looks like a tax on clubs to me.