One host club quits Winter League

Winter League

The Winter League is looking for a new club to host one of the 10 divisions for the coming season after Paddock I&C withdrew from being a host club after one season in that role. The format of the League dictates the support organisation required and that extends to the obligations on the host clubs.

The support team that host clubs need to provide, splits into three areas.

1. Admin & Raffle One or two individuals are required to take responsibility for collecting weekly match fees, contacting the teams if matches are postponed on matchday, and selling raffle tickets.

2. Greenkeeper

The support and involvement of the club greenkeeper is key to a successful matchday. The greenkeeper has responsibility for deciding if the green is playable or not.

3. Catering Team Catering for 32 bowlers and spectators throughout the 3-hour matchday is a very important part of the well-being of the players and an area that can produce the most income for the host club.

It is this fourth area where Paddock I&C are struggling to raise sufficient personnel to provide the full catering service. It is on record that the team of four that provided that service last season reported internally that 'the catering team reported at the end of last season how rewarding and enjoyable they found the experience'. However, people's circumstances change and having lost some of that team, they have failed to attract any replacements. Despite valiant efforts by some to recruit replacements, the vacancies remain, and the club felt they had no option but to stand down as a host club.

Paddock I&C provided a complete host service to teams in Division 9 last season, and I want to reassure all the teams in that Division that we fully expect to provide a complete service again next season with another host club. There are several options open to us and this will be discussed by the Management Committee when they next meet on Wednesday 22 July. Hopefully there will be some news on a replacement host club before then to share with you.

That being the case, we are now looking for a new host club to join the ranks who look to profit by £3,500-£6,000 for providing a 14-week season for 8 teams. Any club interested in taking on that role is welcome to contact the League Secretary to discuss further.

Obviously, to lose one of our host clubs could jeopardise the continuing influx of new teams. We fully expect to be able to provide a full season of fixtures for all 77 of our teams from last season (was 80 teams but 3 have since withdrawn) plus the 5 new teams that have already applied to join the League.

However we cannot guarantee to accommodate any new entries from now on. Hopefully that restriction will be overcome and we have a number of options open to us to overcome this shortfall. But we have no wish to mislead anyone, so any new applications from now on will be given a 'health warning' about the reality of the situation. We will keep everyone up to date with progress on addressing this shortfall through the HuddWeb website.