Saturday League team numbers this century

League News

The start of a new bowling season is a time for positive thinking and hopes of some personal and team success but there is always the backdrop of matters of concern that are never far away. As the number of new bowlers you are likely to encounter in the near future reduces further and the number of new greens to be visited and overcome disappears altogether so thoughts turn to the state of our game.

Bill Blackburn has been delving through his collection of Saturday League handbooks to give us a sample of League numbers over this century. They are presented here without further comment. I will be updating and publishing my own record of year-by-year team numbers by the leading leagues for the start of the season as usual shortly.

Meanwhile Bill Blackburn writes

It was muted a while ago that Saturday bowling was on the decline. While passing time I have come up with following statistics

Year 2000 – 111 teams made up as follows:

Subscription 16, Drayton 16, Littlewood 16, Bamforth 16, Ingham 16, Beaumont 6, Binns 15 Taylor 10. In Beaumont I think they played each other four times

Year 2005 - 112 teams: Subs 18, Dra 19, Litt 19, Bam 10, Ing 11, Bea 10, Binns 5, Tay 10

Year 2010 – 103 teams: Subs 18, Dra 18, Litt 17, Bam 9, Ing 10, Bea 11, Binns 10, Tay10

Year 2018 – 85 teams: Subs 10, Dra 10, Litt 11, Bam 12, Ing 12, Bea 11, Binns 10, Tay 9

Year 2023 – 64 teams: Subs 10, Dra 11, Litt 11, Bam 11, Binns 10, Tay 11