Veterans League
With the deadline passing for new teams to apply to join the Veterans League it is now known that one new team has applied to join the 10-Man League and there are five new team applications for the 6-Man League.
Bradley & Colne have withdrawn from the 10-Man League after team-raising difficulties all last season, however Elland WMC have applied to join the League maintaining the 60 total for the coming season. The make-up of both Leagues for the 2024 season will be decided next Monday when the Management Committee meets to finalise the allocation of teams in each of the divisions.
This week the Management Committee repeated their intent to rebalance the divisions in the 10-Man League and with 60 teams signed up for the new season it is a simple mathematics exercise to determine the format. With 5 divisions already in existence then this should lead to 12 teams in each division for the 2024 season, anything else could hardly be called balanced. The decisions on which teams go into which divisions is another matter.
The make-up all depends on where the new team from Elland WMC are placed. They could be put straight into Division 3 to replace the withdrawn and relegated Bradley & Colne side or they could be put into the bottom division or almost any other division that the Management Committee decides. The past practice has been that a team is placed in the division most fitting to their playing capabilities.
At the conclusion of the 2023 season, we looked at the options open to the Management Committee for rebalancing the five divisions in the 10-Man League and highlighted the probable line-up for the 2024 season. This provides a helpful starting point for the rebalancing exercise as acknowledged by the League Secretary at that time. Read it again
The five new teams applying to join the 6-Man League are Bradley & Colne, Brockholes C, Greenhead Park B, Marsh Lib B and Waterloo. Presumably the Brockholes C team will not be bowling on a Monday due to green availability and will follow the example of the Thongsbridge C team who usually bowl home fixtures on a Friday.
That provides a total of 41 teams to be manipulated into, presumably, the same three divisions making 2 x 14 teams and one division of 13 teams. Again the factor of where to place the new teams is key to the fomat and It has to be said that the Management Committee's record on placing new teams in the most appropriate division is not great.
For the last two seasons they have fast-tracked two new teams straight into the top division of the 6-Man League, In 2022 it was the Linthwaite Hall side that started life in Division 1 where they won only one of their 22 fixtures to finish bottom. Then last year it was the turn of Elland C&BC who got the special treatment to collect just two wins from 22 matches all season and finish at the foot of the table.
Let's hope that the work in determining places for the new season is a little more thorough than in previous seasons. It is not easy to get it right every time especially if you don't learn from past experiences. All credit to Linthwaite Hall and Elland C&BC that they have not been put off by their early bad experiences and continue to play in the League.
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