Veterans League
The 6-Man Veterans League has lost another team with the withdrawal of Farnley Tyas due to team raising difficulties. Farnley has been a long-standing member of the 6-Man League since 2014 and the 10-Man League before that but a combination of things - members ages, COVID19 concerns and the split of some of the team to the new Honley side - have all contributed to this decision.
Farnley was my first Veterans League club and I remember joining the 10-Man League team in 2010 and playing there until 2013 when they succumbed to dwindling numbers by withdrawing from the 10-man and joining the 6-man instead. I couldn't make the move with them to Monday bowling as I was already bowling for another team in the Heavy Woollen League on Monday afternoons so it was with reluctance that I dropped out altogether. There were some really good lads in that old man's team and I hope that all of them that want, and are able, to continue bowling get that opportunity with other clubs. Sign of the times I am afraid.
That leaves 28 teams in the 6-Man League down from 32 in 2019 and results in an overall drop in numbers across both the 6-man and 10-man competitions of 6 teams, down to 90 from the 96 of 2019. The revised listing of all our local leagues is below which captures the drop in teams across 8 of the 16 local leagues.
We still await news of the other 8 leagues when they get around to publishing their fixture programmes but it would be a major surprise if any of them didn't continue the downward trend. Even to retain the same number of teams would be an achievement and maybe we will see more teams withdraw once the full impact of the COVID19 pandemic is realised when teams have to actually take to the greens.
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