Wednesday Winter League Fixtures

Winter League

Just one Division in action this Wednesday so we examine the chances of the eight teams in Division 3 at Springwood and pick our best tips for promotion and relegation. In addition we remind all teams about some of the basics of Winter League bowling.

DIVISION 3 FINAL TABLE 2024-25 SEASON

The Division 3 season opens this Wednesday at Springwood with an 11.00am start time. The other two divisions that play on Wednesdays, Divisons 1 and 5, have delayed their start dates until Wednesday 29 October so the casual spectator has a choice of one Wednesday venue in the first two weeks of the new season. If you are going to Springwood then try John's home-made soup, you wont regret it.

The final Division 3 table of the 2024-25 season shows New Mill B and Denby Dale in the two promotion places but only one of them will actually go up into Division 2 to play on Tuesdays for the new season. That is because Denby Dale applied to avoid promotion due to a long-standing commitment to play in another league on Tuesdays. The League's Management Committee supported their position but imposed a 10-point penalty on the team for the 2025-26 season to ensure that the Division 3 season will remain competitive and will be no easy ride to more glories for the Denby Dale team. Lowerhouses B accepted the promotion instead and they are joining the club's A team in Division 2 for this season.

The two teams coming down from Division 2 - Lindley Lib B and Lindley BC B - will be strong contenders for 2025-26 honours. As will the Division 4 Champions, Slaithwaite, coming up from Division 4. Rastrick were the Division 4 runners-up but will not be playing in Division 3 as they withdrew from their membership of the League at the end of the season citing team raising problems. That appears to have been eased over the summer, or more likely new interest has been created within the club, as they have re-entered the League for the new season and will be playing in the 7-week Division 10 competition to test out that new interest.

Almondbury BC B have taken advantage of that situation to accept an offer to play in Division 3 for the coming season after their tremendous achievements last season when winning the Division 6 title. They didn't just win it they smashed all the opposition to bits with an unbeaten 14-match season. Winning 13 of their fixtures and drawing the other one and it will be interesting to see how that works out. I think it is a big ask to expect them to produce another scintillating series of winning results and mid-table is the best that they can expect in my opinion which in itself will be a significant achievement.

The two Lindley teams have enjoyed success at higher levels than this in past seasons and both have a record of winning promotion or suffering relegation in each of the last three seasons. I am expecting that to continue as they get my vote to fill the two promotion places for the 2025-26 Division 3 season.

At the foot of the table I turn to Thorpe Green C when looking for a team to take the dive down into Division 4 at the end of the season. Last year they only won 5 matches. Three of those five being against the two teams that finished below them in the table. Those two teams will not be providing that safety net for them this season so they have the pleasure of my support to take bottom spot come the end of the season.

REMINDERS:

Having walked around the Primrose Hill Liberal Club green on Monday as the Winter League Division 4 teams got back into their weekly routine I was reminded of what teams need to remember about Winter bowling, These are some of the basics about the Winter League experience:

• The 'home' team is responsible for putting the match scores on to Bowlsnet by midnight on the day after the match has been played. The away team captain should verify the result by midnight on the day after that.

• The scoring system is 2 points for each game and a further 2 points for the top Aggregate score. That makes 8 points in total at stake although Bowlsnet handles all that for you.

• The 'home' team decides the running order of the games. That is Singles-Singles-Pairs or Singles-Pairs-Singles or even Pairs-Singles-Singles or any other combination.

• The 'home' team has the jack for all three games.

• If a match has to be postponed on matchday for any reason then the host club will inform all eight team captains by 10.00am who are then responsible for contacting their team players to save them travelling.

• Every team should bring a measuring device with them to each day's bowling. The nearest measurer should offer to measure for any game. Being the nearest ensures that this is conducted quicker and avoids bowlers hanging around in cold weather.

• The host club provides a long measure situated near the clubhouse and teams should take on this responsibility when called for. The tape should be returned to the original place when job completed.

• Teams can add new bowlers to their squads at any time during the season as long as they haven't already played for another team in the League.