Winter League brings £40,000 into bowling

Winter League

The unique format of the Huddersfield Winter League has been responsible for bringing a total of around £40,000 profit direct to the 10 clubs hosting matches over the 14-week season. This income is comprised of Green Fees, Food Sales, Raffle Income and Bar Sales. Of course this is not just about the Winter League as each of the 10 host greens has worked tremendously hard to add to the bowling days with a range of services to make each round of fixtures such a success.

The minimum total profit reported this year being £3,400 from clubs that do not have a bar to boost sales figures. So that is a minimum of £260 a week profit from the weekly round of matches. Where a club opens its bar weekly for Winter League bowlers and for Christmas gatherings then the total can go up to £6,000.

This has become an important source of income for many host clubs when many would have otherwise no income at all over the 6-month Winter season. I know of at least two clubs that have stated that without this additional income the clubs could well have gone out of business as they could not have met the power and water bills, among others, presented to them over this barren period.

The League prides itself on being different in so many ways including bringing cash benefits into local bowling and not being a means of leaking money out of our sport. The League does not pay out any cash prizes to successful teams and individuals so minimising the annual League fee to £15 per team. In addition the League Officials do not take annual honorariums contrary to usual practice which can result in many thousands of pounds going out of our sport.

Any club interested in learning more about becoming a host green for the 2026-27 Winter season should contact the League Secretary for more information. We anticipate needing two more host greens for an Autumn start later this year. This is based on the continuation of the growth rate we have experienced over the 6 years of the League's existence. There is no indication of a slowing down of the number of teams interested in joining the League with 17 new teams being admitted to the League last year and taking the total up to 80 teams.

We love being different, long may it continue.