League Officers Meeting 16th October

Outcomes from a meeting of the league officers were as follows:

• The 2025 AGM will be held on Thursday 13th February at Sinclair (to be confirmed), 1.30pm start.

• All current officers have agreed to continue.

• Following some difficulties, clubs are reminded that they should ensure that their contact details on their club page on the results service are kept up to date.  Details of any changes to club secretaries should be emailed to midshropseniorbowls@gmail.com.

• Notice of team withdrawals and any new applications should be lodged with the secretary before the AGM. Please note that the current league format of four divisions each of fourteen teams doesn't allow any expansion. The only way to do so would be to add a fifth division and reduce the divisions to twelve teams. This reorganisation would necessarily mean that normal promotion/relegation would not be possible. Once the number of teams entered is known, the officers will put forward options to the AGM. We have received one application already and one other club was interested in entering another team at the start of this season.

• Any propositions for rule changes should be emailed to the league secretary (midshropseniorbowls@gmail.com) as soon as possible and at the latest by 31st December. Propositions from the officers are as follows:

  1. As very few teams fill out a result card any longer and  there were a couple of disputes this season, amend League Rule 13 which currently reads: The home captain or representative to insert result of the match on the web site within 48 hours of match being played, all results cards must be checked by both captains as an agreed result and signed by both accordingly, any discrepancies arising from this result must be agreed and resolved at the end of the match.  
     Change to read:
     (a) Home clubs shall ensure the result is entered on the website within 48 hours of the match being completed. The details should then be checked and any discrepancy notified to the Fixture Secretary by E-mail within 72 hours.
     (b) Clubs shall retain all the individual score cards for a further 5 days after a fixture.
     (c) Clubs must present individual score cards for verification within 5 days of being called for by the league or a league officer.
     (d) Where a dispute arises and individual score cards are not provided for verification, the complainant shall have their complaint upheld, with no right of appeal being given to the other team.

  2. Delete rule 18 as we no longer hold a November meeting:
     18. All propositions for the AGM  in (January) must be notified to the league secretary 21 days prior to the General Meeting in (November).

  3. Competition rule 1 for the Individual Merit currently reads:
     1. All entries must be 60 or over and played in the league during the current season.
     Change to:
     1. All entries must be 60 or over and have played at least four games in the league during the current season.

  4. New Competition rule 3 for the Individual Merit to read:
     3. Any player having entered and not turned up to play without notifying the competition secretary will be banned from entering the competition the following year.

  5. Competition rule 1 for the Doubles currently reads:
     1.All entries must be 60 or over and played in the league during the current season.
     Change to:
     1.All entries must be 60 or over and have played at least four games in the league during the current season.

  6. New Competition rule 3 for the Doubles to read:
     3. Any players having entered and not turned up to play without notifying the competition secretary will be banned from entering the competition the following year.

Doubles Finals

The doubles competition was completed at Sinclair on Thursday 29th August. Congratulations to the winners, Cliff Johnson & Steve Davis who beat St Georges teammates Paul Beer & Keith Pessall in the final.

Details here.

Over 75's Played on Thursday 27th June at Sinclair

Tony Roche of Sir John Bayley added to his impressive list of veteran's titles with a 21-9 final win over Newport's Mick Jones. All scores are here.

There were twelve entries. Many thanks to the Sinclair club for making their facilities available. Full details are here.

Fixture Issues & Player Registration

Clubs are reminded that they should contact the league's fixture secretaries Nigel & Stephen Booth regarding issues with fixtures and player registration. Their contact details are on the Officers page.

BCGBA Code of Conduct

The BCGBA have released an updated discipline policy and code of conduct. You can read it here. All bowlers are urged to familiarise themselves with the content and also the laws of the game which you can find here with frequently asked questions answered here.

Archiving News

News items will be moved to the current year in the News Archive when they're no longer relevant.