Harrogate Bowling

The Tadcaster League meeting last night discussed the future of the Richardson Trophy following a letter received at last january's meeting from Aberford stating that it should be looked at.

The crux of the issues raised are as follows ;-

1. Teams have to enter and if they have two teams (or one even) sometimes struggle to get people to open up and look after games on their own greens for 4/5 weeks if matches drawn there.

2. Feeling that the league season finnishes too late and in darkness or 6pm start for the final game etc

3. Often two teams have to play out the richardson league fixtures when nothing to play for. Suggestion could opt not to play if this is the case.

The secretary has asked that formal proposals for any changes be received from clubs by the end of November for discussion, agreement and ratification at the January pre AGM and February AGM. Possible implementation of any changes in 2010 or 2011 depending on the logistics.

I know some clubs never discuss these matters so thought - social networking would a good way of gauging opinions too.

I'll start - as Les Hudson, Garforth stated the competition has run well since 1964 and is an integral part of the Tadcaster League. I personally enjoy bowling the pairs comp and visiting the different greens that we do not play in the first division. I think the move to play Q/F, S/F and Final on one day was a good one.

In relation to clubs opting out of entering a team I believe this is something that could be considered so that the entries are limited to around 32. However, I strongly believe that if you enter a league that your green MUST be made availalble (kept free) for all league competition dates and this should be a condition of entry to any league so all clubs must be capable of hosting games.

Clubs should not be able to not play games just because they can not qualify - or do we allow mid-table teams in leagues to opt out of games from August in main leagues.

That being said there is some merit in looking at the handicaping and doing this aggressively to give the lower league teams a better chance of success and making the Richardson Leagues a tighter finish (possibly) - always difficult to get right but mainly Div 1 teams still in last 8, 4 and 2 year on year ?? need a statto to confirm.

Views.

i have heard a lot of people comment about the Richardson trophy over the last few years and the main comment that keeps cropping up is about some games involving clubs at the top of the 1st division who play a team down near the bottom of the 4th, the scores can be very embarrasing as quite often, the lower league team doesn't manage to accumlulate 21 points between the 4 of their pairs! That cannot do anyone any good, so the point people make is why not have the Richardson played between 1st and 2nd division teams and a supplementary for the 3rd and 4th divisions. Its very rare that a lower league team makes it to the final/finals, unless thye are a new team just come that has just joined the league.

I like the Richardson personally, as Mr Tupper mentioned alot of the scores can be embarrassing at times perhaps div 3/4 teams would be happier in the knowledge that they had a chance of winning a supplementary version of the main competition.

The other point to be raised is the ridiculous starting times of matches.
This is not a Vets league so those of us who work til 17:30+ find it impossible to travel form Leeds to Harrogate and Vice versa to start games at 6 p.m. I understand it gets dark but there is always an alternative.

In Division 1 this year, we lost a tadcaster team and a harrogate team to relegation, replaced by 2 harrogate teams. This means that half of the league games in 2010 will be a 20min+ travel time no matter who you play for.

I like the idea of the top two and bottom two division split as this may make more competitive games, as apart from finals day i am not a big fan of the Richardson.
Regarding the 6 start, that would be a joke and alot of people including myself would not be able to play these games.