Plans well under way for the 2027 crown green bowls season

It may seem strange having just completed the 2026 to be looking ahead six months and more but, although only a limited amount can be done now, it pays off in the long term.

One obvious example is the planning for the two Festivals.

This is at least in part because people travelling, especially for Eastfield in August need to book their accommodation well in advance.

Next year’s programme can be affected by a number of factors.

Some of these are local and thus under our own control to at least some extent, others depend on outside bodies such as Yorkshire Crown Green Bowling Association (YCGBA) and the British Crown Green Bowling Association (B. CGBA).

The main ways YCGBA can influence our programme are firstly through the dates they set for certain competitions and secondly by changing the entry criteria for the County Cup competitions.

The influence of BCGBA is mainly through any changes they might make to the rules of the game at their AGM.

So far as our own influence on next season is concerned the main things will depend on decisions taken at our AGM on November 27 at Eastfield BC.

At this there are 21 proposals to be voted on, plus three amendments.

A number of the proposals are purely administrative additions/amendments to the Association’s Constitution addressing non-controversial issues that have been identified but which can only be amended by an AGM.

The biggest one in these is to formalise the procedures for the Association’s Champion of Champions competition, The Mick Jessop Cup.

There are a number of proposals though that, if they are passed, will bring about changes next season.

In some cases there are options for exactly how these changes will be implemented which will be considered by the Management Committee.

Possibly the biggest change, and one with options for implementation, would be if a proposal on promotion and relegation in the three leagues with two divisions were passed.

At present this seems to be very much a yo-yo situation with the same teams being promoted one year and relegated the next.

The proposal going to the AGM would replace the current norm of 2 up 2 down with only the top team in Division 2 being automatically promoted and the bottom team in Division 1 relegated.

The second team in Division 2 and the next to bottom team in Division 1 would then play off with the winner playing in Division 1 the following season.

The other proposals include one to allow clubs to specifically start their summer merits earlier than 9:30am, one to change from the current drawing of order of play in league matches to captains deciding their own order of paly, another to allow the Gambart Baines greens to used for Association competitions if the terms were favourable and one to allow practice before league matches up to the start time.

In addition to these the Association is also looking at the possibility of introducing a handicapping system in the Knockout Cup and Shield and has set up a sub-committee to look at how this could work.

The other aspect of preparation for next season relates to organising the league and merit programmes.

Little can be done on the former, beyond preparing Bowlsnet, until the number of teams in each league is known which will not be until sometime in 2027 but the merit programmes can at least be drafted.

It was decided several years ago that both the Sunday merits and the Over-60s merits should be “rotated” on a four-week cycle to try to ensure that all clubs got a share of the periods of supposedly better weather.

There are also a number of Association competitions to be fitted into the programme and then YCGBA competitions have to taken into consideration.

There are three inter-District competitions, Yorkshire’s Men’s and Ladies’ Inter-Districts and the Veteran’s Hickson Trophy.

The likely dates for these can be deduced from previous years but will not be definitely known until sometime in 2027.

The two Yorkshire competitions are particularly important for planning as they determine the dates for the Terry Summersgill Drawn Pairs and for The Remembrance Cup respectively, assuming neither competition is being staged in this District in which case local competition would not be held.

The Hickson Trophy dates are simply left blank as it would not be viable to run Over-60s competitions on those Fridays.

One change that will happen in 2027 is that the dates for The William Boyes Cup, The Hospital Cup, The Rosebowl Doubles, The Association Merit and The Summer Championship (The President’s Trophy) will be brought forward so that the championship will be played in early/mid September rather than in mid October as has usually been the case.

The Winter Merit programme now starts with an Over-60s Singles at Westgate on 6 November and then an Open Singles at Eastfield on November 8.

The start time for both of these is 9am, entry is on the day and bowlers are asked to be present by 8.55am to enable the draw to be made for a prompt start.

Depending on entry numbers there will be a consolation Tea & Biscuits (T&B) drawn pairs competition for first-game losers and late arrivals. Anyone wishing to enter the T&B only should be there by 11am.