Teams set for start of East Coast of Yorkshire Crown Green Bowling League season
Once the clocks leap forward into Spring it’s always time to get your crown green bowls out from any winter hibernation as you know the leagues are about to jump into life.
At this time we start to see the changes in personnel and strengths of the different teams.
Last season’s Evening League Division One Champions North Cliff A captained by Robert Child have seen Ian Richardson leave but Paul Morgan come in.
Child has also brought improving bowler Adam Chilvers into the squad to join local stars Alan Landers, Danny Cooper and Nigel Trotter and once again I expect them to be the team to beat.
As usual Andy Adamson’s Borough A with Dave Pryce and Jack Bird in the squad are always going to be a danger and love to challenge their local rivals.
Jack Richardson is the captain at Hunmanby and bringing Geoff Oldham back into the first team alongside Harry Old and Billy Holdsworth can only strengthen their challenge.
Dukes Park A have recruited Ian Butterfield from Brid Bay and with leading local bowlers Andy Deighton, Kevin Gates and Chris Dobson in their ranks they will improve their challenge this season.
At the bottom newly-promoted Eastfield A led by Mick Carter and the evergreen John Burton may suffer from the loss of last year’s top bowler Oliver Burnett and find the first division a struggle.
Borough C are also newly promoted and with a number of new improving bowlers along with the reliable Daplyn brothers may surprise a few teams.
Whitby B should have enough strength to avoid the drop but Brid Bay have lost Ian Butterfield to Dukes Park this year and I expect them to find the going tough.
In Division 2, Josh Emmerson’s Whitby C will be a team to beat but I expect Westgate A to lead the challenge.
Hazel Marshall’s Borough D have a number of Improving bowlers and I have no doubt will rattle a few feathers while I expect Hunmanby B to have a say in the title race.
In the Doubles there are no changes to the Borough A squad who have won the title for the last three years but I expect a strong challenge again led by Emmo Emmerson’s Whitby also Hunmanby and North Cliff A will be thereabouts.
The Over-60s League has been dominated by Hunmanby for the last 10 years and I see little prospect of this changing even with the rule change increasing teams from 10 players to 12.
Dukes Park, North Cliff and Borough will be hoping to mount strong challenges.
The Saturday League doesn’t get underway until May 2 so it’s hard to predict teams and players at this stage.
My hope is that Borough A will mount a big challenge against champions North Cliff A but no doubt Hunmanby Whitby and Dukes Park are all saying the same thing.
The fact is it is a great sport to be involved in and it seems to be improving in strength each year.