WINTER LEAGUES INFORMATION - 2025/26
LIBC WINTER LEAGUE PROGRAMME 2025/26
The Winter League Programme will be published next week, and Captains will be able to collect their team sheets from the bar from Wednesday 9th July 2025. To enable fixture checks, the Bookings pages from September 2025 through to the end of April 2026 will also be accessible from that date on BOWLR.
Members and players may wish to note the following information regarding the Leagues from September 2025:
MORNING LEAGUES (10.30am) Fri 12th Sept – Fri 17th April
All requests from Captains to play on given days have been granted but this has led to an imbalance of teams and a workaround involving more fixtures than one per week has been implemented. Generally, the existing set days format will be retained per Division but teams in Divisions One and Two will have additional fixtures to ensure they play each other three times over the season. These additional fixtures with the odd exception, will be played on Thursday mornings where there are no Over 60s team fixtures.
NEW STARTER PAIRS LEAGUE (THURSDAYS at 2.30pm) Nov 25 – April 26
We have only four entries for this thus far, although we anticipate a new influx from our September Open Day and will seek four further teams to make 8.
As we have already utilised our Thursday Mornings, teams in this league will now play their matches on a Thursday Afternoon at 2.30pm with sheets issued from late October.
AFTERNOON LEAGUES (2.30pm) Mon 8th Sept – Fri 17th April
Following several team withdrawals, a slight reshuffle has been made to division numbers to enable teams to play each other the same number of times within the confines of the season. This has been achieved and the corresponding days per division can be retained.
TEA-TIME AUSSIE PAIRS (4.30pm) Fri 12th Sept – Fri 17th April
As per last season 8 teams will compete on a Thursday in Division One.
Division Two however has seen a substantial increase in entries and 15 teams will compete on a Friday Teatime meaning 7 rinks will be taken from 4.30 – 6.30pm on a Friday.
EARLY EVENING LEAGUES (6.30pm) Wed 11th Sept – Thu 16th April
Three Divisions playing Monday (Div 2 -10 Teams), Tuesday (Div1 10 Teams), and Thursday (Div 3 – 16 Teams) as per last season. This will mean full rinks in use on a Thursday night. Division One matches will end on Tuesday 31st March and subsequent Tuesdays will be utilised by the Sets Triples Leagues
SET TRIPLES LEAGUES Tue 9th Sept – Fri 17th Apr
This has again proved popular, and we have increased numbers once again this year which means we cannot accommodate everyone on the Wednesday Night at 7pm.
With 12 teams in Div 1 and 11 teams in Div 2, we shall utilise spare rinks Monday and Tuesday nights at 6.30pm for Div 2 matches (whilst doing our best to avoid clashes for players with their Early League teams)
With the need to spread out fixtures across the week, care should be taken when diarising matches please.
FRIDAY NIGHT AUSTRALIAN PAIRS LEAGUE - FRI 6.30pm) 19th Sept – 10th April
Last season was a disappointment for players in this league who only played once per fortnight. This season we shall play one Division of 13 teams and play 6 matches EVERY WEEK. This will leave two rinks spare for COMPETITION PLAY ONLY on a Friday Night, although should the rinks still be spare on the Friday Morning anyone is at liberty to use them for roll ups. 16 Ends will again be played out.
This league was previously 6 team in Div 1 and 7 in Div 2 which would mean teams playing each other possibly up to Six times over the season! That was thought to be too many but to give those who would have been in Div 2 a fighting chance against Div 1 teams, we have allocated handicap scores to 7 teams and 6 will play off scratch.
Team Handicaps will then be reviewed at Christmas and revised as necessary.
SUNDAY AM TRIPLES (9.30am) (Sun 14th Sept – Sun 19th April)
With only 7 teams in each Division, six matches will play on a Sunday Morning. In an effort to boost player numbers, this League will also be open to the ladies this year.
Two spare rinks each Sunday will enable us to play Egham Trophy Matches without disruption to the league programme, although we may need to react to the Top Club draw when published by asking .
There is an argument for one division with a handicap here too but the team squads are larger and handicaps more difficult to set so the format has been left as per last season.
LADIES AFTERNOON SETS LEAGUE (Wed 10th Sept – Wed 8th April)
After a lot of effort from League Secretary Sheila, the Ladies League still has 10 teams and will be played at 2.30pm on Wednesday afternoons. There are strategic ‘gaps’ during the season for Club Friendly & Touring matches and no matches will be played on Christmas Eve or on the one date when the Trudy Bates team play on a Wednesday.
The Ladies will again form a sub committee this year to organise their own Competitions with a finals programme in April (DatesTBA).
IN SUMMARY
With the Club facing ever rising costs and overheads, the hope is always to be able to plan a bowling programme without the need to raise rink Membership fees.
A slight increase in fixtures in some divisions will enable us to do this for another season, whilst giving each team at least one fixture per week.
Captains - When you pick up your Winter Sheets please look carefully through each fixture list for matches on non standard days and check the programme on line to ensure those fixtures are booked in. Everything should marry up, but it’s important for players to note any matches that are played outside of the normal play days.
Danny Brown
League & Fixture Secretary