REGISTRATION PRINCIPLES

Our Club needs to have reasonable certainty that it can field its nominated sides each round, otherwise we risk playing teams short, or facing fines for withdrawal or forfeiture of sides.

To have this certainty we need a large enough pool of players who are committed to play for the whole season whilst allowing for:

·       An ageing demographic whose health and fitness issues will have an increasing impact on their availability to bowl.

·       A hopefully greater number of players whose work commitments will adversely impact on availability but for whom we need to give selection preference if we are to attract and retain them.

·       Lifestyle priorities such as family commitments, planned holidays, etc.

Statistical evidence gained in 2024-25 suggests that we need to allow for at least 20% unavailability in our committed player pool in order to enter 3 sides on Saturdays and Tuesdays [i.e. we need a committed pool of 60 and 48 respectively]

The committed player pool comprises members prepared to be available for selection each week unless they have declared unavailability.

Obtaining 60 players for Saturday Pennant may be problematic, in which case we may need instead to enter a 12-a-side Division in order to ensure viability.

Care is required in determining the number of sides to register, to ensure that if we have too many players likely to be on regular rotation, we will need to have organised social bowls to cater for them.

PLAYER ENROLMENT

The Bowls Director (or his/her delegate) will seek members’ nominations for the following Pennant Season as soon as possible after the AGM. This will enable the Selectors to begin the process of establishing provisional squads that can be firmed up by the start of the Pennant season.

Enrolment will be for members who are prepared to commit to be available for selection each round unless having given prior notice of their unavailability. [the Club understands that for the reasons outlined above, this may mean that some members will have higher unavailability than others but our committed player pool should be sufficient to cover it.]

Members who withdraw their nomination after we have entered them for the season, should appreciate that their withdrawal may jeopardise our ability to field full sides, thus causing financial penalties if we have to forfeit or withdraw a side.