Highlights
The 2026 Rules Revision Meeting at Owley Wood on January 17th had a number of proposals. What got passed? Here’s where to find out….
There were two principle amends that got approved, neither of which really affect the fundamentals of the sport or the ‘Laws of the Game’ document that we all cherish for bedtime reading.
The first, proposed by the BCGBA Board, was to change the voting rights system at the Annual General Meeting itself. Obviously such a motion needed to be passed with the current rules in place. So what was the logic?
Independent Board Member, Graham Pickervance, known as ‘Sir’ to his friends, explained that the current single vote for a non-merged County and two votes for a merged County didn’t acknowledge the size of the bowling community the County covered, and the Board felt that some form of proportional representation should be introduced.
The proposal was to add one extra vote for every 60 Primary Affiliated Clubs that the County represents. While not unanimous, this proposal did get the required two thirds majority and was passed in readiness for next years Annual General Meeting.
The second proposal, made by Greater Manchester and seconded by Merseyside was unanimous approved.
This was to reduce the practise time for the away team in the Men’s County Championship from 30 minutes to the 15 minutes, the same as the home side. Bit of a ‘no-brainer’ and something that’s been discussed around Men’s County matches for many years.
So what else was on the proposals list that didn’t get the required two thirds majority?
Ladies County match proposals to amend green usage rules and method of deciding a drawn semi-final or final game in an alternative manner were both defeated, with the room being split down the middle on which methods were best.
A proposal from the Isle of Man Ladies to take one of the places in the Ladies Supplementary County Championship, as their Men’s team do, also got defeated. I’m sure this will be reviewed again during 2026 and we’ll hopefully see the Isle of Man Ladies competing on the mainland in some form in 2027.
Full Competition Rules can be found on each specific Competition page.
Bye Laws of the association can be found in the Policies & Procedures section.
