(Content reviewed 17/9/08)

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

THE EARLY YEARS (pre 1993)

There is precious little documentation from the early years of Short Mat Bowling in our county and one has to rely on  the recollections of several of the original “short-matters”. They seem to be in accord that sometime in the mid 1980’s there was an initiative to promote the game as an ideal one for village halls across our predominantly rural county. Initially this involved Jim Rose of mat makers Regalgrene and the local Parish Council Associations who organised several demonstrations of the game in various locations across a wide area of the county.

As a result of this initiative several clubs came into being. Ampleforth in the north (on the edge of the North York Moors), Darley in the west (the lower Dales) and Escrick in the flat lands to the south are among several clubs that can all trace their origins to around this time. Each of these clubs subsequently generated further interest in the game in their own vicinity and the formation of more clubs soon followed. These early clubs soon felt the need for regular competition and in 1987 the Selby League (fours) was formed to the south of York. Three  years later in 1990 the Ryedale League (triples) took off with four of the clubs to the north of York.

These were also the early years of the English Short Mat Bowling Association and the idea of dividing the country into regions or zones was being tried. In the north this resulted in the setting up of the Northern Zone (renamed the Northern England Short Mat Bowling Association - NESMBA in 2004) which held its inaugural meeting in 1990. The Zone immediately started organising a local inter-county league for its member Associations and it was probably a desire to enter this league that led to a meeting of several keen Ryedale League bowlers early in 1991 at the Feathers Hotel in Helmsley. At this meeting it was decided to launch our own county Association under the Chairmanship of John Colley (Ampleforth) with Jill Leckenby (Helmsley) as Secretary and John Ward (Ampleforth) as the counties representative at the Northern Zone. In that first year there were just 6  clubs with 161 registered members. For the first couple of years the affairs of the Association continued to be managed alongside those of the Ryedale League by a single committee.

1993 to the present

Expansion continued steadily with 16 clubs and nearly 400 members by 1993. Due to our physical size (the largest county in the country) it was soon necessary for two new leagues to be formed so that these newer clubs could enjoy regular competitive bowling without excessive travelling. These were the Scarborough League in the east and the Kyle Valley League in the west, both founded in 1993 and both of which continued the popular triples format. 1993 also sadly saw the premature death of John Colley and in 1994 a new hierarchy was elected with Fred Wood (Easingwold) as Chairman, Gordon Hanson (Easingwold) as Secretary and Ivan Topping (Easingwold) taking over from John Ward as our Northern Zone representative. In 1995 a county wide league was introduced that grouped all clubs into six regions. This Yorkshire (North) League thus enabled competition between all members in the county (now up to 600 from 24 clubs). In 1997, several clubs, already playing in the existing triples leagues but eager for even more competition, got together to form a pairs league – the Vale of York League. In 2000, a small league initially involving just four of our westernmost clubs started up playing a mixture of pairs and singles – the Dales League (renamed as Nidderdale League in 2004/05). Our most recent addition is the White Rose League - a summer only league which plays between April and September that got going in summer 2003.

As we go into our 18th year (2008/09) we now find ourselves with 47 clubs, 970 members and 8 leagues. Most of these clubs are based in village halls allowing 2 or 3 mats whilst a few of the larger clubs meet in leisure centres that allow 4 -6 mats. Individual club membership varies from 9 to 45.   

SUMMARY

Politically, our Association has not been without its problems. There were disagreements in the mid 90’s during the formation of the Yorkshire League relating to competition involving non registered members and in 1998/99 there was some serious and potentially divisive debate as we became embroiled in the ESMBA versus EFSMB (Federation) debate. This, directly or indirectly let to the resignation of several key officers at the 1999 AGM and the need to find a new team to run the Associations affairs – a difficult task that took some years to fully resolve. However all this is now history and maybe in retrospect these problems can best be viewed as healthy signs that many of our bowlers were seriously considering some basic issues in approach and attitude in what after all is still a growing and evolving sport.

Realistically, we are probably no different from other county Associations. Most members are relatively content as long as they can look forward to a season of good league games. Some do not even want this and are content to go along to their club for a roll-up and a chat. Others hope for greater involvement and success in open and external competitions. We are not without our ambitious and successful bowlers either with several youngsters playing in the England Select Junior team and in 2008, Gareth Townend made it into the senior England squad. National titles elude us but we have reached the semi-finals in the Fours, Mixed Fours and the quarter finals in the Singles. One day....perhaps.

It is the view of the current county executive, that as long as the interests of the majority of members as well as the wider interest of the sport itself are kept to the fore, things should move forward for the good. It is recognised that it is just not possible to please all of the members all of the time but as long as communication is kept open and opportunities are provided for those that wish to, to have their say, then our objectives of encouraging and fostering this great little sport will continue to be met within our county.