A brand new club and 11 new teams were accepted into the League for the 2024 season at the season-defining March executive meeting.
Meole Brace from Shrewsbury were voted into the Dennis Lewis Thursday Division along with the returning Sir John Bayley and B teams from Allscott Heath and Prince of Wales Hotel to give it a perfect 14 sides.
Four new teams – Edgmond C, Newport F, Allscott Heath E and Much Wenlock C – will feature in a 13 strong sixth division, with 12 in divisions 4 and 5 on Monday nights.
Horsehay’s successful application to the Premier League leaves the Friday division with 36 teams divided into 3 divs of 12.
And the Afternoon Division, only launched last year, has grown to 9 teams with the addition of St Georges, Albrighton Blue and Edgmond B.
There’s still hope too for the re-launch of the 4 singles-2 doubles Saturday Division with 5 clubs expressing an interest. A final decision will be made at the April meeting in the hope of being able to attract a minimum of 6 sides.
For the record, a total of 5 teams withdrew from the League’s various divisions, including Horsehay from the top flight.
With the structure agreed on, fixture secretary John Palmer is now working hard on producing start and finish dates and avoiding fixture clashes for all divisions while comps sec Rob Burroughs confirms his calendar. Both will publish their results as soon as possible . . .
Match fees will rise to 60p across the board this year and the affiliation fee will return to £10 per team after being cut in half in 2023 to try to help clubs recover from the Covid hiatus.