BigA League History

League History

The league was formed sometime in the 1960s at Hounslow. It became one of the several leagues run by Pom Lillicrapp, whose hand written multi-coloured league standing sheets were very distinctive. It bowled on Thursday at 19:30. It was a mixed handicap league. When the bowl at Hounslow closed part way through the 1972/3 season the league was forced to move. It was offered a new home at Tolworth for the 1973/4 season and has remained there ever since.

When ill-health prevented Pom from taking an active role in running the league his wife, Liz, took over and she continued as acting secretary/treasurer until the end of the 1988/9 season. Liz presented the league with two trophies in memory of Pom.

The first was a shield for the league winners, the second a mounted pin (Pom's Pin) which is awarded to the team which has the highest total pinfall in a match they lost. Liz's retirement coincided with the introduction of automatic scoring at Tolworth, and Paul Hughes led the league into this brave new world in which there was much moaning about the removal of Chinagraph scoring pencils and the ability to inspire team mates by making magic marks on the score sheets. Paul ran the league for 8 seasons and was succeeded by Bill Marcham in September 1997.

Like a number of leagues, the Big A has found it difficult to attract players and from its peak of 16 teams (4 person) it has been reduced to 11 doubles teams.

Scoring System:

Many years ago, the league adopted a personal points scoring system which is still in effect today.

Matches are decided as follows: All results are decided including handicap.

Each player plays against their direct opponent - i.e. first player on team A plays first player on Team B

2 points are awarded for each individual game. 2 for the series, making 8 available to each player.

2 points are also awarded for each team game and for the team series, giving another 8 points.

With 3 players, this gives a total of 32 points. In the doubles league the maximum poinys was 24 points.