CHAIRMAN Gerry Aldersley reckons the 2015-16 season was the toughest he has known in his 26 years at the helm of the Skipton Body Repair Centre Craven League.

The wet weather plus the loss of teams during the campaign all added to the stresses and strains for the league's management committee.

The League Cup competitions had to be abandoned as the there was no way of fitting them into the fixture schedule after November, December and January were near total washouts.

And to add to the headaches for the officials, 38 matches were conceded because clubs could not field teams.

During the weather-hit campaign Grindleton's two teams withdrew along with Cononley's reserve side.

Ingrow & Worth Valley have indicated that they will not be competing in 2016-17 but Silsden Whitestar and Salts are entering reserve sides and Settle United will field a third team.

Aldersley said: "It's hasn't been right clever this season. The weather was a real headache and caused real problems with the fixtures.

"One of our teams, Rolls Reserves, had a County Cup tie which took 16 weeks before it could be played. It meant they could not play any league matches during that time as the competition had priority.

"I don't recall things being as bad and they might have been worse if we hadn't played night games at the start of the season.

"I had one club official complain that his side had played eight games by October. He accepted the reason why when they had only managed to fit in two more by Christmas. We will be playing night games again at the start of next season."

As the league prepares to hold its annual general meeting at Skipton Rugby Club next Thursday, Aldersley is again making an appeal for new blood on the management committee.

Aldersley, who is 81, said: "We have a competition which features 48 teams and has over 1,400 registered players. Many of us who run the league have done so for many years and it really is time we passed on our knowledge to younger people.

"Our priority is to find a new registration secretary. The ideal candidate for this post would be someone who is computer literate and has time daily to deal with the league business.

"We use the FA Full Time programme and the applicant does not require a knowledge of football."

Anyone interested should contact Gerry Aldersley on 0128 2813407 or 0773 0132126.

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