12 or 14 team leagues

[backrowbandit]

Not scientific but will be interesting

[Chiron]

I think that 14 team leagues are essential. The league season finishing on 5th April means that the clubs that have reached the Yorkshire finals now have to wait until 24th May to play their final. None of the clubs that reached the final will have known they were going to do that when the season began so unless they have entered the Papa John's Cup they will have no competitive fixtures for seven weeks. Once leagues were introduced it is pretty obvious that players ceased to be interested in any games that weren't league fixtures.
I know we can't turn back the clock to a time when rugby players wanted to play every week, but with clubs playing cup games in August and then finals at the end of May, 12 team leagues mean that there are far too many gaps in a ridiculously long season. Players find other things to do and get out of the habit of playing regularly.
Having said all that, some clubs, in the Yorkshire divisions, are struggling to fulfill fixtures and it is possible that some of those struggling clubs may decide to call it a day and either join a Merit league or fold. If there were 14 teams in each division how many Yorkshire divisions would there be?

[backrowbandit]

There is strong support at our club for a Christmas/winter break of say 3 weeks and 14 team leagues.

[Locked Out]

A 14 team league would be better and agree a break at Christmas/mid-winter would be helpful. Cups don't seem to have the magic they used to.

[gateprop]

If you had 26 league games this season you could still have had a break after 14th December through to January 11th. League to finish last Saturday in April with free weekends in October, November, February, March and April. That's 5 free weekends to fit cup fixtures in then you have May free for the pizza cup if anyone wants it and a Yorkshire cups finals day.

To me that just seems an inherently better system all around. Clubs get the extra revenue from fixtures and there's still opportunities for cup fixtures for those interested.