THE Bolton Cricket League will have two divisions of 10 clubs next season.

Clubs voted overwhelmingly for the equal share of clubs over both tiers when the League goes to two divisions for the first time in its history.

The alternative proposal was to have a top division of 12 clubs who would all play each other twice – home and away – and a second division of eight who would play each other three times.

The 10-and-10 proposal won the vote at Tonge Cricket Club on Monday night by a resounding 18-2 and will see two clubs promoted and two relegated.

As it stands the proposal is for the top five teams and the bottom five teams to play off in an extension to the season, which would apply to first and second teams.

There is still the potential for tweaks to this idea as concerns exist within some clubs that in a five team play-off there will always be a week when one team does not have a match, and could therefore benefit if the other matches were rained off.

This could be avoided if the top four and bottom six play-off instead.

Alternative suggestions put forward to the meeting were a return to a previously discussed idea that the bottom teams in the higher division and the top teams in the lower division play off.