FOR the first time since its formation in 1930, the Bolton League will have two divisions in 2017.

Ironically, one of the main reasons the Bolton League was formed, with clubs breaking away from the Bolton Association was to avoid promotion and relegation.

The Bolton League now comprises 10 clubs in both the Premier (first) and Association (second) divisions.

At the end of the 2017 season a maximum of two clubs will be relegated and a minimum of two clubs promoted.

This leaves a degree of flexibility if additional clubs decide to join before the 2018 season, and the clubs and committee have accepted there may be an imbalance in the number of clubs in each division in the short term.

A number of minor changes have been made to the rules to accommodate the changes next season. An additional sub-committee has been established, headed by Tracey Brooks, to cover junior and senior registrations, and the introduction of CricHQ, which among other benefits allows live scores to be viewed on the internet as each game progresses.

The rules for awarding bonus points were relaxed last season, and teams will again have to score 75 per cent of their opponents' total to obtain a point, or take seven wickets.

There are three more significant changes. The first and most simple affects the Hamer Cup where bowlers will be restricted to a maximum of 10 overs.

The second is the reintroduction for the first time in almost 20 years of the overseas amateur, as once again clubs can sign another overseas player in addition to the UK-based or overseas professional.

Tighter boarder controls could mean the better players will be in short supply unless the player is fortunate enough to possess a UK passport.

The third affects professionals themselves.

The Bolton League accepts the professionals in the lower tier need not necessarily be of the same standard as those in the higher tier, but nevertheless should be an integral part of the game to maintain standards.

Overseas first class players eligible for a work permit will still be acceptable in both divisions, but in the Premier division, where clubs are signing an amateur player from overseas rather than a professional, the competitions committee will vet the player to ensure he is competing at a high standard in his home country.

UK-based players will have to be capable of scoring 600 league runs or taking 60 wickets to pro in the Premier Division and 500 runs or 50 wickets in the Association.

These figures would be modified for all-rounders.

The numbers are not particularly high, but taken into consideration is the fact that league matches have been reduced by around 30 per cent in two years, and clubs have decided not to replay matches that are rained off.

Stats would be based on leagues of a similar status, such as the Liverpool Competition and Greater Manchester top two divisions, and only league matches would qualify.

There are so many additional competitions at the moment that good players like Adil Nisar at Farnworth and Josh Bohannon at Ormskirk can almost double their quota of runs when their sides have a series of successful cup runs.

There have been changes made to the Peter Stafford Trophy rules, and the competition rules will now be similar to the Saturday league match rules rather than restricting the overs to 10 per bowler, or reducing the overs to 45 or 40.

For the qualifying stages, to be played on the first three Saturdays of the season, clubs' first teams have been seeded to include two teams from each division.

However, it appears an opportunity to refine the seeding even further has been missed so some teams will be playing each other a minimum of five times over the season and a maximum of eight if both are successful in the knockouts.

Proposals to similarly seed the Twenty20 competition were rejected by the clubs, so the groups are again based geographically.

Due to the success of the competition in 2016, where clubs were recording sales of refreshments of up to £4,000 in the local derbies, the groups have been reduced to four teams, who will play each other home and away, instead of five teams playing each other once.

Some groups appear to be stronger than others, with three teams from the top division and one from the lower, or vice versa.

However, as weather-affected matches will be decided by a bowl-out or on the toss of a coin unless we get an unusually dry spell from mid-May to the end of June, qualification at least for the runners-up places could be quite random.