The Sheffield promotion have recently attracked the Premier League structure arguing that there should only be two competitions; the League and the Cup. At the moment there are four Premier League Trophies using seven-man teams plus competitions involving four-man teams, pairs and individuals. Shefffield won four of the available silverware.
Sheffield targeted in particular the pre-season Premier National Trophy and the post-season Young Shield playoffs plus the Fours qualifiers for the axe. Edinburgh chairman Alex Harkess did not accept this suggestion:
"We don't agree with that at all, we want a full fixture list. We ceratinly don't want a season which has only 14 matches definately programmed."
Harkess was generally happy with the way the Premier National Trophy worked out apart from delays in completing rained-off qualifiers that set back the knockout stages.
"The only problem last year was that the Premier National Trophy matches in the qualifying sections drifted on too long. The semi-finals were held up for about six weeks waiting for a qualifying match down south."
"That was all that was wrong, as long as the competition is wrapped-up by mid-season there should be no confusion by having finals in two different knockout competitions within a fortnight, as we had last September."
Harkess also defended the Young Shield because of the impact it has on the Premier League campaign:
"The Young Shield, while we have a poor record in it, gives all clubs something to aim for in the latter stages of the season. It's especially important for the mid-table teams still to have something worth racing for."
"And for the first two seasons, it was a team who hadn't won anything else who came out on top."
Harkess made no comment about the proposal to scrap the Fours qualifiers but I suspect that they will not be printable!
John Campbell and Alex Harkess are representing Monarchs at the BSPA Conference at Bournemouth this weekend where the key decisions will made.