The Mewies Solicitors Craven League have taken “one of the biggest changes in its history”, says league secretary Ann Coe.

Facing club delegates and league officials was the question: “Do you want to abolish the league committee structure and trust your executive (committee) to look after things?”

The vote was 24-7 in favour at the league’s annual meeting at Skipton LMS Sports Club, which means there will only be three full league committee meetings a year (March, November and December) instead of 11 under the old system (every month apart from February), with the executive committee now meeting every month apart from February.

Mewies Solicitors have renewed their sponsorship for 2014, while Division Five, which only has ten clubs, have opted to play 22 matches instead of 18.

Mrs Coe explained: “The choices are to play everybody home and away or to play everybody home and away and have four extra matches at random.”

All but one club affected wanted to play 22, with the other worried about not having enough players because of clashes with the football season.

The Craven League season will start on Saturday, April 19 and finish on Saturday, September 20, with no play on Saturday, July 5 because of the Tour de France.