THE North Lancs and Cumbria League looks set for a radical shake-up.

League officials have called an EGM for member clubs to discuss ways of dealing with the player shortage affecting several teams.

Some sides are unable to field 11 men week-in, week-out, with last weekend being a case in point as Ulverston A turned out with just eight players and Cleator A nine.

League chairman Gary Postlethwaite feels something needs to be done to breathe new life into the 126-year-old competition, and several proposals will be on the table at Thursday night’s EGM at Haverigg CC (7.30pm).

Ideas include restructuring the four-division format and reducing the size of each division so teams play each other twice – not the current three times – during the course of the season. The resulting reduction of fixtures would be offset by holding a mid-season Twenty-20 competition.

Other suggestions include introducing a loan system for players to help struggling clubs field full-strength sides, and the bottom divisions playing games on Sundays instead of Saturdays.

Postlethwaite said in a statement to all member clubs: “This season, having lost Windscale CC, seen an increase in games being conceded and more teams unable to field 11 players each week, I feel that the time is right to call all clubs together to see what, if anything, can be done to address these issues.

“As chairman, I feel that we must try to be proactive and not reactive. If, after the meeting, some ideas are deemed to be of value in looking at more closely, I would be looking for a group of interested parties to take them away and work them up further with a view to taking them to the 2017 AGM for ratification.”

It is compulsory for all member clubs to attend, and Postlethwaite said: “It will be an open forum for clubs to discuss whatever they like. If clubs can have a chat internally and/or with each other prior to the meeting to look at what they wish to discuss, that would be good.”

Postlethwaite added that the invite has been extended to Northern League clubs Barrow and Penrith, who have made applications for their second teams to rejoin the North Lancs and Cumbria League next year.

The league has undergone several structural changes over the past two decades following the introduction of a three-tier system for first time for the 2000 season. Clubs who have left the competition since then include Barrow, who joined the Northern League in 2004, and Duddon SC – formerly Askam – who folded before the start of the 2012 campaign.