Posted by BPBA Management

Our Summer 26/27 domestic competition is taking shape, and there’s one big thing every player and family needs to know: most age groups are moving to a different night this season. Please check which night your age group now plays before you or your team enters.

Why the change?

Our competition has grown to the point where it’s full. When we allocate every court we have access to across Monday to Thursday, there’s almost no room left. To fit every team in — while keeping finish times sensible for each age group, working around other sports across the Bellarine and the commitments at our shared venues, and working to reduce the number of double byes teams face across the season — we’ve had to rebuild the weekly structure from the ground up.

This wasn’t a change made lightly, and it wasn’t about preference. It’s what’s required to give as many players as possible a game each week within the venues and time slots we have.

Find your night

Most age groups are playing on a different night than last season. Game times below are indicative and depend on final team numbers — your exact slot is confirmed when fixtures are released. “Latest start” is when the last game of the night begins; games run around 50 minutes from there.

Each age group plays as a single block on one night. Our older and larger groups (U16 Boys, U16 Girls, U14 Boys and the senior grades) spread across the whole night, so some of their games start later in the evening.

A bit of good news on capacity

We’ve secured extra Monday-night court space at LINC (Leopold), which has 8ft rings. That’s let us bring our U10 Girls into the mid-week competition and move them off Friday nights.

Key dates

• Team entries open: Monday 10 August
• Team entries close: Friday 4 September
• Fixture request submissions close: Thursday 18 September
• Season starts: Monday 5 October

Enter your team

Team entries open Monday 10 August and close Friday 4 September. Get your teams in early — entries are monitored daily, and we reserve the right to close entries for age groups that reach capacity, with a waiting list from that point. 

A few things worth knowing

• U21 will not run this Summer. Those players are welcome in the Senior Men competition.
• U14 Boys and U16 Boys are our largest groups and sit right at the ceiling of what the venues can hold, so those nights will feel full. This is a genuine capacity limit, not something a reshuffle can fix.
• Single byes will still exist for some divisions. With high demand on some age groups and limited courts, single byes help us fit as many participants in as possible.

Teams with other-sport commitments

Some teams will have clashes with other sports early in the season. We’ve done our best to minimise these, and affected teams can submit a Fixture Request Form to request game times, camp dates, or note shared-coach clashes to work around. We can’t promise every request, but early notice helps. Submissions close Thursday 18 September.

Questions?

• Club players — please follow the usual channels. Raise it with your club committee first, as they may already have the answer. They can escalate to BPBA if needed.
• Independent teams — contact us directly at admin@bpba.org.au.

We know a change this big takes some adjusting to. Thanks for bearing with us — we’re looking forward to a strong Summer.