Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Bay of Plenty rugby's Indian summer ended last Saturday, when a taste of the inclement weather awaiting club teams in the next three months was provided.

Shivering on the sideline at Te Ariki Park as Te Puke Sports put Rangataua to the sword 53-10, gave Sideline Sid a touch of reality facing local club rugby followers as teams battle towards the business end of the season in late July.

The first weekend in May opens a four-game race for the Baywide premier contenders to take out the first Baywide prize of the current season, with the Premier First Round trophy up for grabs.

Te Puna sit at the top of the premier standings, without tasting defeat this season, albeit with a first-up draw with Rotoiti on their ledger card.

Rotoiti lurk four points behind the competition front-runners, with just five points separating Tauranga Sports, Te Puke Sports, Mount Maunganui, Rangataua, Greerton Marist and Whakarewarewa.

Sitting in the cellar, are the four teams who earned promotion to the 2018 Baywide premier qualifying competition last year in Ngongotaha, Arataki, Paroa and Whakatane Marist, who all appeared destined to return to the Baywide second echelon in June.

Doing the rounds of the local club rugby in the Western Bay of Plenty each week, one hears plenty of chatter on the merits (or otherwise) of the current Baywide format, of two divisions of 12 that start the season before playing out three eight-team championships.

There is no denying there have been some blow-out score lines featuring the bottom four sides.

Solutions offered on the sideline include, going back to two ten team competitions from season start and a top-eight title fight throughout the season.

The dilemma facing the decision makers at Bay of Plenty Rugby is how to cater for the club rugby aspirations of one of the biggest unions in land mass in the country.

The challenges of our vast region, that stretches from the cow cockies of Reporoa through to the forestry workers in Murupara and to the townies in Opotiki, interspersed with two Bay of Plenty Cities - gives our rugby administrators headaches by the dozen.

This grizzled rugby commentator believes that the problem is too many clubs, with many having aspirations beyond their resources and finances.

While amalgamation is touted as the answer to the number of one-team clubs, it has to be by the carrot appealing to the horse rather than the whip on the rump of forced amalgamation.

Since the turn of the millennium, the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union has undertaken regular reviews of the Baywide rugby competitions.

Consultation with the clubs followed by the democracy of the majority deciding the course of the Baywide competitions for a three year period, while maybe not giving universal satisfaction, gives stability to the annual Bay of Plenty rugby title races.

One thing that is paramount to effective rugby competitions, is the carrot of progression must be through complimentary promotion/relegation competitions, which give all Bay of Plenty clubs the chance to play in the top echelon if they can put all their ducks in a row.