The Midland Seniors Indoor Bowling League was established in 1999 by founder members Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire Warwickshire and Yorkshire. A Championship Cup ‘The South Forest Trophy’ was donated by Sydney Roy Bowring owner of the South Forest Indoor Club and is awarded annually to the winner of the League. The presentation is made at the Annual General Meeting which is held in April each year..

 

The Constitution and Rules laid out a format of play in which each county's team would comprise 8 rinks of players with a minimum age of 55 years. All matches would be held on weekdays and each match was 4 rinks home and away which would be played simultaneously. It also established a Committee comprising of 2 delegates from each county, a Hon Secretary - the first was Rodney Brown (Warwicks) who continued in office until 2015 and an office of Chairman. Each year in alphabetical order each county would nominate its candidate and in the first year, 1999, it was J Wilson of Leicestershire. The first league Champions were Nottinghamshire with Derbyshire runner-up.

The League was expanded in 2003 when Durham were permitted to join but on the proviso that all 8 rinks played away. With Durham’s position as the most northernmost it meant a lot of long return journeys each time many in excess of 350 miles. Subsequently this strict rule was relaxed and Durham was allowed one home fixture each year. In 2009 Derbyshire resigned but at the 2011 AGM Lincolnshire was elected to membership.

In 2013 radical changes were made. Match teams were reduced in size from 8 to 6 rinks and a hundred mile rule was introduced whereby a neutral mid-point venue should be used where travelling distance was greater than 100 miles from a chosen venue to the opponent’s County Town.

2015 saw the return of Derbyshire to the League but this was only for 12 months when its county association ceased to be recognised by the English Indoor Bowling Association.

At the start of the 2016 Season there were six member counties: Durham, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Yorkshire.

Changes were made at the 2022 AGM, Northamptonshire joined the League, Lincolnshire separated itself geographically into two  parts north and south. This gave a total of eight teams and the League was split into two sections - MSIBL North (comprising Durham, Licolnshire North and Yorkshire to play each other twice each season - home and away) and MSIBL South (Leicestershire, Lincolnshire South, Northamtonshire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire). The winner of the League Championship and the South Forest Trophy would be decided by a play-off at the end of each season between the winner of the North and the South Sections to be held at Nottingham IBC in March.