National KO competitions.

posted by John Winn

I devoted several postings last summer to the ECB National Club KO Cup which was sponsored by Kingfisher Beer. The draw was published some time ago and  champions York will begin their defence of the cup on Sunday 28th April with a home match against Beverley Town who I suspect gulped when they saw the draw. Before that there are some preliminary round matches scheduled for two weeks earlier, a week before most league cricket begins.

In my area York and District side Easingwold will entertain Knaresborough Forest from the Nidderdale League on Sunday April 14th with another 'gulp' in prospect for the winners in the form of a visit from Chester le Street, one of the top ranked sides in The North East Premier League There are some  intriguing ties in the first round in group1(basically North Yorks and the North East)  and my eye is taken by Harrogate v South Shields but if you fancy a visit to Richmond  you can see the champions of the NYSD against another North East Premier club, Hetton Lyons.

There is a preliminary match in group 2 which is Steeton v Skelmanthorpe with the winners to host Hanging Heaton. The full draw is readily available on the internet. Last year's beaten finalists and Essex League Champions Wanstead and Snaresbrook will meet the winners of Enfield and Gidea Park..

The draw for the National Village Cup is also online and my local club Ouseburn will travel to Redcar and Cleveland to face Langbaurgh League outfit Moorsholm. I also tried to give coverage to this competition on the blog last year and spent a couple of very pleasant afternoons at Woodhouse Grange who were losing finalists in 2012. Woodhouse have a bye and will meet Fairburn CC from the Pontefract League  in Round 2. There are 313 teams entered this year of whom 67 are new to the competition and they will compete in thirty two regional groups. Both of these national competitions were severely disrupted by the weather last year which made keeping track of clubs' progress difficult so let's hope that they fare better this time. In any event the blog will try and keep you up to date and if you are intrigued by proceedings between Calstock and Perranarworthal on May 5th in the Group 28, Devon and Cornwall, this is the place to come.

Finally a reminder that this year's Pennine Cricket conference will be on Saturday March 23rd at Golcar CC. Oh and as it is now March we can say that cricket begins next month, that's better.