More news from the leagues

posted by John Winn

In a posting I made last month I touched upon the possibility of a merger between The South Yorkshire Cricket League and The South Yorkshire Cricket Alliance, the latter itself the result of a fairly recent merger between The Doncaster and District and The Sheffield Leagues. A bit of deeper digging into the website of The SYSCL reveals that this seems to be a fait accompli. At a meeting in October Alliance clubs voted overwhelmingly to join the Senior League and despite some reservations over grounds the Management Committee of the SYSCL agreed to recommend the takeover.

An article in the Doncaster Free Press dated late November confirmed that clubs had voted in favour of the new structure which will have 56 clubs, 108 teams and will be spread over nine divisions, the lower six split on an east/west basis. Provisional fixtures have been issued on this basis and show two games scheduled for April 11th at Eden Grove Parklands and Shiregreen in Divs Four (East) and Five (West) respectively. The main programme begins the following Saturday. On that day homes teams in the top (Premier) division are Aston Hall, Coal Aston, Hallam, Treeton, Wath and Wickersley Old Village CC.

Inevitably a 'merger' of this encounters snags, there were voices in favour of the regionalised divisions being on a north/south basis for example. Some of the problems and hoped for solutions are discussed on sycl.play-cricket.com, click on news then, in the drop down menu, on news articles then scroll down to update on future of SYCA.

Turning to Central Yorkshire the league news page welcomes two new member clubs, Crossbank Methodists from Huddersfield Central and Great Preston from the Wetherby League. Both these clubs have long histories and their cvs are a roll call of now extinct leagues: Dewsbury and Batley Sunday School League, the Dewsbury and District League and the Wakefield Union in the former's case and for Great Preston the Woodlesford and District, the Barkston Ash and the Leeds.

The website also has the draw for the first round of the Jack Hampshire Cup with first round ties to be played on Sunday 17th May. Holders Methley are at home to Adwalton while in the Black Sheep they will visit Elsecar. Like most leagues CYCL start on April 18th.

Finally I refer to another posting I made in January when I mentioned that I was reading a biography of Ewart Astill, the Leicestershire and England all rounder, by AR Littlewood. Pussyfooting about as usual I hinted that some might find this book, especially the early chapters, a bit of a chew. I was interested to find when the latest issue of the ACS journal came through my letter box yesterday that I was not alone in thinking this, for in his review of the book Douglas Miller pulls no punches in describing it as 'too encyclopaedic' and that Chapter Seven was 'pure drudgery' and Miller's feeling is that 'the editors should have demanded a shorter book'. I did get through the book and indeed the second half which describes Astill's test career and frequent overseas tours is a much easier read, but you probably need to be a very keen Leicestershire follower to find the early chapters anything but a sedative. Wow, that's telling 'em.