Collapse of the Pyramid System

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Deadline passsed, a few clubs seem to be in two minds about whether or not to express their interest and were a bit "yes/no" by the look of things.

15 letters of interest in:

Boldon CC
Whitburn
Eppleton
Felling
Phili
Horden
Norton
South Hetton
Willington
Brandon
Crook
Murton
Seaham Harbour
Washington
Sacriston

The NEPL2 will take 12 clubs at the most, so assuming that they all do go on to make a full application, a few are going to be disappointed.
I take it that the idea is to have the County/Coast leagues feed into the NEPL2 as well? If thats the case then I don't imagine it being too much of a problem as clubs who want to progress will still be able to earn their way up.

I heard that there was gonna be some discussion at the NEPL meetings about a possible loan system being implemented, you heard anything about that?
 


Boldon CC
Whitburn
Eppleton
Felling
Phili
Horden
Norton
South Hetton

So out of the 15 'expressions' of interest, these 8 come from the DSL - is that right?

8 DSL teams are interested in 'progress' out of the DSL, but when it came to the crunch a few weeks ago, the DSL teams voted (by majority I assume?) to come out of the pyramid, thus in effect blocking other teams chances of 'progress'?

Where were those 8 teams then? Seems somewhat hypocritical to me.
 
Seems somewhat hypocritical to me.[/QUOTE]

It does, but if you look at who make up the DSL committee it's not made up of 12 officials, one from each member club.

There are more than 12 on the full board and some are from associated clubs like Marsden who had junior teams in the DSL but not a senior team.

It could be that some of these 'extras' voted to pull out and in doing so affected the result.

It would be interesting to know who actually voted, what the exact result was and did it really reflect the membership (or was it just for the 'officials' benefit)
 
the expression of interest by the 8 DSL clubs could have been done in order for clubs to keep their options open incase DSL's plan don't come to fruition. Expression of interest mean sweet FA really this still has along way to run
 
It does, but if you look at who make up the DSL committee it's not made up of 12 officials, one from each member club.

There are more than 12 on the full board and some are from associated clubs like Marsden who had junior teams in the DSL but not a senior team.

It could be that some of these 'extras' voted to pull out and in doing so affected the result.

It would be interesting to know who actually voted, what the exact result was and did it really reflect the membership (or was it just for the 'officials' benefit)


the expression of interest by the 8 DSL clubs could have been done in order for clubs to keep their options open incase DSL's plan don't come to fruition. Expression of interest mean sweet FA really this still has along way to run

Thanks Eggman and Ed - didn't appreciate the complex voting situation, most Leagues I have been involved in have had one club, one vote rules. I don't think I understand how Marsden get a vote like purely because their junior team is in the DSL. That can't be right? You are right though, it would be interesting to know how the teams voted. It can't be a secret surely though - someone on here MUST have heard something.

I understand that these are indeed only 'expressions of interest' and that when it comes to the crunch that counts for not much really.

A really interesting few months ahead.
 
Is this expressions of interest for the 2013 season? If these come off where will that leave the respective leagues in terms of replacements?? I thought teams had to resign from the league by a certain date, surely if the leagues want to replace them they will be looking for interest from other clubs meaning they will have to resign after the agreed resignation date??

Does that make sense??
 
Is this expressions of interest for the 2013 season? If these come off where will that leave the respective leagues in terms of replacements?? I thought teams had to resign from the league by a certain date, surely if the leagues want to replace them they will be looking for interest from other clubs meaning they will have to resign after the agreed resignation date??

Does that make sense??

Clubs resigning from leagues has been an issue for a lot of years. This time it could be mass resignations, though clubs will play their cards close to their chests.

I remember in 1989 (ish) Hetton Lyons went for a DSL vacancy - I think to replace either North Durham or Wearmouth.

They submitted their resignation from the Coast League but then when they didn't get in to the DSL the Coast League wouldn't have them back.

This resulted in them going into the County League for several years, which was probably a sideways move at best, until they did eventually get into the DSL.

It was a very strange affair because 'The Lyons' were the club with by far the best set up in the Coast League - their ground was the ground used for representative games, so I suspect there were other 'political' reasons for them not being reinstated.

Didn't Hylton have a similar experience ?

That sort of thing may well make clubs very cagey as to their future.
 
Didn't Hylton have a similar experience ?

Can't remember what happened with the Lyons, but the Hylton situation was different I think in that they applied for the DSL BEFORE they resigned from the DCCL.

This was against DCCL rules and they were 'shown the door'. The County League admitted them.

I think thats right - somebody will be along to put it straight if I'm wrong.
 
Seems somewhat hypocritical to me.[/QUOTE]

It does, but if you look at who make up the DSL committee it's not made up of 12 officials, one from each member club.

There are more than 12 on the full board and some are from associated clubs like Marsden who had junior teams in the DSL but not a senior team.

It could be that some of these 'extras' voted to pull out and in doing so affected the result.

Just spoke to my mate and he reckons the voting done in the DSL is by full member clubs only,anyone who is classed as an associate who only play Junior and Third team cricket has no vote.Even the league officials dont vote.

Deadline passsed, a few clubs seem to be in two minds about whether or not to express their interest and were a bit "yes/no" by the look of things.

15 letters of interest in:

Boldon CC
Whitburn
Eppleton
Felling
Phili
Horden
Norton
South Hetton
Willington
Brandon
Crook
Murton
Seaham Harbour
Washington
Sacriston

The NEPL2 will take 12 clubs at the most, so assuming that they all do go on to make a full application, a few are going to be disappointed.



Does anyone know what will be the minimum to form a Second Division ?? And if some clubs pull out would that mean Murton,The Harbour and Washington will automatically be admitted leaving us 3 clubs short ???
 
Just spoke to my mate and he reckons the voting done in the DSL is by full member clubs only,anyone who is classed as an associate who only play Junior and Third team cricket has no vote.Even the league officials dont vote.

Does anyone know what will be the minimum to form a Second Division ?? And if some clubs pull out would that mean Murton,The Harbour and Washington will automatically be admitted leaving us 3 clubs short ???

It would make sense (although some might say that common sense has gone out of the window in this episode to date) to have an even number - 10 or 12? But surely this new League would have some 'minimum' facility standards which might result in some of the named clubs being omitted?

In any case, assuming the NEPL2 goes ahead and the majority of the clubs named do join, the 'rumps' (nee pics) remaining of the DSL, the DCCL, and the DCL would be left jockeying for position/clubs, or even their very future?

The League structure may look very different in a couple of years time.
 
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That would seem to be the right thing to do, but it then takes us back to Arthur's question. Why are 8 out of 12 clubs registering an interest ?

For the DSL to pull out of the pyramid, it would take at least '7 for and 5 against' (but probably it's an 8/4 split for a rule change) in favour of breaking away.

So say it was 7-5, that would leave at least 3 of the DSL clubs now interested in joining NEPL2 who originally voted in favour of breaking away from it ..... it makes you wonder if/why they've changed there minds and if clubs are consistant in their decision making.

From my own time on a club committee, I know that a club's policy can be changed depending on when the meeting is, who turns up, who comes up with a persuasive arguement and whether the the chairman uses his casting vote in a stalemate situation.
 
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In any case, assuming the NEPL2 goes ahead and the majority of the clubs named do join, the 'rumps' (nee pics) remaining of the DSL, the DCCL, and the DCL would be left jockeying for position/clubs, or even their very future?

The League structure may look very different in a couple of years time.

Also what about leagues under the coast league? I'd imagine the likes of the north east Durham league are a bit worried as there existence will be under threat as the DCL and others will be looking to poach from below.
 
Also what about leagues under the coast league? I'd imagine the likes of the north east Durham league are a bit worried as there existence will be under threat as the DCL and others will be looking to poach from below.

I agree - all Leagues will be affected I would think. The likes of Wearmouth and Houghton from NEDL could well be candidates for a step up - if they want it.
 
Seems somewhat hypocritical to me.[/QUOTE]

It does, but if you look at who make up the DSL committee it's not made up of 12 officials, one from each member club.

There are more than 12 on the full board and some are from associated clubs like Marsden who had junior teams in the DSL but not a senior team.

It could be that some of these 'extras' voted to pull out and in doing so affected the result.

It would be interesting to know who actually voted, what the exact result was and did it really reflect the membership (or was it just for the 'officials' benefit)

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, the only clubs that voted against breaking the pyramid were Whitburn and Boldon.

For further clarity, I have heard a fairly itk opinion expressed that the main protagonists in the move, hand in hand with the league officials, were Durham City, Burnmoor and Phili. So it looks like one of those three has shit their pants now.
 
NEPL held a meeting last night about starting a Division 2 in 2013. 15 clubs showed an expression of interest and all attended, myself included.

There is a meeting with Durham Cricket Board and all of the NE leagues tomorrow as well.

NEPL are very passionate about the division 2 though. Clubs who attended have been given until 2nd Feb to discuss the proposals wih their members. When the meetin reconvenes on 2nd Feb application forms will be handed out to clubs. The NEPL will go ahead with the league if they have between 8-12 teams. They want to have all of this confirmed before the start of the season.

Far too much to discussed to explain everything that was said so if you have any questions I'll try and answer them!
 
Meeting was well constructed and they seemed confident they’d get the support they needed to push ahead. They did a presentation for half an hour basically detailed the history of the NEPL and what they hoped to achieve, playing rules which will be the same as NEPL second division currently is (55 overs first knock) so very similar format to what DSL currently play. Said they’d be looking for a max of 12 and min of 8 clubs and they’d be a selection procedure if all 15 who have expressed interest applied.

Promotion – clubs in NEPL2 will get one 'get out of jail free card’; so if they didn’t think they were ready to go up to NEPL1 they could play it and then promotion passes to the second and third placed clubs if they want to go up. Each club only gets one get out of jail free card so after they’ve used it they’d be expected to go up the second time. That being said if a club finished second or third in NEPL2 and the promotion option passed down to them they'd go into a playoff against the team that finished bottom of NEPL1.

Relegation – NEPL said they’d be no relegation first 2 or 3 seasons (more likely first 3 seasons) during which time they’d hope the rest of NE cricket sorted itself out, they claimed you wouldn’t be relegated into any far flung league (ie. Marsden into the County league a few years back) and said the issue of which leagues you end up in if relegated would have to be agreed and voted on my all the clubs in advance. They wouldn’t let anyone be cast adrift and relegation would have to be on the NEPLs terms not the other leagues terms. If the TSL and DSL don’t partake in the new system as expected (why would they ? none of their clubs have any interest in going up) the combined durham leagues would be like dropping two leagues in terms of standard in fact it would be even weaker than that given that the DSL will probably pick off the likes of Bill Quay, Ryhope, Harbour, Boldon CA, Esh Winning over the next 4 seasons or so.

Most clubs applying for NEPL2 now wouldnt fancy leaving the NEPL div 2 and dropping into a league containing the bottom half of the county and coast league! That being said how many of them clubs would meet the criteria to join the NEPL on the first place hence stopping promotion / relegation there and then?

Juniors – They’d be looking for DCB to overtake the running of all juniors across the north east if not they’d set their own junior setup up where they had to – chances are the county league juniors would remain within which ever setup the remaining county league clubs end up in, TSL juniors would remain in the TSl (Blaydon and sacriston), Norton and Stockton would remain in the NYSD and the DSL / ex DSL clubs juniors would form their own NEPL junior division.

Interest - Hard to judge, Felling, Whitburn and Boldon CC seemed definites and Horden seemed very keen where as Phili left their pack behind and were the first ones out the door. NEPL asking for min 8 clubs that fit the criteria? I’d suggest they’ll get them. I’d also factor this into the equation if the teams who expressed an interest first time round don’t apply the NEPL can advertise for more applicants if they got the initial 8 so say if only Washington, Brandon, Felling, Willington, Crook, Whitburn, Boldon, Horden, Norton applied they’d advertise for more applications.
 
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Thanks mrreal and Sweeper for those updates - interesting to see that those comments have made an appearance on the Bill Quay website, which I look at from time to time. was that you Sweeper or was it a shocking case of plagiarism? :)


Meeting was well constructed and they seemed confident they’d get the support they needed to push ahead. They did a presentation for half an hour basically detailed the history of the NEPL and what they hoped to achieve, playing rules which will be the same as NEPL second division currently is (55 overs first knock) so very similar format to what DSL currently play. Said they’d be looking for a max of 12 and min of 8 clubs and they’d be a selection procedure if all 15 who have expressed interest applied.

Hope you are right and they are going to get their act together.

Interest - Hard to judge, Felling, Whitburn and Boldon CC seemed definites and Horden seemed very keen where as Phili left their pack behind and were the first ones out the door. NEPL asking for min 8 clubs that fit the criteria? I’d suggest they’ll get them. I’d also factor this into the equation if the teams who expressed an interest first time round don’t apply the NEPL can advertise for more applicants if they got the initial 8 so say if only Washington, Brandon, Felling, Willington, Crook, Whitburn, Boldon, Horden, Norton applied they’d advertise for more applications.

I might be talking out of place, but one of my mates is an ex-Phili man, and he reckons they are in a bit of a state at the moment, so it doesn't surprise me.

I'm sure if it is well organised and people can see that, then other teams will want to get on board, and make up any shortfall in numbers.
 
Not worried about the chosen few what happened to the DCB meeting on Thursday night when the fate of the clubs and lads who just want a game of cricket was discussed,or will they not be bothered now that they seem to have there wish and possible crush 3 leagues.
 
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