Jose Sandshoe
Central Defender
It is your attitiude that sums up the decline of NE cricket . Spectators came to watch the pros and watch entertaining cricket not sit on the bog.
As I keep saying it wasnt the DSL who insisted on ridiculous criteria.
Any club wanting to join the DSL (in the rare event this was possible pre Prem League) were visited by the DSL Committee to check on a club's facilities to see if they were up to scratch before being considered. I know this is a fact as our club showed interest at the back end of the 90s when places became available. In the end our players voted against a move as they wished to play overs as opposed to timed cricket but we were made completely aware that certain standards would have to be met if we went ahead with our application. I'm sure this will have gone out of the window in later years to keep the league going but this was a fact at the time.
The pyramid system was the way forward for cricket in the region and when you look at clubs like Tynemouth and Sacriston who have been able to progress on the back of their hard work at junior level then it's difficult to argue otherwise. Likewise their young players do not have to up sticks to play at a higher level which would've been the case in the past meaning the hard work is lost.
Hordon would've come back and been just as successful if a pyramid system was in place back in the day.