Upcoming local Leagues season 2024 - New signings & gossip

SAFC2403 said:
Can’t have it both ways. People complained about double weekends do the season was moved forward, then complaints about not being ready due to weather.

Only other option in this case is award each team 5 points and don’t replay.
Click to expand...
That's how it should be IMO. The majority of club's voted for no double weekend / bank holiday games.

Either change the start / end dates of the season (which they won't because of the NEPL), or just suck it up and take the rough with the smooth. You can guarantee that the sun will be cracking the pavements come April 2025.

Don't get me wrong, I want to play as much as the next bloke - but the league has actively revoked something which was voted on by the majority of clubs.
 
Last edited:


Does anyone know if the NTCL are playing next Saturday or are they delaying the start of their fixtures?

South North v Durham Academy in pre season friendly has been rearranged from Saturday 13 to Saturday 20 April
 
SAFC2012 said:
Does anyone know if the NTCL are playing next Saturday or are they delaying the start of their fixtures?

South North v Durham Academy in pre season friendly has been rearranged from Saturday 13 to Saturday 20 April
Click to expand...
I heard but not confirmed no delay, just abandonment
 
Hilly said:
That's how it should be IMO. The majority of club's voted for no double weekend / bank holiday games.

Either change the start / end dates of the season (which they won't because of the NEPL), or just suck it up and take the rough with the smooth. You can guarantee that the sun will be cracking the pavements come April 2025.

Don't get me wrong, I want to play as much as the next bloke - but the league has actively revoked something which was voted on by the majority of clubs.
Click to expand...
Its a tough one as I dont think theres a right answer - every year the same clubs will be winging they cant get games on but the same clubs wont vote for double/bank hol weekends - with the NEPL having a definite cut off the leagues hands are tied. I think for me we set the date of the start of the season and if you have to call it you call it and get 5 points each.
 
SAFC2403 said:
Its a tough one as I dont think theres a right answer - every year the same clubs will be winging they cant get games on but the same clubs wont vote for double/bank hol weekends - with the NEPL having a definite cut off the leagues hands are tied. I think for me we set the date of the start of the season and if you have to call it you call it and get 5 points each.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I do think the league need to be careful not to confuse teams moaning about the April weather in general, with them thinking it means that teams seem to have 'more appetite' (their own words) to have double weekends / play on bank holidays.

If the above is true about the NTCL, then they've done the right thing in my opinion.

The craziest thing about the date they've chosen is that it's during the 15/15 too. So you'll have teams playing Friday, Saturday and Monday. We have a charity day scheduled at our ground on the Sunday too. So some us will end up playing Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday... Utter madness!

If the league were dead set on moving it, why not move it to the end of the season and have a double weekend e.g. 14th and 15th September. That wouldn't effect any play off game.
 
Last edited:
Hilly said:
Agreed. I do think the league need to be careful not to confuse teams moaning about the April weather in general, with them thinking it means that teams seem to have 'more appetite' (their own words) to have double weekends / play on bank holidays.

If the above is true about the NTCL, then they've done the right thing in my opinion.

The craziest thing about the date they've chosen is that it's during the 15/15 too. So you'll have teams playing Friday, Saturday and Monday. We have a charity day scheduled at our ground on the Sunday too. So some us will end up playing Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday... Utter madness!

If the league were dead set on moving it, why not move it to the end of the season and have a double weekend e.g. 14th and 15th September. That wouldn't effect any play off game.
Click to expand...

Loads would be conceded then too (football season, teams with nowt to play for). There’s no perfect solution.
 
Parkside said:
Years ago,the DSL experimented with league fixtures played over 2 consecutive midweek nights,the then 5 hours allocated spread evenly over the 2 nights.Would resurrecting this offer a solution?
Click to expand...

Bit shite if you get drawn away to somewhere that’s a canny trip too.
 
Weather solution/fixtures - Create more and smaller leagues within the pyramid....for example play 18 games rather 22....and re-arrange the rain offed days if its possible

This gives more wriggle room......and less face it, if its possible to re-arrange games then you wil probably end up playing the same amount of cricket....takes away the headaches of fixture congestion
 
The current attitude is way different from times past. Nowadays lads will miss cricket because they are going on a golfing weekend or a bachelor weekend, FAmily celebrations, Going to a faestival, football matches or just a good piss-up. Years ago they probably went on holiday from Monday to Friday and got married in February or September.

So do Leagues embrace this change or do they punish the clubs for conceding games through lack of players? I think that is where we are at.
 
Johnap said:
The current attitude is way different from times past. Nowadays lads will miss cricket because they are going on a golfing weekend or a bachelor weekend, FAmily celebrations, Going to a faestival, football matches or just a good piss-up. Years ago they probably went on holiday from Monday to Friday and got married in February or September.

So do Leagues embrace this change or do they punish the clubs for conceding games through lack of players? I think that is where we are at.
Click to expand...
North east durham let's clubs re arrange two fixtures per season. We've used it to avoid weddings etc
columbo70 said:
Weather solution/fixtures - Create more and smaller leagues within the pyramid....for example play 18 games rather 22....and re-arrange the rain offed days if its possible

This gives more wriggle room......and less face it, if its possible to re-arrange games then you wil probably end up playing the same amount of cricket....takes away the headaches of fixture congestion
Click to expand...
Agree with smaller divisions. But think it would cause chaos to re arrange all rained off fixtures.
 
Last edited:
Johnap said:
The current attitude is way different from times past. Nowadays lads will miss cricket because they are going on a golfing weekend or a bachelor weekend, FAmily celebrations, Going to a faestival, football matches or just a good piss-up. Years ago they probably went on holiday from Monday to Friday and got married in February or September.
Click to expand...
This is the elephant in the room - for whatever reason a lot of players don’t seem to be as committed to playing as they were 20-30 years ago.

In years gone by a lot of players wouldn’t have their ‘summer’ holidays until mid September, after the season ended.
 
Eggman said:
This is the elephant in the room - for whatever reason a lot of players don’t seem to be as committed to playing as they were 20-30 years ago.

In years gone by a lot of players wouldn’t have their ‘summer’ holidays until mid September, after the season ended.
Click to expand...
People want cricket to fit around their lives nowadays. It's the same reason why 20/20 became successful. People can cope with a few hours out of their day, but leaving the house at 12pm and not returning back home until 8pm / 9pm is a big ask. It's no wonder why club's voted for less double weekends / bank holidays.

I'm sure the older generation will blame lack of commitment from people etc... but like it or lump it, times have changed. You could argue that having gone through a pandemic, people's priorities changed then but realistically it changed well before that.
 
Eggman said:
It’s not meant to be a chore.

It’s a hobby and nobody is forcing anyone to play, it just seems to me that other forms of socialising have taken priority
Click to expand...
Agreed. It's not a chore. Just trying to give potential ideas why things might have changed.

You could argue that 20 years ago, having worked all week doing manual jobs, getting out of the house and playing a game of cricket would have been one of very few pleasures that people could look forward to.

Like Johnap says, people's priorities might have shifted to spending more time with their families, playing other shorter sports, taking city breaks, going on stag dos abroad etc...

People can either moan about that, or try their best to try and make cricket fit more around people's lifestyles as much as possible e.g. limiting double weekends / bank holidays, reducing early starts, playing more win / lose cricket etc...
 
Last edited:

Back
Top