Lack of time, lack of interest

The season may be in full swing for most clubs in the County but for some it has barely started. This can be attributed to a couple of reasons a) the weather has curtailed fixtures b) opposition teams have failed to raise sides.

The first has always plagued cricket in this country ever since the first game was played (whenever that may have been) and the latter has often reared its ugly head as a combination of factors come into play.

This season though, there are rumours abound that Saundersfoot seconds may be dropping out of the league especially after they failed to raise a side last Saturday against Kilgetty and faint rumours have been circulating that Llangwm seconds may be suffering a similar fate.

Hopefully these are just that; rumours. Idle gossip started by some and spread by many.

What if they are true? What if interest in these top clubs is waning? What can be done to stop the rot?
One solution given at Crymcyh on Saturday as Lamphey played against the Mountain Men was for the lower division to play reduced overs.

This has its merits. Although a lot of matches last the full 40 overs the majority do not. Would more people want to play if they knew the game lasted only three hours instead of six or seven? If they played 20 overs in division six and 30 in division five would clubs struggle less when fielding teams?

It’s certainly something that needs discussing and it was mentioned in the informal meeting held last winter by the County Club in Haverfordwest and it was discussed in depth but more consideration needs to be given to it.

The trouble is how do you guard against top players wanting to play in reduced overs cricket if they find the longer format slightly tedious? The short answer is you can’t.

If reduced overs came into being on weekends, more people would want to play it and in years to come you could find two separate league taking place on a weekend; 40 / 45 overs and 20 or 30 overs leagues. If that happened what would it do to standards? And another thing, who would administer it?

Team of the week

If the division one table were based on how many players from teams scored hundreds in a season then Whitland would be streaks ahead already as Jonathan Thomas scored a brilliant 111 against Cresselly to become the second player from the club to raise his bat for a three figure score. He also picked up two wickets putting him in the super all-rounder category for the weekend.

Ian Sefton also deserves a mention for six more runs would have put Carew second in that alternative table although alongside Nick Scourfield who scored 65, they did put on 157 for the first wicket against Haverfordwest so that’s a consolation of sorts.

Saturday was definitely a day for scoring runs. There may have been just one century but other players came close so who makes this week’s Team of the Week?

  1. Ian Seffton (Carew) 94 v Haverfordwest
  2. Nick Scourfield (Carew) 65 v Haverfordwest
  3. Jonathan Thomas (Whitland) 111 and 2-4 v Cresselly
  4. Jordan Howell (Narberth) 82 v St Ishmaels
  5. Marc Hughes (Narberth)  70 v St Ishmaels
  6. Peter Bradshaw (St Ishmaels) 52 v Narberth - Wkt
  7. Paul Mansbridge (Saundersfoot) 58 v Lawrenny
  8. Andrew Williams (St Ishmaels) 41 and 3-60 v Narberth
  9. Mathew Bennett (Llanrhian) 41 and 3-42 v Neyland
  10. Luke Jones (Llanrhian) 4-27 v Neyland
  11. Mark Lee (Whitland) 4-32 v Cresselly
The previous teams of the week have basically picked themselves where top performances were concerned but a number of star performers miss out. Danny Potter scored his first half century of the season for Haverfordwest against Carew while Clive Tucker’s spin could also come into the mix as he took 4-65 while Daniel Howells scored 56 for St Ishmaels too.

If the league was split into different formats in years to come, how would this team fare and which style of play would it be suited to, the 20 or 45 over game?


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