NORTH SOMERSET YOUTH CRICKET LEAGUE
The aim of the League shall be to promote, encourage and develop youth cricket.
REPORT 2009
This was the League’s 45th consecutive year of operation for clubs located in the North West part of Somerset, and indeed further afield. 19 clubs put at least one team in to the various sections and a total teams number of 64, although down slightly from the record last year, was very healthy. Speaking of last year, the weather improved substantially on the disastrous 2008 season, enabling all 6 Cup and Plate finals to be decided outright.
Participation at U17 level continues to be strong with 12 clubs fielding a side. We are proud of our being one of the few local leagues to keep on running cricket at U17 level and pleased that Midsomer Norton and Temple Cloud could join us from out of area despite the travelling. Nailsea narrowly topped the table pipping Midsomer Norton, thereby achieving the double as they had overcome Uphill Castle in a low-scoring final despite top-scoring Uphill No. 10 batsman M Bail almost getting there with 30*. In the popular Plate competition, Midsomer Norton defeated Winscombe.
The key feature at all age levels was that for the first year the rules had been changed to “play on the day”. Thus, clubs took the points or lack of them (win, lose, tie or cancellation) with no capability of postponing the fixture to a more convenient date. So the League’s long-standing approach of allowing clubs to postpone to try to get the game in later in the season became history. Greater certainty and saving in managers’ time was the outcome but inevitably less cricket will have been played. Everything about volunteer cricket is a compromise and we will wait to see clubs’ reaction to how things went at the next AGM.
At levels below U17s, the participants were split into 2 relatively equal-sized divisions geographically. For U11s, this was the first time. All-play-all was history. For them, 14 all-play-all games became 7 or 8 sectional games – easier to manage but less cricket. So at U15, U13 and U11 levels, a second play-off phase was bolted on, in which the leaders of each first stage section carried their points forward and played the leaders of the other section to determine the overall champions. This had 2 aims: to get more games in and to get the best playing the best, leaving behind the weaker brethren. I believe that it will have been a success.
Overall, batsmen took full advantage of the firmer wickets (dampened by a wet August) and a record number of centuries (11) was scored in these 20 overs a side matches. Tom Blanchard (Blagdon) and Charlie Killick (Bristol) both hit 2 hundreds and Liam Lester (Nailsea) was the youngest centurion scoring 109* against Bristol. It was only a few years ago that 20 over cricket was held in low esteem generally but these days, nationally and internationally, it has become the icing on the cake.
Blagdon comfortably won their section of the U15 league but in the play-off section Cheddar snatched the title from them, with Clevedon and Blagdon one point adrift. In the Cup WSM easily overcame a below-par Claverham with Dan Lomax (WSM) claiming 3 wickets for 5 runs. Congresbury made the most of the Plate final dismissing Bristol for 57, S Bullock, C Wemyss and A Withers taking 2 wickets apiece, to win by 7 wickets. Nailsea won the U13 League, losing only one match all season, defeating close challengers Cheddar. Cheddar went down again to a strong Bristol team in the U13 Cup final to qualify for the County finals. In the Plate final, Clevedon went down to WSM by bowling a wide off the last ball. Claverham won the North section of the U11 division with WSM claiming the South section. The top 5 teams from each section played off and Claverham squeezed home with Blagdon and Cleeve tied in runners-up position.
The League continued its policy of playing representative matches against other leagues insofar as possible but of the 7 fixtures at all age levels 4 were rained off. The 3 played were all against the Bristol & District League with the NSYCL U17s losing heavily with a depleted team in a match at Portishead, the U15s losing a high-scoring game at Nailsea (Blagdon’s Tom Blanchard hitting a brilliant 155*) and the U11s winning their game played at Lodway.
As always, the League very much appreciates the sponsorship of Westcountry Ground Care of Axbridge and the voluntary attendance of umpires supplied by the Bristol & Western Counties Association. Thanks are also due to those clubs who staged finals and to the legions of scorers, parents, groundsmen and others instrumental in making it all happen.
Once again, John Waters was responsible for the U13s and U11s juniors, Mark Walker ran the results website and Stewart Dewer supplied his sanity when the occasion demanded. The endeavours and efficiency of all 3 were crucial.
We continue to follow the success at county level of old boy Peter Trego (WSM) in the Indian Champions League and Hong Kong Sixes and congratulate Charlie Walker (Failand & Portbury) on his gaining a Somerset Academy contract for 2010.
Ever onward and upward!
Robert Humphreys
Secretary
North Somerset Youth Cricket League
2nd December 2009