Evening game can recover

IT IS not a new topic for Inside Track, but one worth revisiting after the news that Division One of the Evening League has lost a side before it has even got into its stride and, more startling to my senses, the withdrawal of a Salemites first team from Division Two.

Colombians have next to no history, but Salemites have long embodied what was best about evening league cricket.

Born out of Salem Youth Club and knockabouts on Cambridge Park Salemites were always about real enthusiasm, organisation and a willingness from the top and 'top' men in the likes of Eric Waldron and Ralph Anthony.

For decades it was unheard of for Salemites to field fewer than 11 - even for five minutes - and miss an umpiring duty.

But now they have dropped their senior side, citing the sudden loss of two or three key players and, said Guernsey Cricket Board chief executive Mark Latter, just like Colombians, 'were bottom heavy with a solid base of second team players who are not always able/not good enough/prepared to play up'.

The irony in Salemites' withdrawal is that the good club they have always been, that it comes at a time when they are one of those who have volunteered and been trusted to run an Under-15 League team.

As the GCB CEO says 'they have been highly successful integrating these kids into the B team but again do not have now the appropriate playing staff to step up further'.

Latter is determined to turn the Evening League fortunes around.

'Ironically, we had two applications to join evening cricket that arrived too late so numbers and interest are there albeit at a social playing level - rather akin to the growth of Social League football?

'We will have a paper to put to clubs shortly that will seek to address the structure finally to meet the issues that might still exist behind the above and clubs will vote on this before the season is out so they go into the end of this season and beginning of next with their eyes open.

'It will include placing the U15 League players into Evening League cricket and then moving their focus to longer games on grass at weekends. If adopted it will be a three-year structure to allow proper bedding in and consideration. Chopping and changing year after year is not the way forward, unless you like going around in circles.

'What I do not want is the current 'wobble' in EL cricket to be considered a barometer for ALL cricket.'

Strangely, this is happening against a background of a Division One championship that promises to be quite interesting and competitive.

There have been a succession of good, tight games in the first few weeks and while the overall standards are definitely not what they were a decade and 20 years ago, it is refreshing to see so many young players coming through and being given opportunities.

The GCB CEO insists there is light at the end of the evening league tunnel.

'We understand it's place in the calendar and also what it is the clubs want of it, which they advise us of each AGM.

'Those numbers at the top cannot for now sustain an eight-team Division One so that is a starting point for change. Gone are days of unlimited overs etc that allowed two or three players to dominate with ball and bat and, rightly so as we need more players to step up now but, the rump of player numbers is still a couple of years away from full maturity.'

He adds: 'Evening League cricket is now a simple vanilla package that simply requires player buy in.

The GCB cannot force people to play.

'The only unresolved issue is the prime talent migrating to one or two clubs which does still irritate some but, having gone through various ways of addressing this and none finding favour or success, I am happier to let market forces be what they will be.

'Representative coaches will continue to be in the ear of players who are not exposing themselves to the right club challenges and we look forward to more players following the example of Dave Hooper.'

The game's saviour will be the junior development programme and it had to be after what seems a missing generation of cricketers.

Meanwhile, the CEO cites more competitive cricket being played in secondary schools than ever before with these sides now taking on, and beating, College.

'We have three non-College school teams taking on De La Salle here in Guernsey this year, which is a major coup.

'The lack of cricket in schools in the past offers a reason for the void in 25- to 35-year-olds now and the GCB is going all out to ensure this does not happen again. These players will eventually filter into Evening League cricket.

'In all, we have some 580+ cricket matches/activities happening in 2012 aside of Roadshow days and school visits where Dave Hooper is in school for three-four sessions a day five days a week and Jason Shambrook similarly.

'I don't know of any other sport locally who can rival that.

'Of course, the trick then is to convert these participation numbers into players but we are on the case. Our participation base is also all inclusive and I will be sending a note out shortly regards a trip we are assisting with to take some kids from Le Murier across to Hove to take part in a cricket fun day at the County Ground and then watch Sussex v Yorkshire after. Again this would see us leading by example when compared locally to other sports.

'We are committed to financially assist across the range of participants and not just the elite.

'We have numerous tours here this summer by visiting UK and European sides and our players are going off on various tours across all the age groups. We now aim for at least 12 games a year for all the key age group representative squads.'

But, will evening cricket ever reach its former glories, in terms of participants and quality of competition?

I have confidence that it just might.

*

IT WAS a chance meeting on the Common, but for someone who so wanted to see a community football team plying its way on the UK pyramid, it left me wearing a smile as wide as the golf holes I had gone to see island championship putts rammed into.

I had not seen Barry Hockey, erstwhile Vale Rec stalwart and regular Jackson League performer back in the Sixties, for a while and I was keen to congratulate him on his beloved Toffees' Premiership season.

The theme of his reply was 'never mind that, what about Guernsey FC?'

It turns out that this regular visitor to Goodison Park is just one of hundreds of locals who have been drawn into the Green Lions experience.

Barry, who had long lost his love for the domestic football fodder, has rediscovered his love for the local game via the excellence of GFC's football and the whole experience of watching regular league and cup action at Footes Lane.

'It's the next best thing to visiting Goodison Park,' he said, adding that a good mate and traveller to Man 'U', felt exactly the same.

They are both hooked.

*

NORTH will miss Ross Cameron in the dug out next season, but his efforts of the past two seasons guarantee that he will be hot property any time in the future he shows a willingness to return to coaching.

His departure is not so much a blow to the Channel Islands champions but to the game as a whole, because it is already starved of good coaches able and willing to try and improve senior players who often think they are much better than they are.

*

I FEEL more than a touch of sadness that athletics' annual showdown with Jersey appears a dead duck.

The Montague Burton men's team match has a rich history and long before the days of national league opportunities and British Milers' Club meetings, the match with Jersey Spartan was the highlight of the track and field calendar, along with its female counterpart for the Le Riche Trophy.

It seems Jersey, in particular, are unwilling to work at making the match work amid the modern-day alternatives and challenges.

GIAAC, for its part, have more appetite for the traditional clash, but don't seem to be getting anywhere fast with their Caesarean counterparts.

It strikes me, though, that by failing to make relatively low-key matches as a 'Burton' work for the benefit of its local athletes, Jersey are not helping themselves with a home island Games just around the corner in 2015.

Jersey, like us, have some outstanding young talent emerging, and any run out in senior representative competition cannot be a bad thing.

There again, I am not sure there is the same level of community pride as we enjoy existing in Caesarean sport generally.