Clubs call for return to old evening league

TWO of Guernsey's biggest clubs want a return to the traditional Evening League format. However, judging by the poor feedback received by the Guernsey Cricket Association to a request for comments in relation to the 76-year-old league, it would appear that Rovers and Cobo are in a minority in looking to revert to six or seven straight divisions without separate Premier and Reserve conferences.

GCA's Evening League representative Dominic Wheatley revealed that he had received 11 communications regarding the format of evening cricket locally and that very few contained strong messages wanting drastic change.

'At the end of the day, the people who did not respond will be seen to have no problems with things as they stand.

'By and large, although I have not had by any means a rush of responses, most people seem quite happy with the current structure,' Wheatley said.

From the correspondence that he has received, apparently the biggest bone of contention is the freehit after a no-ball rule, while a couple of the responses have expressed unhappiness with the necessity of a fourth bowler as opposed to three of the recent past.

But apart from one club wanting a return to the traditional format, Wheatley has received nothing conclusive.

Rovers admit they are the club who have put forward the initial proposal of the return to the format last used in 2001 when there were no separate conferences for Premier and Reserve teams.

The club was opposed to the change when it happened two years ago and their views on the current format have not changed.

Rovers were one of just two clubs last season, the other being St Saviour's, that fielded four teams in the Evening League, meaning that they were represented in every possible division - one in the Premier and in all three of the Reserves.

They argue that in such a format, their lower division teams will be playing the same opposition every year with little scope for change and that does not appeal to the players.

'It has just not worked,' Porter said.

And at their annual meeting this week, Cobo decided to back Rovers' stance.

'We felt that it was only right to give the conference format some time to settle before making this judgement, but after two years we cannot see it working out in the way that the GCA had originally hoped,' said the new Cobo president Rob Batiste.

'They wanted B and C team players to seek first team cricket elsewhere, but it has become obvious that that is not happening and now there are too many mismatches in the lower divisions with teams playing out of their depth.'

Although the initial request for feedback had an end-of-October deadline, the GCA is still prepared to receive any views on the subject for a short period.

'I am happy to hear from anyone; it does not have to be just the clubs. Whatever changes are made for next year, it is important that it reflects as many views as possible,' Wheatley said.