GCA needs fixtures secretary

THE Barclays Evening League is facing the threat of having no re-arrangements due to a lack of administrative volunteers. At the extraordinary meeting of the Guernsey Cricket Association in November when clubs voted to revert to a traditional ladder format, they also voted, by a margin of one, in favour of having postponed fixtures re-arranged.

However, implementing that wish could prove impossible.

'At the last meeting, while they voted for rearrangements, I warned them that if no one came forward offering their help it was unlikely to be possible because of the demands put on the committee,' said GCA president Dave Nussbaumer.

Since then, no one has offered his services to the committee in any capacity and the association's annual meeting on Monday 28 February is fast approaching.

'I have given the clubs plenty of notice and no one has come forward. If the situation remains the same, we will have no choice but to go down the other route.

'That is not being dictatorial - that is the committee saying we do not have the manpower. The clubs cannot expect to have everything done for them by so few; people have to be prepared to give something back.'

Forty-seven teams have been entered in the 2005 Evening League and they would be split into six divisions - five of eight, one of seven - should rearrangements be possible.

However, if no one comes forward to take charge of rearrangements then the 47 teams would be split into five divisions.

The top flight would consist of eight teams, the Second Division nine and the remaining three divisions 10.

There would be no rearrangements in the 10-team divisions, but any matches postponed in the top two divisions would still be rescheduled.

Nussbaumer pointed out that that decision was down to the number of teams entered rather than it being an elitist attitude.

'We feel that we have got to guarantee teams 14 games - that is the minimum acceptable level for a season,' he said.

'If teams are supposed to be playing only 14 and they lose games to the weather, they are not getting enough cricket, whereas those with 18 games might lose some games but should still get at least 14.'