CONFERENCE CALL

Expanding BPCA looks at radical restructure Promotion-relegation, east-west leagues mooted

THE Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association will consider a radical restructure next summer with as many as 16 clubs set to put their hands up to play A-grade cricket.

The association will consider the idea of fielding east and west conferences with eight teams in each, with clubs to play each other twice — one one-dayer and one two-dayer — across a 21-week season.

The BPCA’s top flight has 12 teams, with every side playing each other once across an 11-round regular season.

But B-grade ladder leader Wallington and last season’s B-grade premier Newcomb are expected to ask for a jump to the top grade.

With GCA hard wicket clubs Teesdale and Lethbridge also exploring defection to the BPCA, as many as 16 clubs could be in the mix to play Agrade. BPCA president Ian Caldwell said one option would be to split the teams into east and west conferences, with each conference to host a final before the conference winners meet for the A-grade flag.

THE Geelong Cricket Association is set to reach out to its recently defected clubs as Lethbridge and Teesdale explore following suit.

The GCA will host a forum next month allowing hardwicket clubs a say in how a new competition restructure will look next season.

Bannockburn, Teesdale and Lethbridge have expressed their disappointment with how last summer’s changes were handled, with the latter pair to explore a move to the BPCA.

That would follow the lead of Little River, Inverleigh and Winchelsea, who all joined the hard wicket association this summer.

GCA president Barry McFarlane said he would contact the three recently defected clubs to discuss their intentions for next season.

“We will be contacting them in the next couple of weeks to find out if they’re happy where they are or whether they would consider coming back to the GCA, just so we know who’s in the game and we understand what clubs we’re looking at,” he said. “I doubt whether they would consider coming back if the situation is the same that it is.”

But all three clubs told the Geelong Advertiser they were happy with the move in the off-season.

“Even if the GCA called, we wouldn’t leave the Bellarine,” Little River president Dylan Fairchild said. “We're happy where we are, we’ve made a commitment to them and we’ll 100 per cent keep that going.

“Obviously the standard of competition is a lot higher, as we’ve seen our As and Bs haven’t won a game, but everyone at the club is happy and it just makes them more motivated to work harder next year.

“We’re stoked, we’re really happy we came over.”

Inverleigh president Marcus Warton said the competitiveness of the BPCA was the reason his club defected.

“There’s no way we’ve got any regrets at all; there wouldn’t be one single person at the club that would say we should have stayed,” he said.

“If we were in with Teesdale and Bannockburn, we’d be even further backwards (as a club).”

Winchelsea president Nathan Schroeter said his club made the right call. “I think the move for the cricket club going to the Bellarine has been fantastic for our club,” he said.

McFarlane said the GCA would reveal its restructure about mid-April.