Clubs vote to reduce size of League’s top flight division Woakes: We won’t overstep the mark
THE Huddersfield Cricket League is reducing the number of clubs in the Premiership to 12 from 14.
Reducing the number of Sunday fixtures has been a priority for the league in recent months and the proposal to cut the number of sides in the top division from 2023 was voted through with 27 votes for and 11 against.
The current threshold for a submission to pass is by a two thirds majority, or 26 votes. Three clubs failed to record their votes by the deadline.
So next season there will be three relegation spots in most divisions apart from the Conference.
The winners of Premiership Two will gain promotion to the Conference and from season 2023 it will revert to a ‘two up, two down’ promotion and relegation system between all seven divisions.
No second XI team can play higher than the Conference and no first XI side will play at a level lower than Premiership Two.
The league restructure was one of seven proposals presented by the Executive committee and all of them were rubber-stamped.
All Associate Member clubs who joined following the dissolvement of the Huddersfield Central League in 2016 have been upgraded to full members of the league, which sees the fruits of the hard work and dedication of those at Holmbridge, Edgerton & Dalton, Cartworth Moor and Flockton. Sadly, Nortonthorpe are not one of those after recently being forced to fold following a turbulent two years.
Other proposals from the committee to see reality next season are a permanent addition of two rules that were considered a success after being installed temporarily during the months under Covid-19 restrictions.
One allowed an early abandonment of first XI matches on the morning of a match and another was a reduction of match overs in anticipation of bad weather.
Both proposals carried with majorities of 92 per cent. Teams taking advantage of a full six point allocation in the event of their opponents conceding will now only get that chance should at least another match in the same division be completed. In the event of a full washout, both teams will be given two points each under this new rule which saw nearly 90pc of clubs in favour.
Other, more minor administrational tweaks were given the nod from clubs.
The Johnny Hunter Trophy (Matchwinning Performance of the Season) is to be nominated by clubs rather than the Executive committee and clubs’ Public Liability Insurance policies increase to £5m instead of the current level of £3m in light of increased volume and cost of claims.
Club proposals didn’t fare too well with only one of six motions winning over fellow clubs. The only successful one was an archaic rule of reapplying for membership of the league when finishing bottom of the Conference which received 37 ‘yes’ votes with only one club voting against it. However, 12pm start times all season and a change of points system to one similar to the Bradford League were dismissed.
One club’s submission to make
ENGLAND all-rounder Chris Woakes says he does not expect personal issues to be used in any sledging during the upcoming Ashes series.
The build-up to the first Test, which gets under way in Brisbane on Wednesday, has been overshadowed by racism and sexism scandals.
English cricket has been engulfed by claims of institutional racism, while Tim Paine stepped down from his role as Australia captain last month following sexting revelations.
Woakes (left) said: “Whatever goes on the field, goes on the field, and an Ashes series raises that rivalry.
“I think what’s happened in both camps, a lot of the issues are personal and cricket is played best when that sort of stuff is left to the side and we let the skills
cricket teas non-obligatory was received reasonably well but not enough to solidify itself in next season’s rule book with 22 clubs in favour, but 16 clubs against.
Finally, a ‘fair play’ rule submitted by one club hit the buffers with only 12 clubs getting behind the proposed do the talking, which I’m sure will happen.
“In my experience, playing in three Ashes series, it’s not overstepped the line once when I’ve been around.
“I don’t see it being any different. I’m sure the cricket will be hard-fought, as it always is, and it will be a great series to watch.”
Woakes says England are ready to meet the twinpronged challenge of bowling with the Kookaburra ball and trying to dismiss Australia’s star batsman Steve Smith.
“I’ve bowled at Steve quite a lot. He’s a worldclass player and had a lot of success against us as an England team,” Woakes said.
“We’ve got to figure out ways to keep him quiet because, relatively speaking, when he does well Australia do well.”
scheme. No club was to spend more than 40pc of their annual revenue on players and would have been required to send account statements and player contracts to the league which received short shrift by the majority of clubs.