Julian Cup Plate to be the main event
Organisers put forward proposal to save ailing T20 event
The organisers of the Julian Cup have come up with a solution to help revive what’s become an ailing competition in recent seasons, and see it into its second century in much better health.
At an open meeting on February 27, five clubs unanimously backed a proposal to make the Plate competition the main, and only, competition from now on.
The meeting was open to all clubs with a vested interest and there were written submissions from three other clubs.
The change is expected to be voted through at the competition’s AGM at Boyne Hill Cricket Club on Thursday evening (March 28). If the proposal is voted through, it would mean the competition no longer caters for players playing at or above Thames Valley Division 3 or 4, depending on what ceiling is agreed. Every member club will get a vote on this.
Last season, only five games out of nine were completed in the main competition, with Boyne
Hill making it all the way to the final against Stoke Green having won just one match. They were comprehensively outplayed in the final on their own ground, and the growing disparity in quality, and mismatches that have played out in recent seasons, is another reason behind this decision.
With entrants to the main draw likely to have been even lower this summer, and the prospect of many more pool or knock-out matches being forfeited, organisers have decided the popular Plate competition should take the place of the main cup competition.
The Plate has been incredibly successful over the past few seasons, and organisers don’t want to do anything which might diminish it. Last summer, 36 of the scheduled 37 matches took place, with young hungry players getting the chance to test themselves in the T20 version of the game.
Competition organiser, Tom Mellor, said: “Effectively what it means is the competition won’t cater for players above TVL Division 3 or 4, depending on where we pitch it.
“All the clubs with teams higher than that, in the Home Counties Premier League, or TVL Divisions 1 or 2 could enter, but their first team players wouldn’t be able to play. For example, Boyne Hill’s second team in Division 5 would represent the club. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t change anything. But you just have to look at
the raw stats from last year. We’ve tried pools/groups which didn’t work. People only want to play when it suits them. When teams couldn’t get through, they were scratching (forfeiting) games, or they were scratching games they didn’t want to play. But then you had the situation where a team scratching might not influence them, because they’re out, but it might impact another team.
“The knockouts didn’t work last year as so many games were scratched. To fill the competition up we let some of the Plate teams enter the main one as well, but then everyone sort of scratched when they saw who they were playing. We were in a catch 22 with it really.
“If people are finishing work early, they don’t want to rush home just to get slammed for 220 runs by what is effectively, semiprofessional teams. It’s not doing a lot for the game. You can understand why it’s not at the top of their list of things to do.”
Mellor added: “What we don’t want to do is change the Plate, because that competition has worked well. By and large people do just want to play some fun, T20 cricket in mid-week. Trying to keep what’s good is the thinking. We don’t want to chuck that under the bus for the sake of three or four teams in the main competition. It’s sad really, but it’s just
how cricket has gone. 20 years ago, village teams all had two or three good players, because people didn’t just move to the better clubs. Holyport beat North Maidenhead in the final when North Maidenhead were in the Premier Division. Something like that couldn’t possibly happen now. Anyone who is good just moves to a bigger club.
“If someone turns up and comes up with a really good idea we haven’t thought about, we can always think and have another look at it, but we’ve racked our brains and tried.
“I’m not really sure there is one unless you just bury your head in the sand and say, ‘well, the final was good’, but to me that’s a bit rubbish.”
The Julian Cup T20 competition is one of the oldest of its kind in the country – if not the oldest
– and is set to mark its 100th anniversary this summer. A separate committee has been set up to come up with ideas as to how to mark the milestone. They are looking to hold an event over the August bank holiday.
The clubs who attended the open meeting at Marlow CC on February 27 were Marlow, White Waltham, Boyne Hill, Cookham Dean and Holyport, while organisers also received written submissions from Taplow, Littlewick Green and Wargrave.