League ready for action
THE Love Lane Liverpool Competition has announced the groups which will contest its local mini-leagues next month.
Regional rivalries will be rekindled, and several of the Competition’s bigger names will face off against each other.
The round-robins begin on August 1; until then, clubs can organise friendly matches in line with the ECB’s guidance for recreational cricket in the age of Covid, released earlier this week.
Players will have to get used to not shining the ball, and not handing their caps to the umpire at the start of an over; they’ll also need to bring their own tea.
But cricket is cricket. It’s less than many may have wanted; it’s a lot more than most of us thought we’d get a few weeks ago.
Elliott Ketteringham will lead his Formby side into high-quality local clashes with Northern, Ormskirk and 2019 champions Bootle next month – and he can’t wait.
“They’re all tough local derbies, which is what the clubs want,” he said.
“In the current situation, you want bar profits to be up as much as you can, so hopefully all the clubs around the league will prosper in the back end of the season, to get them through winter.”
Over the past five seasons, the four clubs in Formby’s group have taken up 15 of the 20 topfour slots available in the league, so Ketteringham knows the quality of the cricket should be high – if a little unpredictable, given the circumstances.
“It’s the group of death,” he said. “We’re looking forward to it.
“It’ll be interesting to see, with no pros or overseas players, how deep some of these clubs go in terms of the playing members.
“And for some of the young guys coming through, it’ll be a big opportunity to stamp their mark on a place for next year and get their careers going in first team cricket.”
Like many clubs, Formby are staging an intrasquad match tomorrow, to sharpen up a few weary eyes and get some overs into a few rusty legs.
Ketteringham said: “We decided to do that rather than have a game against a rival during the first week, just to get everyone back into it – and give everyone a chance to find their kit again.”