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Secretary's Report for
Season 2010
John Cooper has been a tremendous servant to
the Northern Cricket League since his appointment as secretary
in 1998. At the end of the 2010 season John decided it was
time to retire and hand over the role to Ann Gilfoyle. Here he
reflects on his happy years spent involved with the
League.
I was very surprised when Norman Ellis asked if
I would be willing to become Secretary of the League. All of
my cricket involvement had been with Thornton Cleveleys in the
Palace Shield and though I had played against and with many ex
Northern League players, I had only recently become really
involved in the League when my son started playing for
Fleetwood. I wondered how I would fit in. I had recently
retired and was looking for something to occupy my time and it
did not take me long to decide to say "yes". I should not have
had any doubts because I was made very welcome by everyone to
do with the League and its clubs and I soon found that I could
make a worthwhile contribution to the working of the
League.
I was immediately pitched into the problems and
politics of the introduction of Premier Leagues by the ECB. It
required the County Boards to reorganise recreational cricket
in their areas into a Premier League on top of a pyramid of
feeder leagues. The Lancashire Cricket Board (LCB) initially
cherry- picked strong clubs from the strongest leagues in
Lancashire to form a Premier League. This included six clubs
from the Northern League and would have resulted in the
destruction of the Northern League, generally regarded as one
of the strongest leagues in the country. The Northern League
voted not to take part.
The LCB then attempted to arrange the leagues in
a pyramid structure. On Merseyside this was successful with
the Liverpool Competition becoming a Premier League with
feeder leagues from Merseyside and the Southport Leagues. All
attempts of the Northern League to form links with the Palace
Shield and the Ribblesdale League failed. The other problem
with the Premier League concept was that the ECB wanted a
120-over game which was very unpopular with our clubs.
After the production of much paperwork outlining
how Northern League Clubs met the specifications, many
meetings and some changes in the conditions set by the ECB,
the LCB supported the League as a Premier League elect playing
a 110-over game. Further changes in the conditions set by the
ECB mean that we now play a 100-over game and as we have no
feeder league structure are classed as an "Approved" Premier
League. It is perhaps the major disappointment of my time as
Secretary that we were not able to attract enough clubs to
achieve the long standing policy of the League of forming two
divisions with promotion and relegation. Another initiative is
being planned and I hope that it is successful.
The other ongoing problem that concerned the
Executive was discipline on the field and support of the
umpires. The disciplinary code was restructured with offences
classified into four levels with the introduction at level 2
of initially a warning which if a further offence occurred in
the year following an immediate two match suspension was
imposed. Perhaps the most effective introduction was at level
3 which in agreement with the Chairman of Discipline gave the
clubs the option of taking their own disciplinary action to be
confirmed by the League. Unless the player appeals this has
the advantage of being immediate and more meaningful to the
players. Certainly since this policy was introduced the number
of disciplinary reports has decreased and the League has
developed a good reputation for discipline.
In the time that I have been secretary there
have been a considerable number of changes in the cricket
played in the League. In Season 1999, my first as secretary,
there was a long-established pattern of cricket with the
twelve clubs playing league games on Saturdays and Bank
Holiday Mondays. There were two cup competitions, The Vaux
Samson Cup and the Vaux Bitter Cup, one in each half of the
season, the first rounds being played on Saturdays with the
subsequent rounds played on Sundays. Additionally clubs played
in the County Cup competitions and the National Cup. The
League also entered a team in the Manchester Evening News
Inter-League Senior and Junior competitions.
In 2002 the two cup competitions were replaced
by the Thwaites Smooth Beer League Cup Competition with two
groups of six clubs playing each other once and the winners of
each group playing each other for the Cup. The intention was
to guarantee each club a minimum of five Cup games and Sunday
cricket through July and August. The 2002 season also saw the
introduction of the Amateur Awards for the leading batsman,
bowler, fielder and wicket keeper. 2002 was also the last
season of the Northern League Under-17s Junior competition.
This competition had run successfully but increasingly clubs
were finding difficulty in raising teams. This was perhaps
related to travel and the development of Junior Leagues in
their local areas which provided an easier alternative.
In 2003 Thwaites sponsored coloured clothing for
the League Cup competition. As far as we know we were the
first recreational league in the country to play in coloured
clothing. There had been no progress in developing a feeder
league structure, the League with its long standing wish to
have enough clubs to split into two divisions advertised for
applications from individual clubs and Barrow were welcomed
into the League for the 2004 season which was played with
thirteen clubs. The 2004 season also saw the introduction of
The Northern League Twenty20 competition. Kendal were its
first winners and went on to represent the League in a County
competition.
The Northern League had been the most successful
league in Manchester Evening News Competition, a knockout
competition involving representative teams from the Lancashire
leagues and had become the "team" to beat. Selection for the
League team was an "honour". Changes in the amount of cricket
played by clubs and increasing demands on talented players in
representative sides had produced a reaction that something
had to "give". Increasingly players at both senior and
Under-18 level were asking not to be selected. This made the
Team Manager's task extremely difficult and stressful. It was
with a great deal of reluctance and sadness that the League
decided to withdraw from the competition.
In 2005 the League took advantage of changes in
the criteria for Premier Leagues and reduced the matches to
100 overs with a 1-30pm.start. Carnforth applied to join the
League for the 2006 season which would have produced an even
number of clubs eliminating the blank Saturday and was a step
towards forming two divisions. Unfortunately there was a sad
end to Leyland Motors, a founder member of the League. Their
battle to keep the ground failed and the club had to fold. A
new club was formed in a merger with Leyland Cricket Club.
Unfortunately the League was again left with an odd number of
clubs for the 2007 season. 2006 also saw a complete revision
of the League's rules which with additions and amendments made
over the years had become difficult to use.
The statistics and records of the League had for
a long time been the province of Roger Harrison who dealt with
all the results and statistics for many years. On his illness
his job was taken over by John Kettlestring who had
established the League website and besides the day to day
running of the League's results carried out the massive task
of transferring all of the league records from Roger's books
onto the web site. The League is indebted to John for
preserving the history of the League and making it accessible
to all. Mike Latham took over the job of webmaster and has
brought the League up to date with modern technology and has
established the play-cricket website, developing it as an
efficient means of communication of results, reports and news.
His efforts are much appreciated.
On more than one occasion I have heard the
remark that the League is not as strong as it used to be. One
has only to look at the archives and see the names of well
known Test players from round the world and the records of the
local players who played in the League to know that this is
true. There have been two major changes that have affected
cricket clubs. The increase in the amount of Test cricket has
made it difficult to engage current Test players for the whole
of our season and their fees have become prohibitive.
Consequently clubs have been employing young up-and-coming
overseas professionals keen to get experience of English
conditions. Many of these have in later years gone on to
represent their countries. These young overseas professionals
have made positive contributions to the development of the
young players of the League.
However, perhaps the most significant change to
affect clubs has been the increasing dependence on them to
attract young people into the game and develop their skills.
The ECB through their County Boards have recognised the
problems and increasingly support has been fed into the clubs
with many receiving funding for nets, coaching facilities and
coach training. The clubs of the Northern League have
developed healthy junior sections and it is very pleasing that
talented young players are not only being picked to play in
the Premier League but importantly are being given the
opportunity to play a significant part in the games.
Increasingly I refer to the League as a youth development
league where ambitious young players can test and develop
their skills against established players knowing that if they
are good enough they will get the chance to progress. The
number of our young players who are selected for
representative teams and the success of Steven Croft and Tom
Smith with the County is an indication of what can be
achieved. The introduction of games against the Lancashire
Colts has been a success giving the County a chance to assess
players in a game situation and their presence in the League
provides an added incentive for our own young players.
Finally, my thanks for the help, support and
friendship during my time as secretary. I hope to meet you on
the boundary some sunny day watching cricket.
John Cooper
Secretary
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