Club & League Entry growth across Wales in 2021

10th February 2021 | Mark Frost

Clubs and Leagues are really looking forward to the early summer when hopefully we will be allowed to resume our great game and this year there the good news is about growth in the senior game.

In South West Wales: -

Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire have seen real growth in clubs recently with three new entities entering leagues for 2021:

• Fishguard & Goodwick CC (Pembrokeshire County Cricket Club PCCC)
• Wildboars Centurions (South Wales Cricket Association SWCA)
• Penygroes (Friendlies in 2021 with proposed league entry in SWCA 2022)

There is also the first all asian team playing under the Ynystawe Banner – ‘Tawe Strikers’ who will also play friendlies. In addition, new teams are entering the local senior leagues (PCCC & SWCA): Llechryd 3^rd X1, Tata Steel 3rds & 4ths, Port Talbot 4ths & Dafen 3rds.

There is a reasonable number of non-affiliated social clubs operating in a cricket network (10 teams) in the Swansea Area (Badgers, Sketty Church, Swansea Uplands RFC, Evening Post etc) & The Nomads have 2 teams in the Narberth Area.

Women’s & Girls’ Cricket:

• Pembrokeshire Ladies league will look to increase to 10 teams in 2021: Hook, Burton, Cresselly, Haverfordwest, Lawrenny, Whitland, Neyland, Kilgetty, Narberth & Pembroke Dock.
• The New South Wales Women’s Softball League will have 6 teams from the South West: Ynystawe, Clydach, Skewen, Bronwydd, Llandarcy & Wildboars Centurions.
• The South West Women’s Regional Premier League (40overs & T20) will have Briton Ferry Steel representing the South West.
• The SWJCL offers U11’s & U13’s girls cricket.

Both SWJCL & Pembs junior league entries are not due until March 31^st.

South East Wales

There are 4 new Clubs entering the SEWCL for the 2021 season. Pencoed (back from 4 seasons off) South Wales Sri Lankans, Garage town CC & Cardiff Kits CC. We also have clubs growing the number of teams. That’s 15 new teams in total including the new clubs creating a new division 13.

Women’s & Girls’ Cricket

• There also 7 new clubs joining the Women’s & Girls’ softball festivals for the season of 2021 that would take us to 29 Clubs in total.
• The new South Wales Women’s Softball League will have 11 teams from the South East: Sudbrook, Malpas, Newbridge, Bridgend, Creigiau, The Vale, Upper Rhondda, Miskin Manor, Radyr, Blackwood & Monmouth.
• The South West Women’s Regional Premier League (40overs & T20) will have Newport & Raydr representing the South East.

Juniors

• Cardiff & Vale junior league introduce a Girls U12 softball, u17 league, Mid-Summer Plate & Shield cup comp.
• Gwent Junior league introduce Girls U12 softball league.

North & Mid Wales

Seniors: The North Wales Cricket League has seen an increase in Sunday team entries to 16 teams for the 2021 season and the league will also see Colwyn Bay & Northop Hall CC re-join the league set up on Sunday’s in a positive step for the region.

The West Wales Conference will continue to offer league cricket for the rural West Wales coastal cricket clubs and the North Powys based teams again have strong entry into the Shropshire Cricket League this season.

Women’s Cricket:

2021 will see the launch of the North Wales Women’s Softball League which is a huge step for the area.

Junior Leagues: There are ongoing discussions with the existing junior cricket committees in North Wales for the 2021 season with full details to follow for clubs in the near future after a survey being carried out with clubs in late 2020.

Umpire Recruitment

Thanks to the efforts from Wales ACO, over the last 2 seasons new umpire numbers have increased by15 with the possibility of a few more joining after completion of the recent stage 1 & 2 online course, that would be an increase of over 25% on the numbers that we had 2 years ago. Of those 15 umpires 10 are in South East Wales and 5 in South West Wales. This has made a tremendous difference regarding the coverage of matches with more games having 2 umpires. In the South East WACO are hopeful that in the first 2 months of the new season that every game in the top 3 divisions will have 2 umpires standing at each game and possibly some spare umpires. This would be something that has not happened for many years.

The South Wales Premier League hopes to boost numbers up to 30 by the end of the season. Two female umpires, namely Anna Harris and Yvonne Dolphin-Cooper, being the first ladies to stand in a South Wales Premier League Division 1 game. That game is St Fagans v Pontarddulais on the 22nd May. Both ladies have umpired in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint competition standing with first class umpires

If you would like to consider umpiring then please visit www.walesaco.org.uk or https://cricketwales.org.uk/umpiring and there will be information on there of who to contact