‘The too young, too old and almost competent’

 

‘The too young, too old and almost competent’

What to say about Hampshire Div 6 SW? First up, more observant people might be asking, ‘as you live in Bournemouth which is in Dorset, what the hell are you doing playing in a Hampshire league anyhow?’ The simple answer being that Dorset does not regionalise its lower leagues. As lovely as such places as Marnhull and Weymouth are, the journey to and from them on top of a game of cricket is a massive pain in the arse. Whereas, Hampshire South West is basically the Bournemouth area and the New Forest, nowhere is too far away and there is a decent road net. This also provides a pleasing mix of more town based settings with very rural and traditional village based settings that quite often have  irritatingly smug and self centred wild ponies wandering about.

So, the maelstrom of competition that is Hampshire South West Div 6, what type of teams do you get playing cricket at such a level? Well, I would split the league broadly into 3 different types of teams.

First up are those teams that are the clubs first (and only) team. These tend to be traditional village teams. ‘Village’ is often used as an insult in cricket, but when I play these teams they always seem relaxed and supportive and enjoy the game they are playing, so good on them. At this level, they often are amongst the stronger teams in the league, as they have a few players that are too good for this level, but there is only 1 team in the club to play for, along with a group of more ‘Div 6’ level players. Their level can go up and down seemingly at random though. As if you are lucky, you will catch them on a week where their strong players are not available and have been replaced by ‘Keith’s mum and her sister’ to make up numbers. If you are unlucky, you will play them on a week where ‘Dan and Ben are back from university and are up for a game, and they have brought a mate who is also a decent bat’, which can be a sudden influx of strength.

Second up is a clubs second (and last) team. These tend to be competitive at this level because smaller clubs seem to have a more homogenous playing group, so the second team players are not that far worse than the first team, without a longer tail, so such teams quite often are nursing dreams of promotion.

The last type of team is a bigger clubs third, fourth or even fifth team. These teams tend to be ‘development’ teams for children taking their first steps in adult cricket, along with older gentlemen that may be beyond their prime. When my boy starting playing adult cricket he was 12 bowling at one end, at the other there was someone who was 72. These teams are rounded out by those in that are not able to play in the higher leagues. These teams can change in quality a great deal from year to year. One year being quite weak, but the next a good crop of younger lads can come through, a dad or two that could play at a higher level drops down to play with their child and the team gets a lot better. Such teams do not tend to end up at the top of the league though, as the aim of these teams is to develop players who will go on to play for their clubs higher ranked teams, rather than aiming to get the team promoted. If anything the quality in the team may go down over the season, as anyone doing really well may get nabbed to play in a higher division.

So, there is the broad spread of how the league is made up. Next will be an in depth, insightful analysis of which teams may be bothering the winners podium this season…..