Good to see someone interested enough to start a topic about Stanley, good on ya Hazbeen!
Just to keep everyone updated, this season will feature only one A grade side from Clare (previous years there have been Clare Red and Clare Blue) and two B grades (previous years only one). This apparently is to do with the amount of serious knee injuries suffered by some of their better players during the footy season just gone. Not exactly sure, but I think Ben Seymon, Matt Vandeleur and maybe his brother Josh (?) are the victims I'm aware of. All requiring recons apparently. There is talk that they will get back to two A grade sides in time, but I think that's doubtful myself. Once something like this is done, its pretty hard to get it going again. Especially considering the internal issues that Clare cricket has had to overcome. Although maybe those internal issues will be what makes two sides happen again! Also of concern is how players going between two B grade sides and the A grade during the season will affect qualification for B grade finals. Apparently there will be a magic number (7) which once you've played that many games for that B grade side, that's who you play for for the rest of the season.
In other news, Lower North Cricket Club are in the process of turning the white elephant that is the Ralli Pavilion in the Balaklava Showgrounds into an indoor cricket training centre. I haven't seen the progress so far, but it should be ready for a Yorke Peninsula Junior cricket camp in the first week of the school holidays. So it should be basically finished by now! This will give Lower North facilities that will be the envy of all other clubs in the comp I should think, with 3 full length pitches with pull-back nets allowing for two groups of bowlers and a bowling machine at the same time. In any conditions!
Blyth Cricket Club are again only entering a B Grade senior cricket team, much to the chagrin of most opposition. This seems to be a pretty soft option, considering towns such as Watervale and Sevenhill keep fronting up year after year with smaller populations. As they keep saying at the meetings, "Maybe next year!"
Junior numbers in all clubs but Clare and Lower North are a worry with most only reporting 5 or 6. There will be two divisions of junior cricket this season so that Clare and Lower North with full teams of close to 16 year olds won't be playing against teams with maybe one or two older kids and the rest 8-12s. It will be interesting to see how this works, but in the meantime if there are any kids out there who are looking for a game, if you live in Clare you could probably go just down the road to Watervale or Sevenhill and you would get a game every week. I think Lower North will be entering a team in each division.
I think that's all I can think of at the moment (thank God I hear you cry!), but would love to hear about new recruits, general gossip etc. (such as progress with the Clare main oval resurfacing) for Stanley teams. Lower North's side could be fairly different to last year's, depending on where the terrible twosome Higgs and Darling decide to show their wares. There will be some new faces, but whether in A's or B's is yet to be determined. Lower North are participating in a 20/20 tournament in Kadina against the Yorke Peninsula leagues and Lower Gilbert on Sunday the 19th October which should be a handy warm-up before the first game on Sat 25th Oct.
Ciao for now!