Pointing the way

ROGER Tanner is to be president of the new Pennine Cricket League. The Tanner family name has been synonymous with the Saddleworth and District Cricket League, with Roger the competition president since 1957.

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CRICKET: 

WEALTHY clubs will not be allowed to buy success in the new Pennine Cricket League.

A player points system designed to produce a level playing field has been proposed by a steering committee of current and former cricketers.

One of them, Ryan Barnes of Heyside, addressed the launch meeting of the embryonic league and endorsed a system that allocates points relating to an individual’s standard and experience.

“The Pennine Leagues does not want clubs paying 11 players and running away with the title. We want controls. We want each club to be the best it can be with the focus on developing young players alongside professionals and overseas amateurs.”

The proposed system would see professionals allocated maximum points and players with little or no experience at first-team level zero. Overseas amateurs and former first-class cricketers would be high on the scale, but amateurs who have played 10 matches or more during a season at an equivalent level would be fairly low on the ratings ladder.

The PCL will not officially be known as an open league, which involves no constraints on any player being paid, but clubs with superior spending power will be restricted by the points system — if it is approved.

The draft proposal needs ratification from clubs at the league’s first annual meeting, but recently-retired Greenfield player Peter Gill, who has worked alongside Barnes and others on the relevant steering committee, said: “It will prevent a massive influx of players to one club, so no-one will be able to buy the league.”



PROPOSED formats for the league and cups were unveiled at the PCL launch meeting.

League matches — the vast majority of which will be held on Saturdays — are due to start at 1pm though they will begin earlier when lack of daylight demands.

In first XI games, teams will bowl their 50 overs in three hours and points will be allocated along the lines of the CLL system of five points for an outright win (opposition bowled out), and four points for a limited win. A bonus point will be allocated to a losing team scoring 75 per cent of their opponents’ total or taking seven wickets.

In a move designed to promote greater participation, no bowler will be allowed more than 17 overs an innings.

Should matches be interrupted by rain, the Weathertime system previously employed by the Saddleworth League will be used.

Second XI matches will be of 45 overs per side in two hours 45 minutes and no bowler will be able to deliver more than 12 overs.

A suggested system designed to fit the Wood Cup and Tanner Cup into a busy calendar was also revealed by Gill.


THE formation of women’s teams will be actively encouraged by the PCL.

Littleborough’s Scott Kershaw said he had first-hand experience of watching women’s cricket at local level and was impressed by the benefits to clubs.

Heyside, Greenfield, Saddleworth, Uppermill and Walsden already have some form of women’s participation, he said, and other clubs are being encouraged to follow them.



Though the PCL has been set for 24 clubs next year, others may join in the future.

Glenn Kershaw, one of the driving forces behind the PCL and the main speaker at the league’s launch, said: “We will not be targeting clubs, but they would be more than welcome.”