General News
4 October, 2024
Fielding action and change: Cricket starts
By GARY WALSH A BRAND new Twenty20 competition is a highlight of the Upper Loddon Cricket Association’s 2024-25 season that starts on Saturday. The senior competition has expanded to five teams with the addition of the resurgent Bridgewater Bulls...
By GARY WALSH
A BRAND new Twenty20 competition is a highlight of the Upper Loddon Cricket Association’s 2024-25 season that starts on Saturday.
The senior competition has expanded to five teams with the addition of the resurgent Bridgewater Bulls.
The season begins on Saturday with a two-day clash between reigning premiers Arnold Redbacks and Kingower.
The action-packed T20 games – 10 in total over five rounds of the season – will decide the inaugural Loddon Herald Cup.
The final, between the top two teams on a separate T20 ladder, will be played on Sunday December 15 at a venue to be decided.
New association president John Daldy, who is also president of Bridgewater, said he put up his hand to lead the competition because he “didn’t want the league to fall over.
“The situation is very simple. I did not want to see the league die, and it was heading that way.
“That was not because of others’ failures, but a few people wanted a bit of a change and to get some variety.
“Cricket has been struggling since COVID, so we’re just trying a few initiatives,” Daldy said this week.
That variety includes the T20 matches, which are seen as a draw for younger players in particular.
Daldy said there was “some curiosity about T20”, which was considered a more social form of cricket, but he did not want it to attract players who were not interested in the traditional longer forms of the game.
T20 will be a league within the league – as well as having its own ladder, results will contribute to the overall club standings at the end of the season. Bridgewater, whose withdrawal from the competition last year put the association’s future in jeopardy, is luring players from Inglewood to help boost numbers on its return to the league.
The Bulls, Redbacks and Kingower will be joined by Wedderburn Band and Boort-Yando in the senior league, which will play 16 rounds of two-day, one-day and T20 matches.
The junior competition will be limited to four teams, with Arnold not fielding a side.