The Devon Cricket League is proposing a major rule change that
will have a massive impact on clubs like Bradninch CC in terms
of their chances of playing in the Premier Division of the
Francis Clark Devon League. The proposal to be put to the Annual
General Meeting is this -
'In the Premier Division 1st XI only the bottom team
shall be relegated and the top team in the 'A' Division
shall be promoted. In the remainder of the first and second
eleven leagues the top two teams shall be promoted and the
bottom two teams relegated. Except regionalised divisions
i.e. 'D' & 'E'. In the regionalised divisions 'D� West and
'D' East the top team only shall be promoted from each, etc,
etc.�
This would of course mean that just ONE side would be
promoted at the end of each campaign from the �A� Division into
the Premier Division and the move is brought about following
many years of both the two sides going up from the A Division
struggling to stay in the top flight for more than the one
season.
A second and less controversial alteration to current rules
is one that will see the confirmation of �A� Division results
brought to the media much, much quicker than under its present
system of using the Royal Mail.
The DCL have agreed with the proposal from the 'A' Division
Meeting that the 'A' Division is to be a pilot for faxing and
scanning through results for the 2007 season, but also maintain
the current system for score sheets to be posted. It is hoped
that the faxing and scanning process will result in the
publication of results by the Monday following the match at
6.p.m. You can see all the proposed amendments to rule on the
Devon Cricket League website.
Footnote - no doubt there will be strong views on this from
within the Cricket Club - let's have them please via the site�s
message board!
Club Chairman Derrick Foan says:
'I feel a bit of deja vu here, as Exeter CC lobbied
the respective Divisional Sub-Committee Meetings in the
mid-1990s to instigate exactly the same change on behalf of
themselves and other founder Devon League clubs who were
concerned they might get relegated, as the strength of the
less fashionable clubs increased.
The change went through, but was reversed the
following year once other member clubs realised the elitist
nature of the initiative.
As the proposal being mooted now, was not put forward
for discussion at the recent Divisional Sub-Committee
meetings, we would not expect it to have a place on the DCL
AGM's Agenda.'
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