2:38pm Saturday 11th July 2009
TRY telling local cricketers it’s a much better summer.
Not on a Saturday would be the likely response. A majority of clubs have had a third of their season rain-affected to date.
Not for the first time in the Westmorland Cricket League, wet weather may well play a big part in the destination of the end of season gongs.
Perched on top of the First Division is the most successful club in the history of the Westmorland Cricket League bar none.
Since their last championship in 1997 Burneside CC has been a sleeping giant. Already they are the Village Cup champions of Cumbria and North Lancashire.
Captain Steven Cooper takes much credit for this new mood of optimism. He and Robert Davies are scoring runs for fun, but the lack of penetrative bowling in depth may prove the undoing of Cooper and co.
Should Burneside fall away, the championship will go to either Warton, Milnthorpe or Westgate, with Milnthorpe just edging in front as favourites of that trio.
Milnthorpe has a side that knows each other inside out - so long have they been together. If they adopt the ‘if you can’t win, don’t lose’ policy and go through the second half of the season undefeated, the Bateman Shield beckons.
Has the Westgate side that that has dominated the WCL for the last decade entered into a backwash?
A disproportionate dependency on the all-round skills of Peter Wilson and Danny Wilkinson was always going to expose the four-times champions should skills dull.
While it would appear that this is happing, the Westgate philosophy is never say die: they lurk ominously.
The Warton Club have lost six players from their title-winning team of two years ago. This year was to be one of rebuild but with only eight points separating them from Burneside, skipper Ricky Nelson, James Rafferty and Graham Crowther could yet land them the top prize.
Whenever Ibis and Bare are in the First Division most other clubs relax as relegation looks off-limits Four times in the last decade the pair have been promoted together and as often as not gone down together the following season.
Ibis are consigned already and it looks like only Windermere can threaten Bare’s chances of demotion, though both Kirkby Lonsdale and Shireshead and Forton could yet get caught up in the mix.
Silverdale, Arnside and Heysham will consider the season to date somewhat disappointing - they are either losing too often or not picking-up the crucial 15-point wins.
None of these shortfalls can be placed at the door of Chris Williams, Adam Richardson, and Reg Cupit respectively who are all having tremendous seasons.
The timely arrival of Andy Thomas at Moor Hospital may well prove the difference between promotion and just missing out. Their last appearance in the top flight was a brief one in 1999.
Looking as near certainties as these things can be, Bolton-le-Sands appear to be upwardly mobile on the backs of two young bowlers.
So far Sands have picked up five 15-point wins thanks largely to Adam Dyson and Mark Clarkson.
However, speculation suggests the club is none to keen to go up unless the ECB changes its directive issued on 2002 on young fast bowlers.
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