SA Footy

The_Informer wrote:I blame Rose Park

Tony Clifton wrote:Shame to hear but I guess it's been on the cards. Hopefully all clubs can find a home and continue in their own right

bara-stick wrote:Good fun comp 5-10 years ago. Writing has been on the wall for at least the last few years if not longer.
Really enjoyed playing with and against some rippers, Pidge, all the Ritas, Hot Pies, Smasha, carey, Hutchy Churches to name a few.
RIP SACCCA.

Bara-Stick best player to ever play churches. Unlucky not to represent Australia.

The Bedge wrote:ONE of Adelaide’s oldest cricket competitions is on the brink of folding after 112 years.

The SA Churches & Community Cricket Association will on June 19 hold a special meeting where club delegates will vote to either suspend the league in 2018/19 or disband it.

President Marc Cossens said the competition, formed in 1906 with teams from across Adelaide, had suffered from a lack of volunteers and gradual departure of clubs.

Cossens predicted delegates would make the sad decision to wind up the association.

“I’m expecting that we’ll all look at each other and decide that it’s not worth continuing and we’ll end up looking at different associations that each team will have to go,” Cossens said.

“The vote will be to suspend the competition next season, put it on hold effectively.

“But once you put the competition on hold, it’s very hard to get back.

“There is another option on the table, which I’m not willing to speak about yet.”

Marc Cossens (left), Phillip Hicks and Raf Zuliamis posing for a photo in 2006 to celebrate 100 years of the SA Churches & Community Cricket Association.
The competition is Adelaide’s third-oldest, behind the SA Cricket Association (1871) and Adelaide & Suburban (1899).

Churches & Community featured nine clubs and 14 teams across two divisions last season, down from 11, 22 and three the previous summer.

Fitzroy, Rose Park and North Eastern Knights, which all fielded multiple teams, left for other associations after 2016/17, while Seaton folded.

Cossens said he had been “fighting by himself” to run the competition the past two seasons.

“Clubs have moved away for one reason or another and a lot of the clubs left are one-team clubs but it’s not been one thing, it’s been a combination of a lot of things,” he said.

Enfield United chairman Matt Bedgegood said his club had fielded at least one team in the Churches association since forming in 1928.

He agreed the association’s decline was down to many factors, including a lack of volunteers to run it, bigger clubs leaving and the demise of church-based teams.

“It’s like a perfect storm of all these things that’s finally come to a head,” Bedgegood said.

“But it’s disappointing and upsetting to see the way the competition has gone.”

The Churches competition’s struggles come four years after the dissolution of the 125-year-old Southern Cricket Association.

If the Churches association folded, Cossens said clubs would likely be absorbed into the Para Districts or Adelaide & Suburban competitions.

The Bedge wrote:C&CCA meeting last night - awaiting more detailed minutes from our delegates, but essentially the key points are as below:
* There is still a hesitation to 'suspend' competition, and the competition is hopeful of being active this summer.
* The large driving force behind this move is Para Vista Lutheran, who had the largest representation at the meeting.
* SACA will contact recently departed clubs and look to entice them to return to the competition in part or total capacity.
* There will be another meeting in 3 weeks time to update/discuss the position of the competition.
* At this stage, there is no draft nor defined outlook on how the season may be structured, key dates, rounds etc.
* Appears that should it continue, the competition may be a 6x team, 1x division competition involving two sides from both Para Vista and Adelaide Lutheran.
* SACA are willing to assist in an administrative capacity, but that's about the extend of their ability to assist.

The Bedge wrote:C&CCA meeting last night - awaiting more detailed minutes from our delegates, but essentially the key points are as below:
* There is still a hesitation to 'suspend' competition, and the competition is hopeful of being active this summer.
* The large driving force behind this move is Para Vista Lutheran, who had the largest representation at the meeting.
* SACA will contact recently departed clubs and look to entice them to return to the competition in part or total capacity.
* There will be another meeting in 3 weeks time to update/discuss the position of the competition.
* At this stage, there is no draft nor defined outlook on how the season may be structured, key dates, rounds etc.
* Appears that should it continue, the competition may be a 6x team, 1x division competition involving two sides from both Para Vista and Adelaide Lutheran.
* SACA are willing to assist in an administrative capacity, but that's about the extend of their ability to assist.

Tony Clifton wrote:Article on Page 40 of the Advertiser this morning

League calls stumps after club exodus

Association president Marc Cossens said the four remaining clubs would vote to suspend the competition indefinitely at next month's AGM. "We expect it will be a very quick meeting. It is just a formality now that a motion will be passed to suspend the competition. It is sad, but with the association's original teams leaving and a lack of support on the organising side of things, it has come to this. When you look at the history of churches sport - basketball, netball - they're all gone. Cricket is the only one left I think."

Burras wrote:

Tony Clifton wrote:Article on Page 40 of the Advertiser this morning

League calls stumps after club exodus

Association president Marc Cossens said the four remaining clubs would vote to suspend the competition indefinitely at next month's AGM. "We expect it will be a very quick meeting. It is just a formality now that a motion will be passed to suspend the competition. It is sad, but with the association's original teams leaving and a lack of support on the organising side of things, it has come to this. When you look at the history of churches sport - basketball, netball - they're all gone. Cricket is the only one left I think."

Anybody have a link to the article?