Community Cricket Structure

[Phantom Gossiper]

Having played in Adelaide Turf and taken my son from school cricket to grade cricket for Prospect after I stopped playing I always thought that travel just comes with playing sport. You just do it. Maybe I am in the minority?

People in South Australia take for granted travel distances IMO. You can go from one side of town to the other in around an hour, rarely do you need to travel longer than that to get to where ever you are playing.

[Footy Smart]

Having played in Adelaide Turf and taken my son from school cricket to grade cricket for Prospect after I stopped playing I always thought that travel just comes with playing sport. You just do it. Maybe I am in the minority?

The Southern District Saturday/Sunday game is a killer for the nothern clubs and vise versa i spose

[Lightning McQueen]

Having played in Adelaide Turf and taken my son from school cricket to grade cricket for Prospect after I stopped playing I always thought that travel just comes with playing sport. You just do it. Maybe I am in the minority?

It's all good if you are based within 10 or 15 km's of the CBD. Try living out near Gawler. Personally, I couldn't give a toss but I know how much numbers would dwindle if the travel factor worsened.

[Lightning McQueen]

Having played in Adelaide Turf and taken my son from school cricket to grade cricket for Prospect after I stopped playing I always thought that travel just comes with playing sport. You just do it. Maybe I am in the minority?

The Southern District Saturday/Sunday game is a killer for the nothern clubs and vise versa i spose

you are correct, I remember playing for Elizabeth when they were a single identity in district cricket, it was a 7:30am leave.

[Footy Smart]

Having played in Adelaide Turf and taken my son from school cricket to grade cricket for Prospect after I stopped playing I always thought that travel just comes with playing sport. You just do it. Maybe I am in the minority?

The Southern District Saturday/Sunday game is a killer for the nothern clubs and vise versa i spose

you are correct, I remember playing for Elizabeth when they were a single identity in district cricket, it was a 7:30am leave.

yep very true, sure makes for a long day and an early sleep

[Dogwatcher]

Having played in Adelaide Turf and taken my son from school cricket to grade cricket for Prospect after I stopped playing I always thought that travel just comes with playing sport. You just do it. Maybe I am in the minority?

The Southern District Saturday/Sunday game is a killer for the nothern clubs and vise versa i spose

you are correct, I remember playing for Elizabeth when they were a single identity in district cricket, it was a 7:30am leave.

Did you ever do a Saturday/Sunday game down there, LM?
That was joy.

[Phantom Gossiper]

The PDCA has expanded nearly to their geographical limits spanning from Fitzroy, to Tea Tree Gully to Dublin, I t think any of their clubs would be too interested in a statewide competition.

Perhaps boundaries do need to be set on each competition, and structure them identically so everyone statewide is playing the same format and programming of cricket.

[Dancing in the rain]

north hardwicket, south hardwicket, turf all over. one day comps within each comp and T20's all over. Simple.

[EldersUniSA]

Is there anything currently available in the hard wicket comps that is similar to ATCA'S Limited overs Competition? I think if a few clubs decided to create an association/competition for their lower grade teams playing strictly LO's they would experience growth and longevity in a similar vain to what ATCA experienced.

I suppose the first thing that comes to mind when restructuring competitions is that a lot of the time spent running things is voluntary. If changes are made from either high or medium levels that are unpopular at club level than you will lose your work force and it will ultimately fail. I think change would only occur through the goodwill of the clubs or by default through the recess of existing associations with amalgamation.

[Phantom Gossiper]

Is there anything currently available in the hard wicket comps that is similar to ATCA'S Limited overs Competition? I think if a few clubs decided to create an association/competition for their lower grade teams playing strictly LO's they would experience growth and longevity in a similar vain to what ATCA experienced.

I suppose the first thing that comes to mind when restructuring competitions is that a lot of the time spent running things is voluntary. If changes are made from either high or medium levels that are unpopular at club level than you will lose your work force and it will ultimately fail. I think change would only occur through the goodwill of the clubs or by default through the recess of existing associations with amalgamation.

C&CCA are exploring the option of becoming a LO competition this season.

[abber]

Having played in Adelaide Turf and taken my son from school cricket to grade cricket for Prospect after I stopped playing I always thought that travel just comes with playing sport. You just do it. Maybe I am in the minority?

The Southern District Saturday/Sunday game is a killer for the nothern clubs and vise versa i spose

you are correct, I remember playing for Elizabeth when they were a single identity in district cricket, it was a 7:30am leave.

Did you ever do a Saturday/Sunday game down there, LM?
That was joy.

Obviously the 1 trip every 2 years down South must be more taxing than the multiple trips each year North, logic would have Southern doing.

[The Old Fellow]

PDCA's bottom 3 grades are LO only. The highest LO grade is for club's "A" and/or "B" grades while the 2 lower ones are for true "C", "D" and even a few clubs play their "E"s in them. Limits the clubs which want to glory hunt in the LO comp - put your "A" or "B" in and you play against similar teams. From results last season seemed to be a gap between the "A" teams and the "B" teams. The other two grades work well. The few games I played last season in the middle grade the comp is is fairly even as I mainly played against over older players who like me who can't field for a full day but still like to have a bat and bowl each week.

[Dogwatcher]

The Southern District Saturday/Sunday game is a killer for the nothern clubs and vise versa i spose

you are correct, I remember playing for Elizabeth when they were a single identity in district cricket, it was a 7:30am leave.

Did you ever do a Saturday/Sunday game down there, LM?
That was joy.

Obviously the 1 trip every 2 years down South must be more taxing than the multiple trips each year North, logic would have Southern doing.

Logic would have it that they are just as frustrating and taxing for the Southern side, as the highlighted text suggests.

[Lightning McQueen]

Obviously the 1 trip every 2 years down South must be more taxing than the multiple trips each year North, logic would have Southern doing.

Yeah mate, our 180B's aren't built for them long journey's.

[Dogwatcher]

Mazda 626, 78 model

[Lightning McQueen]

Mazda 626, 78 model

Bragger!!

[The Bedge]

Re-hashing this thread, after a chat to a mate (Indian background).

He spoke to me about starting up a new club with his mates, and asked for some advise, and it got me thinking - are "new clubs" are good thing or a bad thing for community cricket?

I'm finding more and more these "clubs" are popping up comprising of small groups of friends to play together.

Whilst it doesn't overly bother me, what I feel it does is dilute the pool the players that could be going to already established clubs to strengthen their community as well as help with integrating different diverse backgrounds.

Should we be looking after our established clubs before looking at new ventures?

SACA have spoken about limited club licenses for Grade cricket - would something like this work in a community cricket environment but on a lower scale? Should prospective new clubs be required to meet a series of requirements first not just find 11 blokes and a ground to play on?

[Tony Clifton]

From another perspective, are community clubs set up to cater for a team of friends who want to play?

Or do players have to fit into the club structure where players might be picked in the A's, B's or C's in any particular week, depending on their ability and performance?

It is notable that a lot of these new teams are made up of cricketers recently arrived from overseas. Do they not feel comfortable walking into an existing, established cricket club for a game? If not, why? And what can be done to improve that situation?

I agree with your broad point that these 'pop up' clubs are not the best thing for the overall health of cricket, though acknowledge that it's good to see people playing (in any team).

[auto]

Re-hashing this thread, after a chat to a mate (Indian background).

He spoke to me about starting up a new club with his mates, and asked for some advise, and it got me thinking - are "new clubs" are good thing or a bad thing for community cricket?

I'm finding more and more these "clubs" are popping up comprising of small groups of friends to play together.

Whilst it doesn't overly bother me, what I feel it does is dilute the pool the players that could be going to already established clubs to strengthen their community as well as help with integrating different diverse backgrounds.

Should we be looking after our established clubs before looking at new ventures?

SACA have spoken about limited club licenses for Grade cricket - would something like this work in a community cricket environment but on a lower scale? Should prospective new clubs be required to meet a series of requirements first not just find 11 blokes and a ground to play on?

Interesting question.

My initial thoughts are that community cricket is all about participation so take every team you can.

Will this weaken other clubs?

If you want your club to not be impacted by this then you need to put in the groundwork to be a strong robust club.

Case in point, relating to you phantom, how would you have rated Enfield in churches v how youd rate it now? I'd say you were an average club in churches but id now rate you post 2015 (or whatever year it was) as the most successful club to come out of churches, and thats based on the off field efforts from yourself and others like you at Enfield. Youve built a strong club albeit not as successful on field as youd like.

If you want your club to survive and thrive build it strong. If not youre at risk.

Riverside were a decent club but by all reports didnt have enough people off field to make it robust enough and it folded due to lack of numbers.

In football there are northern examples of clubs folding. Whilst they may have been great little clubs that people loved, if they dont have a strong unit off field then they will be, and were, susceptible especially in crowded suburban areas.

My closing argument. Build it strong.


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[whufc]

From another perspective, are community clubs set up to cater for a team of friends who want to play?

Or do players have to fit into the club structure where players might be picked in the A's, B's or C's in any particular week, depending on their ability and performance?

It is notable that a lot of these new teams are made up of cricketers recently arrived from overseas. Do they not feel comfortable walking into an existing, established cricket club for a game? If not, why? And what can be done to improve that situation?

I agree with your broad point that these 'pop up' clubs are not the best thing for the overall health of cricket, though acknowledge that it's good to see people playing (in any team).

^^^^^^^^^^

This 100%

Without having the stats in front of me its seems a very high majority of the new parkland style teams are based around the countries new arrivals.

I don't have a clue how 'club' cricket works overseas but is our system somewhat unique, is club cricket a structure other countries have. Is there a cultural difference between being able to go and play with 100% of your mates/family compared to a community structure where you are 'put' in a team based on skill and ability.

I agree, are we making new arrivals feel welcome enough. Being in the country at the moment its fair to say we don't see the same number of new arrivals in the region. When i was last playing city cricket very very very casual racism still existed. Very minor things like saying to the Indian bloke, 'we cant have our club curry night now because you will win it every year'.

Also and once again being very stereotypical but alot of our new arrivals work in the hospitality industry, I imagine this makes things such as training fairly difficult, in a community club structure each club has its own ways of dealing with non trainers etc. Do community clubs do enough to try and cater training for the needs of the players or are we all too locked in to Tuesday and Thursday night at 5:30pm? Back when I was living in the city it was not uncommon to see groups of what appeared to be new arrivals at the nets during non traditional hours like mid morning etc.

I honestly don't have the answers but i do agree that there is a lot of potential risk in every second old mate trying to and being able to set up their own club at the expense of the community clubs. Even listening to some blokes at my old city club i know their enjoyment was wavering due to a large amount of games played at grounds with limited amenities including toilets, canteen/kiosk, air conditioned club rooms etc. The same risk exists though when you get a group of glory hunters who want to come as a package and form their own superstar D Grade under your clubs banner. I've seen then end disastrously on many occasions as will.

From what ive seen as well a lot of those pop up clubs can be some the hardest for leagues to manage. Some last 10 years others quit mid season, they seem to be more of a year to year propositon, they also don't seem to be willing to meet the league requirements surrounding grade as well as community clubs, they don't tend to have the picture view that most community clubs have.

Don't really have the answer but yeah those pop up clubs don't really sit comfortable with me.