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The first final of the year took place on Sunday at Almondbury CC, where Scholes Chapelgaters finally overcame a spirited Easypave CC to retain the Emmerson Cup. For full details, please see photo and match report on the Emmerson Cup tab.

The next final will be held at Stainland CC on Sunday 16th August. This is for the Priestley Cup, with both semi-finals taking place this week. The four teams remaining in the competition are Holmfirth Beefers, Upperthong, Broad Oak Royals & Lepton Highlanders.

As we enter the last month of the season, there is still all to play for in the 3 sections. The Premiership looks to be a 3 horse race between Walkers Arms, Ashbrow Garage & Scholes Chapelgaters. Holmfirth Beefers look to be slight favourites to secure the Bottomley Conference, but have Upperthong & Easypave hard on their heels. The closest contest is in the Stallard Conference where St Pats currently hold the lead, but any one of the 4 teams in the section could come out on top.

An early reminder that the end of season presentation/comedy night is, once again, at Rastrick Cricket Club. This will be held on Friday 2nd October.

Good luck to all the teams for the next few weeks and lets hope the weather holds so that all matches can be played.

Twenty20 cricket is not a new phenomenon. The Huddersfield Evening Cricket League was founded in 1937, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, and its structure is remarkably similar to the “new” format that has taken the world of cricket by storm.

The League was established with a very simple goal. To provide competitive cricket for players who either did not have time for weekend cricket or did not consider themselves good enough. With a couple of minor changes, this is how the League runs to this day. Most players playing in any other competitive leagues are not eligible to play in the Evening League.

 

All matches start at 6.30pm on weekday evenings with the season running from late April to early August. Matches vary in length depending on the evening weather and can be as little as 10 eight ball overs, up to a maximum of 15 eight ball overs. The number of balls in the over means that there is less time wasted in changing ends.

 

The League is split into three sections and currently provides “friendly” competition for 18 teams. There are also two knockout competitions, the Emmerson Cup and the Priestley Cup, and an end of season playoff, the Allen Priest Trophy. The latter sees two semi finals and one final, played out on the same day in mid September - what does this remind you of? Even we, however, have succumbed to new fashions as, since the start of the 2010 season, all matches have been played with an orange ball.

 

Participating teams vary from works teams, to pub teams, to old boy’s teams. If you have a group of players that want to play on a competitive basis, the Evening League is ideal.

 

The Huddersfield Evening Cricket League has stood the test of time – long may it continue.