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General Cricket => Your Cricket => Topic started by: Fetchthatone on August 12, 2010, 08:41:52 PM

Title: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Fetchthatone on August 12, 2010, 08:41:52 PM
Hi there,

Was just wondering, in the UK, where abouts is considered the highest quality cricket league?
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Talisman on August 12, 2010, 08:42:25 PM
At the top.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Howzat on August 12, 2010, 08:43:35 PM
Well obv one of the Premier Leagues, have heard good things about Lancashire although someone told me that Kent Prem League was voted as the best, cant find anything to back it up though.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Talisman on August 12, 2010, 08:44:34 PM
Birmingham?
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: niceonechoppy on August 12, 2010, 08:46:13 PM
Bradford league?
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: ianbuchanan on August 12, 2010, 08:46:38 PM
lancashire league tend to have a lot of pros dont they?

west of england prem 1 isnt too bad but thats me being bias for the top league in our area... :D
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: roco on August 12, 2010, 08:47:21 PM
Birmingham for me but heard very good things about the Liverpool prem

My old foreman asif din was playing in Birmingham Orem last I heard
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: espocrespo on August 12, 2010, 09:00:27 PM
I think north staffs south cheshire won the national league competition next year
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: espocrespo on August 12, 2010, 09:01:44 PM
Last*
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Watsontotty on August 12, 2010, 09:09:11 PM
Its pretty simple to say that all premier league cricket is of a good standard but to pick one out over another is impossible unless you have played in every single one. North East Premier division is very strong and South North Bulls have won various competitions in recent years but id certainly not suggest it the best as I've not seen the rest or played in them.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: procricket on August 12, 2010, 09:12:46 PM
played in middlesex prem 2 was good wickets poor pros's
played in west england prem 2 was very good no pro only county pro
lancashire league standard has slipped pro not what they were...
bolton league good pros (deehraj jadhav and dwaine smith  of mongoose fame)
ribbllesdale league(good pro poor wickets)

herd good things about both bradford and birmingham league......

best wickets deffinatly down saaarth
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: ianbuchanan on August 12, 2010, 09:14:50 PM
played in middlesex prem 2 was good wickets poor pros's
played in west england prem 2 was very good no pro only county pro
lancashire league standard has slipped pro not what they were...

herd good things about both bradford and birmingham league......

who did you play in west of england prem 2 dave?
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: procricket on August 12, 2010, 09:16:13 PM
played a few games for devizes when work allowed then they got relegated.



best league and possible the richest is Liverpool Comp well some of the clubs have bigger budgets than counties and much bigger crowds.

the club i played for in Bolton when i traveled from guildford to every week paid 9 players and they were not that good

Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: mars on August 12, 2010, 09:27:40 PM
I've heard leagues in Birmingham are the best.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Johnny on August 12, 2010, 09:33:49 PM
I've played Northern League in Lancashire and Yorkshire League (in um... Yorkshire)

Of those 2, I'd say Yorkshire League was better. Have played against several Liverpool Comp teams - the Current Liverpool Comp league leaders have 2-3 of the Northern League team I did play fors ex-players - I wouldn't say they were stand out good to be honest but seem to be doing well in that league.

I have a close friend who plays for the reigning Bradford League champions. He's ex-minor counties and previously played Yorkshire League too. He says it's a strange set up - players are amongst the best he's played with or against, but the facilities are a bit crap - lot's of dodgy wickets, making for a different style of cricket to anything he'd played previously.

I'd always heard that the Birmingham League topped anything I've played in.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: procricket on August 12, 2010, 09:36:26 PM
johnny we talking bootle???
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: TheAwesomeSLA on August 12, 2010, 09:58:45 PM
lytham are top atm procricket so i presume hes talking about them? bootle don't seem to be as good this year as previous seasons. they lost a couple of players at the end of last year. it does seem to have made the league more open with bootle not being as dominant. 
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Fetchthatone on August 12, 2010, 10:25:39 PM
What about the league structures in places like Wales, Scotland, Ireland?

As I remember when Sky did that club life, Ireland had Merrion CC which seemed a big club, and Scotland had a club who won the Club Life exclusive tournament thing.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: procricket on August 12, 2010, 10:26:48 PM
i play in ni now and the standard is as good as england
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: c1arkie on August 12, 2010, 10:28:13 PM
Almost impossible to judge, but at a guess Id echo whoever mentioned the NE Prem. There was a comp on Sky a few years ago now where South Northumberland just blew teams away, they looked on another level altogether. But its open for debate, particularly up north there are a lot of insular leagues with good players and good pros but that seem stuck in a bit of a time warp in terms of facilities.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: uknsaunders on August 12, 2010, 11:05:58 PM
Played in a few places, south east, yorkshire, etc. I think it depends on whether you are looking for the best team or standard. Certainly most of the top teams in nearly every major league would probably be as good as each other ie. the top Home Counties Premier League Side would compete with the top Kent/Yorkshire/Bradford side. Alot of the time sides in the north call "Pro's" what guys in the South would call a Minor Counties player or County 2nd XI player, so gauging strength isn't always easy. I would say that in terms of overall strength the Kent/Surrey/Home Counties Leagues must be up there. The Home Counties is a monster league comprising oxon,bucks,berks,herts, parts of surrey, hampshire, middlesex and contains roughly 50 divisions - so you have to be pretty good to play in the Premier League. Yorkshire potentially is the same size but all the best teams are split into many different leagues, bradford, airewhafe, yorkshire central, huddersfield drakes etc, so I'm not sure the depth of sides is all that good.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: essexarsenal on August 12, 2010, 11:19:08 PM
In essex, the best league is Shepherd Name or T-Rippon.  Sheperd Name has a team which includes James Foster, chambers, westfield (all essex contracted) and a player who plays for the unicorns. T-Rippon has a few like Comber and Phill simmons when free and sometimes I believe Nasser Hussain plays in the league sometimes.
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Buzz on August 13, 2010, 07:21:05 AM
It is probably safe to say that all leagues fluctuate in standards and on that basis it is impossible to say one league is better than any other...
The Surrey Prem is a very decent standard (I got found out at Div 1 level when I played it a few years ago so haven't played at prem level)
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Simmy on August 13, 2010, 07:33:30 AM
i used to play for are league(pontefract+district) againts other leagues like the york league, noth yorkshire etc.

and like people have said standard is pretty much the same.

but you tend to find in the other leagues in yorkshire

Central Yorkshire,Bradford league, York league etc

that every good club has big money behind them and can aford to pay wages and get good overseas playins in and x pro's.

in are league money is spent but not to to over seas or x pro's.

we arnt allowed to actually pay players in are league all thought 70% of the clubs do and it goes down as "performance money"

Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Johnny on August 13, 2010, 08:51:11 AM
johnny we talking bootle???

Lytham
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: iand123 on August 13, 2010, 08:57:05 AM
Our 1st team play in the Kent Prem and its full of a pro's ex-pro's. Kent assigns 2 payers to each premier league team for the season, working backwards the 2 newly promoted teams get first pick, working up to the previous years champions. Smart money is to pick the people on the fringes of the kent side as they tend to have a greater availability.

Bromley CC have alot of ex pro's like Ed Giddins playing for them. There are also alot of decent overseas players playing due to the money around to play them, ranging from A players to fringe members of international squads
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: jimba101 on August 13, 2010, 11:33:07 AM
Where I play in northants cricket league the standard isn't amoung the best in the country however there are some decent players floating around in the prem. Jason gillespie, devon malcolm and darren gough were all payed to play by brixworth. Not a bad bowling attack eh?!
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: ProWannabe88 on August 13, 2010, 11:39:03 AM
a few of us from up t'north are touring kent in a few weeks. we have a game against bexley cc.

anything we need to know about before we arrive and hit the southern ale  8)
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: iand123 on August 13, 2010, 07:32:31 PM
my advice would be go somewhere else! are you staying in bexley or nearby?
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: Tumo on August 13, 2010, 07:40:09 PM
Notts is good. Papplewick have Phil Defreitas, Stuey Law, and Dean Headley on their books...
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: uknsaunders on August 13, 2010, 07:58:23 PM
Like I said, the top sides will be full of ex-pros and minor county players. Think of it this way - how good are the bottom two or three sides in the top division?
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: ProWannabe88 on August 16, 2010, 06:54:43 AM
No idea iand. all i know is we have accomodation near the ground. so at a guess i would have thought it would be in Bexley. why go elsewhere?
Title: Re: Best standard of league cricket
Post by: espocrespo on August 17, 2010, 06:52:37 PM
http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/cricket/Cricket-League-retain-President-s-Trophy/article-2533018-detail/article.html