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[uknsaunders]

Our league has finished and its appears most people have packed up as well. Why?

September is a far better month weather wise than April. Average high temperatures fall from 21c to 17c but April is only 11-15c. Indeed you have to go to mid October before finding comparable temperatures to our traditional start in mid April. It rains less in September as well. The wickets are harder after 6 months warm weather. The only minor issue is the light, but just start earlier, many leagues do this already.

My gut feel is most people has a preconceived view of when the season should start and end. Very few look at the realities of global warming or simply the weather outside. Some people say they lose people to winter sports, but surely no more so than April when they are still playing.

If clubs looked to play in September, it would be in better weather ,played on better decks and they would earn more revenue. Leagues have a part to play in moving fixtures into September but in these hard times clubs are missing a trick by not doing it themselves.

[Millyjack]

Football!

[Sam]

I know a lot of local clubs struggle to field all their teams in the last couple of weeks of the season due to football, going therefore and into September could escalate that>

[smilley792]

Light??

[Turn Of Pace]

Completely agree, I hate playing in April. Damp wickets, games abandoned half way through and icy winds requiring two jumpers (minimum) whilst fielding. It's not what cricket is all about, is it?

[geeders]

We still have 3 saturday games left and 2 Sundays.

Partly this is due to the league not scheduling bank holiday games after they were considered unbalanced with teams dropping players down.

Availability will always be an issue at this time of year, as we have quite a few that play football, rugby and hockey.

Will have to see how the weather goes, but it does make sense to play in September apart from availability issues.

[smilley792]

Completely agree, I hate playing in April. Damp wickets, games abandoned half way through and icy winds requiring two jumpers (minimum) whilst fielding. It's not what cricket is all about, is it?

Don't ever come play at our ground then. It's a 3 jumper minimum even in the hottest weather!
Joys of playin ont top of ill

[DiscoStu]

I agree that September should be used but most league committees are stuck in the past. There are issues with players going to football but also clubs who share grounds/facilities with football and rugby clubs. In the 10 team division I play in I reckon 3 clubs wouldn't be able to play home matches in September if the schedule was changed. Lower down the leagues that number would increase.

[farnham_quins_2]

I don't think football is an issue. Games are played all through April, same as September.

Id much prefer games all the way through September rather than April. Could also use it to make up for any lost games due to weather

[ProCricketer1982]

Cricket should go from early apr to end of sept. If people want to choose footy then fair enough, clubs will just need the depth to cope or find more committed players who will miss footy of they are going for promotion or relegation.

No reason why cricketers should lose out because a few want to play footy anymore.. Weather is good in sept, wickets are good and start times can be earlier to accommodate light

[123*]

Speaking as a groundsman the ground I look after has its last game on Sept 21st, couldn't get the equipment booked til the following Thursday and by the time everything is done it'll be around the 27th by the time I get seed down.  Not great having to overseed your square in essentially October when temperatures are down, rainfall increases etc, expecting germination to be slow and not uniform at all. Yes you could probably play until the end of October if you really wanted to but there's no way the ground will be good enough for the following year!

[beaver5]

Totally agree. As I PE teacher I never understood why I went back to school and found myself teaching indoor winter sports when the weather was great. My old school's pitches would flood from Oct/Nov through to Apr/May. A 6 week Saturday/Sunday morning T20 league would be a great way to extend the season in Sept.

[Byo]

Sharing grounds is the issue, we share ours with a football club and are therefore unable to use it from the 1st of September.

[roco]

We've still got 3 games left

[Ams4287]

We've still got 3 games left

Same here