Six clubs find a league

It follows last night’s decision of the Drakes Huddersfield League to accept six former Huddersfield Central League clubs as associate members for next season.

Clubs at the Drakes League AGM voted 29-7 in favour of accepting Holmbridge, Cartworth Moor, Edgerton & Dalton, Almondburians, Nortonthorpe and Flockton on probation for two years.

The Halifax League had previously accepted applications from four former members of the now-defunct Central League - Birchencliffe, Bradley & Colnebridge, Leymoor and Mount.

The Yorkshire Cricket Board was anxious to find the clubs a new league and there was a suggestion that the Halifax League might have been asked to accommodate more teams, as members of the Yorkshire pyramid system, if the Huddersfield vote had gone against the applicants.

The Halifax League had originally offered to try to accommodate all the Central League clubs.

Former Halifax League members Augustinians, who now play at Rastrick and were Central League members last season, have applied to join the Huddersfield Evening League.

Halifax League press officer Paul Whiteley said today it looked “90 per cent certain” that Halifax would have a 12-8-12 format in its three divisions in 2017.

Greetland and Bradley & Colnebridge have one team each and will share fixtures in Division Two with Greetland playing at first team level and Bradley taking the second team fixtures.

A potential stumbling block had surrounded producing a suitable fixture list, with an increasing number of clubs having first and second teams in different divisions, but that now appears to have been overcome.

The Halifax League’s rules sub-committee will meet on January 4 to consider the likelihood of an increasing number of one-team clubs in the future.