It’s only a few more days before cricket returns in the Huddersfield area and beyond with our new adapted T30 competition. The final details have been discussed and confirmed in a special Executive Meeting via video call on Monday 13th July. A full set of minutes and supplementary rules and guidelines will be published just prior to the start of the season but we can recap the main areas where decisions were made.
Pre & Post Match Administration
Normally before the match a TMRF form is required to be filled out. The league has relaxed this procedure given the increased risk of transmitting Covid-19 via the sharing of pens or pencils. However it is the clubs responsibility to keep a record of people attending the ground for Track and Trace purposes as detailed in the ECB’s procedures for Stage 4 in the Return to Cricket Pathway.
All clubs must ensure their team(s) are loaded into play-cricket by their administrator prior to the match starting. The matches will be scored and submitted as normal on play-cricket.
Start Times
A 2:00pm start time was floated during the time we were surveying clubs to find out the level of interest and how many teams (if any) they intended to submit to the tournament. We then offered an option of either 1:00pm or 2:00pm start times to the clubs with just over 63% voting for 1:00pm. Whilst slightly below the traditional two thirds majority watermark, we felt 1:00pm was generally more appealing on reflection.
Groupings
Organising the fixtures in the short time we have presented various challenges for our Match & Registrations Secretary as we aimed to achieve groups consisting of ten teams (with one group of twelve). The groups will be named after colours and since there are seven colours in a rainbow, these were then set as Groups Orange, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. The clubs placings are then based on the finishing positions in 2019 aside from one group which is made up of the clubs who are only playing one team and have ground issues which leave them unable to play at their home ground. They are as follows:
| Group Orange | Group Yellow | Group Red |
| Armitage Bridge 1XI | Clayton West 1XI | Almondbury 1XI |
| Barkisland 1XI | Elland 1XI | Almondbury Wesleyans 1XI |
| Broad Oak 1XI | Kirkburton 1XI | Denby 1XI |
| Delph & Dobcross 1XI | Lascelles Hall 1XI | Denby Dale 1XI |
| Golcar 1XI | Marsden 1XI | Emley Clarence 1XI |
| Honley 1XI | Meltham 1XI | Holmfirth 1XI |
| Moorlands 1XI | Mirfield Parish Cavaliers 1XI | Hoylandswaine 1XI |
| Scholes 1XI | Shelley 1XI | Lepton Highlanders 1XI |
| Shepley 1XI | Slaithwaite 1XI | Rastrick 1XI |
| Thongsbridge 1XI | Thurstonland 1XI | Skelmanthorpe 1XI |
| Group Green | Group Blue | Group Indigo |
| Barkisland 2XI | Armitage Bridge 2XI | Thongsbridge 2XI |
| Birkby Rose Hill 1XI | Broad Oak 2XI | Cumberworth United 2XI |
| Cumberworth United 1XI | Clayton West 2XI | Moorlands 2XI |
| Delph & Dobcross 2XI | Edgerton & Dalton 1XI | Elland 2XI |
| Hall Bower 1XI | Flockton 1XI | Mirfield Parish Cavaliers 2XI |
| Honley 2XI | Golcar 2XI | Birkby Rose Hill 2XI |
| Kirkheaton 1XI | Kirkburton 2XI | Holmbridge 1XI |
| Linthwaite 1XI | Scholes 2XI | Linthwaite 2XI |
| Mirfield 1XI | Shepley 2XI | Cartworth Moor 1XI |
| Upperthong 1XI | Slaithwaite 2XI | Kirkheaton 2XI |
| Group Violet | ||
| Cartworth Moor 2XI | ||
| Edgerton & Dalton 2XI | ||
| Flockton 2XI | ||
| Hall Bower 2XI | ||
| Holmbridge 2XI | ||
| Lascelles Hall 2XI | ||
| Marsden 2XI | ||
| Meltham 2XI | ||
| Mirfield 2XI | ||
| Shelley 2XI | ||
| Thurstonland 2XI | ||
| Upperthong 2XI |
The full fixture list will be available to view from Monday 14th July (PM).
In-play Rule Changes
There will be bowling restrictions in place, slightly tighter than a standard league match which means all teams will require at least five bowlers with a 6 over maximum allowance. The legside wide rule will be maintained for all teams in Groups Orange, Yellow, Red and Green (which mainly contain 1XI teams). Groups Blue, Indigo and Violet there is no legside wide rule.
Because there are no teas to prepare at the halfway mark; an interval of twenty minutes would be implemented.
Rain and Abandonments
Due to the lack of UA appointed umpires and a bigger reliance on club and pool umpires (and in some cases; players) it was felt that a simplified set of options when dealing with interruptions. There will be no rain rule as we have used for the past five seasons and no Duckworth Lewis designed way to conclude a match and once started there would be no reduction in overs. We will be employing one similar to the way T20 matches are decided whereby if a match is cut short by the weather; the team with the better score at that point in the innings (after 50% of the second innings played) would be victorious. There would also be more scope for umpires making a judgement call to reduce the overs with the agreement of both captains in the event of a poor forecast later on.
There will also be some flexibility to prevent unnecessary travel should heavy rain in the days prior put a match in serious jeopardy. The league will permit an abandonment providing both captains and / or representatives agree beforehand.
Ultimately, The safety of all players and match officials is of paramount importance and we would expect that games would be abandoned with the agreement of both captains in the event of rain causing problems with recommended social distancing guidelines over a prolonged period of time. We recognise that facilities vary amongst our clubs but must insist that decisions are based upon the health and well being of players and officials.
