In addition to the Two-Day Grades which are visible here, the Leeming Spartan Cricket Club have received the list of the One-Day Gradings for season 2017/18, which are visible below!
The season is so close you can almost taste it, which is exactly what you can do at next Thursday’s season launch and Player’s Tea!
The one-day season starts just one week after the two-day competition kicks off, with the ‘letter divisions’ first squaring off on Saturday October 14th.
Like the two-day matches, it is currently unknown whether this first game will follow the precedent set in recent seasons, where the first match starts half an hour earlier at 12:30pm because of an earlier sunset.
We’ve initially applied for three one-day grades, which would take the total number of Spartan teams to six, a number that many would likely have thought best following last season, where only one Spartan side (albeit our First Grade) played finals cricket.
Sound recruiting over the last three months however – a process that has seen many Spartans invited into the shed for one on one discussions regarding the upcoming season, some 45+ in total (and about four times as many beverages!) – has yielded over ten new first and second grade inclusions to the Spartan ranks, which has had a profound carry-on effect throughout the Club.
This fantastic result means that we’ve now applied for a fourth one-day side this season, as without it, we estimate more than 22 players would miss out each week, and that is on top of an assumption of about ten to fifteen players unavailable each week.
At the end of the day, we want our guys, as many as possible, out there playing cricket each and every week and winning games, and we want to give them all the best opportunities to do so.
We know with confidence that this added side (the grade for which is yet to be confirmed) will not have any detrimental effect on the selection processes that we’ve been discussing over the past few months.
Peter Coombs is serving as Chairman of Selectors this season in addition to the Presidency, and we believe this will be of great benefit to the Spartans as it will always be a Leeming Spartan Cricket Club-first policy.
With that in mind, here are the confirmed grades for our one-day sides in 2017/18:
Our fourth one-day side is yet to be confirmed, but we’re confident that it is a viable request due to the seven sides competing in the One Day ‘G’ Grade.
We’re very happy with the grades that the Leeming Spartan Cricket Club has been allocated so far this season, and we are certainly looking forward to this 2017/18 season!
All three Spartan one-day sides, our One Day ‘B’, One Day ‘D’, and One Day ‘G’ can expect to be highly competitive, and it would be unsurprising to see them all in the mix for finals births at the half-way point of the season.
We’ll let you know as soon as any update comes to hand regarding our application for a fourth one day side – as the fixtures for the one day grades have not yet been finalised we don’t believe that we’ve missed the boat on nominating an extra side.
The issue of the fourth one day team aside, the three one day teams that we do have confirmed can expect a fantastic summer ahead, with regular successes (that were lacking last season) to become a reality.
It certainly all bodes well for what will be an exciting 99th year for the Leeming Spartan Cricket Club, and we look forward to all Spartans seeing and experiencing first hand successes in all grades, and to go one step further, building on those successes and bringing home a few premierships in the 40-over competitions!
Despite the fact that the one-day competitions don’t start until the following week on October 14th, we want all members to get down for training on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, and then stick around for our massive Spartan Season Launch on Thursday 5th October from 7:00pm!
As you can tell, we’re excited, and we cannot wait to see you there!
The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Leeming Spartan Cricket Club.