​The Hampshire Cricket League plans to return to normality in terms of playing regulations for its Saturday afternoon matches this summer.
Games across the board were restricted to 40-overs per side last year, but the league intends to return to a 50, 45 and 40-over format down the 19-division pyramid when play begins on May 7 2022.
That means Division 1 matches will be 50-overs per side, with a restriction of ten overs per bowler, with play starting at 12.30pm.
Games in Divisions 2 and 3 will last 45 overs (nine overs per bowler) with 1pm starts. 
Divisions 4 to 6 will be of a 40-over duration (eight overs per bowler) again starting at 1pm.

We all know how important umpires (and scorers) are to the game of cricket and every batsman will have tales of those occasions when there was 'no way I could have been out' !
Here's the chance for you to get one or two people from your club trained up as umpires at the standard required for your friendlies, your league matches and even for the league panel of umpires, should the individual concerned wish to go that far.
The Stage 1 and Stage 2 courses, both being held at The Leaze – headquarters of the Dorset Cricket Board and Wimborne & Colehill CC - are being held on Saturdays March 26th and April 9th, respectively.  These may well be of interest to HCL clubs in the New Forest and obviously Bournemouth and Dorset.
For information the Stage 1 is designed to equip an umpire to be able to stand for a club in friendly matches whilst the Stage 2 is a requirement for anyone wishing to join a league panel.
Stage 1 UES1/000504 - https://booking.ecb.co.uk/d/s8q5c6
Stage 2 UES2/000474 - https://booking.ecb.co.uk/d/t8q5cn

Langley Manor cricketer Ken Morrison is the Hampshire League’s new chairman, succeeding Denis Emery in the hot seat.
A retired chartered accountant, Ken graduated from Southampton University in 1982 and initially played Sunday friendly cricket for Merlin for around 20 years.
A batsman/wicket-keeper, he joined Langley Manor some 15 years ago and mainly plays third and fourth team cricket in the regional divisions.
Ken confesses to be a big soccer fan and, having grown up in Suffolk, follows the fortunes, or otherwise, of Ipswich Town.
He said: “Having recently retired, I am excited to be getting more involved in local cricket and am looking forward to joining the Hampshire Cricket League management team. 
“I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Denis Emery and Philip Wilson, the retiring Chair and vice Chair, for their outstanding contribution to the management of the League.”
The Hampshire Cricket League has 185 clubs for the 2022 season, which will begin on May 7 and a thriving Ladies section which has three divisions and plays on Sundays.

THE terminal shortage of money, players and volunteers has led to the folding of Brading — with the sad prospect of more cricket clubs on the Isle of Wight likely to follow suit.
Middlemead, Brading's home since 1987, once thrived as players and families devoted their time to the club, which boasted two Saturday teams, one on Sundays and players taking part in midweek touring games.
Money was raised from events and donations to buy the land at Middlemead, on the edge of Brading, and transform a farmer's field into a ground Island cricket could be proud of.   The club had a spell playing in the regional divisions of the Hampshire League.
How times have changed.
Club stalwart Ian Hailes, whose family has a long association with Brading and island sport, explained: "Difficulties finding funding, players, paid up members and, crucially, a lack of volunteers, has become a downward trend this past ten years — making this a heavy workload for the remaining few of us who ran the club.
"Income dropped considerably amid the cancellation of two seasons during Covid, with bills paid, wickets needing to be prepared and maintenance of the clubhouse, which made the club financially unsustainable."
But cricket shouldn’t be lost to Brading as the club has gifted Middlemead to the Isle of Wight cricket board "so that matches can be continued and enjoyed there. 

​St Helens, who play in the Island League, are also in deep trouble, with so few players committing to the club.
Charlie Millington, a stalwart at St Helens for 40 years, put out an appeal for players, past and new, to join this coming season — and a stark warning.
"We had to cancel some fixtures last season, mainly through lack of players. It would break my heart if the club had to fold after all the hard work I, and numerous others, have put in — sourcing and building a very nice new pavilion, plus all the hard work done in providing a superb square and a lovely place to come and play village green cricket," said Charlie. 

Hursley Park has been deeply saddened by the sudden death, aged 71, of Nick Bacon, a prominent batsman/wicketkeeper for the club from the mid-1970s onwards and, since retiring, a valued and active member of the groundstaff at The Quarters.
Nick joined Hursley Park during the mid-1970’s and has continued to be associated with the club ever since.  He was a hugely respected history teacher at Hamble Community College for over three decades.
In the early days when HPCC had only two Saturday XI’s, Nick was a prominent member of the second team playing in South West Division II of the Hampshire Cricket League as a wicket keeper and batsman. His enthusiastic, unorthodox style in both these disciplines proved very successful and in 1980 he topped the batting averages for this division. He took a great deal of pride in both his and the team performance.

Opportunities for 1st XI cricket as a wicket keeper were limited in the 1980’s with Paul Wright and Adrian Aymes behind the stumps, and later Martin Kellaway, but when not required as the keeper, Nick played many times as a specialist middle order batsman in the first team. He was part of at least two of the three Park sides that won the First Division of the Hampshire Cricket League in that era.
I was fortunate to be the captain at that time and found Nick to be a very good team man, with impeccable availability, very helpful to the captain when behind the stumps, and a great character both on and off the field. 
As a qualified Coach, he coached the junior teams at Hursley Park for many years. This in addition to his commitment to coaching and organising school and association cricket in both Southampton and Winchester. 
Nick was a very good club man,  and after retiring from playing become a well respected member of the volunteer groundstaff at the club. He was adept at almost any task that he was confronted with, from repairing the drive to preparing and repairing the pitches .
He had a great sense of humour and was a long standing stalwart, good cricketer and willing worker who contributed much to the success of the club. He will be sadly missed by his family and remembered by all those who played and worked along side him.      An innings cut far too short.  Chris Westbrook.

The Hampshire League annual general meeting on Thursday (7.30pm) will once again be conducted by zoom.
Retiring chairman Denis Emery's report reads as follows -
Finch Group, the local Commercial Insurance Company, continued to sponsor the HCL for £3000 last year, the second of three years.  Finch Group already insure 80+ of our Clubs and I thank them for their continued support.   
This past year has been another testing one for the Committee and our clubs, the second season affected by COVID 19. The weather was indifferent at the start of the 2021 season.  We lost fewer clubs over the year and have 10 new entrants for 2022.  
I must congratulate the champions as I know it involved great effort to win a league over many games. We congratulate Havant II and Sway on their promotion to the Southern Premier League (SPCL).  We welcome Hythe & Dibden and Tichborne Park to HCL Division 1, teams I am sure that will want to return quickly to SPCL. 
The Women’s Hampshire League continues to grow, and we have now over 20 teams divided into three divisions.  This coming season we continue with our Development League Division 3, which proved successful last year. We are also providing a few T20s in readiness for the 2022, as again there will be no County Women’s team. 
The two presentation evenings returning to the Ageas Bowl were well attended and enjoyed by all. I must remind clubs that the Committee expects their members to behave themselves at these presentations, which was not the case for some clubs during the first evening. We have to thank our Secretary Anne Carter, with help from our Treasurer Clare Taylor for the superb arrangements.   Mike Vimpany again did a brilliant job as MC at the first presentation evening, it being his last for the HCL after some 30 years behind the ‘mic’, and Paul Turner at the second. 
Due to the difficulties of COVID reducing players’ availability we have not brought back the three strikes and out rule, waiting for another year before looking at it again. Teams cancelling will still be punished as normal. The Committee were sympathetic to pleas from clubs affected by COVID and quite rightly allowed games to be cancelled. We as a Committee listen to clubs and are always happy to put any proposals to the AGM.
Andy Stevenson has once more done his best to keep travel to a minimum in leagues 3-6.  I believe he has done a brilliant job with reducing travelling throughout the lower divisions. We are always going to have problems with the size of our county as some of our clubs will always be out on a limb.  On request, we have also provided teams with the HCL concessionary code for trips to the Isle of Wight. I believe it is 20% cheaper.
A special mention must also go to our Fixture Secretary, Stewart Frazier, who in conjunction with Andy gets the format and fixtures out before the year end, and from far away finds solutions to ground unavailability.
I would like to thank all the Committee again for their hard work throughout the year.  They spend many voluntary hours, running the Hampshire League.  The Rules & Discipline Sub Committee chaired by Paul Turner had a few discipline cases to manage last season.  The Vice Chairman Philip Wilson kept the web site ticking along in the absence of a media person, and he was instrumental in getting Play Cricket up and running last season. Play Cricket has been a great success with all our clubs able to use the system, and made the reporting of results much easier and convenient for all. Clare Taylor and Mark Heritage collated the important Club Ground marks, which are a priority in promotions and relegations. Neil Campone had the complex job of compiling the averages.  
Our Grounds Sub Committee chaired by Martin Livermore worked tirelessly all season to ensure the standard of our pitches did not fall. Clubs have to be responsible in marking the grounds as we cannot get around hundreds of matches each week to see if pitches and facilities are acceptable. We have used some of our income for free handbooks and try and help club umpires to attend courses.
I would like to thank our Vice Chairman Philip Wilson who has worked hard for the HCL for the past 14 years and, like me, is bowing out after the AGM.  He has been a rock we could all rely on for any problems, whether administrative, web site or discipline related.
I became Chairman of HCL in 2016 with some ideas to help move the League forward, and to pass on my experience of over 50 years playing and officiating at local cricket.  I have achieved what I set out to do, and hope that HCL carries on the initiatives going forward.  I have enjoyed my time, even though on occasions we have experienced difficulties trying to ensure HCL ran smoothly, with outside influences, ground shortages and the decline in the sport. COVID has also caused real problems over the past two years, but I salute our clubs and our committee in the way they have dealt with this adversity, now we are coming out of the other side.  
As the worst is now over, I have decided to stand down and let someone younger hold the reins.  I know you will give the new Chairman the same support that you gave me.  I thank you for letting me be Chairman, it was an honour to serve the HCL.  I will still be around appointing umpires and you may see me officiating occasionally at your game. As a player and as a Committee Member, the Hampshire Cricket League will always feature in my memories.

​Hursley Park stalwart Don Crossley, one of the best known faces around the Winchester club cricket scene, has died having suffered from dementia for the past year or so. He was aged 83 years.
In his playing days, Don was a very technically correct left-handed batsman, who spent most of his career for Hursley Park. 
He later served on the Club’s committee as secretary and fixture secretary, a busy task in those days, with league fixtures on Saturdays, Sunday matches, a number of midweek games, as well as evening league. 
Don was born in Blackburn and because of his formative years watching Lancashire League, he was always a great supporter of league cricket. 
He was a well-known character on Hampshire club grounds.  He held dear the traditions of the game, but was far removed from being a die-hard supporter, stuck in the past. He had been an advocate of city franchises for some forty years, though this was long before the advent of t20 cricket. 
His interests in the game were wide ranging, whether as a player, administrator, historian, collector, and spectator. 
He was co-founder of the Cricket Memorabilia Society and became Vice-President. He was an astute collector, always sensitive to the fluctuations in value of various items. His book and autograph collections were extensive. 
He also supported the Cricket Society movement as a whole and always enjoyed meetings of the Hampshire and Dorset societies. 
When watching cricket, he invariably wore his Hursley Park sweater. For formal occasions, he would take Sir Leonard Hutton’s England blazer from his wardrobe.    Alan Edwards.