CRICKET gets under way in the Busselton-Margaret River district next week, with the first fixtures for the 2020-21 season set to start on Saturday, October 10.
A full round of Busselton-Margaret River Cricket Association B-Grade fixtures on October 10 will see Dunsborough host St Marys, Cowaramup host YOBS, and Vasse play at home against Margaret River Hawks.
C-Grade cricket gets under way on October 17 with Nannup at home to Dunsborough and St Marys at home to Cowaramup. The third C-Grade game of the opening round is scheduled to be played on Sunday, October 18 (due to ground shortages), with Vasse hosting Margaret River Hawks.
All teams will have a bye on Saturday, October 24, due to the AFL Grand Final - not usually something that needs to be considered once the cricket season is under way.
The start of the A-Grade season will be delayed until October 31, owing to the unavailability of Barnard Park for turf cricket in October and the difficulty in getting other turf grounds in Dunsborough, Cowaramup and Margaret River ready in the month.
Another factor causing the late start to the A-Grade season was the collapse of negotiations between the Busselton-Margaret River and Bunbury and Districts associations for a planned "Premier League" between the top sides of each association.
The Premier League was intended to provide the top clubs in each association with a greater range of opponents, before negotiations broke down when the Bunbury and Districts Association nominated 7 of its clubs to participate, a number higher than the Busselton-Margaret River Association had anticipated.
The unfortunate end to the 2019-20 season will also be fresh in the minds of many of the players. Grand finals in all grades in March were cancelled at the last minute due to the threat of COVID-19, leaving some clubs - particularly YOBS - with a feeling of "unfinished business".
Premiership trophies for 2019-20 were awarded to Margaret River Hawks (A-Grade), St Marys (B-Grade) and Dunsborough (C-Grade) as they were the first teams to qualify for the grand finals. YOBS, who qualified second for the grand finals in all three grades, were left to rue their luck when they were named "Runners-Up" on all three occasions.
Uncertainty over the new season, and uncertainty over the keenness of players to re-engage in cricket because of the COVID-19 threat, saw the Busselton-Margaret River Association slash its team fees this month from $1375 to just $500 per team.
The massive reduction in costs for the teams to participate seems to have had the desired effect, with a total of 17 sides nominating for the new BMRCA season - four in A-Grade, six in B-Grade and seven in C-Grade. This gives the BMRCA senior competition the same makeup as last year.
An eighth C-Grade side, Busselton All Stars, will again participate in the T20 competition.
Cricket club AGMs this month have seen most of the existing presidents in the association re-elected. Chris King at Dunsborough, Ben Mattock at St Marys, Matty Braid at YOBS, Kyle Coates at Cowaramup, Al Wilkie at Margaret River Hawks and Pieter Bresser at Nannup will again all be leading their clubs.
The one change in club leadership from last season is the election of Craig Johnson as the new president of Vasse, replacing Deb Hallyburton who has stepped down after two years in the chair.
Friday afternoon games will be fixtured for the first time in the Busselton-Margaret River Cricket Association this season.
The Friday games will be held in A-Grade starting at 4pm on January 15 and again on January 29 during the T20 competition.
One round of B-Grade T20 games will also be played on Friday on January 15. However, there will be no C-Grade games on Friday.
The Friday games are seen an experimental. Whether they succeed or not will depend on the ability of players to make themselves available during the working week.
The T20 competition starts on Saturday, January 9 and will be played as a consecutive block of games in January-February, rather than being held intermittently during the home-and-away season, as has been the case for the past two seasons.
The T20 grand finals will be held on Saturday, February 13 at Barnard Park.
