FOOTY’S over, soccer’s done, and the weather is getting warmer – it can only mean cricket season is just around the corner.
The Wangaratta and District Cricket Association is hard at work making preparations for the junior and senior competitions, set for an early-October start.
WDCA president Justin Kelly said the senior and junior grades would be slightly different from last year, but numbers were strong.
“It’s all looking pretty good,” he said.
“Numbers in C grade, with Strathbogie pulling out early in the season we ended up with five, but it looks like we’re back to eight teams in C grade, which is a good number.
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“B grade had 12 teams last year, we might be down to 11 because Wangaratta Magpies pulled out.
“A grade has gone from eight to seven because Delatite unfortunately pulled out of A grade which is a bit of a shame – hopefully they’re not down in A reserve for too long.
“It looks like 16 teams in under 12, so we’ll have two divisions of eight, divided up to minimise travel.
“The under 14s have 14 teams, and it’s a bit less in under 16.
Having ample umpire numbers are always important, and while umpire stocks should be sufficient for the higher grades, Kelly said the association is encouraging clubs to have their own dedicated umpire.
“We’ve lost a few and picked up a few, I think we’ve probably got 14 active umpires,” he said.
“We want to try and have clubs have a nominated club umpire, like they do in O&K reserves footy.
“It’d be good if we could encourage clubs to have a club umpire as opposed to playing members umpiring during a game, which makes it pretty awkward.
“Fourteen should be enough to get us through A grade and A reserve, we can sprinkle a few into B grade, but we could always do with some more, that’s for sure.”
Draws and fixtures are being finalised across the various age groups, set to be released in the coming weeks.
“We’ve done the A and A reserve draws, we’ve just got to load them,” Kelly said.
“Clubs now have to nominate their teams on PlayHQ, we can’t enter the draws until the clubs actually nominate their teams on PlayHQ.
“The numbers have been slow in B and C grade, so we’re waiting on teams to be 100 per cent sure they’re going to have teams in those grades until we do the draw.
“We usually leave them until a bit later because sides don’t really know what their numbers are like until about this time of the year.
“We should have the B and C grade draws online by the end of next week.”
For all the latest news and updates from the association, visit the WDCA’s Facebook page.
