Potential merger between northern women’s cricket leagues

Delegates from The Greater Manchester Cricket League (GMCL) and the Pennine Cricket League (PCL) 2018 Steering group met at Emirates Old Trafford on Monday evening to discuss possible opportunities for a future co-operation. The Lancashire Cricket Board facilitated the meeting.

The PCL steering group was formed by 8 clubs who had not formally applied to join another league following the departure of the Rochdale based clubs to the Lancashire League in 2018. They wished to stay together for cultural and geographic reasons and wanted to explore all options to maintain the traditional nature of cricket in the area.

It was accepted by all present that a minimum of 12 clubs would be required to form a viable League.

There followed a positive exchange of views on what the GMCL could offer and how they could possibly adapt their model to try to accommodate the needs and wishes of the PCL clubs.

It quickly became apparent that playing levels amongst the PCL varied significantly and contrary to the popular misconception that most of the clubs involved were in decline, all of them are working hard to improve on and off the pitch albeit at very different stages of development.

Whilst on the one hand it would be attractive to stay together, to do so in any format would severely limit any development opportunities amongst the PCL clubs or to benefit from the ethos of the GMCL which ensures that all clubs play at a competitive level for the whole season through a promotion and relegation system.

Discussions turned to how to maintain the original objectives of the PCL and the positive outcome was to explore the use of the existing Wood/Tanner/Burton/Moore Cup competitions to keep alive the traditional fixtures in future seasons.

The Executive committee of the Pennine Cricket League are delighted that the long history and tradition of these prestigious competitions will be preserved.

The PCL delegates will report back to the executive on Tuesday evening and recommend that all remaining clubs apply en bloc to the GMCL and that further discussions continue on how the Cup competitions could be organised in the future.

It was also agreed that members of the PCL would be involved in the placement of the remaining clubs into the GMCL structure when all of the necessary audits have been completed.