2009 ECB Premier League Review

After the 2008 season went down in the annals of time for being wet, wet, wet, 2009 will be mainly remembered for some thrillingly close encounters which kept players, supporters and officials throughout the 25 Premier Leagues on the edge of their seats to the end.

Just one point in it in North Wales and two points separating first and second in Leicestershire while 11 champions crossed the finish line by a whisker, with less than a 20-point margin over their nearest rivals.

Henley celebrate 2009 Home Counties PL title

But the scourge of the weathermen in 2008 was followed this year by another blight on sporting competition. Discipline, or the lack of it, impacted seriously on performances and attracted disappointing headlines, forcing County Boards in some regions to take immediate action.

In Cheshire, both Widnes and Alderley Edge were deducted points after their overseas professionals Ata Ur Rehman and Sohail Rauf appeared for clubs outside the league.

Ata Ur Rehman was initially suspended for the rest of the season and Widnes docked 128 points but after an email vote of full member clubs by the Cheshire Cricket League panel, 68 points were restored and the player was allowed to return after six weeks but it affected the team’s form for the rest of the summer and Widnes were relegated.

Alderley Edge, champions in 2008, finished fourth despite having points deducted. Rauf was suspended for the remainder of the season but the ban was later reduced to four weeks and he went on to score more than 700 runs at 47.47.

The North Wales League saw the tightest finish of any in 2009 with Mochdre missing out on the title on the last day of the season by just point to Llandudno, which marked a happy end to a notoriously troubled summer for the five times league champions.

Llandudno captain Steve Smith was banned for life and five players were disciplined – three of them suspended for the season - after they made derogatory remarks on social networking site Facebook about other clubs, league officials and players. The bans were reduced on appeal by an independent panel from the Cheshire Cricket League though the club was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and fined £50.

In the Southern Electric Premier League, the Management Committee issued a warning to players – especially team captains – to remind them of their responsibilities under the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ after they were made aware of a series of disciplinary and behaviour issues throughout all three divisions.

By the third week in August, Havant had added a third successive championship to their impressive record and by the end of the month, had posted just one defeat from 17 matches, a powerful 131 from Totton & Eling’s Derek Kenway remaining a blot on their 2009 landscape.

Havant, crowned Southern Electric Premier League Champions 2009

Hampshire Academy’s Matt Kleinveldt top scored in the league with 701 runs with Havant’s Ben Walker in second place with 639 while Alton’s David Taylor was head and shoulders above the other bowlers in the Southern League with 45 wickets, Lymington’s Simon Cook trailing him with 33 wickets and Havant’s Richard Hindley one fewer with 32.

Havant were one of only eight champions in the 25 ECB Premier Leagues to successfully defend their titles. In 2009, a total of 17 championship crowns changed hands with Midlands side Knowle & Dorridge producing the most eye-catching form of the summer.

Not only did they win their first ever Birmingham Midshires Birmingham & District Premier League title but they crossed the finish line with a massive 83-point lead over second placed Wolverhampton. Only Vauxhall Mallards in the East Anglian Premier League produced a bigger winning margin in 2009, finishing a whopping 86 points ahead of Norwich.

Mallards lost just one game all season though at the end it was Norwich who were the form side, moving into second place in the penultimate round by beating 2008 champions Swardeston. Godmanchester were the team to be relegated with another Huntingdonshire team Burwell taking their place for 2010.

Surprisingly, not one K & D batsman made a century in the League all summer though Nick James, Attiq Chisti and Luke Parker all contributed significantly to their team’s batting successes while James, who appeared as 12th man for England during the first npower Ashes Test at Cardiff after being called up for trials with Glamorgan, also topped the bowling with 33 wickets.

K & D's secret weapon Nick James starred as 12th man for England © Getty Images

Also champions for the first time were Brentwood in the Shepherd Neame Essex Premier League, whose 86-run win in the final game against Chelmsford reflected their dominance of the league in 2009. Their performances were characterised by strong opening partnerships followed by enterprising middle order displays, backed up by an opening seam attack that consistently thwarted any attempt at a riposte.

This pattern worked wonders for Brentwood who finished with a 62-point lead over nearest contenders Wanstead, champions in 2008.

Chester-le-Street was dubbed the hub of English cricket in 2009. England posted their only one-day success against Australia at Riverside, Durham won the LV= County Championship again - but equally significantly, Chester-le-Street CC became the 2009 Dukes NEPL champions, bringing the curtain down on a six-year domination of the League by South Northumberland. They also later added the ECB National Club Championship title to their impressive season haul!

The writing was on the wall for South North when they suffered their first defeat in 14 months at the beginning of July - to Chester-le-Street - after Luke Evans took a match-winning 6-13. Alan Mustard, brother of England and Durham’s Phil, made 37 which doesn’t sound like much but proved to be pivotal in an historic win.

Mustard was a valuable run maker in 2009 but it was Andrew Smith who topped the averages with 825 runs at 51.56 while Richard Waite took 36 wickets, almost a quarter of Chester’s 2009 haul, including 7-13 against Stockton mid season.

In Cornwall, St Just were crowned champions for the sixth time in six years. For a few weeks at the start of the season it was Werrington who made all the running, but St Just rose to the top once more in July and maintained their lead until the end of the season, beating runners up Werrington by 11 points.

In Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Devon, Middlesex and Sussex there was also no change at the top. Bracebridge Heath became champions of the Readers Lincolnshire Premier League for seventh consecutive season while Ealing took the Middlesex title for the fifth time in a row.

Ealing’s success was achieved on August 20 with two rounds of matches remaining. Until then, they were undefeated and had their sights set on a record level of points, hoping to surpass the 142 set by Teddington in 2002.

But a week later they were thrashed by Brondesbury, who just days before had posted a win over Teddington, the only remaining title challengers. Despite that, skipper David Holt, who was also the team’s highest run maker in 2009, was talking about going for a sixth successive win in 2010. Former Middlesex spinner Chris Peploe was leading wicket taker with 49 wickets.

Sidmouth achieved a record points tally in the Francis Clark Devon Premier League to take their second championship title in two years beating second placed Plympton by a resounding 66 points.

Joe Gatting helped Nomads to Sussex PL championship title

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In Sussex, 2008 champions Preston Nomads were unstoppable with some familiar names Gould (Michael – son of Ian) and Gatting (Joe – nephew of Mike) underpinning a formidable campaign; though it was Robert Wakeford who topped the Nomads batting with 482 runs, while West Indian Carl Simon weighed in with 64 wickets including 7-57 against Cuckfield in the last game of the season.

York secured their fourth Oxbridge Yorkshire ECB County Premier League title in six years but were given a run for their money by Yorkshire Academy, who trailed by just three points at the start of September.

Australian opener Dan Wilson broke a league record when he made 67 against Harrogate to bring his 2009 tally to 1,446 runs taking him past Andrew Bourke’s 2003 record of 1,421 runs. He finished with 1542 runs from 25 matches, which was a herculean effort from the 25-year-old Queenslander, though worryingly for York he was uncertain whether he would return next year.

Ockbrook & Borrowash had the Beechwood Derbyshire Premier League title sewn up with one match of the season remaining, despite having Sandiacre snapping at their heels all summer. By the end, their target was to break the points record of 445 set by their rivals in 2004, which they duly did by beating Chesterfield in the very last round to finish with 448 points.

It was a fitting end. In 2008, a vital game that could have won Neil Smith’s side the title had to be scratched due to rain while Chesterfield went ahead with their match and scooped the points they needed for the championship. This year, Chesterfield finished third, more than 100 points behind the champions, while Sandiacre were 27 adrift.

The cricket professionals – both county and overseas - once again proved pivotal to success in 2009. In another nerve-jangling finale in Leicestershire, Lutterworth’s Paul Burman, from the University of Queensland in Australia, took four wickets in four balls to wipe out opponents Ashby Hastings.

Victory hoisted Lutterworth to the top of the Everards Leicestershire Premier Division by a tiny margin of two points with just two weeks to go after league leaders Loughborough, pulling out all the stops to defend their 2008 title, were thrashed by Kibworth.

Burman finished the season leading the bowling averages after taking 60 wickets. Ben Orton of Stoughton & Thurnby scored 904 runs to top the batting though his team finished midway down the table.

Another professional, Roger Sillence had a superb season for Longton in the Waterworld North Staffs and South Cheshire League, culminating in a bitter end of season tussle with Little Stoke.

They went ahead by two points with one week remaining and finished 18 points in front. Sillence was inevitably Longton’s best bowler finishing with 49 wickets, including 7-51 in the penultimate match.

Moddershall, last year’s champions narrowly escaped relegation after losing the services of Pakistan leg-spinner Imran Tahir to Hampshire, but Leek went down for the first time.

Clifton won by just five points

The race between Caythorpe and Clifton Village also made for compulsive viewing after Clifton, who had been at the top of the Notts Premier League for most of the summer, managed a losing draw against 2008 champions West Indian Cavaliers in the penultimate round which reduced their lead over rivals Caythorpe to just three points.

Going into the final match against relegation-threatened Attenborough, they knew they had to go all for victory to become champions. They cruised to an easy victory which earned them 17 points and handed them the title by just five points over Caythorpe.

At the foot of the table, there were four points separating the bottom three sides but it was Farnsfield and Plumtree who were sent packing.

Bromley were crowned Kent Premier League champions after beating their rivals Hartley by just three runs in a thrilling climax to the 2009 season, which saw the champions maintain their unbeaten record.

They completed their victory with a week to go as Hartley fell out of contention in the closing stages. But their soft decline was eclipsed by the pyrotechnics earlier in the season when James Hockley blasted his way to an unbeaten 283 in 55 overs, the highest ever individual total in the Kent league.

Justin Guillan and Matthew Walker also made centuries to give Hartley the highest ever League total of 540 for one against Gore Court. What a memorable day! Beckenham and Blackheath were the season’s casualties, dropping down to Division 1.

Oulton Park clinched their fourth Chapel Press Cheshire Premier Cricket League title in five seasons when they coasted to an eight-wicket victory against rivals Nantwich in the season’s final game, while the unstoppable Firwood Bootle took the Business Assistance (NW) Liverpool and District League crown by a massive 67 points to add to their season’s haul.

The Home Counties Premier League was won by Henley with last year's champions High Wycombe, who Henley beat in the final round, finishing third. Captain Bjorn Mordt, who won just three tosses all summer, presided over a strong unit, which moved to the top of the league in week one and stayed there all season.

Michael Roberts scored 620 runs, which was almost six times his tally in 2008, while four bowlers, including Carl Crowe and Chad Keegan, each took more than 20 wickets.

Northern PL champs St Anne's

St Anne’s pro Dinuka Hettiarachchi took 87 wickets to steer his side to victory in the Furness Building Society Northern Premier Cricket League while teammate Atiq Uz-Zaman contributed a hefty 792 runs including two hundreds. Preston gave them a run for their money right through the season and at the start of the final round were just 11 points adrift.

Competition in South Wales boiled down to who would qualify for the new South Wales Cricket Premier League, which is being formed in 2010. It will comprise ten teams, selected from the top five sides in East and West Wales in 2009.

Cardiff made sure of their place by displacing Sully Centurions at the top of the table, and although Sully slumped to a last-day defeat to St Fagans, they did enough to qualify for the new league.

Taunton St Andrews won the Globe Sports West of England Premier League by 10 points over Weston-super-Mare. Victory came on the very last day when Saints cruised to an easy nine-wicket win over Bridgwater, their ninth league win of the summer.

In Surrey, Sutton, who came close to relegation in 2008, performed a major turnaround by winning both the First and Second XI Premiership titles. Phil Sampson, in his debut season as captain, praised the contributions of batsmen Zoheb Sharif and Arun Harinath and warned that Sutton were looking to dominate the league for years to come.

All smiles for 2009 Northants PL champs Finedon Dolben

Finedon Dolben, Northamptonshire champions in 2006 and 2007, returned to form in 2009 to claim the title with a healthy 33-point margin over second-placed Northampton Saints. They completed 15 wins which some claimed was down to captain Chris Goode’s lucky coin.

More likely it was down to the efforts of Western Australian Clint Tomlinson, best batsman and the outstanding player of the season, and Tom Brett, who won the Club bowling award for 2009.