The day before our Grand Opening, there was an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph entitled ‘Is Village Cricket Selling its Soul?’  The thrust of the piece was that league cricket is ruining the village game.  Clubs that play in the leagues tend to put all their effort into the more formal game, which then makes it more competitive.  The result is that the team is dominated by just a handful of players who bat, bowl and captain, while the rest merely make up the numbers.  Then disgruntled players give up or move away and the Club struggles and then folds.  One of those cited in the article was James Street, captain of Fonthill Park CC, who we played last month.  ’Our numbers have been bolstered by members of other clubs which folded because they couldn’t cope in the leagues,’ he says. ‘They lost the social element.  We’ll not play in the leagues.  In this part of the world at least, there’s an apetite for friendly village cricket.  Long may it last.’

There is another pitfall with league cricket, and that is the distance involved to travel to away fixtures.  This would particularly effect us and our location near the Hampshire/Dorset border in south-west Wiltshire.  Wiltshire leagues include matches further north than Swindon – itself 90 minutes’ drive away.  The Hampshire Leagues involve matches beyond Andover and in the New Forest, while the Dorset leagues would mean travelling to Bridport and further.  In an age where petrol prices are soaring and family time is at a premium, we need to tread very carefully in this regard.

We would welcome all views, but I believe that for the time being, there are two options.  The first is to continue the way we are with more friendly fixtures on Saturdays as well as Sundays and with the Club welcoming touring sides to our ground.  After all, having built Butts Field, we obviously want to play there as much as possible.  A second alternative, as suggested by Skipper Dingle, is to introduce a small and local invitation league.  We could approach, say, Handley, Chilmark, maybe even Fonthill Park and a few others.  It would bring a bit of competition without the travel.

Such conundrums also poses questions about the future of the Club.  We have expanded very successfully over the last few years, but it is noticeable that the successful league clubs are big enterprises with six or more teams fielded every week.  Do we really want to become like that?  I don’t think so.  Chalke Valley’s strength is its friendly atmosphere, unity and shared sense of purpose.  We change that at our peril.