The Fylde Cricket League was established in 1928 and has provided a place for people who want to play enjoyable competitive cricket ever since. The league contains teams from the Fylde area and has teams from the major clubs, as well as smaller single team clubs and clubs from workplaces and the like. New members are always welcome by all clubs. If you are interested in playing for a team, go to the "Clubs" page of the website to find your local team and get in touch with them. The league itself is always looking to expand. If you are interesting in joining the league as a club, or setting up your own new team, contact the Committee for more information. The league holds its AGM in January each year where new clubs can come along to join the league.
The FCL has 3 competitions with the league offering an innovative points system to promote agggressive play and trying to win, but also rewarding the honourable draw.
The league competition is for The Close Cup, with 84 over matches being played starting at 1:30pm until 7:00pm latest. The team batting first has a maximum of half the available overs in the day (42), the team batting second may use any remaining overs should they bowl out the team batting first. 12 points are awarded for a win, 8 for a tie (runs equal at the end of the match regardless of wickets down), 6 points for a draw should the team batting second get over 80% of the target runs they are chasing, failing that the team batting 1st receives 7 points, the team batting 2nd gets 5 points. In the event of an abandoned match with NO PLAY (NR), 4 points are awarded to each team.
Bonus points may be won for the performance of the team during the match. Teams earn 1 point per 35 runs scored up to a maximum of 5 batting points (175+ runs) and also earn 1 point for every 2 wickets taken. Maximum bonus points are awarded when a win is earned and teams are chasing less than 175 or bowl out a team of less than 11 players. Bonus points are still counted if a match is abandoned.
The Stuart T20 Cup is played in the first half of the season. This is a 20 over cup competition in 2 mini divisions culminating in a Finals Day for the top 2 teams in each division.
The Wareing Trophy is played in the second half of the season and is a 40 over cup competition. There is a round robin two league format to start with, with the top two qualifying for the semi finals. The group winner gets home advantage before the final is played at one of the main grounds.
So there really is something for everyone on offer in the FCL.
