ALL 36 first teams in the Bridging Finance (NW) Liverpool Competition have now played seven games and the three divisions are beginning to take shape.
For some, April’s optimism is giving way to the hard realities of high summer and a battle to stay in their league; for others, years of hard work are finally bearing fruit.
In the ECB Premier League, for example, it seems likely that Lytham, so often late starters and under-achievers, will finally mount a credible challenge for the championship.
Ormskirk will be there or thereabouts too, while Bootle, as skipper David Snellgrove knows, have yet to be fully tested.
Other teams tipped by many to be in the shake up come September – New Brighton are the best example here – have yet to hit their top form.
Some clubs have more modest ambitions.
Rainhill skipper Mike Rotherham admits that his goal for 2010 is to finish mid-table in the First Division but he believes his players will have to become more “savvy” to do so.
The Victoria Terrace side, currently in its third season in the Competition and boasting plush new facilities, have won just two of their seven games but Rotherham believes that this tally could have been more doubled if his team had been a bit more streetwise.
“We’ve been in winning positions in games but we haven’t pressed home our advantage,” he said.
“We had Orrell Red Triangle 35 for five at one stage but we got a bit giddy and we didn’t bowl our lines.
“As a result we let them get 206, and though we could have still won the game, we’d had the stuffing knocked out of us and we went down to a heavy defeat.”
Rotherham, like many other captains, knows that success in September will not be judged by silverware but by the development of their younger players.
In Rainhill’s case this category includes cricketers like Phil Veacock or Ben Edmundson, two 18-year-old batsmen with plenty of talent but also lots to work on.Rainhill’s cricketers will hope to make further progress in their bid to earn a diploma in Streetwise Studies when they visit Southport & Birkdale tomorrow. However, the First Division’s game of the day takes place at Beech Walk where leaders Leigh entertain second-placed Orrell Red Triangle.
FIXTURES: TOMORROW: Bridging Finance (NW) Liverpool Competition: ECB Premier League: Bootle v New Brighton, Hightown v Ormskirk, Northern v Highfield, Northop Hall v Colwyn Bay, Prestatyn v Newton-le-Willows, Wallasey v Lytham. First Division: Leigh v Orrell Red Triangle, Liverpool v Rainford, Maghull v Formby, Skelmersdale v Fleetwood Hesketh, Southport & Birkdale v Rainhill, Wigan v Sefton Park. Second Division: Alder v Southport Trinity, Burscough v Ainsdale, Moorfield v Caldy, Parkfield Liscard v Birkenhead St Mary’s, St Helens v Wavertree, Sutton v St Helens Recs.
