About the NELCL

The North East London Community Cricket League plays matches on Saturday afternoons, mostly in Hackney.

2008 welcomed 2 new teams, Tower Ravens and Victoria Park Juniors, both were competitive, in a season that saw London Fields and Island share the title.

2009 will see the league continue to grow with the addition of Hackney Village and London Tigers.

More about the league in ten easy steps:

1. The league is a Saturday affair, and the games are played over 36 overs. We only use one ball per match (rather than innings) to save on costs, and to ‘even’ the effect of the worn pitches.

2. Each bowler can bowl a maximum of six overs, largely to ensure that one player does not dominate the game.

3. As a result, we allow (contrary to normal one-day practice) one marginal wide down the leg side per over - that is, if the ball is not too far down the leg side it is let off with a warning.

4. The standard is reasonable but this is not club cricket - it is more pub than club standard. In accordance with this, the games are played in a friendly spirit – teams want to win, but not at the cost of cheating.

5. The way the league is organised means that we have found it easiest to book pitches centrally, generally Hackney council's pitches at Springfield Park (Clapton Road), London Fields (Mare Street) and Millfields (Mare Street/Lea Bridge Road).

6. This means that each team pays the league rather than for its own pitches. Depending on how many teams there are in next season's league, the fees will be between £250 and £350 for an 8-12 game league season.

7. The league runs from the end of April/beginning of May to the around the start of august, so we would need to have a reasonable commitment on your part to field a team for the whole summer - we have had interest from students who were not able to commit ot the second half of the season before.

8. The league also requires that its teams have public liability insurance. Hackney Council (and other venues) have demanded this, and without it we can't get the bookings - we have managed to secure this for £120 per club, which would also cover any other fixtures (including the VP league).

9. The number of fixtures is completely dependent on how many teams want to join/have joined.

10. Finally, we are looking to expand and include as many teams as possible, so your interest is welcome. If you are interested, given what I have said above, please let me know and we'll get back to you on what to do next.