South North bid for national final

Sep 13 2008 The Journal

WHILE the official Northern Rock NEPL programme ended last week there are a couple of end-of-season delights for supporters to look forward to this weekend, weather permitting.

There will be yet another attempt to play the Banks Salver Final today when Chester-le-Street will take on Durham Academy at Ropery Lane.

The match is planned to start at midday with both teams able to choose from full squads.

A couple of months ago, the NEPL completed its inaugural coloured clothing 20/20 competition with South Northumberland emerging as champions from the finals day held at Norton.

The ECB are now taking the concept a step further by trying to find the national ECB Premier League 20/20 champions and the next stage of that process will take place at Roseworth Terrace tomorrow when South North will host the northern region finals.

There are three teams contesting the day, with Spondon from the Derbyshire PL and Ormskirk from the Liverpool PL joining the hosts.

In the draw for the competition Ormskirk had a bye to the final, and they will play the winners of the Bulls match with Spondon which starts at 11am. The final will be staged at 3pm.

As well as being crowned northern region 20/20 champions there is a tantalising prize for the winners who will travel to the Swalec Stadium, Cardiff on the September 28 to take part in the finals day where four teams from around the country will vie to become national ECB 20/20 champions.

On that day there will be two semi-finals, and a final under the floodlights, with the matches being covered by Sky TV.

Bulls skipper John Graham is excited by the prospect. He said: “20/20 can be a bit of a lottery and we will have to do it the hard way on Sunday having missed out on the bye.

But the prize is a significant one and we will have a full squad out for what should be an exciting finale to the season.”