The Hertfordshire Cricket League is a league

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

competition based in the county of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Since 2015 it has been a designated

ECB Premier League The ECB Premier Leagues are a series of regional cricket leagues organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that form the top tier of club cricket in England and Wales. The ECB published "Raising the Standard" in 1997, the ECB Manageme ...

, the highest level of recreational

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obs ...

in England and Wales.

History

League cricket in Hertfordshire began in 1968 with the forming of the Hertfordshire Cricket Competition. In 1974 the leading clubs broke away from the Competition and formed the Hertfordshire Cricket League, and then in 1994 the two tournaments once again merged under the name Hertfordshire Cricket League. When the system of ECB Premier Leagues was introduced, it was decided that the Hertfordshire Cricket League together with the Cherwell Cricket League and Thames Valley Cricket League should become feeders to a newly formed

Home Counties Premier Cricket League The Home Counties Premier Cricket League is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in the Home Counties of England, and has been a designated ECB Premier League since its founding in 2000. It originally served Bedfordshire, ...

. Accordingly, between 2000 and 2013 the top Hertfordshire clubs played in that league and not in the Hertfordshire Cricket League. Hertfordshire's relationship with the Home Counties Premier Cricket League was always uneasy, and in autumn 2013 the Hertfordshire clubs all resigned from the Home Counties Premier Cricket League (with the exception of

Tring Park Tring Park is a public open space in Tring, owned by Dacorum Borough Council and managed by the Woodland Trust. It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Half of the is undulating grassland, grazed by cattle. Part of the park ...

, who had not played in the Hertfordshire Cricket League since 1981, when they switched to the Thames Valley Cricket League). The Hertfordshire clubs then returned to the Hertfordshire Cricket League, which was awarded ECB Premier League status in time for the 2015 season. In a format which was unique among the ECB Premier Leagues until it was also adopted by Lincolnshire in 2019, the championship is not decided on league performance alone; the top four in the league table then play semi-finals and a final to decide the champions. Although most of the league's member clubs are located within the borders of the county, teams from

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

and

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

are also members, and in the past there have been member clubs from

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

as well. The league is sponsored by Saracens Rugby Football Club. The clubs competing in the Premier Division in 2020 were due to be: Harpenden, Hertford, Hoddesdon, North Mymms, Potters Bar, Radlett, Reed, Totteridge Millhillians, Welwyn Garden City, and West Herts. The 2020 competition was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A replacement competition was organised for the later part of the season when cricket again became possible, but with the winners not to be regarded as official league champions.

Winners

Hertfordshire Cricket Competition 1968 to 1973

Hertfordshire Cricket League 1974 to 1999

Between 2000 and 2013 the leading Hertfordshire clubs played in the

Hertfordshire Cricket League from 2014

Source:

Performance by season from 2015

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website

play-cricket website
English domestic cricket competitions Cricket in Hertfordshire ECB Premier Leagues