Dick Belcher writes...

Members may be aware of the pending amalgamation of 3 separate Surrey Cricket Leagues :-
The Surrey Championship, The Surrey County League and the Surrey Cricket League.

The new league structure gets underway for the start of the 2025 season and the division each Team plays in will depend upon the final League standings for the current 2024 season; so all to play for in the current season.

The new structure also allows space for Clubs who currently play outside the 3 Leagues.

Members who would like to see the full details can go to the “Surrey Cricket Foundation” website (right click and open in new tab to keep this page open) and click on the “Clubs & Leagues” banner, OR click here on “Senior Leagues Merger” (right click and open in new tab to keep this page open) where the Merger Update can be found, as can the final structure of the Surrey Cricket Championship (new title for the amalgamated Leagues).

Right click here (to open in a new tab) for the document summarising all the changes, "The Future of Senior Cricket in Surrey, Creating the Surrey Cricket Championship May 2024", or find it attached at the bottom of this page.

The Surrey Cricket Foundation have asked:

“Please share this information with your players over the coming weeks to ensure that everyone knows what is at stake in 2024”.....and no doubt some of our non playing members may well be interested, so what does it mean for the Llamas?

The new structure creates 4 Tiers:-

Level A = Tier 1, Level B = Tier 2, Level C = Tier 3, & Level D = Tier 4

The 1st team will be in Tier 1 which will consist of a Premier Division and Division One.

These divisions will contain the same teams as the existing Surrey Championship Premier and Division One.

This Tier 1 will continue to play a split season of timed cricket 120 overs with 11am start time and limited overs cricket of 100 overs with a 12 noon start time.

So in summary no change for the 1st team.

The 2nd team will be in Level B = Tier 2 but the Division will depend on where they finish in the League this season.

If we finish in the top two then we will be placed in Division 3 East alongside the current Surrey Championship 2nd Eleven Premier Division teams (where we were last season) as well as 1st Eleven teams from the existing Surrey Championship Division 3.

As an example this could include Leatherhead, Chessington and Epsom (who our 2’s beat in this season’s T20).

However if we don’t finish in the top 2 then we will be placed in Division 4 East alongside the current Surrey Championship 2nd Eleven Division One teams (where we are now) as well as 1st Eleven teams from the existing Surrey Championship Division 4.

As an example this currently includes Sanderstead, Woking & Horsell & Trinity Mid Whitgiftians.

The games in Tier 2 will all be limited 100 over games played with coloured clothing and a white ball, so no more timed matches.

The 3rd team will be in Level C = Tier 3 but the Division will depend on where they finish in the League this season.

If we finish in the top five then we will be placed in Division 7 East alongside the current Surrey Championship 3rd Eleven Premier teams (where we are now), the current Surrey Championship 2nd Eleven Divisions 4 teams (example Dorking 2’s) & Division 5 teams (example Merstham 2’s), as well as 1st Eleven teams from the Surrey County League Division 2 (current example South Nutfield, although they look like they might be promoted -currently in 3rd).

However if we don’t finish in the top 5 then we will be placed in Division 8 East where it begins to get more complicated, but will include some new opponents with games against 1st Eleven teams from the Surrey County League Division Three (example Kenley), and 2nd elevens from the Surrey County League, 2nd eleven Premier Division (example Wallington).

The games in Tier 3 will all be limited 90 over games played with a start time of 1pm but with flexibility to start 1 hour earlier if both teams agree.

The 4th team will also be in Level C = Tier 3 and the Division is likely to be Division 9 East alongside the current Surrey Championship Division 2 East teams (where we are now), as well as 2nd Eleven teams from the Surrey County League Premier (Horley 2’s currently top), and Division 1 2nd elevens (current example Chaldon CMO).

The games in Tier 3 will all be limited 80 over games played with a start time of 1pm but with flexibility to start 1 hour earlier if both teams agree.

The 5th team will be in Level D = Tier 4 and assuming we finish in the top 8 this season the Division is likely to be Division 10 South East alongside the current Surrey Championship Division 4 East teams (where we are now), as well as 2nd Eleven teams from the Surrey County League Division 2 (current example South Nutfield, although they look like they might be promoted-currently top).

The games in Tier 4 will all be limited 80 over games played with a start time of 1pm but with flexibility to start 1 hour earlier if both teams agree.

Other than Tier 1 the Divisions are split into areas to reduce travelling; although the example structure shows teams in current divisional blocks for convenience rather than the league second guessing where teams may finish in the current season.

In the current Surrey Championship there are ceilings for the 2nd and 3rd elevens where they can only go as far as their respective 2nd eleven and 3rd eleven Premier Divisions.

The new structure is based on merit Leagues where each team can be continually promoted (providing the facilities requirements can be met) until they reach the division below where a team from their own Club already plays. This is similar to the current structure for our 4th and 5th teams where they can currently be continually promoted until one division below where there is an existing Llama team.

As an example this means the stronger 2nd eleven teams (we used to be among them and aim to return to join them this coming season) like Wimbledon, East Molesey, Spencer and Sunbury could (assuming they get promoted of course) eventually play current Surrey Championship 1st Eleven Division 1 teams.