The future of Upper Loddon Cricket Association hanging in the balance

Team numbers in the ULCA have dwindled over past decade to the extent that there was just four teams competing in the senior competition last season - Arnold, Boort-Yando, Kingower and Wedderburn.

However, reigning premier Arnold has indicated it would no longer want to compete in a senior competition with just four teams following a 2023-24 season that was played over 18 rounds of one-day matches in which teams played each other six times, while there was several forfeits throughout.

And with all four teams making the finals, in an anomaly reminiscent of Fitzroy in the 1916 VFL season, Arnold finished on the bottom of the ladder before going on to win the premiership.

Whether the ULCA senior competition continues could potentially hinge on the reformation of the Bridgewater Cricket Club's senior team.

The Bridgewater Bulls were the latest team to withdraw from the ULCA seniors, which reduced the competition to four sides last season.

A meeting will be held at the Bridgewater Hotel from 7.30pm next Monday where four agenda items will be discussed:

1 - Is Bridgewater any closer to guaranteeing a senior team in the competition?

2 - If Bridgewater cannot guarantee a senior side, is Arnold committed to be part of a four team Upper Loddon competition?

3 - If a minimum of four senior clubs cannot be met and the senior competition folds, are the clubs still interested in the Upper Loddon running a stand-alone junior competition?

4 - If, hopefully, the fate of the association is assured then all the ideas and suggestions that clubs have provided can be discussed.

The future of the ULCA competition being discussed follows another of the region's country cricket leagues, the Northern United Cricket Association, folding three years ago.

"Only having the four-team competition in the seniors last season made it quite hard and there was some difficulties with clubs having enough players to field teams at times," ULCA president Wendy Murphy said this week.

"Arnold has put forward to us that they weren't going to be happy playing in a four-team competition again, so have proposed they would be seeking to leave if it was four teams again.

"We had some discussion in early April and Bridgewater indicated it was keen to get its senior team up and going again, but there wasn't a guarantee.

"We're meeting again next Monday night to discuss with how Bridgewater is going in finding a team and if Bridgewater doesn't get a team would Arnold still be interested in playing in a four-team competition.

"We're also looking at changing the way the league runs in terms of the program of matches... there could be a mix of one-dayers, two-dayers and Twenty20 games to change it up a bit and look to allow teams to bring in permit players to help with numbers.

"Currently the way it's set-up under the by-laws you can't do that (permit players), so that's where we're at as a competition at the moment.

"All clubs have had the opportunity to have their say on what they'd like to see changed in the by-laws and we'll discuss that at the meeting next week ahead of our annual general meeting in July."

As well as the senior competition, the ULCA also runs a junior competition.

"The clubs at our last meeting spoke about potentially running a Twenty20 competition before the start of our season and inviting clubs from outside the ULCA to join... even if's a football club," Murphy said.

"For example it might be some Serpentine footballers getting together who want to have a game of cricket; it's a way of trying to get a bit more interest in the community.

"You look now around that Serpentine and Calivil area, there's no cricket played out there now. I'm sure there would be people in those areas interested in playing cricket.

"We saw the Northern United competition dissolve a couple of years ago and that's not something we want to see happen in the Upper Loddon Cricket Association."