Thornton Cleveleys target a consistent second half of the NPCL season

Thornton Cleveleys CC captain Josh Sackfield believes the Northern Premier Cricket League needs to change its 40 Over Cup format.

The cup’s six-game group stage ended last weekend with TC and their opponents, Preston, playing a dead rubber in that neither could qualify for the quarter-finals.

Sackfield was particularly unhappy at how the cup fixtures were arranged, having started the season with matches on back-to-back weekends before a four-week break for the league.

Game three came on Bank Holiday Monday, May 25, before the fourth was part of a weekend double-header in mid-June.

Then, with TC having strung together consecutive league victories for the first time this year, the league took a fortnight’s break for the final two cup matches.

Asked if the switching of focus from red-ball to pink-ball cricket was a hindrance, Sackfield said: “One hundred per cent. We were coming off the back of two league wins, getting a bit of belief, then you go into the cup and it kills your momentum.

“The league asks for feedback and we’ll be saying we don’t want it to be in this league format.

“I understand the top league has 10 clubs and we have 12 but to have people playing on Sunday means there is a lot of cricket.”

The end of TC’s cup campaign means attention now switches back to division two, where they are seven points above the drop zone at the midway point going into Saturday’s home match with Fulwood and Broughton (12.30pm).

While the top three - Fleetwood, F&B and Euxton - have pulled clear of fourth-placed Barrow, it is reasonably close beneath them.

TC are 23 points behind fifth-placed Morecambe, meaning a run of consistent cricket could propel Sackfield’s players up the table.

“It’s a good, competitive league and everybody can beat everybody on their day,” he added.

“It’s just a case of when that day comes and, hopefully, we can take that recent league form into the second half of the season.”