ECB KO 2017 DATES 45/45 AND 20/20

Date: 7th October 2016

+ Entry Form for the 45/45

Dear Club Secretary

Royal London Club Championship 2017

We would like to invite you to enter the 2017 Royal London Club Championship (the ECB National Club Championship), dates of which I am pleased to provide below.

The entry for next season’s competition will be £60 if paying by BACS and £65 if paying by cheque. This is the first time in seven years that we have unfortunately had to increase the entry fee into the competition and is mainly due to ECB now paying for umpires for all rounds. Details of how to pay are on the entry form itself which you will find attached which is to be completed and returned no later than Friday 2 December 2016. Any entries received after this date may only be considered if the draw is not already full.

We are once again limited by the busy summer schedule to a competition of just 8 rounds; therefore only 256 clubs can enter. All participating clubs from the 2016 competition have been invited if demand exceeds supply it will be necessary to limit the number of clubs that are included. The following criteria will be used in judging suitable entries:

1) Conceded a Royal London Club Championship match in 2016

2) The League and Division that the Club plays in on a Saturday

3) Standard of the Club’s ground and ancillary facilities

4) Previous history of the Club in the competition

As such this invitation and your completion of the entry form is not a guarantee that your club will be included in the competition for 2017 as the above entry criteria may need to be invoked.

The draw for each Group will be released by January 2017 at the latest and seeded based on the record of the club in the previous season both in this competition and your league.

The First Round is to be played by Saturday 29 April 2017 at the latest although fixtures will be scheduled for Sunday 23 April 2017. Clubs involved in 10 team leagues, i.e. those starting later on in the season, are encouraged to play these matches as early as possible and one option is for clubs to utilise the Saturday prior to the start of their League season for these First Round matches or any team may agree to play their first round match on any Sunday in April if they wish.

ECB will cover the costs of the umpires for all rounds of the competition (they will claim direct from ECB). Each host club will receive match balls for all home matches throughout the competition, please indicate on the entry form whether you would prefer to have these balls sent to your club or contact person’s home address.

The National Final will be held at a first class ground to be confirmed once the First Class Fixture List is published in December 2016 by the ECB First Class Cricket Department.

http://www.lpoolcomp.co.uk/uploaded_files/documents/Royal_London_ECB_Club_Championship_KO_2017.docx

http://www.lpoolcomp.co.uk/uploaded_files/documents/Royal_London_Club_Championship_2017_Entry_Form.xls

Yours sincerely,
Aaron Campbell
Competitions Executive
1. Provisional Dates for 45/45 2017
Round	Scheduled Date	Wet Weather Reserve Date
First	23 April 2017 (played by 29 April)	30 April 2017 (can be earlier if agreed)
Second	14 May 2017	21 May 2017
Third	4 June 2017	11 June 2017
Fourth (Group Final)	25 June 2017	2 July 2017
Fifth	16 July 2017	23 July 2017
Quarter final	6 August 2017	13 August 2017
Semi final	27 August 2017	3 September 2017
Final	17 September 2017	24 September 2017