SUNDAY GAMES

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31830, 7 November 1968, Page 13

SUNDAY GAMES

Cricketers Kept Busy

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON.

Fewer three-day county championship matches will be played in the 1969 English cricket season after the introduction of the new Sunday league. The 17 first-class cricket counties will each play 24 championship matches instead of 28. In addition, they will have 16 one-day games in.the Flayers County League —as the new Sunday competition will be known. The usual one-day Gillette knockout cup is also being held. The new arrangements mean 34 fewer three-day games in the county charnship, but with the West Indies and New Zealand sharing a double tour, there will be no shortage of cricket Most of the matches in the new Sunday competition will be between teams who are already engaged in a threeday game. This will have started on the Saturday and be completed on the Monday and Tuesday. The venues, however, will be different and the 1969 fixtures list shows several teams will have to make round trips of 200 miles for the Sunday game. Middlesex, for instance, will start a three-day game with Essex at Lord's on May 3, and the next day will travel to Bristol to play Gloucestershire in the Sunday competition.

With Sunday traffic in England already making weekend travelling in the summer a nightmare, these journeys are not going to make the cricketers’ life any easier.

The West Indies have agreed to Sunday play being included in some of their matches against the counties. The New Zealanders will not play on Sundays.

Games Entry.—Australia has announced that it will send 105 competitors to the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.