Next season’s Furrows East Shropshire Mid-Week League has seen a surge in interest with 12 teams involved.
That’s up from nine who took part in the inaugural season in 2025.
Champions St Georges will be once again joined by teams from Forton, Newport, Priorslee, Albrighton, Church Eaton, and Lilleshall for 2026.
New to the competition will be Wheaton Aston, Allscott Heath, Codsall, Broseley and Telford Posties.
The plan is to have two divisions of six teams so each side will play ten fixtures, with games against the other five sides home and away.
Cricket Shropshire Lead Officer Steve Reese said: “It’s great to see an increased level of interest in the league for next season – it’s what we were aiming for when we set up the competition to fill a gap we saw in mid-week cricket for the east of the county.
“For those new teams, we will be arranging an introductory on-line meeting with one of the questions – what do you want to achieve by entering the League? Last year we had a number of reasons, from ‘to win it’ to ‘try to give those players who now don’t play the longer format at weekends get back to playing at the club’ to allow ‘lads and dads’ opportunities.
“As a fledgling League moving to two divisions, it is important to us that each team is placed in a Division that will maximise your aims and ensure enjoyment for all.
“We said at the outset of this competition we want to be the “friendly” competitive competition, and I am pleased to report that we had zero disciplinaries last season and long may that continue.
“Life brings enough stress without us bringing it into our leisure time, so be warned this message will be loud and clear from us.”
All clubs have been sent a copy of the 2025 league rules together with their confirmation of involvement in the league for 2026. Following the post season meeting in October, we will be introducing a couple of enhancements for 2026 which were constructed in collaboration with the member clubs.
“We have non-negotiables like DBS for captains, clubs having a Safeguarding officer in place, players needing to be registered with the League etc…”
One change from last season is that Vanessa Russell who was the league Administrator is moving to a new role as Cricket Shropshire’s County Safeguarding Officer.
Steve said: “The administration of the League will be overseen by Tim Bellett, one of our Cricket Development Coaches, who will continue the excellent work Vanessa did in our inaugural season.”
Ahead of the 2026 season, the Board will arrange a sponsors’ promotion photo shoot and combined league meeting at Wrekin College. A date is yet to be fixed but it will be in the New Year.
If anyone has any questions, they can contact Tim via tim.bellett@cricketshropshire.co.uk
