THE clocks have gone forward, it is now officially British Summer Time and that means it will soon be the 2019 season of the Dorchester and District Evening Cricket League.

All last season’s teams are back and New Look have entered Division Three, so we have 21 teams to contest three divisions plus the Doug Read Cup.

St George’s will be keen to defend their titles but Puddletown will be eager to improve on last year’s runner-up spot with Bere Regis, Cattistock, Martinstown and Dewlish, now promoted back to Division One, all looking to make the Saints work hard.

The seven teams in Division Two and eight in Division Three will also be putting their skills with bat and ball to the test with games almost every weekday evening at 6.30pm from Easter Monday to the end of July, somewhere from Hazelbury Bryan in the north to New Look who will be playing at Redlands, and from Abbotsbury in the west to Bere Regis as our easternmost ground.

Dorchester Rec will be especially busy with four teams using it as their home ground.

The most important people are, of course, the players but it is important to recognise all those others who make the games run smoothly: umpires, scorers, groundsmen, those who report the results promptly via the play-cricket website and anyone else who contributes to an enjoyable game and often its aftermath in a local establishment.

The first games on Monday, April 22 are scheduled to be Charlton Down versus Cosmos in the cup and Dorchester Colts versus Winfrith in the league, so we hope for good weather for them and the other five games due that week. Best wishes to everyone for the coming season.