Following on from our story on the plans for a one-division northern “super league”, we now have more information on the teams that will play in the league, again from the blog of the Anglo-Canadian Matthew Norburn (BBF Northern Senior League Commissioner).
To summarize:
- A “change in club philosophy” at Manchester has seen the players from the Eagles (the top team) leave to join a newly created team in Harrogate. Last season’s Eagles roster included GB international Dave Mercado. Unfortunately, a hunt through the posts on the Manchester Baseball Club’s message board did not reveal what the “change in club philospohy” exactly is.
- Liverpool and Humber should both be fine to compete in the league this season (notably, the Liverpool Trojans withdrew from the 2008 National Baseball League North competition in the second half of the season as the team was unable to complete its fixtures – leaving the Croydon Pirates as the longest continuously competing team in the country).
- It looks like the recently formed Leeds club is at least another year away from entering the league.
It will be very interesting to see how successful teams from the northern league are paired up with teams from the south and the Midlands in post-season competition, once the full league structure is announced.
