Denmark confirm A-grade withdrawal to leave five teams for upcoming Albany and Districts Cricket Association season

The Albany and Districts Cricket Association A-grade competition has been reduced to five teams after Denmark confirmed it would not field an A-grade side in the 2020-21 season. The news was confirmed this week at the ACDA annual general meeting, where each club is required to nominate their senior teams for the upcoming season. After the loss of North County from the A-grade ranks last year, Denmark has become the second team in as many seasons to pull out and will instead enter teams in B-grade and C-grade next season. The Magpies went through the A-grade competition winless last season, finishing on the bottom of the table. Their withdrawal leaves a five-team A-grade competition, for the first time since the 2016-17 season when Royals went back to having only a B-grade team. Railways, Manypeaks, Royals, Collingwood Park and Mt Barker will be the five clubs that will compete in A-grade. There were also team nominations for both B and C-grade taken. Terry Eaton was again elected as ACDA president while there were several other executive changes. Mitch Green has stepped in as treasurer and is joined on the executive by new faces Jarrod Hansen and Ryan Tindale, the latter becoming junior vice-president. Jack Hastie, Amanda Thompson and Tim Beech have departed as executives. Eaton said it was disappointing news to lose Denmark as an A-grade outfit. “Denmark had mentioned it to us towards the back end of last season,” Eaton said. “They were struggling and said unless there was an influx of players they were unlikely to have an A-grade team. “Sadly I can’t see any way around the five teams and a bye for the season ahead. “It is always disappointing to lose groups or teams but hopefully we can keep those guys involved in cricket in some way. “Denmark have a good group of young players coming through so maybe in a couple of years they can return to A-grade.” Eaton highlighted a number of positives from last season, including the alignment of senior and junior cricket in Albany to form the ACDA and the introduction of regular women’s cricket plus the first Southern Smash tournament. “Last season threw up a lot of positives,” he said. “It was just unfortunate the pandemic came when it did because it was set up for a great finish to the season.”