Bazal
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Yeah various clubs have moved a few times to scrap the first grade rule, but the big clubs like Barton and Workers always kick up a huge stink. Of course, the fact that they only want strugglers in first grade so they can guarantee big wins for their strong sides and give them a leg up when it comes to coming top 2 or 3. The official line is "we should be building clubs not encouraging individual sides to sit down in the low grades" but you don't build a club from the top down ffs.
We had a bloke who scored 1000 runs in a first grade side side that lost 15 games and another who scored over 500 despite only playing 10 or 11 games. Both left the club because they didn't want to play in a side that lost 90% of its games. This year we're fighting to keep half the guys who played ones for the same reason. So how the f**k are you supposed to build a club when blokes who are good enough are forced to play alongside fourth graders at the top level, get predictably smashed, and then leave?
I'm probably a second grader at best these days. I hold my own in firsts, I got a 40 in a total of 150 and was involved in a 50 run stand in 5 overs in the death stages of a game but the better sides have my number easily and I still only got about 120 runs despite 70 coming in two matches. The only reason I still enjoyed firsts, really, was because I love fielding and those batsmen actually make me work. But I shouldn't be forced to play above my ability, and a fourth or fifth grader definitely shouldn't be turning out in first grade every week just because you're forced to have a team. I'm not good enough to score big runs but I'm good enough that 130km+ bowlers won't seriously hurt me....can't really say the same for most 5th graders
