New Lunenburg Domestic Sports Newswire

by **New Lunenburg** » Tue Apr 07, 2020 3:45 am

Please refrain from posting here without prior permission, TGs are most welcome!

by **New Lunenburg** » Tue Apr 07, 2020 3:46 am

Cricket is the most popular summer sport in New Lunenburg and is the de facto national sport. At the professional level, cricket is the third most popular spectator sport in the country, with both codes of rugby beating cricket in terms of attendance figures. Though in terms of amateur participation, cricket is by far the most popular sport in New Lunenburg, with nearly half a million players registered with a club out of a population of just over five million. Cricket is also the sport with the longest history in New Lunenburg, having been introduced by British colonists within the first few decades after the island was settled. At both the professional and amateur levels, the sport is controlled by the New Lunenburg Cricket Board. The NLCB also operates New Lunenburg's national representative cricket teams and is an associate member of the NationStates Global Cricket Federation. The historic St Mary's Ground in Clarendon is seen as the spiritual home of New Lunenburg cricket and the NLCB was based there until the turn of the new millennium, when the decision was made to build a new elite-level stadium in the nation's capital. The NLCB is now headquartered at the Jubilee Stadium in Victoria, which is among the largest and most modern sporting facilities in the country, having been constructed in time for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002. In international competition, New Lunenburg made its mark by becoming the first champions of the ODI World Trophy, which ranks as one of the nation's proudest sporting achievements.

As in many other countries, professional cricket in New Lunenburg is played between teams representing the different regions of the country, many of which have historic rivalries with each other.

Clarendon and Verulam, which are the two most populous regions, share a particularly intense rivalry that extends across all facets of life and cricket is no exception to this rule. Another regional derby of note is the 'Battle of Brunswick', which is contested between Hither Brunswick and Further Brunswick. Whilst attempts have been made by the NLCB's marketing department to brand matches between Queen's County and Montgomery as a rivalry, there is in fact little animosity between the two regions and both sides would consider their traditional rival to be Clarendon. Clarendon is not much liked by anyone else as this region contains the nation's largest city, which bears the same name as the region as a whole and is often seen by rural New Lunenburgers as representative of a certain sort of elitism. Apart from the six regional representative teams, two university cricket teams are also afforded first-class status in New Lunenburg. Sides representing the National University of New Lunenburg, Victoria and St Mary's College, Clarendon traditionally play three-day warm-up matches against the regional teams at the beginning of the cricket season and also compete in the List A Knockout Trophy. Although the university sides rarely manage an upset victory against professional opposition, they remain an important part of the cricketing structure in New Lunenburg and around a third of professional cricketers began their first-class careers by playing for their university. In addition to this, the Varsity Match played between the National University and St Mary's College is often seen as one of the highlights of the cricketing calendar in New Lunenburg and has always attracted outstanding attendance figures for an amateur match.

New Lunenburg has professional domestic competitions in all three formats of the game. The Somers Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition in New Lunenburg. Matches are played over four days and the competition takes the form of a round-robin between the six regional representative sides. Before the commencement of the regular season, St Mary's College and the National University play warm-up matches against the professional sides, which is followed by the Varsity Match between the two institutions. This match is so ingrained into the cultural fabric of New Lunenburg that it is traditionally regarded as the start of summer. Even though first-class cricket is nowhere near as popular as it once was, having lost ground to limited overs cricket, the Somers Shield remains the ultimate prize in domestic cricket for purists of the game and is recognised by all cricket fans as important for preparing players for the New Lunenburg test cricket side. The Twenty20 Cup is New Lunenburg's newest and most popular domestic cricket competition in terms of television viewing figures and attendance. The six regional sides play a round-robin regular season against each other, which is followed by the top four teams going to the Finals Weekend at the Jubilee Stadium in Victoria to play the semi-finals and final. The Twenty20 Cup Finals Weekend is one of the highlights of the cricketing calendar in New Lunenburg and is renowned as a true carnival of cricket with a party atmosphere. New Lunenburg's domestic List A contest is the Knockout Trophy, in which sides are scheduled a maximum of 50 overs each, so as to adequately prepare cricketers for One Day Internationals. Unlike other domestic cricket competitions, the university sides do not just play warm-up matches before the tournament but take part in the full competition. As the name implies, the Knockout Trophy is also unique for eschewing the round-robin format in favour of a double-elimination tournament. Whilst this has typically made for an exciting competition, this format has also been criticised for not giving enough games for the members of the international squad to prepare for One Day Internationals and somewhat cheapening one-day cricket.

by **New Lunenburg** » Tue Apr 07, 2020 3:46 am

Both codes of rugby football enjoy popularity in New Lunenburg and rugby league is the predominant winter sport in the south and east of the country, though rugby league still slightly trails rugby union in terms of attendance and participation at the amateur level, which is mostly due to rugby union's dominance in the large cities of Clarendon and Verulam. Even before the split between union and league, rugby had long since established itself as the nation's favoured football code, with the first rugby club in New Lunenburg having been founded in 1868. The genesis of the 13-man code in New Lunenburg comes from the Northern Union sending a team representing Great Britain to tour New Lunenburg in 1910, the touring outfit planned for three tests, which were to be played in Brunswick, Victoria and Clarendon. However, on the same day that the second test was played in Victoria, the New Lunenburg Rugby Football Union announced strict sanctions against those that had participated in the matches against the Northern Union side, which resulted in the cancellation of the third test in Clarendon and the banning of some of the best players of the generation from playing rugby union ever again. Incidentally, this was also New Lunenburg's first victorious series in any sport against the mother country, with the test in Brunswick having been drawn 13-13 and the Victoria test resulting in a 19-15 victory for New Lunenburg. The 1910 Great Britain tour was soon followed by the founding of the New Lunenburg Rugby League to govern the new game and the solidification of the code's dominance in Further Brunswick, Hither Brunswick and Queen's County, which remain the heartlands of the sport to this day. Rugby league was the most popular spectator sport in New Lunenburg for much of the 20th century and many young rugby union stars continued to switch codes so that they could earn a wage playing the sport they love. This practice long ensured that rugby league had the finest footballing talent on offer. Whereas rugby league was and is vastly popular in its heartland regions, it had little to no presence in the rugby union strongholds of northern and western New Lunenburg for close to a century and rugby league's status as a 'regional' sport was not helped by the rugby union authorities maintaining a policy of issuing strict sanctions against anyone who played rugby league until 1995. The NLRL would finally expand the National League into the nation's two largest cities in 2000, introducing the Clarendon Centurions and the Verulam Centurions into the competition.

by **New Lunenburg** » Tue Apr 07, 2020 3:47 am

Rugby union is the most popular spectator sport in New Lunenburg and is second only to cricket in terms of participation at the amateur level. Whereas rugby league predominates in the southern and eastern parts of the country, rugby union is the dominant winter sport in and around the large cities of Clarendon and Verulam, as well as in Montgomery. Records of rugby union in New Lunenburg date as far back as the foundation of Clarendon St Mary's RFC in 1868, who remain one of the most successful sides and still play in the country's top tier club competition, the NLRFU Premiership. Although the New Lunenburg Rugby Football Union would lose half of the country to the other code after the 1910 schism in New Lunenburg rugby, the sport remained popular in the wealthier urban centres of Clarendon and Verulam, which often leads to fans of rugby league considering rugby union to be the sport of the moneyed elite. Nonetheless, rugby union always remained the dominant code in rural Montgomery, even to the extent that the other code has no presence in the region to this day. For close to a century, both codes of rugby stuck to their strongholds and scarcely considered the prospect of competing with one another, though this would change when rugby union abandoned its longstanding policy of amateurism in 1995. The NLRFU quickly responded to the changing nature of the game and set up an official club competition for the first time, as clubs had simply organised matches with one another without recourse to the governing body during the amateur era. Whereas it was quite evident that traditionally strong clubs such as Clarendon St Mary's, South Verulam and Montgomery Wanderers would be included in this new Premiership, many were surprised by the inclusion of two new clubs that had recently been established in Brunswick and Victoria, deep within what was traditionally considered to be rugby league territory. The introduction of professionalism into the game was without doubt the most significant event in the history of rugby union since the schism in 1910 and the NLRFU certainly reaped the benefits of money pouring into the game.

by **New Lunenburg** » Tue Apr 07, 2020 4:17 am

Somers Shield       Pld  W  T  D  L  BP  Pts
1 Hither Brunswick   10  7  0  3  0  29  160
2 Clarendon          10  7  0  2  1  28  150
3 Queen's County     10  3  0  3  4  13  76
4 Montgomery         10  3  0  2  5  17  75
5 Verulam            10  2  0  4  4  21  73
6 Further Brunswick  10  0  0  2  8  12  22

by **New Lunenburg** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:36 am

Twenty20 Cup            Pld    W   D   L      Avg    Pts 
1 Hither Brunswick       10    7   0   3     1.091    14
2 Montgomery             10    6   0   4     1.029    12
3 Verulam                10    6   0   4     0.961    12
4 Queen's County         10    5   0   5     1.022    10
--------------------------------------------------------
5 Further Brunswick      10    4   0   6     0.961     8
6 Clarendon              10    2   0   8     0.950     4

by **New Lunenburg** » Mon May 04, 2020 5:21 am

by **New Lunenburg** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 11:54 am

National League           Pld   W   D   L    PF   PA   PD   Pts 
 1 Brunswick Harps        18   14   1   3   527  235 +292    29
 2 Brunswick Trinity      18   13   0   5   426  295 +131    26
 3 Hartington             18   11   0   7   451  323 +128    22
 4 Reid                   18   11   0   7   398  357  +41    22
---------------------------------------------------------------
 5 Verulam Centurions     18    9   1   8   417  317 +100    19
 6 Southport              18    8   0  10   370  358  +12    16
 7 Victoria               18    8   0  10   311  416 −105    16
 8 Rosse                  18    8   0  10   297  442 −145    16
 9 Clarendon Crusaders    18    6   0  12   316  430 −114    12
10 Victoria Rovers        18    1   0  17   181  521 −340     2

by **New Lunenburg** » Fri Jun 05, 2020 10:05 am

Premiership               Pld   W   D   L    PF   PA   PD   Pts 
 1 Rosebery               18   17   1   0   560  229 +331    70
 2 Clarendon St Mary's    18   12   0   6   466  324 +142    48
 3 Brunswick Lions        18   12   0   6   461  320 +141    48
 4 Carnarvon              18   12   0   6   421  307 +114    48
---------------------------------------------------------------
 5 Clarendon Wasps        18   10   0   8   432  347  +85    40
 6 Montgomery Wanderers   18    9   0   9   416  387  +29    36
 7 Verulam Rangers        18    7   0  11   328  428 −100    28
 8 Victoria Capitals      18    6   0  12   345  432  −87    24
 9 Pool                   18    3   1  14   270  501 −231    14
10 South Verulam          18    1   0  17   155  579 −424     4

New Lunenburg Domestic Sports Newswire

New Lunenburg Domestic Sports Newswire

Cricket in New Lunenburg

Rugby league in New Lunenburg

Rugby union in New Lunenburg

Season 1 - Somers Shield

Season 1 - Twenty20 Cup

Season 1 - Knockout Trophy

Season 1 - National League

Season 1 - Premiership

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