If you look around our county's game you'll find some excellent cricketers, some good teams and some stunning grounds. However there are signs that the standard of our game is on the decline. We have players playing in the first and second division now who five to ten years ago were playing in the third or fourth division and those players were younger and fitter back then too. 

In the top two divisions we have as we've mentioned some excellent cricketers, however we do have many teams who rely on 3-4 players to do the bulk of the work week in week out. Llangwm would be a prime example of this where they have players who would walk into any team in West Wales but the gulf in class to some of the other players in their team is huge with all due respect. As another example Haverfordwest's current team also has quality players in it's line up, however how would this current Town team fair against Town's team ten years ago. Most would agree there would only be one winner there. 

The issue is county wide, youth coming through into the senior ranks seems to be a big factor in this issue. Cresselly, deserve a lot of praise for the amount youth they currently have in their senior teams and it will likely serve them well in the future as these players improve and mature. Credit should also be given to them for helping other teams in the fifth division out by letting their players help out struggling teams using the permit system.

The question is why is this an issue? Why do clubs have a lack of quality players coming through and replacing the old guard so to speak? 

The county club have been accused of living in the dark ages and this could well be the cause. Games aren't finishing until gone 1900 hours which doesn't appeal to the younger players. Umpires are few and far between and the mixture of coloured kit vs whites just looks scruffy. Coloured kits are great but they should be across the board or not at all surely! Hopefully the county will find a way to get the good youth players into senior cricket and to keep them there, we love this game in Pembrokeshire and everyone wants it to be as healthy as possible!

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