By Charles Randall

7 February 2013

The Home Counties Premier Cricket League clubs have voted to play limited overs cricket for the first time, mixing 50-over games with the existing restricted format for the 2013 season.

The league's annual meeting at High Wycombe agreed in principle to schedule five limited-overs games at the start of the 2013 season and four at the end. Playing conditions, such as bonus points and Duckworth-Lewis, remain to be finalised before the package is put to an extraordinary general meeting some time in March or early April. A proposal to scrap the lunch interval for 120-over days was defeated.

Many ECB premier leagues in the south, such as Southern, Surrey, Essex and Kent have already adopted a mixed format. The argument is that limited overs offer different challenges and a fairer contest at a time when the weather is more unpredictable, but not all leagues have embraced the trend. The Sussex Premier League, for example, voted in November against any move towards limited overs, and the Devon Premier League recently decided to scrap restricted overs and go for an entire programme of 50-over games, with bonus points. The vote at their annual meeting in Exeter was overwhelming.

The ECB Home Counties League, sponsored by Serious Cricket, has three divisions, taking in clubs from a wide-ranging area mainly in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire.