THREE days shy of the shortest day of the year and the mornings are as black as the combined prospects of the island’s six Division One football clubs below St Martin’s.

Summer seems so far away, but, thanks to the Ashes and an annual general meeting of the Guernsey Cricket Board, we can shut our eyes and imagine long and idyllic evenings at the King George V Field or Port Soif and some last-ball thrillers – T20 Sarnian style.

We will never be officially credited for it but evening league cricket inspired the worldwide T20 revolution, which made it all the sadder that our summer cricket fare of 2010 was as miserable as our recent weather.

I can’t remember who won the Division One title, it was that poor. And after a promising start, the four-sided super T20 tournament fizzled out by its midway point.

Evening cricket, it seemed, was slowly going the same way as competive softball – soft and social.

We might ask ourselves what happened to the rampant success of evening cricket back in the 70s, 80s and 90s when, halfway through the decade, the number of sides had climbed to a staggering 60 with seven divisions.

Contrast that with the prospect of the 2011 season going ahead with four divisions and a likely 38 teams.

Just what has happened?

How can it have gone so wrong?

Well, having canvassed a few others who date back to the days, 30 years ago, when an annual meeting of the Guernsey Cricket Association was often standing room only at places such as the Vale Douzaine Room (100-plus club delegates), there are many reasons for the decline in popularity of the evening game while the sport, as a whole, has flourished and is in better shape than ever.

Guernsey’s way of living and pace of life is unquestionably a part of it.

As finance has taken an ever more predominant role in island employment, to make a six o’clock start is probably as tough as it ever has been for many in the white-collar world of St Peter Port.

Combine that with the sobering effects of the island’s drink-drive laws and the blackening of a guilty individual’s character if they get nicked, the counter attraction of golf with the coming on line of La Grande Mare, and players have slipped away from the game.

But there have been other influences, most notably the over-complication of what was a straightforwardly lovable formula and the decline of the volunteer administrators.

Sadly, too few people are prepared to take on the workload of running a club in the modern world and, as the stalwarts stepped aside, in many cases they have not been replaced.

But, and this is surely linked with the disappearing volunteer force, the slow-burn effect of the Gary Tapp ‘my way or no way’ presidential years should not be under-estimated.

Tapp’s three-year stint from 2000 saw a dramatic change in how the sport was run in Guernsey, and while his period of overseeing the GCB saw the sport make the most of commercial opportunities and raise the bar in terms of professionalism among the elite cricketers, there was a negative that went unforeseen a decade ago.

The family of evening clubs lost heart when it was made clear that no matter what they think about how the evening game should be run, it was down to the opinion of one or two men with bright new ideas, many of them right, some of them wrong.

It could, of course, also be that evening cricket is simply in the trough of a cyclical trend, but I doubt that myself.

All the above have chipped away at what was a gloriously successful product which had, at its heart, a Division One championship that produced exciting cricket that drew a good following to the KGV.

Whether we will ever see a return to the days of cars not only filling the KGV car park but also bumper-to-bumper in the road outside, is questionable.

I fancy that the new ‘GPL’ franchised format crammed into June and featuring the odd professional, will catch on.

Properly marketed, I think it has every chance of success and, if it does work then, I hope, Division One may feel the benefits with greater public interest.

For that to happen, the top players, or the vast majority of them, need to feature, not be debarred which crazily was the case last summer.

The revival of evening cricket started on Tuesday with the consensus that it is time to return to the basics of a straight programme with teams playing each other twice with no play-offs.

The GCB should implement those changes and also allow teams the right to play as many overs as they want as opposed to imposing a fixed number dependent on which stage of the summer it is.

Make it simple, make it fun and give the clubs some rights back and then those disappointing numbers at GCB meetings may start rising again.

JUST how good is this St Martin’s football side?

Certainly too good for everyone else at this time, although the way things are picking up down at Northfield don’t rule out Ross Cameron’s side narrowing the gap at some point.

If Angus Mackay signs up at Northfield, as many tip, they will be even stronger.

Saints are a formidable unit, that’s for sure, and much stronger than on the last occasion they lifted the Priaulx Cup, seven seasons ago.

That Saints team were effective then under the combined management of Colin Renouf and Colin Fallaize, but not half as entertaining as the current one, which has no real weaknesses and has depth.

So dominant were they against Bels on Wednesday night that keeper Chris Tardif could have still been in Basingstoke and Saints done without a keeper altogether.

How many of the existing side would get in a greatest post-war Saints side? The truth is one, possibly, which in itself may tell us something about the standard of Guernsey football nearly half-a-century after Jack Loveridge’s side started that fantastic run of titles.

I have tried to fit in one though. But what do you think?

In 4-2-1-3 formation:

Gerve Brazier; Kevin Allen, Colin Renouf, Jack Martel, Alan Bannister; Kevin Le Gallez, Micky Duncan; Glyn Dyer or Laurence Graham; John Loveridge, Colin Fallaize, Wally Torode.

Chris Tardif, of course, is every bit the goalkeeper that ‘Gerve’ was, but he has played a mere two games for the club.

It is also open to debate whether Dyer is as good as the Irishman Graham was. Both left-footed but in many ways different players.

Dominic Heaume for Duncan is a another place that could be argued long and hard and, in time, Ben Coulter may turn out to be a real great of the Guernsey game.‘It could, of course, also be that evening cricket is simply in the trough of a cyclical trend, but I doubt that myself’