WORCESTERSHIRE'S newest cricket league kicks off its fifth season of operation on Sunday.

The Worcestershire Sunday Club League has been a big success since it started in 2000.

And the new season will kick-off with 16 teams, representing 19 different clubs, in both the first and second team competitions.

Thirteen clubs (Astwood Bank, Barnards Green, Barnt Green, Bewdley, Bromsgrove, Droitwich Spa, Evesham, Feckenham, Kidderminster Victoria, Redditch, Stourbridge, Swindon and Worcester) have entered teams in both competitions, with Bewdley joining the league for the first time this year.

Three clubs (Chaddesley Corbett, Pershore and Old Elizabethans) have teams in the first team competition only and three others (Bretforton, Halesowen and Ombersley) are represented only in the second team section.

Each team plays 15 matches during the season, which ends on September 8, and first team champions Evesham and second team winners Halesowen will be determined to hang on to their respective titles.

Set up to provide competitive cricket on Sundays on a far more local basis, the league has certainly fulfilled that aim, as well as introducing many young players to the demands of adult league cricket -- matches are 45 overs per side with bowlers restricted to nine overs each.

John Hansell, who has handed over his chairman's duties to fellow Bromsgrove CC member Nick Taylor this year after being the main driving force behind the league's formation, said in the new handbook: "I admit to a great deal of personal pleasure that the league has established itself so well within the county.

"Before the league's formation Sunday cricket in Worcestershire was dwindling into oblivion.

"Now we have a structure that provides competitive cricket for first teams with much reduced travelling, a second XI competition which enables young cricketers to make the step from 20-over to 45-over cricket and the opportunity for Worcestershire clubs which play in different competitions, or different divisions of the same competition, on Saturdays to continue to play each other and maintain long-standing friendships.

"We operate the league on a minimum of regulation, preferring clubs to conduct their relationships in the spirit of the game.

"We have the occasional spat to deal with but generally the matches are conducted in a manner which does credit both to the clubs and the league."