Yarra Valley Cricket Association grand finalists Seville and Mount Evelyn are on their way to the Ringwood and District Cricket Association

Last season’s grand finalists Seville and Mount Evelyn will do battle again this summer, but they won’t be in the Yarra Valley Cricket Association.

Mount Evelyn and Seville do battle in last season’s grand final. Picture: Stuart Milligan

The local cricketing landscape is in for a shake-up with last season’s grand finalists in the Yarra Valley Cricket Association’s top flight set to pad up in the Ringwood and District Cricket Association this summer.

Mount Evelyn and Seville did battle in the Strachan Shield decider last summer but, 12 months down the track, the pair will line-up in the third tier of the Ringwood competition, the Stuart Newey Plate.

With more than 130 years of history behind it, the last 70-odd in the YVCA, Seville president Daniel Gale said his club’s decision to move was not taken lightly.

“At the start of the year at the AGM we had a five-year plan looking to our future,” he said. “We had to make a decision about the future of our club and the move to the RDCA was the right place to go.”

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Mount Evelyn’s Kane Jones goes on the attack against Seville. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Chief among the reasons was the greater of depth of competition in the RDCA, which it is hoped will enable the club to hold onto and better develop its junior players.

“Hopefully we can become a bit of a cricket hub for young players in the Yarra Valley,” Gale said.

Making the decision even easier was the level of support it had received throughout the club.

“It (the decision) wasn’t made overnight and it wasn’t 50-50 either,” Gale said. “There was support from the life members who’ve been at the club for 50 years.”

Mount Evelyn secretary and premiership veteran Christopher Anderson said the move hadn’t been as dramatic for his club.

“Seville is probably the bigger of the two,” he said. “Ours is a shorter stint in the YVCA, were in the RDCA until the early 90s, so technically we’re going back.”

Mount Evelyn’s Daniel Fraser stretches for safety as Seville keeper Angus Smith jumps off the ground. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Like Seville, Anderson said the Mount Evelyn decision had not been taken lightly.

Anderson, himself, has been a longtime servant of the association as results secretary and media scribe.

“It’s been brewing in the background for a while, it’s not like we got to the end of the season and said ‘we’re out’,” he said. “We had to do what was in the best interest of the club.

“It’s huge, it’s bittersweet. We’ve been 20 years in the Valley and I’ve made a lot of friends.

“But you have to put your Mount Evelyn hat on.”