In 1999 the Danish Championship was decided with a calculator between Svanholm CC from Copenhagen and Herning CC from Jutland. This situation was never expected as Svanholm had won the previous ten championships.

Svanholm won the 1999 Championship and at the following AGM it was decided in future that two clubs ending equal at the top of the Premier League would have to have a play-off. No one envisaged at that time that this rule would come into play the very next season, but it did.

The Premier League in 2000 turned out to be a very open affair in contrary to previous years. Three clubs fought it out with Svanholm, Herning and the dark horse Skanderborg. Skanderborg lacked the experience and depth to turn the important matches so they were quite pleased to end up with the bronze medals. Herning and Svanholm fought it out yet again with both clubs losing matches. In the end they ended up level and the play-off match came into action.

In bright sunshine in the small town at Kerteminde, which lies on the middle island of Fyn, Herning and Svanholm met to fight it out for the Championship.

Kerteminde has a large well-kept ground well suitable for suc an occasion, but neither side knew how the pitch would play. The disadvantage of a matting wicket is the fact on is unable to assess the surface underneath. Herning won the toss and thought the conditions were ideal for batting even though the grass was damp and heavy.

Herning did not know that the wicket was helping the bowlers in the morning, especially at one end and this was exploited by Svanholms S.Vestergaard who moved the bowl in the air as well as getting the ball to lift. The best of Herning’s batsmen could not cope with this and suddenly Herning were in desperate trouble. The expectations of a equally fought match were lost as Herning managed only to score 90 runs in 46 overs, mainly thanks to a stand between Lejf Slebsager (27) and Jacob Larsen. S.Vestergaard (ex-Warwickshire) bowled 10 overs for 15 runs taking 3 wickets helped by Thomas Hansen (ex-Hampshire) with 2 for 16 and Glen Larsen 2 for 17.

Former Danish Captain Søren Henriksen (ex-Lancashire) was playing his last match for the side but he was bowled for 1 off Morten Hedegaard’s first ball. A glimmer of hope for Herning, but not for long. Jan Overgaard (44) and Atif Butt (25no) made sure of an easy Svanholm victory by eight wickets.

Svanholm won the Championship for the twelfth year running. Herning became runners-up, but they had won 'The Cup' knockout championship earlier in the season.

While Herning and Svanholm were battling it out in Kerteminde KB from Copenhagen one of the oldest clubs in Denmark were fighting for survival in the Premier League in a play-off against the Pakistani based club of Ishøj from the suburbs of Copenhagen.

KB batted first and amassed 193 for 4 in their 50 overs. With six overs remaining KB looked the winner, as Ishøj were still 45 runs short and losing wickets. With one over to Ishøj needed 11 runs to win with two wickets in hand. The first ball of the final over was hit for six. The next ball was caught and the last man came in. With the final ball Ishøj still needed 1 to win and they succeeded and Ishøj won promotion to the Premier League while KB went down.

Ålborg Chang had only one season in the top league but a final fling at the end meant that they were only 11 runs short of getting KB’s chance of a play off. The north German side of Husum, which comprises of players who have attended the Danish school, won the First division outright and take over Ålborg Changs place.

From 2001 the First division has the same size as the Premier League. To obtain this up to 4 teams could be relegated from the First division. In the end Ringsted and Kerteminde dropped out to the Second division while Århus and Køge had play-offs with the winners of the two Second divisions Glostrup II and Kolding. Århus won their match over Kolding to remain in the division while Køge slipped up and lost to Glostrup, who organized some good older players for the occasion. The two Second divisions have also been reduced to 8 teams for the coming season and this meant that 8 sides were relegated to the Third division, which is divided up into regions.

While Herning’s men failed to gain gold it was left to Herning’s women to take the Championship after defeating former champions Glostrup in the final. The future for women’s cricket in Denmark is not very bright at the moment as several clubs are unable anymore to field a team.

The problem lies in the simple fact that there is a large gap between the girls who play in the small boys league up to the women. The numbers are insufficient and as cricket is not to be seen in the Danish media and not available on any satellite channel on TV young players don’t join on their own but have to be coaxed in to the clubs.

Svanholm won the Youths Championship beating Herning in the final. KB won the Boys championship beating Herning in the final, while Herning won the Small Boys final over Glostrup. The Midgets played an unofficial Championship final where Svanholm took the honours in front of Husum and Glostrup.

The coming season of 2001 looks towards the ICC tournament in Canada. Denmark have to rebuild after a good old drubbing in Scotland and several players have withdrawn their services. This gives a chance for the younger generation, but there is not enough talent to go around and Denmark are now concetratiing on trying to get more children to play cricket.

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