Herts to launch official U18 "B" squad

A major change to the organistion of Hertfordshire's county squads was agreed yesterday evening. Instead of a single U17 squad of 25 (and a semi-official turn-up-and-play Barbarian team) two U18 squads of 20 ("A" and "B") will be selected. Both squads will train on the same days using same facilities, and there will be opportunities to move between the squads in response to injury, variations in form, etc.

It had been proposed to have one squad of 40 (as in Worcestershire) and run two teams from that squad, but the existing coaches argued against that as they instead wanted to be able to concentrate on the leading players.

The "B" squad will, however, have a much higher status than the former Barbarian team and will have its own kit and as full a fixture list as the "A" team.