While it is too early to suggest that St Albans would draw stumps and move from Hagley Oval, where it has been based since 1905, to Burnside Park, such a union would provide the Canterbury Cricket Association with its desired eight-team competition and reduction in the number of Hagley-based clubs.

The amalgamation between Lancaster Park and Woolston Working Men's Club, earlier this year, reduced the number of first-grade clubs to nine, creating an unsatisfactory bye.

While it has more than 500 youngsters enthusiastically dashing around the playing fields of north-west Christchurch on Saturday mornings, Burnside-West has suffered from a shortage of adult players.

That has been emphasised by a series of defaults in second grade, leading to its team being withdrawn from the competition last weekend.

``We have had more than the usual number of university students in the team and they have disappeared now that their exams are over,'' said club president Ray Burgess. Burnside-West has been left with only five teams in the CCA grades, down from 11 or 12 a few years ago.

The club has become accustomed to losing a large proportion of its juniors as they reach secondary school age, he said.

It would be far from unusual for Burnside-West to be involved in an amalgamation.

Its full title, Burnside-West Christchurch-University, testifies to previous mergers. The old West Christchurch-University club was actually a neighbour of St Albans at Hagley Oval.