Two-sport players have been left to choose between playing cricket or football for their clubs this weekend when there is a full slate of Twenty20 cricket and league football matches.

The sports will overlap this weekend and next as the cricket season ends with the Lindo’s T20, forcing cricketers — particularly those whose teams are in contention for semi-final places — to choose whether to continue with cricket or to start playing football. Fans, too, are left with tricky decisions.

Neil Speight, the Bermuda Cricket Board chief executive, admitted that a scheduling conflict is inevitable as one sport’s season ends and another’s begins.

“Football is popular and we like to see that flourish, and we do work with the Bermuda Football Association to make sure the schedules don’t clash to any major extent, but sometimes some of it is unavoidable,” Speight told The Royal Gazette recently.

Southampton Rangers have a few players who play cricket and football, but coach Ricky Brangman was confident that key men such as Dion Stovell, Janeiro Tucker and Derrick Brangman would see the cricket season through. Stovell recently transferred from Southampton to Somerset Trojans in football, while Brangman moved from Wolves to Devonshire Cougars.

Southampton will be in action tomorrow at Somerset Cricket Club, where they take on Western Stars in a group match that was rescheduled from Thursday night. The opening was made possible PHC’s withdrawal.

The Warwick club, who have played short in two previous group matches, were due to meet Willow Cuts in the second game of a double-header, but Cuts have been awarded the points and will top the group should they beat Tuff Dogs in the first game.

“Our players just want to finish the season,” Ricky Brangman said. “Janeiro is playing in the Commercial [Masters] League this year and Stovell is going to rest up his knee after the season, so he’s not playing right away.”

Derrick Brangman, the son of the coach, has vowed to put cricket first, even though he was in the Cougars squad for last night’s match against Flanagan’s Onions. “He did say when it comes to cricket, he will finish that first and then concentrate on football,” Brangman Sr said.

“We were very disappointed we didn’t win the league, so we’re going to try for the T20. I was very disappointed with the postponement because I wanted to get the game over with and to get into the semi-finals next weekend.”

Rangers’ football team will not be affected by the scheduling clash tomorrow because their match with PHC has been called off by the BFA owing to the funeral of teenager Shijuan Mungal, a PHC youth-team player. That match will now take place on Monday night.

St George’s could be hard hit either way because they have players involved with both the cricket and football teams, including their first-choice goalkeeper Charles Marshall III and Macai Simmons. The St George’s football team, in their return to the top flight, will play league champions Dandy Town, while the cricket team will play a T20 double-header at Sea Breeze Oval. North Village versus Hamilton Parish is the other Premier Division match tomorrow and there is a full slate of First Division matches.

Tomorrow, Cleveland will play St George’s in the first T20 match at Sea Breeze Oval before St George’s then take on Bailey’s Bay to determine who will advance to next weekend’s semi-finals at St David’s as the group winner.

Other cricket games are also scheduled for St David’s and Somerset CC tomorrow, while Premier Division football games will be held at Wellington Oval and Bernard Park.

There are also First Division matches scheduled, with Boulevard playing St David’s at Police Field, X-Roads taking on Devonshire Colts at Garrison Field, Young Men’s Social Club meeting Paget at Bernard Park and Ireland Island Rangers hosting Somerset Eagles and Malabar Field.