About 'the follow on'
by Alan Rowley, 24th December 2003

'the follow on' is an independent Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire cricket website published by Alan Rowley, aided by contributions from players, officials and supporters of the sport in the East Midlands and beyond. The site aims to cater for all grades of cricket in the area, from junior level right up to the county sides.

The Beginning - UK Local Cricket Forum

The origins of 'the follow on' can be traced back to 1998 when Alan Rowley started a message board called "UK Local Cricket Forum". The forum, which was part of a website called "Into The Breach" was described as "a message board for all followers of local, non-county level cricket in the United Kingdom" and was discontinued in 2000 when Rivals came along.

Rivals - By The Fans, For The Fans

The Rivals Sports Network invited Rowley to join the network and publish a Derbyshire County Cricket Club fan site - Sting In The Tail was born. The slogan "the independent voice of Derbyshire cricket" was chosen and the purpose of the site was to provide a forum for followers of Derbyshire cricket to air their views.

Work on the site started in March 2000 and the site was officially launched in August 2000. The site became one of the more popular cricket sites on the Rivals network, mainly due to Rowley's decision to include local league cricket. The site soon became almost a household name at clubs and grounds around the county.

In November 2001, in an attempt to make the Rivals cricket sites more saleable, NotOut.net was formed. A thorough re-design followed and Sting In The Tail soon became the most popular site on NotOut. All the old features were retained, whereas most of the other county sites resorted to being little more than just message boards.

At the beginning of 2002, Rivals merged with sport365.com and the new company promptly dropped all the cricket sites due to their lack of popularity. Cricket had become a minority sport!

SportNetwork - Real Clubs, Real Fans, Real Sport

At the end of February 2002, a new network called SportNetwork.net was formed by former Rivals football publisher John Wards and Sting In The Tail was invited to join. To promote the site, the domain name www.derbyshirecricket.info was acquired.

In June 2002, Outlawed, also run by Rowley, was added to the SportNetwork empire. The new Nottinghamshire site, formed to fill a gap in the network, gradually grew and by late summer 2003, Sting In The Tail and Outlawed were attracting a total of over 250,000 page views per month from a user base of well over 3,000.

By the end of 2003, the template based design of SportNetwork was becoming too restrictive for the sites, so 'the follow on' was formed. Hosted by Nottingham based Webfusion, the move was meant to increase the flexibility of the sites, improve the design and attract sponsorship. We hope you enjoy the experience.

Where To Now?

If this is your first experience of the site, you may want to pay a visit to the forum first. This is the heart of the site and is always full of lively debate. For other parts of the site, simply use the navigational system at the top of each page.

Enjoy your visit to 'the follow on', and don't forget, we are always looking for sponsors. If you think you can help, please contact the site publisher at alan@thefollowon.com.