The two results effectively brought the curtain down on the NCU senior season and while there are still a few matches to mop up here and there, it has been a good season for the administrators. The rules allow for cricket up to the end of September, but the modern trend has been to wrap everything up long before the deadline.
The weekend results confirmed the superiority of the top two teams in NCU cricket, although Instonians did well to reach three finals and are worthy contenders for inclusion in a “Top Three”.
Waringstown were deprived of the full glory of chasing down their target by the weather, although they were well positioned for a convincing win. What a pity Duckworth Lewis was needed as Simon Harrison looked set for a big score. Happily he was later awarded the Man of the Match by National Coach Phil Simmons. The Villagers just missed out on the treble this season, but after their Senior Cup success in July they came very close. The league title was decided at Comber the previous weekend in their head-to-head with North Down. The Comber team completed the formality of a final win at Belmont thanks to the combined efforts of Neil Russell and Ryan Haire, two players who have been in prolific form in recent weeks.
The success of the two clubs will inevitably beg the question as to who is the team of the season, as North Down also won the Twenty20 Cup and were beaten finalists in the ClubTurf Ulster Cup, ironically losing to Instonians. But the Irish Senior Cup is the top trophy on offer for all Irish clubs and the Villagers have done the NCU proud in bringing it back after an absence of 16 years. They also did it without their South African professional Obus Pienaar for the second half of the season, and they resisted the temptation to replace him, opting for young talent from within their ranks. It didn’t win the league, but it won the two top cup competitions and that was a terrific performance.
The bad news for rival clubs is that both Waringstown and North Down have seamlessly integrated some exceptional young players into their teams and they look destined to continue their success in the years to come. The two clubs are also strong down the teams and at youth level, with solid administrators controlling their future.
Instonians look the best-placed club to challenge, but special mention should be made of Ballymena who did extremely well this season despite the restrictions of not playing on Sunday. The ‘Braid men made excellent use of Fridays and inadvertently gave us a few cricket long weekends!
Bangor have it all to do to get back into the top flight, while Muckamore were very unlucky and many people around NCU cricket would have loved to see them avoid relegation. Hopefully both will bounce back.
Down the leagues well done to Lurgan and Donaghadee for bringing back some glory to their long-suffering supporters, and to Academy, Laurelvale and Templepatrick who finished top of Section Three.
Cricketers will have some weeks to reflect on the past season, both good and not so good, before the Gala Dinner that marks the 125th Anniversary of the Northern Cricket Union. It will also give the players and club officials plenty of time to consider the proposed changes that have come out of the Road Shows organized by the NCU Working Group. Hopefully we won’t have delegates getting up at the AGM and saying they were not given enough notice of proposed changes as happened last year, because they have been well documented on the NCU website and they have a significant impact on NCU senior cricket going forward. Andy Clement and his committee has done well to get to this stage, but the decision-makers are the clubs so let’s have a big turn out and take the union into the next 125 years with strength and unity.
And, thanks to Waringstown, we do that as Irish Senior Cup holders once again.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
