Carrick were certainly the weakest link and deserved to go down, but overall their performances were better than their results and they can bounce back a stronger team in 2013. Winning, like losing, can become a habit.
It was the first season of the eight-team league, but ironically Carrick’s failure to win a match until late in the season meant it was a seven-team league and inadvertently we’ll have to wait another season to see the full benefit of the best playing the best as billed. There wasn’t a lot between the seven top clubs especially when the rain played havoc with the fixture list, but there was enough to separate the winners and there should be no complaints about CI’s merit in landing their first major Senior League title. However, in the fickle and hypocritical world of local cricket they will have plenty of sceptics only to eager to lambast their hired-gun strategy and their deeper pockets. Perhaps more a case of professional jealousy rather than anything sinister, but hardly surprising given the clear intent expressed the season before with the less productive signing of Kiwi Craig McMillan.
CI broke no rules and they were the most consistent team this season albeit Instonians were never too far off the pace. Neither were North Down and Waringstown, but CI’s weekend double over the “Big Two” at the start of September showed which direction each of the clubs was going. Supporters at The Green and The Lawn will be disappointed at no silverware, but they are seasoned partisans who know their cricket and what it takes to win trophies, and in 2012 they will concede neither of their teams had the credentials to thwart either CI or Instonians. The Shaw’s Bridge team has plenty of talent and it also showed in a comprehensive win over North Down in they Senior Cup Final, but I doubt if there were many neutrals rooting for them in the final stages when the it became a two-horse race.
Winners are not popular outside their own kingdoms in NCU cricket!
One wonders why.
Ballymena, Lisburn and Civil Service North have different strategies with more structured medium and long-term objectives based on a wider club perspective. On their day all three teams can top their high-spending peers, but there weren’t enough big days to challenge for the major trophies. The added “bonus” was Carrick struggling as there was always a relegation safety net. That said, this was not the predicted two leagues within a league culture of previous years and most matches had significance right to the end of the season.
Well done CI and Instonians, but it remains to be seen if their peers will take up the gauntlet going forward or work within their current means and ride their form and good fortune in the future. Economic upturn still looks a long way off and in the absence of the Ulster Tiger commercial sponsorship is going to be even harder to secure. This will inevitably put more pressure on the business side of club affairs and limit the funds available to pay players. Some big decisions will be made during the winter on the best way forward at each club, as everyone will have their own priorities. However, few clubs have the luxury of a fat wallet so will player spending power assert an imperious guise over the Premier Division in the foreseeable future?
Clarence Hiles
Editor
