...and as always it's a time to reflect and catch breath after another frenetic season.
Sadly, once again the local season is coming to a close with most of the talk centring on off-the-field events, although there’s been no serious scandal as yet. That said, the NCU will need more than a new Development Plan to convince everyone they are up with the pace of the modern game given the stick they’ve been given for some amazing errors of judgement. The criticism also involves an out-of-touch rulebook which seems to be more of the problem that the solution these days!
Is there a modern Willie and James Andrews around to re-write the rulebook? That said, even Einstein would be challenged to accommodate everybody and everything in local cricket.
In one of the worst summers weather-wise for many years, numerous postponements and archaic rules have prevented common-sense rearrangements and left many local cricketers disillusioned about the way forward.
Across the Glenshane Pass things may have run a little more smoothly, but at what cost to the long term development of the game if 20-over thrashes become the norm? Yes, it’s always better to play than not to play, but bowl-outs, shoot-outs and playing in the rain are not healthy long-term options.
On the field of play there won’t be much debate that the top sides have walked away with the major silverware in 2007.
In the North-West, Brigade proved themselves the top side when winning the Henderson Property Developments Senior 1 League, despite being pushed all the way by Donemana. Mark Simpson’s side lost only two league games all year and won the crucial tie between the two rivals late in the season, striking the telling blow and leaving the Co Tyrone side with no time to come back.
As usual Bready flattered to deceive while new-boys Killymallaght were the surprise package, based largely on the form of their West Indian pro Danza Hyatt.
Limavady had a disappointing league campaign but they’ll be happy with their Northern Bank Senior Cup success, after beating Glendermott. The rest of the league season was a bit of a non-event due to there being no relegation.
Ardmore will be the tenth team in the top league next year after they saw of the challenge of Sion Mills and St Johnston, losing only two games in the process.
North Down, in their 150th year, scooped the two big prizes in the NCU when they did the ‘double’ for the eleventh time in their illustrious history. They defeated fierce rivals Waringstown in the TCH Down Democrat Senior Cup Final at Downpatrick, although it was a nail-biting finish, with only two balls to spare. They also came from off the pace to pass the Villagers in the home straight to collect the Ulster Bank Premier League title when Peter Shields’ side won the all-important clash between the two teams at Comber in early September. Waringstown’s subsequent slip-up against Downpatrick left the door open for the Comber club and there are many who will see the circumstances as poetic justice given the bizarre way they ‘lost’ the title in the committee room last year.
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Or maybe there’s more to come as the NCU officials didn’t even bother to turn up at Downpatrck last Saturday to present the trophy!
Waringstown won the Twenty20 Cup, while Instonians picked up the last trophy of the season when they defeated North Down in the Ulster Cup final at Bangor. The Old Boys started the season with a bang but not for the first time, seemed to wilt under the mid-season pressure in the big competitions.
For two of the NCU’s other big name clubs it was a season to forget. Lurgan and Downpatrick were both relegated from the top flight for the first time in their histories and there will be a lot of soul-searching to be done at Pollock Park and the Meadow during the winter months.
The rest of the NCU Premier League clubs were never in the hunt for silverware. Perhaps one of the most worrying aspects of the Premier League is the poor quality of the pitches that were prepared during 2007. Weather aside, covering capabilities and the machinery used must surely be updated, perhaps in preference to the use of ‘hired guns’ or at the very least, in conjunction with.
Progressive CIYMS will be playing Premier League cricket in 2008, and will be a force to be reckoned with if their reputed ‘chequebook policy’ is implemented over the winter. Cliftonville will join them if they have a ground to play on; their Greenisland base has been under threat from their multi-sports club partners in the last few months.
Instonians’ success in the Ulster Cup also highlighted a possible gap opening up between the NCU clubs and their North-West neighbours, as for the first time in the history of the competition, there were no North-West teams in the semi-final line-up. The rumours are rife of many retirements that could include the great McBrine twins and the inimitable Decker Curry, so what next for the beleaguered North-Westers?
One thing the two unions share is there abysmal recent record in the Irish Senior Cup, a competition that is now dominated by clubs with our best international cricketers and Irish-qualified southern hemisphere imports.
We may be masters in our own house, but buying next door seems light years away!
Perhaps it’s time for change, a lot of change?
