Please click here to leave a message.
The Ulster Cricketer reserves the right not to publish submissions written under pseudonyms or which make gratuitous personal attacks.
another Raymond Moreland vignette - last Sunday a select group of the North Down regulars were enjoying a 2nd XI game at The Green with a degree of decorum. Then the good gentleman appeared and mayhem ensued with discussion centred on his trenchant views! Even carrying the walking stick hasn't made any difference! But good to see him looking so well.
Good luck Muckamore!
Let's see another cup at Moylena.
Bumped into Don Shields today and we chuckled about an infamous run out when we both met in the middle of the wicket and passed pleasantries- 'Yes, wait no!' and I was out. As I arrived back to the pavilion I was greeted by Raymond Moreland who declared,'In the name of God Bumper there must be 100 years cricketing experience between you two and you are run out like an eleven year old!' lol
Also learned that my old new ball partner Billy Adams broke his arm playing last week.
Hope the golden arm is on the mend Bing!!
All got a request from the skipper of bisc who I work with. They are struggling for a ground this sat as the ground they play at has been taken up for footie. If anybody can help then please could you give Mohamed Ismail at phone on 07799583556. They need to fulfill the fixture so if any club can help it would be greatly appreciated.
With the BKIC final on this weekend if anyone's travelling down, I wouldn't go leaving the wife or girlfriend (or both if that's your fancy) alone at home for yet another Saturday ! Here's why,
Sissy & Ida bumped into each other the other day and I over heard the conversation :
Sissy How have you been keeping ?
Ida Very well I got married you know !
S- That's good !
I- Well it's not good, he's very old !
S- Oh, that's bad !
I- Well its not bad, he's very rich!
S- Oh, that's good !
I- Well its not good,he's very mean!
S- Oh, That's bad !
I-Its not bad,he loves to watch cricket!
S-Well that's good,(very good)
I-Its not good,he never invites me along
S-That's bad (very bad)
I-Well its not bad,he lives in a mansion
S-That's good
I-Well its not good,it burned down today
S-Oh dear, that's bad !
I- Well its not so bad, he was in it !
(Don't say I didn't warn you)
Andrew...money can help!An ICC cash injection should go on buying every primary school child in the land a plastic bat and ball!!LOL
In all seriousness grassroots cricket remains under-developed and until we get this right the top of the pyramid will remain thin.
RE: Clarence and Caleb
You are right in terms of worldwide attendances, but in those countries the importance of test matches seems to have diminished. You aren't going to go and watch your team when the best players are in India playing T20.
I understand the reasoning behind needing it to get the ICC funding, but I don't see a cash injection massively progressing cricket over here.
As it stands, in a second tier test league we would be competing against Sri Lanka, West Indies, NZ and Bangladesh. In all of those countries the sport is either the most, or second most popular. In this country we just have too many more commonly played sports to allow cricket to get to the required level, which is first class status. Is a cash windfall really going to combat the lack of interest in cricket in Ireland? And would the likes of Boyd, Eoin, Paul etc come back to play in an Irish first class league competition?
Personally I would love Ireland to be a test playing nation, but I can't see how it is possible, or how it would benefit those outside the top leagues.
The crowds would come out all right, maybe not right away, but you can't expect full houses right from the off!
Like everything else it would take a little time and the dam sun to shine, but that's maybe hoping for too much in our 'wee' country !
And many of the test matches too Andrew.Earlier this year at the Kensington Oval Test Day 1 there were less than 200 spectators in the ground at the start. Other islands were just as bad. Outside the big 3-4 cricket nations the crowds aren't there. However, you have to appreciate that to get the big ICC annual payouts you need to have test status. Playing wise we are miles away from the top test sides but if there was a 2nd division of test teams we could get into it and onto the second rung on the international ladder. More funding will get us better facilities and players.
Re: C.Boomer
One difference between Ireland and Sri Lanka may be that the population of this island is just over a quarter of theirs!
Maybe I am wrong, but I would also have thought that cricket is probably their national sport, rather than the fourth or fifth most popular, as it is here.
Test status is a nice idea, but the quality is not there outside the top 5 or 6 teams in each union's premier league. As Jonny said, these teams are streaking ahead from the rest.
Regardless of all that, would anyone actually go and watch test matches for five days? The attendances for the Intercontinental League games are awful.
If we had any sort of a decent cricket friendly climate, we'd not only already be a Test playing country but I'd wager a fairly handy one at that !
But don't take my word for it, I'm now looking at a world geography map on the wall above and I see Sri Lanka's land mass looks to be even smaller than our own and are you telling me they're not a fairly decent Test playing nation ?
Do they just produce better players cause they eat more currys than we do ?
No ofcourse not, they get dryer, warmer weather to play and practise the game, simple as that ! (And I don't think they're too fussed on football either)
Still, in saying all that, the sooner we get in there and competing with other test playing nations the better!
Naturally there'll be a few 'tankings' on the way, but that's no reason to shirk away from all the 'big-boys', it's time to move with the rest or we'll never get our foot off the bottom rung of the ladder !
Cause when you start off at the bottom, there's only one direction you can travel !!
Clarence my point with regards the Under 19s is the fact that we have listened to Cricket Ireland talking about being part of the big table but how can we if our Under 19s fail to impress and if our 20/20 performances are poor? Time to put test cricket to bed and concentrate on limited overs. It is how our boys are brought up and we have shown that we can spring surprises but to do this on a consistent basis would be preferable to going out against a side like South Africa and being wiped out. We also face the prospect of losing our homegrown players to England and this is a worrying concept but sport is all about results and money and if you are dazzled by the headlines and talk from the ECB you will consider putting career ahead of country.
A lot of interesting points Jonathan and a plenty to think about for promoted clubs.
I was interested in your comment about the Ireland Under 19 performance as the players, management and selectors have been lambasted on the other channel. Where did the high expectations come from given Ireland's pre-tournament rating because they did slightly better than expected albeit they struggled against the big guns many of whom are professionals. And the Scotland result should not be the benchmark as Scotland have also beaten the full Ireland team in recent times. I'm sure the same critics expect us to win the Twenty20 World Cup or was the criticism more to do with their "wee Jimmy" not getting picked?
I recall the day at Down High School - v- Downpatrick 3s (I think it was) when a certain Michael Kennedy miscounted and ended up on 98 n.o. at the end of the 50th over! When Jonny & he were wee lads I rashly promised that they would get a £100.00 note for their 1st century. Had evetually to pay up some years later!
Re: Neil Hunter
Sorry about that mate. I was the fielder who was at long on and I didn't think for a minute I would get anywhere near it. It seem to hold up in the wind and I took it about head height one handed. Suffice to say, I have never taken a catch like it before or since.
I thought it was a league game, we were struggling at the bottom of the league and you were unbeaten and winning the league at a canter. It was a baking hot day and our skipper who will remain nameless thought it would be a good idea to put you in but told everyone he lost the toss. He wasn't too popular when we found out at tea. Think we lost by about 200 runs in the end!
