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It has been a long time since I posted here so much has happend.
I would like to extend my condolences to those who we lost during the close season and to the victims of the current crises we are still going through. May they Rest In Peace
With no crowds allowed at the matches over the weekend something what Waringstown done was a great idea in streaming the match v Insts on Facebook and nice to see the CIYMS v CSNI live scored to on the TCS System.
Lets hope now the season sees its way now and everyone keeps safe and well during this period. We have done the hard work so keep it up.

20/20 Vision sees Cricket start in the NCU
The Northern Cricket Union has revealed a major revamp of what remains of its season with a series of competitions all played under 20 over rules.
The shortened games in the shortened season get under way on Saturday with the Union's three main sponsors coming together for a completely new look fixture list.
The eight Premier league clubs will compete for the Robinson Services Cup, playing each other once with the top four going through to the semi-finals. The eight clubs will also play a knock out competition for the Lagan Valley Steels T20 Cup with the winner lining up in the All-Ireland T20 finals.
The 10 Senior League 1 clubs will play each other once for the Robinson Services Trophy as well as a knock out competition for the Lagan Valley Steels T20 Trophy.
Senior Leagues 2 and 3 are completely reorganised with the 12 clubs divided into three groups of four to compete for the Robinson Services Bowl. The teams will play each other home and away with the group winners and the best runner-up proceeding to the semi-finals.
The three groups are:
Group A: Cooke Collegians, Laurelvale, Lurgan, Victoria
Group B: Ards, Bangor, Donaghadee, Holywood
Group C: BISC, Dundrum, Dunmurry, Drumaness Super Kings.
The will be no men's Gallagher Senior Challenge this year but the company will sponsor the women's Challenge Cup.
Saturday's opening fixtures are:
Robinson Services Cup: CIYMS v CSNI; Instonians v Waringstown (at The Lawn); Lisburn v Woodvale; North Down v Carrickfergus.
Robinson Services Trophy: Armagh v Derriaghy; Ballymena v Saintfield; Cregagh v Cliftonville Academy; Donacloney Mill v Downpatrick; Muckamore v Templepatrick.Robinson Services Bowl:
Group A: Lurgan v Laurelvale; Cooke Collegians v Victoria.
Group B: Holywood v Bangor; Donaghadee v Ards.
Group C: BISC v Drumaness Super Kings; Dundrum v Dunmurry.

I really enjoyed the article on Bill McCarroll. A truly brilliant administrator and a real gentleman.
Whilst I was Hon Secretary of the NCU I assisted Bill with some events such as the Annual Dinner. He was a pleasure to work with, but unfortunately fell sick during the summer of 2001 and I was landed with all his duties. Everything was paper based in those days and my postman was inundated with Cup results, registrations, Umpire reports and ground gradings! I was so relieved when Bill returned to his duties.
In the NCU we should be very grateful for the administrators we have had over the years who have carried out their duties so faithfully. Like Clarence, I have to mention also my good friend Bryan Milford who has served the Union so well since Bill passed. Along with other administrators in the past and at the current times we must surely be the envy of many other sports.

Was wondering how things are going with the Ireland training sessions at Stormont - or is it Comber? Hearing wee whispers again that even the CEO has been involved!!

Sir Everton Weekes
We feared the worst in the last few weeks after Sir Everton's health had deteriorated. I had the pleasure of being a friend over 25 years and enjoyed so many wonderful experiences. There were no 'airs' about Sir Everton, and he enjoyed life to the full. There were several special memories in Ireland after he had been Knighted by a small group of friends who honored him in 1995, presided by the legendary EDR Shearer. Robin and Dorothy Walsh also hosted him a few years later when he presented the prizes at the NCU Annual Dinner, and he was the special Guest at the North Down CC Dinner to celebrate the Sesquicentenary Celebration in 2007. He loved Ireland and often wanted to return, but his ailing health prevented it. I had the pleasure of introducing many Irish cricket friends to him in Barbados, and he never rejected the many demand placed on him. He loved the visits of Malcolm Brodie, Robin Walsh, Alfie Linehan, Roy Torrens, Colin Barkley and the Irish team et al. He was always in the most accommodating of a Legend, as indeed he was. His cricket records barely scratched on what he has achieved in his lifetime.
As for me, I lost a dear friend.
Rest in Peace Sir Everton
JCH

Johnnie Walsh.
I spent 8 wonderful years as an adopted son of Instonians Cricket Club and made many friends and many enduring get memories of great matches and great people who played or were involved with the club.
The Walsh family were always so welcoming and helpful.
The fact that Johnnie was a similar age to my own son really brought this sad loss home to me.
May God comfort and strengthen you all at this very sad time.
Billy Dale.

Jonathan Walsh
We are sorry to inform you of the sad passing of Jonathan Walsh yesterday after a valiant fight against motor neurons disease. Despite we feared the worst, it still came as a shock for everyone and we remained stunned that we have lost a wonderful young man at the height of his prowess. A former Captain at Instonians, he was immensely popular within the club and throughout Irish cricket. We extend our condolences to his father Brian, a doyen within NCU and Ireland Cricket, to Anne, wife Helen and son Ben, sister Julie and Stephen and their family. Our loss is one of cricket, as he was a joy to be involved prior to his illness which he bore with great courage.
Rest in Peace, Jonathan

JCH
JK

Have very rarely felt the need to make an entry on the forum however Joe Vaughan was one of the most warming and compassionate men I’ve met .Him and Pete Reith were something else.
I echo a lot of what of Paul McCrum has said .
However I was a competitor to all he held dear - Armagh Cc and Loughgall FC but his fairness always shown through.
I can remember scoring a few runs or getting a goal against his teams and he always congratulated me.

A personal response but one that highlights the quality of this man who I have very fond memories

Thanks for the article

PS - Thanks Paul and Charlie for the alleged good fielder I became after watching you both bat and bowl to each other and as the young fella I was only there to return the ball

So we are all equal but some are more equal than others - that explains the postings on the CI forum about getting cricket started in Leinster. I think this speaks volumes! £200? What is being supplied? Hazchem suits?

Hi Andy, it would appear that those in the Leinster Cricket Union have availed of the sanitisation kit free of charge (according to a recent tweet from LCU) whereas we have had to fork out just shy of £200 to purchase the same kit to enable our club to train.

A lot of information in the 2 recent postings that takes some studying! One question that arises from Elaine Nolan's posting about a "package of supports" being made available - are these "supports" going to be provided to clubs in all Unions and free of charge?

INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL
INTERIM REGULATION CHANGES APPROVED
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed interim changes to its playing regulations, which include the ban on the use of saliva to shine the ball and allowing home umpires in international series.
The ICC Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) ratified recommendations from the Anil Kumble-led Cricket Committee, aimed at mitigating the risks posed by the COVID-19 virus and protect the safety of players and match officials when cricket resumes.
COVID-19 Replacements: Teams will be allowed to replace players displaying symptoms of COVID-19 during a Test match. In line with concussion replacements, the Match Referee will approve the nearest like-for-like replacement.
However, the regulation for COVID-19 replacements will not be applicable in ODIs and T20Is.
Ban on applying saliva to the ball: Players will not be permitted to use saliva to shine the ball. If a player does apply saliva to the ball, the umpires will manage the situation with some leniency during an initial period of adjustment for the players, but subsequent instances will result in the team receiving a warning.
A team can be issued up to two warnings per innings but repeated use of saliva on the ball will result in a 5-run penalty to the batting side. Whenever saliva is applied to the ball, the umpires will be instructed to clean the ball before play recommences.
Non-neutral umpires: The requirement to appoint neutral match officials will be temporarily removed from the playing conditions for all international formats owing to the current logistical challenges with international travel. The ICC will be able to appoint locally based match officials from the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Officials and the Emirates ICC International Panel of Match Officials.
Additional DRS reviews: The CEC has also confirmed an additional unsuccessful DRS review for each team in each innings of a match, keeping in mind that there may be less experienced umpires on duty at times. This will increase the number of unsuccessful appeals per innings for each team to three for Tests and two for the white-ball formats.
The ICC Cricket Operations team will support Match Referees when processing Code of Conduct breaches, and a neutral Elite Panel match referee will conduct any hearing remotely via video link.

Elaine Nolan, Participation Director for Cricket Ireland, said:
"Today is an important one for cricket in Ireland – while we still have a while to go until competitive club cricket returns, the return to training step is a crucial one in salvaging what was once considered to be a likely lost season. It's been heartening to see so many from the cricket community pull together over recent months and help their clubs, their communities and the sport during a time of strain and uncertainty for all."
"The detailed set of protocols released today provides clubs, players, coaches, volunteers and families of cricketers guidance on how they can begin to re-engage with the sport in a safe and healthy way – minimising the risk of spread of the virus. This next stage, more than ever, will need to see us all working together for the good of the game and the health of the community."
"We felt strongly that we should give clubs the best chance to get started as quickly as possible - bearing in mind how different this season's restart would be from normal – so we have put together a package of supports for clubs to avail of that includes the provision of online education, signage and subsidised hygiene starter packs, risk assessment, cleaning checklists and booking templates, as well as advice on zoning configurations for training that complies with current Government directives on social distancing. In addition to relying on the advice of sporting and health experts, we have also adopted the recommendations of the International Cricket Council around starting with one-to-one training routines in the early stages. Measures like this are under constant review and we will be working closely with the Provincial Unions in order to increase training sizes in the coming weeks."
"We would also remind clubs that, in line with recent government announcements, electronic records of attendees at all training sessions must be maintained to support Contact Tracing work."
Clubs will to need to register through an online form for the Covid-19 Education and Awareness Training (see link).
If a club's nominated COVID-19 Safety Officer has already completed accredited COVID-19 Safety training through an alternate provider they are not required to complete the Cricket Ireland course. However, details of the alternate course completed must be lodged with their Provincial Union.
Provincial Unions have appointed COVID-19 Safety Support Officers who are assigned to clubs in their regions, and will be supporting clubs back to activity. While we have developed an approved set of protocols and provided guidelines for implementation, our strong advice to clubs prior to restarting any coordinated activity is to contact your insurer and discuss any matters regarding liability in regards to individual policies. Cricket activity should not resume until a club is set up to comply with the requirements in the return-to-train protocols.The detailed documents are now available at: www.cricketireland.ie/covid-19 and any enquiries or issues that arise should be directed to Provincial Unions via the nominated COVID-19 Safety Support Officer.

section 1 cricketer
yes there is a difference between section 1 and premier league I mean a good junior 1 side will beat most section 1 teams no disrespect intended but remember the premier league is not great pros and overseas players who now either live here or have Irish passports dominate week in week out with a few home grown players contributing the odd time not great crowds unless it's a t20 some players really do think they are better than they are. I think a 10 team premier league should be given the green light may not be the walkovers the big guns think.

NCU Update to Clubs - 24th May 2020
The NCU provides the following update to clubs:
The NCU welcome confirmation from Cricket Ireland today that a submission has been made to both Sport Ireland and Sport NI regarding a return-to-training for cricket across Ireland and Northern Ireland in Phase 2 / Step 2 of the respective government roadmaps to reopening.
We also welcomed the publication today of the Sport NI 'Getting Back to Sport - Framework' and in particular the inclusion of cricket within Step 2 of the NI Executive's Coronavirus Recovery. This provided some clarity in respect of the return to cricket in the steps ahead for sport in the NI context, which helped to finalise the Cricket Ireland submission.
As outlined by Cricket Ireland the submission has been developed in collaboration with health and sports authorities, Provincial Unions, as well as in liaison with other sports in Ireland, other cricket boards and using draft ICC guidelines.
The NCU will continue to work with Cricket Ireland, the Provincial Unions and the relevant government departments to finalise the protocols for 'Return to Cricket' and we hope to be in a position soon to announce the first step in returning to cricket training.
Cricket clubs so far have been excellent in supporting the guidelines and these high levels of compliance will aid us in our proposals to Sport NI/Sport Ireland. We would remind clubs to continue to follow the guidelines and not to operate any cricket activity or training during Step 1 of the Northern Ireland Executive's Coronavirus Recovery Plan. This directive also applies to Phase 1 of the Government of Ireland's Roadmap To Reopen SocietyWe will discuss the practicalities with clubs when the protocols are approved. Details of how we will do this will be communicated to clubs in due course.