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have just re Steve Crothers' outrageous posting. If we follow his logic then the Challenge Cup should be simply played between the top 4 sides in the Premier League and the rest can go and hang. Is he suggesting that entry to the cup be restricted to those sides that won't get hammered? But then I note that he gives his location as Shaw's Bridge so 'nuff said!

re Stephen Crothers, John Stevenson

Your response absolutely gob smacked me. Taken to its logical conclusion we should just have the Emergency Committee decide upon the two finalists (and do away with all those earlier rounds) because it would be "THE GAME". Typical Master Race, presumably from your location, arrogance.

Rules are rules Mr Stevenson and if Andy's research is correct then those in most cricketting circles would like to see them applied correctly. The game will be won or lost on the pitch and the fact that the Master Race side is weakened is just the luck of the draw. So if a Club had three members injured or three members on holiday should they not be afforded the same ruling? (Hopefully not because we'd never get the season finished but from a logical viewpoint, why not?) Quite a lot play rugby, hockey, football.... at the beginning and end of the season so why shouldn't we make an allowance?

Staggering arrogance from the Master Race. Do Ireland get to postpone their games because County's won't let more than three of their players go? If we need a "GOOD GAME" then let's forget about competition and play carefully matched exhibition teams.

As I pointed out in my initial posting there is no basis in any rule to support the arbitary decision taken bby the Emergency Committee but this has created a "precedent" that will no doubt be quoted in future "requests" and will therefore replicate the situation that the dropping of the original rule was meant to avoid. So the Emergency Committee has acted against the wishes of the clubs, as passed at AGMs, and I think that the time has come for the members of said Committee to resign.

Surely it is only fair that to have a proper debate on the semi final fixture that a fully fledged member of the afore mentioned master race has an input.
Unfortunately as I have now simply become one of those players who gets informed on a wed night who we are playing at the weekend and on which day and am not involved in all the politics that seem to engulf the game I cannot really comment in an informed manner on the matter.
I can see both sides. The rules are the rules and therefore why are we not playing? But at the same token, as I am sure waringstown will agree, the senior cup, where possible, should be won on the pitch with both teams able to field their strongest teams. In reality to avoid the issue we have encountered senior cup fixtures should be played on dates where international call ups will not impact, I am sure there are plenty of these.

I have heard a nasty rumour that my wife was on the emergency sub committee so I had no chance of missing my daughters 4th birthday!!

I have been out & about in cricket circles over the past couple of days and I am "amazed" by the reaction of many people who have told of their view that the the decision of the Emergency Committee is a nonsense - revisionism still alive & well in NCU circles. What really is the point of having an AGM?

IACUS have requested the details of scorers from all NCU clubs and as Secretary of NIACUS I am asking clubs to forward the following details to me.
Name of Scorer
Address
Telephone Numbers/email address
Level of qualification if any
Scorers or anyone wishing to score should note that NIACUS intends to organise a scoring seminar in early 2013 and that it would be beneficial for all scorers to attend. Further details will be made available by NIACUS.

There are previous precedence's for postponing the Muckamore v Instonians semi final to another date. I did a trawl back through my emails from the last number of years and found references to the following:

In 2004 the NCU received requests from clubs with players in the Ireland squad to postpone their Challenge Cup fixtures. Bearing in mind its desire to support the Ireland team and also not wishing to disadvantage clubs in our own leading cup competition the decision was taken then to allow clubs to postpone Challenge Cup fixtures if they wished. This dispensation was not granted for league fixtures.

In 2008 Waringstown were all allowed to postpone a Challenge Cup second round match because they had three players in the Ireland squad and Instonians were allowed to postpone their Challenge Cup second round match because Andrew White was with the Ireland squad.

Also in 2008 the continuation of a Challenge Cup quarter final involving North Down and Instonians, which was due to resume on a Monday night, was put back to the following Thursday as Ryan Haire had been called up to the Ireland squad to play New Zealand and Scotland.

Now I wasn’t involved in the current decision made by the NCU but surely ANY club who have three players missing on Ireland duty would ask for a Challenge Cup match to be postponed?
Take the best three players from your club’s First XI and tell me that you would be happy to play the match.

Gents, surely Muckamore would prefer to prove themselves against a full strength Inst XI?
Hopefully you will now have the opportunity to do so on the 15th July. No point playing in a final if you haven't beaten some of the top sides to get there and if you have no realisic chance of winning? Your single 50 overs victory was against an average Cliftonville side who are bottom of Section 1. You would probably chase 350+ against North Down on their home track, which wouldn't be much fun.With Waringstown out, Inst vs North Down is THE GAME.

Trying to follow the posts below? Is this in ref to the other Senior Cup semi? Was the 3 player rule not scrapped? Also have played four club games in four days on numerous occasions whats the issue?

I have been informed that neither the chairman nor vice-chairman were at this meeting as both had declared an interest. So I retract my earlier comments.

Games being called off due to international call-ups. In principle, I agree that a team should be able to postpone a league or cup game if they have players away on international duty, but where do we draw the line is it one, two or three players. However as it is not in the competition rules, I find it hard to see how it can be enforced. Only a few weeks ago we had the farce of the quarterfinal bowl outs, which the NCU stated the blame lay with the clubs as they had voted for bowl outs. Move on a couple of weeks and a game that has always had a reserve date of the 8th of July is postponed until the 15th July despite there being no rule to back up this decision, indeed I am led to believe that this rule was in fact removed at the request of the clubs some years ago. As I am getting towards the end of my playing career I want to play as much cricket as possible, however I would just like some consistency from the NCU as it appears from the outside that the powers that be are making the rules up as they go along.

I would have imagined that those members of the Emergency Committee whose clubs were involved would have declared an interest and abstained. But then again I had direct experience of a past Emergency Committee and a dispute between the now defunct Collegians & Ballymena. No prizes for guessing the way the ball bounced on that one.

I understand why a club wants to put out its best players and morally it is the right thing if both teams are at full strength. But if the clubs have struck out the old 3 player rule from the ncu rule book after due process at an ncu agm then how can that very rule be resurrected by an "emergency" committee especially one with potential conflicts of interest among members (both parties)?
Now an ncu corporate governance issue.

Frank
The chairman and vice chairman surely couldn't have sat in on this one and as two of the directors would have a vested interest does that mean it was a two man committee.
I am sure the new p.r. Man will issue a statement to clarify this.

Re Challenge cup debacle.

Let's say this wrongful decision is upheld and just by chance it happens to rain on the 15th. Will this Emergency Committee as they are referred to make up another rule to suit the blazers and TELL Muckamore they MUST go to Shaws bridge for a game instead of a bowl out. Ps. Do emergency committees not function in case of an emergency after all these dates were set at the start of the season or am I missing something.