Forum

Just to acho the praise for Brett Lee. I thought his first over was one of the best I have seen. The first ball cut back throught Porterfield's gate. The secone was swing in to Ed who missed it. The third appeared identical, but cut away and hit his off stump. If anyone wanted a classic example of a thinking bowler, that was it.

Re - Stormont

I too would like to echo Michael Shannon's remarks regarding Philip McCormick...

You would assume Cricket Ireland know all to well how lucky they are to have someone with his work ethic and expertise.

The whole thing is beginning to develop shades of an " Elephant in the Corner" scenario...

I know both the pressure he puts himself under - and is put under when these matches come round.

To echo CCC - I'm sure cricket Ireland will do the right thing

I have to say I really enjoyed playing against North Down against a lot of old mates. It was nice to challenge ourselves against the best.

I think there will be a lot of people in the NCU supporting North Down in the semi final after yesterdays happenings. Even a few from Waringstown will be behind the boys from the Green.

Have to echo the comments regarding the work of Phil McCormick and the Stormont ground team. Of course everyone was disappointed that there was only 10 overs of play but I think anyone who seen the BBC Newsline coverage on Firday night and the amount of water that was on the outfield will acknowledge the efforts of getting any play at all. I was fully expecting the game to be postponed after the early morning pitch inspection. £4 per over might seem expensive, but I guess Brett Lee's opening over was worth the admission fee alone.

Cricket Ireland have to be commended on their initiative to let ticket holders attend the Afghan and Bangladesh games as an alternative and hopefully that will see these fixtures being well supported.

Would like to echo M Shannon's comments re Philip McCormick & his ground staff. But for this hardy bunch we wouldn't have seen any play at all. Well done all involved. Im sure Cricket Ireland will do the right thing !!!

Shameful stuff by Lisburn CC yesterday,

Pitch wetter than the outfield, no effort to improve the playing conditions and worst of all, a blatant refusal to switch the game to a perfectly fit ground (15 mins away)

Tells you much about the mentality of club when they set their stall out for a bowl out rather than playing a game of cricket,

Shame on you

Ireland v Austalia

Most local cricket supporters will have been disappointed to have seen only 10.4 overs in to-days match but I'm sure Cricket Ireland will have been delighted to have seen the mandatory 10 overs behold to ensure they did not lose a small fortune on the day !!

Huge credit to Phil McCormick and his team for even getting the game started - a huge huge effort no doubt !!! I sincerely hope his efforts do not go unrewarded by Cricket Ireland and hope he is well looked after in his next pay packet !! Well done Fluter and co.

On a different theme, I would like to congratulate all involved in todays ODI at Stormont.
Two sides that wanted to play cricket, two umpires (or is that three) that gave it every chance, a team working on the ground that excelled in the most extreme of conditions to allow even the limited play we had.
The entrances to the ground worked well, there were duckboards to keep people out of the gutters almost all the way round the ground, toilets, beer and food points close to all the seating areas (though a bit dear for my liking), and a PA system that from where i was seated wasnt overly loud.
Sadly we cannot control the weather, but that certainly wont stop me attending again.
Though one small thing to consider, the front rows of block F were a long way back from the advertising hoardings, the camber of the ground is such that this would mean that if the ground was full and your ticket was on row A, you would be unable to view any shot on the ground towards the pavilion.
As I say, a very minor gripe on an otherwise superbly organised day (apart from the weather), & something hopefully that can be rectified (if possible) before the next big ODI in Belfast.

Clarence,
"Well spoken on the Senior Cup! But don't blame the NCU blame the clubs that voted for it at the AGM and if you feel strongly let's start a campaign now. It may not save anyone this year but there should be no place for Bowl Outs in our premier cup competition. From what I see over the past few years there are more and more reasons to play less cricket infiltrating the game. Neil's comments also support that view."
While i agree that the Senior Challenge Cup and the Junior cup should be the most prestigious games in the local calender,the problem is that more competitions are appearing meaning that more demands are on players (certainly in sides doing well in all competitions) than any time that I recall (about 35+ years playing or watching my father or accompanying my grandfather to games).
Do we want to return to the days where the final of the senior cup is won one week after the game starts? or sides have to travel every evening in the hope of playing some cricket?
I know that when we had Monday night run-ons, on at least one occasion I was phoned about 3pm on the Monday afternoon by the home skipper to say that they had declared their innings and we did not need to travel.
T20 and the Club Turf have been very enjoyable to watch, but is it to the detriment of the more established competitions?

Well spoken on the Senior Cup! But don't blame the NCU blame the clubs that voted for it at the AGM and if you feel strongly let's start a campaign now. It may not save anyone this year but there should be no place for Bowl Outs in our premier cup competition. From what I see over the past few years there are more and more reasons to play less cricket infiltrating the game. Neil's comments also support that view.

Seen today on the Cricket Ireland site that Irish rail have a special offer for those from Dublin heading to Belfast to watch the rain fall tomorrow, and was wondering could Cricket ireland and Translink join together to offer a special deal for the England game at Malahide next year, £60 from Ballymena Bangor, Larne or Carrick, £55 from Belfast or £50 from portadown for train and match ticket, would ease the traffic congestion and parking round the ground and could encourage more to attend in the new 11,000 stadia

Have to toatlly agree with Bumper.

The 2 biggest cup competitions the Challenge Cup and the Junior Cup in the NCU are slowly have their reputations deminished by being reduced from 2 innings to 1, 60 overs to 50 overs in the case of the Challenge Cup and now this ludicrous Bowl-Out scenario for this weekends Quarter-Finals.

Come on how can the NCU possibly hope to secure sponsorship for a competition that could be potentially won by a team winning every round by bowl-outs??

On another matter if cricket is going down the bowl-out route to decide fixtures why not do away with "No Results" in leagur games by having a bowl-out if the final rearrangement is a wash-out????

bumper... I couldnt agree more. When i was growing up the challenge cup was the pinnacle in NCU cricket and for me it still is. I suppose there are a couple of ways of looking at it.. the rules were agreed at the agm so why did we not vote against bowl outs then, but surely in a situation like this where the weather is going to wipe out all 4 quarter finals the NCU can step in and make a common sense decision? I would assume all 8 teams want to play cricket

The Challenge Cup should be the premier competition within the NCU.
It has been reduced from 60 to 50 overs.
The final is now a one innings affair.
Now we have the prospect of all 4 games being resolved by a bowl out!
What made this competition unique and special is being erased and no-one seems to care!

Best of luck to Ireland at home to Australia for this Saturday, ( I'll not mention the weather forecast after today)!