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A few utterly decimated clubs this weekend, should make for a few interesting results...

Would the last cricketer to leave the country for Dublin Saturday morning, please turn the light off...!

Ivan

Good luck with the umpiring.......just remember this weekend to bring your hat, coat, gloves, scarf and wooley hat with you as its more like the middle of winter than the start of summer!!!

I volunteered to umpire this Saturday as we have no game and weather permitting will be standing in the Donaghadee v Dunmurry game. I must admit I am nervous but looking forward to it all the same. Are any other players helping out this week ? and have you gained any tips. Last Saturday I was being quizzed by John McCormick on the Laws of the Game which at least proved he must listen to Paddy O'Hara some of the time.

yes clarence the blatant cheating going on and the way some players act about umpires giving them out accept it get on with it also when there is no umpires the bat second frame of mind comes into play a couple of years ago an umpire watching my match offered to stand after over hearing the oppositions captain telling his players give nothing if caught hang about bowled call a no ball nice sportsmanship there

Good point Matthew and if that's one of the problems then I'm sure there are ways of working around it. Nobody wants to embarrass or be embarrassed but we all want umpires. In fact the game is nothing without them. Are there any other obstacles out there?

maybe people want to do the umpires course but their are people who know the game rules laws etc but are not very good at exams you dont need exams to be a good umpire look at dickie bird never sat an exam rest is history

Matthew - see my posting from sunny Buckna on 12th April and the response from a guy called Stuart!!

Not sure "name and shame" works Matthew because the problem is much deeper and won't be solved by the threat of no nominations then no umpires. It sounds logical and fair but it won't work for lots of reasons. We need to get to the root of the problem and that means some research and fact-finding to find out why we have fewer umpires and fewer coming through the ranks. There must be reasons and once we know the problems then we can set about solving them. This is a matter for the NIACUS or the NCU Cricket Committee. Either way, it is as important as any issue on the table today or in the past few years. Also a good subject for a thesis or a schools project on behavioural patterns.

andy why dont we name the clubs who have not put forward anybody to become an umpire yes you cant force anybody to do it but surley someone at any of the clubs could stand at square leg for a match and help out as we do have a serious shortage of umpires

the point of my earlier posting was to highlight what I see - from a personal viewpoint - as a the possible crisis. It was not my intention to "point the finger" but with retirements from the "active" panel & few recruits coming forward then the day is fast approaching when there will not be enough umpires to cover 1st Division matches.

1 North Down
2 Muckamore
3 Academy
4 Cregagh

best ground in section one Strangford road by a MILE PS tayto i d have BET with you as your a Banker that never even paid your debt to Sir Ian Bothams charity ill stick to trying get my bets on with honest bookie

my predictions:

PL- North Down
Section 1- Lurgan
Section 2- Saintfield
Section 3- Cregagh

Played on some class grounds last year favourite ground and wicket to play on would be saintfield, love playing at our ground the setting is 1st class worst ground has to be the cloney …….. only joking bruce always enjoy playing at donacloney as well there isn’t too many grounds I don’t like playing at

Hard to beat the Meadow Downpatrick for a great setting and excellent pitches! Also good to see so many of the section 1 grounds being improved though. We are lucky to have so many pleasant grounds to play on. Bring on the new season.

my predictions:

PL- North Down
Section 1- Downpatrick (have to be confident)
Section 2- Saintfield
Section 3- Ards

Rodney- we all know there is only one 'Meadow' and that is on the Strangford Road (getting the derby banter going already). Personally i find the dundrum ground one of the worst i play on each year. Just my personal opinion... i bet that stirs the pot a bit lol

Regarding Umpires

Having played a long time, you have to take the rough with the smooth as umpires do make mistakes. They are human like the rest of us.

Having seen 5 or 6 bowl outs in various cup games during my career, all I can say is that you have to wonder how many LBW'S are given when most of the bowlers I watched could not hit the stumps when there was no one standing in front of them.

Also if players walked when they edged the ball instead of standing and cheating, there would be a lot less animosity between both sets of players and this in turn would make an Umpires life much easier