Forum

Muckamore Award night last Friday - what a pity that the base of the Junior 2 Trophy was missing. I'm sure somebody somewhere knows where it is and perhaps it will be available at the City Hall on 15th!! Also what a great night at Downpatrick on Saturday night - great to see another generation of the Ferguson family winning the "best junior" award.

CIYMS Cricket Club are seeking to appoint a Player/Coach for the 2012 season to assist our newly appointed Youth Development Officer - to see a description of the role and how to apply please see www.northerncricketunion.org or C.I.Y.M.S C.C Facebook Page

whats the ncu going to do about teams not playing on sundays i know from experience that getting a team on a friday can be a struggle should not be made to play on a friday why dont they play away on a sunday

At late notice two tickets have become available for Lisburn CC's 175th anniversary gala dinner which takes place tomorrow night.

Details are on the Lisburn website - the guest speaker is David Lloyd and we are delighted to welcome him to Lisburn. Bumble rarely does after dinner speaking so this is abunique chance to hear him in the flesh.

Tickets are £60 each and the first two to call me will secure. I can be reached on 07740986343

AGM Serials

Some interesting serials this year. What will the next installment in league structures? Surely the lesson to be learnt here is not to delay the introduction of a proposal for 1 year - allows it to changed before it gets implemented. I think the 8,10,10,9 is better then 8,8,8,13. We must have the only governing body who is promoting less sport!!

I see we are going to play more Sunday cricket next year as a result of Serial 3. The 4th Sunday will be the default date for all re-arrangements (I wonder how I'm going to explain that one to the wife!) I wonder how this will affect those teams who do not play on Sundays - immediate relegation using serial 13 and some embarrassment to the NCU for some clubs not fulfilling a lot of fixtures! It would be interesting to hear their comments.
Duckworth Lewis for all senior matches - there will be some head scrathing in section 2 and 3 where getting the books to add up is a success.
Serial 6 looks good - 50 over re-arrangements where possible, it will be interesting to see how many clubs take advantage, with many clubs prefering the 20 over dash.
It is hard to see how any of these proposals, along with the Junior league proposals will improve the local game.
There are still too many teams not fulfilling fixtures, and clubs struggling. It would be interesting to total the number of adults playing more than 8-10 matches per season to determine the true state of our game. The NCU should spend more time getting coaches into clubs that need help than fiddling with rules. Maybe there should be a mentoring approach where larger, well structured clubs can assist those clubs struggling to attract and develop players.

All active umpires are asked to return their nominations for the Team Fair Play Award at the AGM of NIACUS on Monday 10th October 2011. We have moved from an individual award to a team award and would encourage umpires to participate in this exercise. Forms will also be available at the AGM.

Andy, I would agree with you if more teams were going to be relegated based on the proposed 8, 10, 10, 9 structure. But as I've stated before less teams are being relegated with this proposal so unless I am missing something more clubs will stay where they are.
The other thing I would say again is that at the roadshows this was what the majority of clubs wanted.

there is something that rankles with me about the proposed league changes. in the interests of fair play this should have been decided BEFORE the season started so that everyone was starting on an even playing field and knew what they had to do. To change have way through seems to me unfair - shades of the retirement speech by Geoffrey Howe having a slap at Thatcher about "taking the field with broken bats"!

Clarence - I've had an e-mail from someone who is probably older than both of us put together (he remembers the batting glove with the "wrap around" thumb) and he was recounting playing for Cloughfern in the final of the irish Junior Cup so its a true saying "there's nothing new under the sun"!

Bruce,

Yes, I realised that mistake and reposted before your post came on, but there seems to be a delay! Sorry for the error.

Stevie Max

Donaghcloney are not relegated at the moment as we were tied sixth with Woodvale and Holywood. The final decision would come down to net run rate and I suspect ours will hold up as we did not suffer too many big defeats and had some very big wins in the second half of the season.

As usual I will have to add that the views expressed here are my own and may not reflect the view of Donaghcloney Cricket Club.

Roy,
Where in the "Dundrum Boys" posts do they actually put their view across? Jeff hinted that he 'thought the 10 team league would get voted in' but in his words he's 'not convinced its the best way forward'.
If you read my post it refers to what takes place at the AGM that I am taking issue with. Its not the league structure that we are talking about here. Eg, Bruce Topping and the boys in Donaghcloney are relegated at the moment, but after the AGM they may not be, thats the issue and obviously that's no disrepect to the 'cloney lads, who are a good bunch!
What happens next year if this 10 team section 1 goes ahead, can we decide at 2012 AGM to change it back to 8 teams, therefore relegating teams who were safe? No-one has actually answered this question yet. We have our reasons for where our vote is going at the AGM and if you PM me after the event, I'll tell you what that reason is. If 8 teams are kept, we will likely to be in the relegation dog-fight more often, so your comments don't add up really.
And for your information, we didn't win any league matches in April or May.

Roy its nothing to do with drumming up support its about opinions and like a$$eholes everyone has to have one . The reason that we were struggling late on was down to simple facts of not enought committment from the players to play 2 games a weekend and throw in the fact that we have small squad that are good enough to play section1 and work committments was the only reason that we didnt maintain our very good first half win 7 wins and a tie in ten games but think finishing fifth and winning the 20t shield and getting 3 junior teams out was a very successful year for a thriving junior club not to mention coaching in 4 primary schools so just in case your not well enough informed Dundrum will enjoy our fight to play at the highest section but will still be playing cricket even if it is at section 3 .Ill also let you no we always discuss the proposals at committee level as its very important to get your clubs views but the point is we all agred that even if we were in bottom four that we would vote for 8 team leagues . Maybe Warren Deutrom will be up and convince the same members as he undoubtably did last year as believe me he changed quite few votes that night with a very good passionate reason for 8 team leagues and long term improving the standard .PS Roy even if it is ten teams or eight ill have 50£ bet with that we dont get relegated next season ?unless they change the rules mid season .lol

Hi Andy,
In response to your question I think there was an All Ireland Junior Cup many years ago when you were still in short trousers. I don't recall it but my Mummy told me about it! Great to see you back with your 'Buckna Breezes".

Peter , i totally agree and add the most important day that should be closed is the senior cup final but it probably wont. If we go with ten team leagues in my opinion it will be backward step in improving the standard but just find it hard comprehend that the AGM is now losing out as who knows each year the rules will be changed mid season . Id really like see the VOTE on the league structures being on a PAPER BALLOT that way its crystal clear as who votes for and againest as last year it was shambles with most unsure the second time who voted for what with some clubs voting againest themselves . This way on paper no one can be in any doubt if it gets a majority or not as a show of hands when it is close is a shambolic way of counting in this day and age as last year it was rushed through when it looked as if it needed a further recount .If they were 8 teams then the ulster cup could be couple sat games as well which im sure would be more suitable .