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congrats to north down they have 3 league champions 1sts 2nds 4ths winning their respective leagues and the 3rds finished 2nd great effort by them just shows the reward for hard work by the captains and players what can be done

Thanks Paul. It is nice to hear from you and your comments are much appreciated. In addition I'd like to thank Peter who runs the engine room and our correspondents-the good, the bad and the ugly! They all contribute!
Best wishes and we hope you are still involved in cricket.

Jonah - who are you?
your team looks about right, good batting all the way down, 5 spinners and 1 opening bowler. similar to zimbabwe and bangladesh. good work. prob do well on our pitches as well no doubt!

Simon B-
seems as if your well versed in the rules, maybe you should become a league secretary?

Clarence - a small note to say a big "thank you" for The Ulster Cricketer site and all therein - it is a wonderful part of home and truly appreciated by one of Ulster/Ireland's very own - your work & dedication is much appreciated! Hoping all in The Emerald Isle cherish, protect & grow the rich Cricketing culture, folklore, clubs, grounds & characters they share.........

RE Ryan at the Mall

In response to your comment about teaching youngsters the game.There are a few clubs(Ballymena/Holywood/Lurgan would be the prime examples) in our section (Jnr 7)that appear to be trying their best to teach the youngsters not only how to play the game but also how to play within the spirit of the game.The three clubs listed above all have experienced players who have played the game at a higher level and set standards not only in playing ability but also in how young players should conduct themselves on the pitch - play hard, play aggressively, but play fairly !!This is something which unfortunately does not happen throughout our league or junior leagues in general !
I would have to agree with both Neil Hunter and Simon - gone are the days when you could safely play cricket until the end of September without encroaching on the winter sports.When I first started playing cricket I could quite easily play both cricket and rugby and barely miss a league match of either - in the modern era that cannot happen!It is nigh on impossible (as you will have seen from the number of matches forfeited)for teams below senior league level to get eleven players out mid/late September.

Ryan -:
Surely you cannot blame the other teams. The rule book states very clearly – Rule H7 says the home team should organise a date with 14 days of postponement. If you don’t have a date with the other team after 14 days you should have forced the section secretary to set a date – as per rule H8.
With the new match 2 rule and H6 saying any match must be arranged within 29 days after postponement – surely there is no need to be attempting to play 3 games on the last weekend in September?

I can only assume you are referring to Armagh 3rds as they had outstanding fixtures. However, the latest scheduled game was August 28th Vs Carrick and this should have been arranged on or before Sept 25th. The Lurgan game from August 13th should have been organised on or before Sept 11th. Finally the other Carrick match original date was June 12th, lets say this was off due to cup, I don’t know. The longest it should have waited for was August 7th. Why was it not played before then?

I suggest this is the reason why you have tried to squeeze 3 games in at the end of the season – you had a sniff of sharing the league title. And before that you didn’t think you had a chance and didn’t bother trying to arrange dates. If you had followed the rules and asked your section secretary to set a date if you had been unable to agree as clubs had “packed up” then you wouldn’t have been chasing clubs at the end of the season.
Really, you only have yourselves to blame at Armagh for blowing the chance for your youngsters to have a share of that league.

Neil,

Internationally we are doing very well at cricket,rugby & hockey, but as for the football thing goes, we are getting even 'worser'!

So with that in mind, maybe the younger folk (and the not so young as in many cases), who head off to play/watch football come the second or third week of August, would be better encouraged to stay on and fulfill the cricket fixtures right up until the end of the alloted time.....weather permitting ofcourse !!

i agree if you need to use the saturdays and sundays in september whats the problem get the games in sound like poeple who dont play anymore disagree the same people who are going to ruin cricket in the junior leagues with 8 team leagues

"Simon" I think its obvious from my location I play for Armagh yes... why would we not try and play right up to the allotted time to fulfill fixtures? the silence was deafening from other clubs unfortunately.
We have played right up to the end of September regularly, last year on the last sunday of the month v North Down IV- no clash with school sport there.

Re - Neil Hunter

Completely agree mate

And Ryan - are you speaking on behalf of Armagh who I heard tried to arrange three matches on the last three consecutive days of the season, for "whatever" reason
You really should think before your mouth opens...!

Just a quick note about Section 1 . If nothing changes at AGM and 4 teams are to drop out of section 1 . Holywood , Woodvale and Donaghcloney have all finished on 7 wins meaning that only one of these teams will remain in section 1 next year . Is this decided by run rate ? And if so has this been calculated already?

Ryan

Re September

All the youngsters you refer to are playing football, rugby for their school or hockey in September.

In fact from mid August the football season starts and the first/second week in September is generally when rugby and hockey start at schools

As I previously said, cricket is a minority sport and we need to cut our cloth to suit i.e finish the season in the first or at the latest the second week in September and at least this may keep kids interested.

Tell them they are playing on the last Saturday in September and I dont think you will get a team of youngsters out.

R.E- Cricket in September

Unfortunately it seems a lot of clubs opt to "pack up" at the end of August with no intention of fulfilling their fixtures. This denies teams the opportunity of challenging for honours and more importantly less games for youngsters learning the game.

All these foreign imports and "directors of cricket" are all well and good but its the grassroots which really matter if our game is to thrive, which no matter what way you dress it up at club level it is not.

Simon :

We can't "aford" anyone mate!!