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Brilliant Ivan and good luck for Saturday (hope it stays dry!!)

TAYTO , yes apart from small wet patch which we have spiked an hope heavy rain forecast stays away, sunday looks washout .

ivan, great forward thinking by yourself and muckamore, i hope you get a huge crowd in.

Jeff, all set for the big game tommorow? full squad out? the ground dry enough is it? Lots of questions there.

we have a surprise recall in the ranks.....

should be a good game

Ryan

This was really inspired by seeing so many strange faces at Stormont for the ODI's. I started thinking that for too long we had been targeting the same faces and thought we needed to reach out to other cricket followers. Also I realised that a lot of people in Antrim didn't even know where Muckamore Cricket Club was. Next season I think we want to make every home game an event.As you know from Comber many friendships develop from being on the boundary. We have got to sell the idea that spending a day at the cricket can be a great pastime. I would love to get to the stage where we were taking a supporters coach to every away game and other clubs were bringing a supporters coach to Moylena. The Muckamore v Waringstown game should be the start of things to come up and down the country. With free admission cricket has to be great value. Lets get with the pyjama cricket and have fans kitted out in club colours and make it a real spectacle. BBqs, facepainting for the kids and nail stations for the ladies are just a couple of great ideas Davy Scott of Woodvale shared with me this week. I am at Old Trafford on Friday evening for the Roses T20 game and will be looking out for ideas. For the match on 19th we want to make cricket the number one focus. Kyle may have played in front of some big crowds around the world but it will be nothing like having hundreds and maybe a thousand Muckamore supporters urging Gilly and Craig Drummond to knock him over.

Great idea Ivan! I hope your hard work is rewarded with numbers through the gate on the day! Why did you not choose the N Down fixture though lol?

Ivan, I was just wondering why you chose the Muckamore v Waringstown game, rather than the Muckamore III v Victoria II game last week?

Yes well done Ivan and Muckamore and good luck if we wernt playn id go and let her spend her own£ in junction1 , just back from primary schools finals at stormont and i have to say the future is bright for ncu club cricket as the talent that i witnessed shocked me bigtime with over 150 juniors and they were superb in all aspects of the game with Strandtown the best of the 4 teams i witnessed an a young lad Humpries from Waringstown looked very good . Just like pass on big thank you to Ryan Eagleson who had everything running like clockwork ( im sure it was quite a headache and he will sleep well 2night) and all his helpers and as usual Stormont was in superb condition and exceptional array of food from the sponsors ASDA for everyone. Was gtreat experiance for adults an juniors so take a bow to all involved.

Excellent work Ivan and everyone at Muckamore. I watched a league match there five weeks ago and the atmosphere was terrific with many old stalwarts around. Moylena is a beautiful cricket theatre and I hope the weather is kind and everyone has an enjoyable day. One tip I would offer in your marketing plans is to involve the opposition. Waringstown travel with staunch supporters so let them know that you are rolling out the "red carpet" and they can support your promotion on their website etc. Both teams will appreciate the atmosphere created with more spectators in the ground. Good luck on and off the field!

Awesome Ivan & Muckamore CC and to be greatly applauded - trusting the sunshine and spectators make it a wonderful summer's cricketing day to remember.............visionary!

Here, here Ivan.

Great idea, and a great amount of thought and effort is obviously going into the promotion of this.

I drive past Moylena on the way to Portrush every Sunday, so I might just take a long stop on the way on Sunday 19th!

Marketing club cricket.
Muckamore play Waringstown on Sunday 19th June at Moylena and we are embarking on a major marketing campaign to create a record crowd of 600 at this game. This includes a major Facebook presence, 5,000 door to door leaflets in Antrim town, posters in shop windows and workplace canteens plus press coverage. This experiment is driven by the number of faces I noticed at Stormont ( and I don't mean the Pakistan fans ) who I had never seen at a club match. It started me thinking that maybe locally there are hundreds of people in our towns and villages who would love to spend a few hours watching cricket if only they knew it was on. Maybe we have been guilty for too long of "preaching to the converted ". For this game we are hoping to get many diehard cricket fans along but equally we are appealling for new faces to come along for the first time. We know from some research that there are a vast majority of people in Antrim don't know where the cricket club is, when we play etc. This despite us having pages of reports and photographs in our local paper every week. Newspaper sales and readership is droppping and among the under 30's is practically non existent.
So pass the word to your non cricket watching friends about this game and our attempts to get a bigger crowd than most Irish League football games. Let's all make an effort to market our sport locally. It need not be expensive but it needs to be done consistently. A website is a must as is a heavy Facebook presence but old fashioned posters and leaflets, banners etc still create interest. We will have the bar open all day and the bbq's lit on Sunday 19th. Why not come along and add to the atmosphere. Maybe even turn up in the fancy dress gear and enter into the spirit. If your partner doesn't fancy the cricket then Junction One Shopping Centre is two miles away and for an after match meal we can recommend Moes Grill or Redz at Junction One. So go on make it a proper family day out. Match starts at 1pm and admission is FREE .
Which match in the next six weeks is your club going to promote hard ? More people at games will mean more people playing the game, will mean more interest from sponsors and a healthier game all round. It's our sport and our clubs let's start marketing it. If I can help in anyway or if you have any great ideas get in touch.

Thanks Andy.
I haven't seen Alan for many years but I'm glad to hear he's still taking the pills! Great guy.

tatyo. its getttin there we got daisys sprayed so lets hope for bit good weather but big derby or not the covers will be of for THE BIG GAME DUNDRUM V NORTH DOWN under 15 fri night not that has me excited!!!!!!!!! PS ill double or quits on the 40 £ yu owe an if we win ill give the money too CHARITY ?

well said jeff, you looking forward to the big derby?? hopefully the forecast is wrong, hows your place taking the rain these days??

just been informed that NCU have meeting with Dunmurry tonight so fair play the NCU care an are on the ball and lets hope they get the help they deserve.