Forum

Ulster Premier League for cricket?

Over the last few months myself, Paul Stafford, Charlie McElwee and Mary McElwee have been discussing in earnest the possibility of creating an Ulster Premier League for cricket. Whilst we recognise this is not a new concept we feel the conditions that now exist in cricket within Ireland and the recent developments in both the NW and the NCU may mean that it is a concept whose time has now arrived.

A report on the idea has been put on the front page of the site. We would appreciate anyone interested in cricket in Northern Ireland and especially the players, to give your feedback. Posting it on the forum would be great but if you could also email it to Trevor.dalzell@ntlworld.com that would be fantastic as it would make the job of collating the responses that much easier. The intention is to feed the responses back to both the NW and the NCU.

Many thanks in the meantime.

Ref: N.Hunter/Canberra Times.

Good article Neil, but can't ever realistically see 20/20 cricket becoming the main stream event, when we have One Day Internationals and Test cricket to savour and enjoy.
However I will conceed it's a good form of the game in that it attracts the average 'Joe Punter' to sit down and watch the sport, as well as opening a more accessible avenue for potential new players, getting them involved playing the game, which for those reasons it certainly has it's place.

Bye the way, while scrolling through the pages of that particular Australian newspaper, very refreshing to read that the back pages are dominated by news of cricket and cricket matches etc.

Not a mention of football or Mr Rooney & all, think I might ask the paper-boy if he could deliver that newspaper to my house, instead of the usual rubbish tabloids.

Or else I'll move to Australia !

Re Phil
Phil,to suggest that school games could surely be rescheduled for midweek is a non-starter for a number of reasons: cost of transport of different teams on different days as opposed to one bus per school on a saturday, time out of class every week with the same pupils missing the same classes coming up to exams, teachers out of class at the busiest time of the year, school cup matches which are already played midweek and no doubt other reasons. Also, there are fewer "meaningless friendlies" (try telling an under 12 player in his first game which is a friendly that it is meaningless)with the new league system. As one who has been involved in school and club cricket for many years, I sincerely hope that no changes will be made that will make it impossible for school players to play morning and afternoon cricket. My experience has been that the school players miss out on club cricket because of an early club starting time, they are very disappointed as they want to be able to play both but for many, their first choice will be the school match.

Hunting around the websites and having a look at some comments about Australian cricket and some of the problems they face, I think people should have a look at this article from the Canberra Times.

If in 20 years time as Australian Cricket comments, they expect 50% of their revenue will come from 20/20 cricket, does this mean that we should all start playing a lot more 20/20 cricket in Ireland ?

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/sport/cricket-australia-straightens-up-defence/1984225.aspx

Clarence

Queens cricket would need to start with the existing group of Queens players wanting to get together. Friends of Queens cricket could then help them.

They could be pushed a bit by enabling a queens team to enter into say the the Div One t20 cup. Players playing in this cup would then be cup tied - perhaps some dispensation could be made for a set number of students (not graduates) who would be eligible for clubs in the premier league t20 comp.

If graduates such as Tim and myself were required to help out for a season to get it up and running I am sure we could.

Must say I agree with Ivan in that there should be 11am starts all season as it serves two purposes. Firstly it means games will be finished earlier which will suit the majority of teams (especially the away team who have to travel a considerable distance).
Secondly it allows umpires more lee-way should there be bad weather!
I know it wouldnt suit younger players who have school cricket on a Sat morning but surely school games could be scheduled midweek? Personally I found meaningless friendlies on a Saturday morning frustrating as all I was interested in doing was getting the game over with to play for my club in the afternoon!

Surely 12 noon starts in July have been in operation for some time. It is impossible to cover every eventuality however the feelings at the roadshow was that that in general people want earlier finishes. I personally favour starting at 11am ALL SEASON.

Re Ivan McCombe
The problem with the motion at the agm was that there was tht much involved in the motion, straight through promotion and relegation in junior cricket, start times, limits in overs, etc etc that it was hard to vote against, that is why i abstained, I feel that the straight through promotion is a very good idea, but a mandatory noon start from the start of july I feel is wrong, as there are quite a few players and potential players that work on Saturday mornings, or like to spend a bit of saturday doing bits and pieces about the house (keeping her indoors happy).
The lowering of the amount of overs I feel has gone too far, these players are often the next generation of 1st eleven players and if they have only 30 or 35 overs to bat then especially for middle order batsmen, when do they learn how to "BUILD" an innings, as if the openers bat for 15 overs or more, then right from the start these often young players are going to have to have a go before playing themselves in.
As an aside, if a 30 over game starts at noon, then in August at least the players in our thrids will be able to get to Moanview for half time at the latest.
(oh, and how does a working man get off early enough to get to an away ground for 4.30 to start a T20 rearranged game at 5pm?)

Wayne - I presume you meant number 4? Sammy is still running! I see it was backed from 28s to 20s mind you, any of the Horwood millions on it? Unlike Sammy, the horse didnt get the finger out during the race!!

Tim and Wayne,
I think you both know my views on the demise of Queen's cricket and you may recall I wrote on the subject some time back. All your points are well presented and mostly correct, but it was impossible to protect Queen's within the ultra competitive structure of modern NCU club cricket. Unfortunately a dog eat dog culture prevails and sadly the bigger picture on many issues is not on the agenda of most clubs. That said, it is the individual players who made the decisions and that's where the real problem lay from the seventies when the 'pots of gold' were more attractive. But all is not lost and as I have advocated previously, a "Friends of Queen's Cricket" group needs to be formed to resurrect the club and provide a structure for it to develop. It won't happen overnight but I'm sure there are plenty of people who now see the vacuum left in the absence of a good university club. The Alumini of Queen's is Who's Who of local cricket and currently includes both the president of the NCU and Cricket Ireland. I'm sure many others would offer their support including yours truly. So where do we start?

Re Queen's Cricket

Just to echo Wayne's post.

I have the unwanted distinction of (presently?) being the last captain to lead a Queen's team in NCU cricket. The demise of Queen's was the saddest point of my career. I enjoyed four great years with the Club meeting some great people, having fun and playing very competitive cricket given the players and resources we had.

The biggest issue facing Queen's was the fact that other Clubs held on to their players and were self interested. It amazed me in some ways that School cricket was encouraged by the Club's but to play at university (which was surely a natural progression) was frowned upon.

During the final year of my time at Queen's we managed to secure the signing of Simon Redpath (which was great). We had hoped that this would lead to more joining but it turned out to be a one off.

With the players eligible to play Queen's would have had a competitive top division side and the players would have gone back to their Club's after a short spell (in my view) having enjoyed their time and developed.

The NCU share the blame in Queen's demise I feel. We had meetings at the highest level over my time trying to see what assistance could be given to a unviversity team in a Club environment. The help that we sought was not forthcoming. We did ask to be treated in a similar way to Trinity in Leinster (they play 1/2 a season during term time and double points - or used to?). This leaves players able to play for their Club in the second half of the season. The NCU said no to this as an option and no further support, guidance or assistance was offered.

I like Wayne's idea that the Club could be involved in one or more of the other competitions (perhaps the senior cup?) - with players eligle to play for Queen's playing for them in that compeition and being ineligible for their Club? A bit radical perhaps but radical is what has always been needed.

My late Father was of the view that Queen's should be given a permanent place in the top league and play invitational cricket against the other sides - showing that it was something different to a Club and something that needed to be supported.

It saddens me greatly to think that the old Dub is now a building site and cricket has gone.

Re: Ryan

The Director of Cricket is a new part-time post we are creating (mainly evenings and weekends during the season). The salary will be negotiable, subject to experience, but will be at a level to attract high calibre candidates.
We will continue to employ our full-time Youth Development Officer (rugby & cricket) with the support of our Youth Academy sponsors Moy Park.
We are looking to build on the great success we have had with our youth teams in recent years and this is the next piece of the jigsaw.
Anyone interested in the post can contact me on 07763 910565 (evenings)to discuss in more detail.
Closing date for applications is Friday 5th November - details on how to apply are on the home page of the CricketEurope Ireland site.

wayne god i loved playing againest queens they were class lads enjoyed the game way it used be play hard an fair an have the craic after . anyone no were dixie deans went too ?

as an aside cricket lovers should be on number 5 in the 210 at lingfield tomorrow.

cricket at queens

There is no cricket at queens now as there was so much self interest of clubs in the 90s that they did not encourage young players to go to queens and play cricket for 3 years. i played at queens for 5 years and lads from waringstown, instonians, ballymena, limavady, north etc all opted to stay with their clubs despite queens eventually finishing 4th in the now div one in 98. A league that north down, bangor and carrick, 2 of which were to go on and win in the top flight over the next number of years.

It was very sad for a lot of ex queens guys to see the demise of queens as an ncu club. This summer i suggested to phil doyle could a queens team be assembled for the t20 comp perhaps?

Cricket is more than just playing as any committee member or captain will know. when at queens you were in charge of running teams, sorting grounds, umpires, tours, varsities etc. Yes it was a bit of a session at times, teas were a bit of a disaster but team spirit was built and an early education was gained into being organised and running a club.

It is a shame clubs did not support a great tradition in ulster cricket.