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I attended my first NCU Annual Dinner for a few years on Saturday. The best part of the evening was the announcement of Newsletter Team of the Year as very few knew in advance who would be selected. This is a good innovation and it would be a good idea in future years to also do this for Sections 1, 2 & 3. Hopefully this would enhance the event and lead to a bigger attendance from clubs in these sections.

great to see the progress at Victoria - Brownlow House is a helluva club house! Just to advise Vic that Flossie has just about recovered from the "strictly come dancing" with the "senior pro"! I was also delighted to meet Harold McCrory again - one of the real gentlemen of the game. A really enjoyable evening!

Thanks Andy, I kinda forgot about that!

Anyway, looks like I've no takers for a spot of poetry as it happens, but hopefully if we can build on this season's success at our club, then maybe next year I'll get to the N.C.U. dinner as of right, because one of our teams has either gained promotion, or won a cup competition.

You never know !

seems good Vic but is there not a bit of double booking clash with your own dinner? Remember one we attended in the Thruppenny Bit at the King's Hall - yes its that long ago! - and the speaker was so memorable that Dessie Kane started reading the Ireland Saturday Night! Ah the good old days!!

vic, don't you offer yourself up for any speeches.

Dundrum Cricket Club Dinner saturday evening - Maghera Inn. If there are any other club members in the area, you will be made very welcome to the after dinner entertainment. We need someone who can wrestle the microphone of Ronnie McAlpine! Hope you can't sing Vic.....

Wylie,
If the N.C.U. are stuck for a speaker or two for their after-dinner ceremony entertainment, I don't mind reciting some verses of poetry and I'm sure I could persuade Gerald to accompany me and tell a wee story or two, maybe sing an odd song as well.

He was telling me the other day about the conversation he overheard in Cafollas cafe, two ladies bumped into eachother after years of being apart from their childhood days, the conversation went thus:

Lady 1."Its lovely to meet you again after all this time, how's life been?

Lady 2. "Oh not bad, I got married you know".

Lady 1."Oh that's good"
Lady 2."Oh it's not so good, he's very old"!
Lady 1."Oh dear,thats bad".
Lady 2.Well it's not so bad, he's very rich" !
Lady 1."Oh, that's good"!
Lady 2."Well it's not so good, he's very mean"!
Lady 1."Oh dear,that's bad"!
Lady 2."Well it's not so bad, we live in a huge mansion"!
Lady 1."Oh well, that's good"!
Lady 2."Well it's not so good, it burned down to the ground, yesterday"!
Lady 1."Oh dear, that's bad"!
Lady 2."Well it's not so bad.....

.....He was in it"!!!

(Ps. No payment necessary !)

on the question of speakers and the NCU dinner - this is an "awards night" and the event will always be well supported by the winning clubs in a particular year and as such is completely different from club dinners. I don't honestly believe that the speaker adds too many more to the attendance. As the Ed. writes in the "feature", dinners are more about the socialising, etc. with a tasty dinner, a few drinks & an entertaining speaker. I can only quote the Muckamore experience where we have had good speakers over the past few years, Jim McDowell, Ken Reid, Carl Monteith and this year Philip Gregg - much more entertaining than hearing some guy going on about "when I played with so and so" - becomes a bit like listening to Mike Summerbee, Rodney Marsh, etc. telling the same old stories about George Best - gets a bit repetitive.

NCU Dinner
I have read with interest the comments on here about the NCU Dinner and would love the NCU to be able to bring over a "big name" guest to speak at it as in my time attending we have had some fantastic speakers attending. However Peter Wood hits the nail on the head when he says that to get a “big name” speaker is very costly these days, especially for a Saturday evening. I note that the cost of a ticket for the Lurgan dinner is £40 compared to the NCU dinner at £25 and I am pretty sure the cost of preparing a meal in Lurgan is not more expensive than a Belfast Hotel. So I assume the mark up on the price of a Lurgan ticket is to cover the costs associated with the guest.

If the NCU raised the price of a ticket to £40 that would easily cover the cost of bringing over a major cricket celebrity but would it put some people off because of the price or would the fact that a well known cricketer was going to attend attract more people to the dinner despite the £40 cost?
The numbers attending the dinner were in decline even when someone like this was in attendance at the NCU Dinner.

I for one would like to hear if people have alternative ideas.
I note that James from Belfast suggests the need for change without actually offering any ideas himself!

Division 1 Averages
Is Interested Spectator enquiring about all Division 1 sections or only the Premier League?
The Premier League averages have been published in the NCU’s annual report and appear on the CricketIreland web site. No averages are usually published for Sections 1, 2 and 3 as this is not something that the League Secretaries for those sections are requested to prepare. I think in the past Ryan McMaster did ask for clubs to send him their averages for Section 2 and he was going to compile these together but he received a very poor response from the clubs.

Any idea when the Division 1 NCU averages will be published?

Peter,
Sorry a slip on my part naming him Sir, but maybe I wasn't wrong. He did deserve a Knighthood!

Guys
The NCU dinner has died a death from what it used to be.
But to me that means trying to come up with something new rather than just a bad (being kind) version of what has gone before.
Innovative ideas, the format, guests, the whole thing could, and I would go so far as to say should, be re-vamped!
Ideas please forumites...

I remember several speeches from the late Fred Trueman. He was an excellent speaker when he kept the speech clean! Ask any of the more senior members Lisburn club about this!
Sadly, however, he never received a knighthood.
Thanks to Graham for the info re the Lurgan speakers, hope it goes well for you.

Peter, the guys that have come to the Lurgan dinner have all given speeches. However, I'm sure they would have done Q&A if we had requested this.
We have a great contact with Alec Stewart and he has sourced all the speakers for us.
This year we have Angus Fraser coming over on 29th October.
If anyone is interested in attending, please contact me on 07763 910565.
Players and members from other clubs are very welcome to attend - Ticket Price £40.

lol jeff, i think it was you who said i should do that to sir ian, i dont remember agreeing but then again there was plenty of free drink on board at that stage. If i paid up the forum would be too quiet

I remember an NCU Dinner in the 90's and the after dinner speaker was no other that the great Sir Fred Truman. I must say that if all after dinner speakers were like Sir Fred then 'bring them on'.
His speech was centered around the chraracters in cricket and he also explained to us what the 'Training Appeal' was. Brilliant story!! Does anyone else remember his speech?