Forum

re Gareth Evans - I posted on this subject a couple of years ago and others recalled the number of Council pitches that existed in and around Belfast in the 70s & 80s e.g Cherryvale & Inverary Avenue to mention two. I was attending a dinner in the Ballygomartin area when the subject was raised with a local councillor and his comment at the time was that there was not the demand for cricket pitches vis-a-vis other sports.

With the recent comments about Mallusk, I would like to know what BCC are doing about increasing the number of Council pitches in the Belfast/Greater Belfast area. BCC are supposed to be laying an artificial wicket at the Grove playing fields but there is still no sign of it.BCC pitches are the lifeblood of club 3rd and 4th XIs and we need more of them pronto!

Re Jay

I would like to back Neil Hunter is respect of the ground / cricket square at Mallusk. BCC have been investing in its maintenance and there maybe further investment shortly! I have seen some shocking council grounds yet this is not one.

It would be good if we could get details of pre-season matches arranged for this weekend, I'll start...

Sat North Down v Bready
Sun North Down v Brigade

Re Jay's comments on Mallusk

Jay,

I chair the NCU's grounds committee. Unless you can substantiate your claims regarding Mallusk dont put them in print.

I have all the umpires reports last year on Mallusk and I can assure you that the ground and the work that Belfast Council and Cliftonville have done on it has brought the standard of this ground to a high level.

I was actually on the ground yesterday with Tom Flintoff, who is an ex county groundsman of Durham and who the NCU bring over to inspect grounds.

He was pleased with what he saw at Mallusk, especailly as it is a council ground.

So please dont print utter rubbish about what I can only assume is something you have no knowledge about.

after reading a comment the other day i would like to post an opinion on section 1 league this year

1)Bangor came down will be hard to beat

2)Muckamore will go up but could be hindered by playing first few games away from home.

3)Woodvale may just mis out due to muckamore signing players

4)Derriaghy could push but will probably miss out could be higher depending on how good pro is.

5)Saintfield lovely ground good youth as stated before should be mid table

6)Cliftonville definately will stay up getting pro and new facilities should nto go down

7)Holywood will not be relegated far from it but dont see them challenging for league

8-9)Armagh i think will have enough batting in their line up not to sure if their bowling is up to much. Dundrum missing players at start of season will be difficult season may prove a few wrong

10) Laurelvale after losing wayne pearson to psni and bruce topping to lisburn who i believe quote if wrong scored majority of runs last year batting will be a hard battle all year bowling fine but on a batting track at the vale any team with a batting professional should enjoy a gr8 batting track.

only my opinion no offence. any1 else have predictions

Re Mallusk

I was at Mallusk a few times last year and was very impressed with the ground and pitches as a whole apart from 1 occasion which was more to do with the bad weather than lack of preparation. Cliftonville should be given some credit regarding all the work they've done to the ground, it can't be easy for them after what they've went through the last couple of years

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Come on Jay.
Where is Mullusk?
You are starting to write like these North West people.
Mallusk may not be Lords but from my days in that area it has served cricket well. Good luck to Cliftonville as they haven't had much of it down the years.

RE: Jay ???

Apart from one game last year at mallusk the scorecards and umpires reports would suggest otherwise regarding the standard of the ground.

As for playing at greenisland your view would most likely be echoed by quite a few at the ville. It was a great place to play cricket on a warm and sunny day over looking the lough. However the guys at Mallusk have looked after us superbly well and we as a club can't thank them enough.We are delighted to have Mallusk as the new home of the in crisis Cliftonville Cricket Club.

Thank you for your opinion Jay but I will Look forward to proving you wrong.

On the 25th April(yes the first weekend of the cricket season) I will be running my first ever London Marathon in aid of Epilepsy Action,the charity Epilepsy Action aims to improve the quality of life and and promote the interests of people living with Epilepsy.
Read my story at justgiving.com/john-torrans were we are trying to raise as much money as we can for a worthy cause.

John Torrans

Well spoken Ivan. I have to be careful here as some people might think I'm your pimp and have set up the story for such an informative and comprehensive reply. You guys are getting your act together which is great, but a shared league title in 1970 and a cup final appearance in 1972 is a light return in the last 40 years so I hope your remuneration hasn't been performance related? Just joking of course, as Moylena is a beautiful place to play cricket and it's great to see all those guys supporting the club as everything is driven by good leadership. Good luck going forward.

i do believe cliftonville are in crisis due to near relegation last year lost theyre ground and now playing at a ground not fit for section 2
court setlement id much rather to play at green island than mullusk

"setlement from the Court case"? c'mon Davy - tell us more!

Clarence your latest article as usual is well written and while I can't speak for Birgade or CI I can tell you that no one is under any illusions that what we have set out to do at Muckamore will be easy this year or easy to sustain in the years ahead.
I think we respect the structures in place at North Down and Waringstown and hope that real cricket men at Muckamore like John McCormick, Benny Craig, Billy Boyd and Harry McFadden can help harness the enthusiasm and drive of the next generation of Andy Clement, Fred Ashton and myself. I hope we have looked past success on the field in 2010 and are aiming to put a business plan in place that sees us supported by the wider business community in our quest to give Antrim a sporting club and facilities to be proud of.It's forty years this year since we shared the Senior League title with Waringstown and John, Billy and Benny were part of that. While the last forty years have been light on success on the field we have produced players for four different Under 19 World Cups and if Mark Gleghorne hadn't gone to hockey that would have been five and hopefully Jason Vde Merwe will grace that stage next year. We have won the Graham Cup a few times and contested another couple of finals. We have produced two Presidents for the NCU and that could have been three in the last twenty three years and Andy Clement is now one of four NCU directors. We have also hosted many inter provincial games and international fixtures as well as NCU cup finals.And how can I forget that the doyen of umpires Paddy O'Hara was a stalwart player and administrator at Muckamore.
I think as a club we have always played the game in the proper spirit and hopefully that will always be the case.
So I think in terms of history and standing in the game as a club Muckamore have a fighting chance to become a major force over the next twenty five years.
PS Just got my kit out tonight as in less than three weeks time I will embark on my 40th season captaining our 3rds away to Waringstown 4ths and I just can't wait.