Forum

Now that we have entered October I hope all those who wish to take their wife/other wives/partners etc etc out shopping, or away for weekends get on with it..............there are only 31 weekends before the next season when you will be able to start blaming cricket for interfering with your family/social life...........in other words if you REALLY want to play a sport or do something in life you will always find a way

I would hope that if a motion for restructuring leagues was passed at an AGM then the clubs would be given a seasons notice of any change. vis-a-vis clubs that think they have been promoted or staved off relegation , don't suddenly have the goalposts moved.

Re 8 team leagues:

I have read the differing opinions on this matter and I have to say I am very much in favour of the 8 team leagues.

There are a few reasons for this:
1. Eight team leagues should make for more competitive matches and will make each section stronger not just the Premier League.
2. I have to agree that I beleive teams will be able to put out their strongest side more often. I know how difficult it is to get boys to play two games in a weekend but if they only had to one to play they would be available more often than not. Also for those who like to go away for the weekend or spend time with their wife's at least there might be the odd free weekend available or at least one day of the weekend where this can happen.
3. Surely it will encourage some of the younger players to continue to play cricket rather than fading away and losing interest as is the case at the minute. (for the same reason as point 2).
4. There will be less strains on umpires if there are fewer games to cover.
5. The standard of cricket should improve with the best playing the best.

Why can't the season be extended to the very end of September! This talk of teams not being able to fulfill fixtures due to other sports is a cop out in my view. If clubs and players are serious about their cricket, they will want to play as long as possible and anyway its the same for both sides if players are away doing something else !
Besides all that,the weather plays a big part in it as well. After this post I'm going for a bowl up the park and looking outside the skys are again blue and its the 1st of October. My point being that the last three summers have been aweful during the cricket season, but as has been the case, once we hit September the weather takes up !
And this has been the case for the last few years anyway.
So lets get it on,its really that straight forward is it not?

Now Gerry, don't be taking the wrong end of the stick, anybody's welcome to come up and join in with 'old Vic' here and have a bowl or a bat !!

Would some of the people who refer to "junior" or "senior" clubs please define what these are as I thought this distinction between clubs disappeared 30+ years ago..........perhaps not in everyones mind

Regarding the league structures, if you play less cricket and shorter matches at 1st XI standard you will hasten the demise of cricket..............there are plenty of other activities which will attract and occupy potential cricketers ..................2nd/3rd XI is a different situation where committment may not be as high but be assured if you don`t give the range of opportunities to potentially gifted players and let them choose what committment suits them then they will find another sport/activity.

As mentioned in my original post not only do we need to move to 8 team leagues but we also need to fix the current re-arrangement rules below Division 1 Section 1. As Neil Cahill has correctly pointed out , below this level games are continually re-scheduled until they are played which in a wet season can be quite a number of times.Both areas need to be considered together.

r.e Forum "trawler"

Lets hope some new European quotas will see your vessel grounded.... get a life.

The two incidents you have mentioned at varying levels are extremely different.

I say fair play to Strauss, he was totally within his rights to deny the runner in those circumstances - cramp is not an injury.... cant understand why didnt Smith just didnt pull up and claim he had pulled his hamstring!

I like Andy do not usually comment on the forums but I have to agree with Stuart's comments against an eight team league. I don't subscribe to the theory that standards are dropping due to the structure of the leagues. Standards are dropping as people are no longer willing to commit all day to the sport and it will make no difference if it is a ten team or eight team league. If someone is committed for fourteen matches they will be committed for eighteen especially at First XI level. Also if you take my club, Cliftonville, this season with all the 'problems' of rearrangements we finished our season one week late and that was with a cup run. If our league season had been fourteen matches we would have had nine full fifty over matches due to twenty and ten over games and no results. Would a fifty percentage reduction on the games envisaged increase standards? Like Stuart I think teams will be left with Saturdays free as even if you had a rearrangement you couldn't arrange it for your free Saturday as the other team has a book fixture to play someone else.

The problem as I see is not in Division One but down the divisions where teams can rearrange as many times as they like. I think our Seconds were rearranged against Armagh four times before it got played. The rules should be uniform for all leagues meaning that after match one it goes to twenty overs then no result. This would seriously ease fixture congestion.

My other suggestion would be to play all cup competitions including finals on a Sunday with any rearrangement going straight to twenty overs to played on a week night and if not playable straight to a bowl out. This would free two Saturdays in May and mean that throughout the season Saturday matches wouldn't be called off as one team is in the cup.

In an idyllic world eight team leagues would and should make common sense . However, the senior league teams are investing ever increasing budgets into player recruitment and in most cases that's just to hang onto the coat-tails of the top four.
Several seasons ago Derriaghy took a lot of flak for recruiting 'local' southern hemisphere players, unfair criticism in my opinion, now in the Premier league this is the norm rather than the exception.
Several clubs will have been putting out the feelers from mid season in their drive for new recruits.
Why would these clubs put their own ambitions to the side for 'the good of the game' as a whole when many have even set aside any chance their own youth have of development.
Maybe it's through selfishness , but my own club are a Senior league side and have been for all of my twenty five year involvement. We would be outside a top sixteen league teams on final placings this season , but have fought a long and hard campaign to retain our Senior status in difficult circumstances. In my opinion we fully merit our place in the top two sections. I have little doubt were my clubs votes will go.

I would certainly agree with 8 league teams & promotion and relegation thru out all leagues so teams can find there level and i would agree with Mr Hegarty about the duration of games 50ov - div 1, 40ov - div 2 and 30ov - div 3 its time for these changes to help cricket in Ulster i hope it happens

On a more comical note good to see that Vic Jons has clicked on the cricket ireland site with Ms Major !!!! or is it mister ???? Check it out !!!!!!!

I would like to wish Judith a pleasant break from the game but hope that she comes back as she is one of the best scorers in local cricket. I enjoyed scoring with her at the recent ODI against England and she will be missed from our local game. Also the retirement of Peter Whyte which has came as a surprise. What more can I say but you are a true gentleman and cricket will be the loser when you hang your white coat up but hopefully you will continue to be involved in our sport as your experience will greatly assist our younger umpires.

To Stuart Heggarty

How can you simply suggest that all rearrangements must be played by the following Sunday or by the end of August, did you not see the state of the weather in the months of July and August!

Our cricketing season starts too early and goes on too long, if we experience any sort of poor weather during the summer trying to get an 18 game season into our weekends doesn't add up. Not taking into consideration a cup run.

I understand your initial point about sitting around and having a fee weekend, in all honesty I just dont see that happening, with an 8 team league you can then ensure that the rearranged games aren't squeezed in on a Friday afternoon, points already made by Mr. Alexander.

Had September not turned out to be such a good month most of the leagues would have struggled to finish their programmes.

Unfortunately I cant agree with Stuart Hegarty's comment ( But it's a forum and he is entitled to it )

Stuart - please read Gareth Alexander's and Stuart Catterson's comments.

They are much quicker at typing than I am.

EG. if we had 8 team leagues TCC would not have to play Larne CC on a scheduled fixture on 12th Sept

Note - in 2006 season TCC 1st XI had to play 10 fixtures in September. Thankfully the calendar threw up 5 weekends.

By 8 team leagues we are not suggesting we give ourselves weeks off.
Let's get the fixtures booked in early and then if they are off at least we have time to use up later.

Rather this than playing less cricket overs or playing Sat & Sun combined.

Oh dear - I don't normally comment on websites - have I fallen into a trap
Ah well ........... healthy debates with real names used can't be bad thing.

From small acorns........
Andy McCrea

Re: 8 team leagues and G McCarter posting.

Gareth Alexander has made the point very well regarding the benefits of having teams of similar quality playing against each other in the reduced leagues.

The other reason,I believe,that the quality of games will improve is that clubs will be able to field their full strength teams more often if the time demands on players are reduced.How many times do we see weakened teams being put out on Sundays,mid-week or Fridays.This is exacerbated when clubs have double headers two or even three weekends in a row, or as we have seen this month, some teams playing Friday,Saturday and Sunday.

I would also suggest that we look beyond Division One and particularly the top two sections, when we are considering the future health of the sport.There is a lot more cricket in the NCU than just the top tier.

8 team league is a very short sighted view to solving the fixture conjestion problem.
its sods law that any 'free' wkds in the season are gonna be the best days of the year, how stupid will we all look then?
if 8 team leagues come in without re-structuring of cup competitions, alot of teams could be sitting around doing nothing for weeks at a time, and then still have to cram there fixtures into a couple of consecutive wkds.
rearrangements r the problem! if all fixtures are scheduled before the end of august and all rearrangements must be played by the following sunday there should not be a backlog of fixtures.
i think the duration of games should definitely change. maybe 50 overs for div 1, 40 overs for div 2 and 30 overs for div 3?
8 teams sounds like a quick and easy solution, but unless you can predict the weather for the season, it could ruin things.