Forum

Great to see Niall O'Brien back in action for Northants v Australia today, one of Irelands most talented and combative cricketers whos performances at the T20 World Cup while evidently carrying an injury were simply superb, with the bat and behind the stumps.

Great stuff Neil. I'm sure your dad has a host of stories and please pass on my best wishes. I'd love to met up with him some time when I'm back. We had a good time with uncle Lawrence and Maureen when they were here a few weeks ago and there were plenty of rugby and cricket stories flying around, all embellished with the passage of time! I think as we get older we appreciate more and more what we had and the great craic we got out of some very simple situations like Sir Colin cutting the grass!

Clarence,

Regarding umpires. Dad tells a story that when he was playing for Dunmurry in the early 50's, your club had to supply an umpire who would stand in the game.

The late Roy Glovers father was standing and Roy was bowling from his end. He hit the pads of the opposition batsman and appealed "hows that dad" to a reply "thats out son".

The opposition batsman was not to happy!!

Also during a break in the Ashes, there was a piece that featured Colin Cowdry, who was described in it as an English Gentleman.

Dad then talked about Ireland v The MCC at Trinity when it was decided that due to a lot of rain, the only way they could play was to cut and mark another wicket.

So out comes Colin Cowdry who was captaining the MCC with the lawnmower and cut a wicket to ensure the game could be played.

Not sure if something like this would ever happen in cricket today.

Re Taito

I was simply referring to submitting results to the website and not the complete scorecards which as you said is time consuming. It should only take a couple of minutes to log the result.

Jonny and everyone, yeah that is what i do but as someone else said i had been using the cricket europe one as it has been available all season and has the option to send it on to the league secretary too. It is quite time consuming and now to do it for both sites takes some time. At the end of the day though we cant complain to ryan about it not being updated if we dont send the scorecards in ourselves. How else would they get this information?

RE Results Website

Would it not be an idea that each club gets the link for results submission on the website and give it to each of the captains/scorers to input the result at the same time they are doing match report forms for the league secretary. Surely this is common sense?

"Interested Observer"- aren't we all?
There's nothing wrong in what you say but we all have our dreams and aspirations. I think you may be wrong in your 20 years prediction as the ICC is already looking at divisions and different categories of test status. Ireland may not be able to compete with the top countries but they can't be any worse than Bangladesh, and perhaps not too far behind some others. It's like any tiered system, you have to work your way up. Right now we've reached the Berlin Wall and remember it eventually came down. I'll keep dreaming.

Gareth, why is it a 'fanciful notion' when it is already being done? All I'm asking is for it to be kept up to date. Armagh might be getting there but obviously there are plenty of others that aren't interested. Let's look at ways to improve the standard. There's nothing wrong with constructive criticism and I stress it is not personal. Ryan does a good job as PRO but the website is not working as well as it should and blaming the clubs gets us nowhere.

Mark, I understand that it’s not personal and its your prerogative to do as you do. I will point out that I am not blaming the clubs, but simply pointing out that jobs within the NCU would be easier if all/more clubs helped the union. I agree maybe that the union could do more in enforcing the clubs to add scores on-line, but these larger decisions tend to require being passed at AGMs.

I agree with you that an up to date website is desirable for going forward, however the other websites and newspapers have full-time staff working on them and this my be why they are so professional. Currently the NCU rely on volunteers to help run it – unfortunately the likes of you don’t want to be one and if more people were like you, then what would we have?

As I said I am not blaming anyone, just simply pointing out the answers to you questions.

Re Alan - Irelands Test Status

Do you really think that Ireland has claims for Test Status? I don't think Ireland will have test status in 20 years time never mind now. There is only a small handful of players capable of playing Test Cricket in Ireland. Everyone knows that a Test Cricketer needs a different mentality than those who play the 'short version' of the real game. Unless we get 4 day games on a more local level then we will not produce the players capable of playing at that level and we obviously do not have the resources for this. Do we want Ireland to end up like Bangladesh and be the whipping boys of Test Cricket? This would do more damage to the game locally than anything else ever could. Lets just stick to the 50 over and Twenty20 version first. If Ireland didn't qualify for the next 50 over World Cup, I want everyone to see it as a shock rather than a 'ah well'.... One step at a time

Re. Mark

It is a lot easier to criticise than to do something about it though isn't it? Admittedly, I submit my results (and scorecards) to the Cricket Europe site because their submission facility has been available all season while the NCU's hasn't, but the thought that someone would be employed to gather up results and put them on a website is a fairly fanciful notion. The goodwill from the clubs is there and is improving and generally people will help out with website content whenever they can, every bit of PR helps!

Thanks Ryan, at least you came back but with the predictable old lines. Blame the clubs and 'why don't you do it?' Well I choose not to and I don't want to be in the NCU, and I like the Forum. These are my prerogatives. The NCU runs the union and should set the standard. It's not personal and our paths don't cross because we are both interested in cricket. But is it too much to want an informative up-to-date website? Other sites and newspapers get the information so why not the union? And if you are depending on the clubs you haven't a hope. Surely you've already realised that?

The series win by Bangladesh over West Indies must help Ireland's fight for test status given they aren't too far behind them in ability and status. Also if crowds are a consideration then there were more people watching some of our club games at the weekend than watching the test matches in St Vincent and Grenada! But is the ICC watching? I guess not as they were probably all at Lord's.

I suppose if one lives long enough one will see everything! Instonians-v-W'town on Sunday. The ball hit the stumps on 3 occasions with the same batsman involved and the bails didn't come off! The benefitting batsman? No names to protect the innocent!

P.S. Tinius playing for North County won Sat and according to my sources didn't "bowl well"! Maybe CI's gain is someone else's loss if you know what I mean.

Mark – I think our paths crossed last season. Many thanks again for your comments; however I feel I need to clear up a few matters for you.

It is the clubs responsibility to upload their scores for all matches onto the NCU website. There is a link available for all clubs to have all their teams (1sts-5ths) results added – this is noted on the NCU website. Therefore, it’s a bit of a contradiction that you say that clubs have results up before the union - I realise that some clubs choose to add their scores to other websites and this may be what you are referring to.

The NCU website has the facility for clubs to upload all their teams’ scores from weekend games; this is the best way to get current scores. If clubs don't take this option, I don’t think it’s fair to accuse the NCU for not having an up-to-date website or to “get with the times”. How do you think most of the scores are posted on other websites……the clubs maybe?
‘Mark’ I am sure that the NCU and the competitions committee would be delighted if you were to offer your help – or is it easier just being a name on a forum having an opinion on everything?

I would take this opportunity to remind clubs that if they wish to help the NCU website, then refer to the NCU site and follow the instructions to upload results.

Thanks again and we’ll keep trying our best.