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Merry Christmas to all.

May your batting average be high and your golfing score low.

--- One for The Road ---

I was shopping in Bow Street Mall on Saturday when an elderly Lady with a kind smile came up to me shaking her tin can, "Dr Barnardo's Home" she said.
"Oh", I replied, "But I didn't know he was away"

Dundrum Cricket Club send condolences too ex player Philip Murray Saintfield on the death off his father Brian Murray. Brian was a superb bowler who played at Downpatrick & Dundrum & was a very knowledgeble cricketer who was brilliant at working out batsmen weakness & was the main reason that i tryed too improve with practice as Brian always tryed too get all of us at Dundrum too try an bowl.HE will be sorely missed by his family & many many friends that he had in cricket & hockey. Rest in peace

Re Ulster Shield.

Be careful they don't include you anyway, Armagh had asked not to be included in the 2008 competition after our transport arrangements had let us down at the last minute for an away draw in 2007 but we were included in the draw regardless!

RE Ulster Shield

Laurelvale has not entered the competition this year in protest at our treatment last year.

We travelled up to Glendermott last year to play Creevedonnell and had the chance of winning the game taken away from us when the umpires applied an incorrect ruling regarding slow play.

I would state that we have no issues with Creevedonnell or the umpires who simply made an error on the day but we were annoyed that the administrators did not order a replay at least.

Andy
I noticed a ground like that last May,probably the same place as you refer to but your report was likely to have been intentionally disregarded....to much bother if an issue like that was raised.

It comes back to the same issue, what standards do they want or does it matter.............probably the attitude "sure it`s the same for both sides" prevails.

As I said on 16 Dec, slap on a bit of cheap and cheerful fertiliser,get the grass covering up the surface and no one is much bothered about whether its your front lawn,football pitch or a cricket wicket or outfield,

Seasons greetings to all of the Ulster Cricketers for a enjoyable Christmas and a successful 2009 to follow!

re WAR - this is quite easy to answer - anything that I do not regard as "safe" is "unsafe". The point that I was making is "what value is the ground report that umpires submit after each game. In the reports to which I referred in my earlier posting, we reported that the outfield was "dangerous" in that the surface was aprt of a rugby pitch that had become rutted following the hot weather at the start of the season - yes there was hot weather in the early season. I simply commented that no-one approached me on receipt of the report to seek clarification as to the "danger".

Andy
The STATUS of your reports will be raised should someone be injured either during the match or in subsequent matches. How do you feel being questioned in court on the issue of being qualified to make a judgement of ground suitability/safety. Hiding behind a "wall of silence" on the extra cover boundary will not be an option then.

On behalf of CSN I would just like to congratulate ET on his selection to the Black Caps T/20 side to play the West Indies 26 & 28 December.
Nothing more than he deserves considering his performances to date this season. All his hard work justified.
He made a great impact at CSN, playing and coaching both at junior and senior levels and we are all very proud of his association with the club.
Wishing him the best of luck !

re WAR MM 29 - totally agree with your comments. Raises the question of the "status" of the umpires reports. My colleague and I on 2 occasions reported the outfield of a ground as being "dangerous". No-one ever asked me for a further comment as to what the "danger" was. And what about the game last season that was abandoned because the pitch was considered to be "unplayable". The received view was that it was "the dry spell and what can you expect" - the pitch could have been watered - doh! Like you I await the ground gradings with interest.

Andy
No one will ever bite on your posting because it`s on the "touchy" subject of ground gradings.

For example,club "A" playing in section 3 was graded 3 in 2007, they got promotion and the ground was regraded 2 for 2008 on the basis that they got wicket covers............no serious remedial work was ever undertaken to the square during close season...........outcome---square played like it did before ie no bounce or variable at best and surface broke up when dry. So much for regrading.

Mallusk was graded 3 in 2008.....2009 grading ???? interesting IF Cliftonville play there.

Additionally, if wicket covers were so important to get a "2" grading a year ago, how come we have clubs currently graded 2 in the 2008 report with NO covers.

IMPRESSION GIVEN......doesn`t really matter about NCU RULE29 --the grading will be adjusted to suit whatever level your club will play at.

BOTTOM LINE.... Quality cricket surfaces requires a professional approach ie soil analysis and maintenance programmes designed and carried out............what do we do....produce a few umpires and captains reports, come up with gradings and then change them when it suits. The old excuse of resources will always be used by those that don`t want to bother.

Google cricket square construction and maintenance and see if you think we do what is required to produce surfaces on which to play and develop cricketers. A very few make a good effort the rest don`t bother.

If you really want to see quality surfaces go over a see the bigger club grounds in England or the county grounds.............only go to Lords if you want to laugh or maybe even cringe at what we call grade 1 surfaces.

Contracts.

Who will CricketIreland hand contracts too ? and when will they do this ? The Scots as always are on the ball with Ireland lagging behind !

And how much dosh is being put into the next generation of Irish Cricket in comparison to Scotland who have 15 development officers and a staff of over 30 ?

Hi Guys,

I would be grateful if you could spread the word to your respective club scorers - Bill Frindoll - the inventor / master of the "linear" scoring method (as used in all international matches) is doing an afternoon workshop in Clontarf cricket club on Sunday 1st February 2009.

If anyone wants to go to learn about this scoring method or refresh their linear skills, could they contact me urgently.

Thanks
Jude

re WAR MM29 - sorry but did I turn over 2 pages at once? - can anyone advise what this is about??

Andy
I fear your assumption that ALL will be revealed in relation to registration/ground grading of Greenisland/Mallusk or wherever is somewhat doubtful.
Meticulous work will be undertaken by some committee in analysing soil samples to determine clay content,root stucture,ph values etc for these grounds to determine suitability for section 2 cricket.

Based on this, a judgement to "slap on" a bit of cheap and cheerful nitrogen based fertiliser to green things up and get a set of wicket covers will be recommended...............that is what happened in the past couple of years anyway.

By the way , MM29 is the new designation given to the road between Stormont and Clontarf........it was previously a grass seed mixture for cricket squares.

Happy Christmas Andy.