Forum

I cannot add to the rumours but if anybody wants to join CSN we are particularly looking folk with New Zealand passports and bowlers with the ability to get through their overs quickly!

I see from the CIYMS website that Derek Heasley is to captain them next year...

Good to see a bit of gossip again!!! If they prove to be true Muckamore will have a strong line up with the additions to their panel.

David Kennedy of Holywood may join Woodvale in the Premier league.
I have heard that Holywood will also lose Seamus Sharkey to Muckamore.
Also Brian Anderson is to join the Moylena club from Cliftonville.

Basset to inst...from a fairly reliable source!

Have to say I heard the Downpatrick players mentioned below have in fact decided to leave. I was told by a member within the club however we all know about chinese whispers. If they do move it will be interesting to see how they fair as last season wasn't great by their own standards.

Any more gossip?

I think the rumour mill should be encouraged, its interesting to hear the stories that people come up with and comparing them to teams at the start of the summer.

Ed, can we put a ban on rumours and gossip as once this starts it's never ending and usually a wind-up?
The reason the site is quiet is because the season has ended and there's a limit to how much we want to take about new league structures, and bringing back the interprovincials.

I can confirm that i am going nowhere , i will be playing at downpatrick next year trying to get us back in to the premier league.

With regards the other players, im sure there will be rumours , i havent heard for sure that any of them are leaving.

Things have gone fairly quiet on the forum so heres some fat to chew over. I have heard that Neil Gelston is on his way to CIYMS from Downpatrick. Not only that but James Cunningham and Andrew Bassett are also reportedly leaving and possibly Paul Tate, not sure where though. With Geoff Ferguson retiring and the loss of these players could it be a second relegation in three years? The future does not look bright.....

think you got it in one Tom! of course there may be some who have a wicked sense of humour and will send a posting to stir things up and see who bites - but maybe not on this Forum!!

So Andy, the Forums are just for those who 'Talk the Talk'.
It gives them something to do while waiting to be in the Jeremy Kyle audience!
The 'Walk the Walkers' will presumably then continue to be the butt of criticism from the often ill-informed and regularly un-informed (yourself excluded).
Sometimes I wonder why they bother - but then sometimes I wish they wouldn't.
I suppose waiting for a 'bright' idea at a time when electricty costs what it does is a forlorn hope.

re Tom Higgins and his text from the Good Book - the whole point of the various forums is that comments can be made and views expressed. Everyone can have a point of view on what is happening around them - I don't recall anyone coming on and trying to resolve any difficulties within their own club - do you not listen to the biggest "blow in the country" - the Stephen Nolan Show every weekday morning? Plenty of comments there without anyone having to take responsibility.

re Cecil Johnston - the list of names certainly rings a lot of memories - I recall as a young lad playing against George Orr who was a very old man even then! - I always remember when I would meet him at dinners and meetings he would always remind me of his Harryville connections of which he was very proud - for the uninitiated - ballymena is a suburb of Harryville.

Interesting to read Roger Bell's comments about the number of teams playing in the league in 1976. He mentions the demise of several clubs including YMCA. I played all my cricket over many years at Bladon Drive until YMCA HQ, in their wisdom, decided to sell the ground for housing in the mid 1980's. We had at least 4 teams playing every week plus a team in the midweek league.
I had the pleasure, at one time or another, of captaining each of the teams and over the years YMCA had some very fine players. We had a lot of family members playing - maybe some of the players will bring back memories. We had the McCormick family, Sam senior, young Sam, Stewart and Billy. George Hill and son Geoffrey, Harry McAuley and sons Henry and Norman, Ian Gregg and son Terry, Brian Boyd and son Keith, Michael Perrott and son Stephen, the Yates brothers Roy and Alan, the Forshaw brothers Ken and Derek, and the Bamford brothers David and Charlie.
We had some fine players who worked in the Northern and Ulster Banks, Wilson Irvine, Roy Scott, Peter Lindsay, Jack Torney, Andy Jordan, Ken Torrens, Gwyn Hughes and Sam McConnell. Queens University members were David Jardine, Vasu Nayar, Arun Roy and Mohammed Timol. Some of the other players were George Orr, Norman Crawford, Raymond Doherty, Dennis Barrett, Jack Waring, Wilfie Chisholm, Billy Boat, Herbie Moore, Gavin Craig, Norman Patterson and Paul McIlfatrick. Apologies to those players I have forgotten.
Who will ever forget the grimace and scowl on the face of the fearsome Ted Gwynne as he came in to open the bowling !!

I bet that if some of the players I have mentioned were playing today they would give a lot of the current players in the various leagues a run for their money!!
Hope this evokes some memories of the good old days - if anyone remembers any of these past players let us have your stories.