Forum

As far as I can see the NCU have not stated publicly that Dundrum had been relegated.

Therefore why all the abuse. As staffy has pointed out these guys are enforcing the rules that are already in place.

These administrators give up a lot of their own free time to help with the running of the game locally, and from what I can see do not make decisions out of malice or with agenda.

I have in the past been critical of the NCU but have learned it's the processes that are the problem and not the current folk enforcing them.

Roger - They are written down for ALL to read presumably even me!(except the unwritten ones of course).
While you say you wish all Captains knew the rules as well as you think I do, I secretly suspect that 'officialdom' would want everyone to accept that THEY know what's best for us and sit and 'take our medicine' with quiet subservience.
I know that the 'Clubs' ARE the Union and have the chance to make proposals to the AGM. So I find it disappointing that so many of the Serials, (eleven and a half! out of the 27 listed - where is the 28th advertised in the headline by the way?) this year are proposed by the Board of Directors or other Officials. Apparently since it doesn't get a mention it's only Staffy and I think Rule 3 as it is being interpreted is a nonsense.
Neither do many Clubs seem to have taken up their option to nominate members of the various Directorates. Is that just apathy on their part or satisfaction with the staus quo?
As is often said in this country "You get the polititians you deserve!"
Can't wait for the end of the season - whenever that will be!!!

I wish some of our captains knew as much about NCU Rules as Alan Bryans appears to, then we would have no problems with Competition Rule 3!

Wayne

Great to see you in better form. Its been a long season with your 30 extra days and your wife slaving over the pasta on a Friday night! I'm sure she was delighted that Stuarty was criticising it without even turning up to eat it!

On a more serious note I'm not sure all this slanging between clubs is a great idea. Everyone needs to calm down and accept that the NCU have simply applied the rules. It is the rules that are a mess. Rather than rush into another AGM with more restructuring we need to address some of the key issues raised this year.

That was the reason I joined the NCU Competitions Directorate and would be still there but for the shabby political maneouvering of a few individuals. But the less said about that the better.

If we don't sort this out now something else will happen next year. As things stand the NCU administrators reputation with the clubs is as warm as Mike Ashley's with the Newcastle United fans.

Alan i see you have your head buried in that rule book again. I assume you dont have much else to be getting on with?

I am pretty sure dundrum will take a fine over staying section 2 for sure.

jeff you are very quiet, maybe hungover after celebrating?

Bruce, you didnt even bite, well done. There has got to be an over 40's league somewhere, you boys would do well there.

RE John

I would like to point out out that Laurelvale won 6 of their 7 matches before the end of August (including a win over Woodvale).

It was in fact other teams who were trying to catch us by playing against understrength teams in September !!

You may not think we are any good but plenty of sides have underestimated the Vale.

If there are any better teams which finished below us surely the cream will rise to the top in future years as they race past us up the leagues !!

NCU Competition Rule 25 - Result Forms states:
'After each fixture...the home team shall enter full details of the match (which shall correspond to those appearing in both scorebooks) ... on the Result Form provided, have the latter signed by both Captains and despatch to the Hon Section Secretary... A club failing to fulfil its obligations under this rule SHALL (my Capitalisation) be fined.'

So if that hasn't happened the LEAST we can expect is that Dundrum will be fined under this rule for their incorrect completion of the 2 result forms referred to by Michael Taylor in his post the accuracy of which was confirmed by Roger Bell.
The worst case? Matches voided under the much quoted Rule 3 - Captains being responsible for knowing and ensuring that they comply fully with all Laws and Bye-laws at all times.
Still keep thinking about Roger Bell including the words "If the rules are applied" in an earlier post. I ask you "Why wouldn't they?"

Guys
Plenty of controversial topics at the minute so let’s keep the postings fair to all concerned.
And remember, you have even less chance of something controversial getting live on the site if you won't put your name to it...
Cheers
Ed

Michael Taylor's account is a very accurate one, and I would like to acknowledge his valuable assistance in this matter.
The NCU's official statement has been issued to the two clubs concerned this morning, and will appear on the NCU website later today.

A bit of a challenge for Staffy. I reckon you could write a fantastic drama about NCU cricket over the last few years. Whilst for some clubs there are a lot of serious issues at stake it actually is hilarious logging on to the site these days as you don't know what is going to appear next.

Re Taito

If every team had "long in the tooth boys" as good as Laurelvale's then they would be very fortunate. Also its probably fairer to say joint third given that 5 teams shared 28 points. Late season wins count just the same as any others though, I think Dundrum and Holywood could testify to that after their late September weekend.

Where is the artful dodger, his silence is deafening! Bring out the dodger!

Re John: here here john i totally agree , i cant see laurelvale being upm their next season either. After all their rather long in the tooth boys will be another year older.

Amazed,

Thank you for your enlightening critique of the Section Two relegation issue.

Perhaps I can fill you in on what actually happened, in which case you can base your opinions on fact and not hyperbolic outrage.

As a basic matter of procedure, clubs send their result forms to the NCU. The NCU sent these result forms to me to calculate net run rates. This I did, and the run rates I produced were accurate based on the information I was given. Roger Bell can confirm this.

Seeing that the net run rates of Saintfield and Dundrum were so close, I advised the NCU to collect their respective scorebooks in order to make sure that the correct scores had been reported.

It should be noted that at no stage was the relegation of Dundrum confirmed either by myself or by an NCU official, only that as things currently stood it was the more likely scenario.

However, upon inspection of the scorebooks, it was blindingly obvious that Dundrum had incorrectly reported the scores from their matches against (a) Armagh on June 8 and (b) Saintfield on July 14. The error had been in transcribing figures from the scorebook to the result form. The captains and umpires may have 'signed off' on a particular score, but that was not the one reported to the NCU.

Consequently, the net run rates were recalculated and we have arrived at the current situation.

Quite how it's my fault that I was given incorrect information I don't know, and if Dundrum went into last weekend's matches under false pretences then it's nobody's fault but theirs.

Incidentally, I know of no occasion on which I described myself as an expert on net run rates.

I will ask you one question: is it right for a team to be relegated because of wrongly writing down a score? I don't think so, and what we have now is the situation whereby what actually happened on the pitch is counting,

Michael Taylor

still very confused and what a mess! Is an official statement coming any time soon as Rodger said it would yesterday?

Somehow i dont see this being the end of things!