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2 up 2 down in a 8 team league wouldn't work for me. Much better for 1 up 1 down and a playoff for the teams finishing 2nd bottom & runner up.
With only 14 games to play the league could finish mid August and it would still give time to organise a play off game before the end of the season. Could possibly be a two innings match over a weekend on a neutral ground which would determine the better team instead of a one off 50 over game.
50% turnover in leagues doesn't give a lot of room for midtable mediocrity, it could lead to some very exciting cricket. Hopefully future summers will allow it to be played in sunny Saturdays!
Roger and Robin
Thanks for that little bit of info. 8 team leagues will help get the best v best, but I really like the fact that there are still plenty of decisions to be made on the pitch at this stage of the season. There are very few games, even now, that are irrelevant and that should only serve to spur teams on! I have defo been a supporter of 2 up 2 down and will be sorry to see it go - if the proposals get through the AGM.
Re Robin Haire
Robin is quite right if the propsals go through at this year's AGM leagues will be reduced to 8 teams from 2010, but it's still likely to be 2 up 2 down in the nw set-up.
paul ballynahinch
paul i think next years premier league will be the last time u will see a 10 team league for the forseeable future 2010 will see an 8 team league so in 2009 2 teams will be relegated and no one promoted. after that it will be 1 up 1down.
Michael, just saying it will take me a while to get to you to buy you a pint.
Thanks Interested Observer. Keeping a low profile with all those people looking for me.
PS
Whatever happened to free speech?
Re Paul Stafford
Any chance of any constructive feedback or is it just veiled threats ?
True Stuart - I am sure it is sqeaky bum time at the Aghy. Just exciting for the neutral!! The only positive is that there is 2 up next year so if you dont manage to avoid the drop you will have a fair cahance to get back up (although, I think Lurgan, Muckamore and whoever else comes down ill have something to say about it!). At least you can look back at the end of the season and say you done your best to get games played and tried your best.
If so many people are upset about September cricket in one way or another, why do the rules say the season ends at the end of the September, why not propose it ends at the end of August.
That way, there will be even more time to kill over the winter being dragged around shopping or some other exciting task.
Its a long winter, so why are so many anti-cricket?!!!
Unfulfilling fixtures?
This is the time of year when clubs are often cajoled into fulfilling fixtures not necessarily for their own benefit but for the sake of the opposition.
Sides going for the titles will always get their best XIs out while the opposition are emotionally blackmailed into fulfilling the fixture with whoever they can muster so as not to upset their opponents title bid.
September has always had more than its fair share of 'meaningless'(to one side) matches where easy points have been picked up. A couple of the sides well represented on the forum have over the years have regularly 'saved their skins' in the relegation stakes with wins which would have been unthinkable on a sunny June Saturday.
It may seem great that there is still something to play for in September but I'm not sure that the play itself is that great however.
Michael,
Can I be on your side? Looks like warfare with Staffie @ Co....
paul doherty
don't think exciting is the word i'd use for the bottom of the premier league, not from our position anyway ha ha. should be an interesting last weekend.
maybe we were being used as a hypothetical example, but i'd like to point out that we at derriaghy have always made every effort to fulfil our fixtures, to our own cost maybe. as the league table points out, we have played at least 2 more league games than anyone else in the league.
it has been a real struggle for us and we have taken some severe beatings especially in the last few weeks, but we have tried our best, so i think for a certain reporter to be spouting off to all that would listen to him that we were a 'disgrace to the premier league' is a bit harsh.
Paul, I'm leaving the country. I feel like you are gathering a possee to seek me out. I've doubled my security and pulled the blinds. Give me two days start.
2 up 2 down? What great excitement it has generated - the bottom of the Premier league looks even more exciting than the top at the moment.
