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there's a rumour that the junior cup may be at saintfield.woodvale have been asked to move an away fixture to accommodate.

Re David- Junior Cup Final

As far as I know it is still at Osbourne- the game definitely starts at 11.00am!

Does anybody know what happens if the final is postponed again? Is it rolled back another week/ bowl-out/ share of the trophy?

Cheers

Chris

What time does the Junior Cup Final start at on Saturday and more importantly where is it being played?

Re Martin Donaldson's rant on the other channel.
I'm glad that come September he'll be happy pushing a shopping trolly round Tesco, while in the NCU we will still be enjoying our cricket!

Well done to Andrew White on a century against Canada, hes the Ireland player who has been shuffled about the most in the past 5 years, always doing a good job for the team and here has been given a good chance to bat up the order in a 3 day game and cashed in. Well done Andrew!

Ivan, I'm all for anything that helps and your ideas are positive but someone in both unions need to take the responsibility to tackle the problem or hire a PR company to do it. Right now I'm not sure it is a high priority as so many other things are happening and maybe it suits to have poor crowds in the north as it makes it easier to allocate the best matches to Dublin.

Mark, I hadn't intended that the Ireland players go "begging" people to attend the games. I saw them as ambassadors and hopefully by geting involved at grassroots level the support follows. David Healy and co do it in football and David Humphreys and the boys do it in rugby. How about the likes of Gary Wilson being given a winter contract by CI to go around and tell kids about life as a professional cricketer, hand out a few shirts and do a spot of coaching.
What's happening currently isn't bringing in the crowds so let's try some fresh initatives. I don't think a few more posters or another few ads will do the trick.

Ronnie, when you share points for abandoned or games not played it opens up a can of worms. Much better to give no points as there is an incentive to play.
Teams shouldn't get points unless they earn them on the field. As for players not wanting to watch cricket what is the game coming to? Do they want to go shopping with the wives? You play and watch sport for recreation and relaxation. Get a life guys.

Ronnie - It may have been poorly attended on the Sunday because of the rain or that people couldnt get away from the ball and chain 2 days in a row :-). I was there on Sat and noted good numbers of players / members from Waringstown, Muckamore, Academy, Dunmurry, Derriaghy, CSNI, Laurelvale and Millpark. There were also a few from Carrick, Cooke Collegians, Donacloney, North Down, Lisburn and Drumaness. There will probably have been more clubs represented too with guys I dont know. As for getting games played, I doubt there would have been much played anyway last weekend - Stormont was probably only playable due to it's good drainage and the sterling efforts of their grounds team. Not too many other clubs would have been able to have as many volunteers available mid-week to work as hard as the Stormont guys did to get the event going (including full time staff). I therefore think that the event would have been a complete farce if the clubs mentioned above did not attend due to fixtures being arranged - in my opinion, these weekends need to be blocked out if Belfast is ever going to take over Dublin in terms of crowds.

i was at the 20/20 games at stormont on sunday and although i dont know every member of every club in the ncu, it was clear to me that cancelling the weekends cricket, so this tournament was well supported by club members, was a failure. all it done was add to the backlog of postponed games. the 20/20 seemed to be followed on THAT day by academy, north down and a minority of players from a few clubs. perhaps the reason for this was, that guys who give their weekends up to PLAY cricket, find it difficult to forfiet time with their wives, family, or other commitments to go watch cricket! would it not make more sense to share points on abandonded league games due to bad weather. if i'm in the minority on this then maybe the majority could enlighten me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to ger siggins if he reads the Ulster Cricketer

how do you know the qualities of the ireland c team, have not seen you up north watching any league games before.
dont remember playing against you in the 70s or 80s at inter pro level, hope your not another of these guys who think no southeners in the team = team no good.
ps.was looking out for you stu d. at stormont recently ,only to buy you a drink of course. maybe see you at the irish cup, 40 seater bus leaving north down 9am sharp 5 sept. if your looking a lift.

I see old Stu Daultrey is at it again stirring the pot over the Ireland A team selection and the venue for the Irish Cup final. Usual anti-north nonsense cloaked around his bizarre rants but just as usual are the apologists who then defend him. Obviously on the same intellectual wavelength - nutters!
Of course 'we are all entitled to our opinion.'

Have to agree with Ivan that something has to be done and he has put forward some good ideas. However, who will take responsibility? Is it the ICU or the NCU and exactly who is the person? Everyone reads this site so the union men know about the problem but until someone takes ownership there's not going to be a solution. It's a sad day when the Ireland players have to go to the clubs and ask them to come and support them but maybe that's what it will take.

I can't speak for the crowds against Norway, Italy etc but I was down for the Scotland match at Clontarf and for a very wet Thursday and the game not getting underway until nearly 3pm I thought the crowd was ok. That doesn't take away from the attendance on the Saturday and Sunday for the T20. The distinct lack of club players and supporters at the weekend is something that Cricket Ireland need to address. Do the officials need to get around the clubs and sell the vision of Team Ireland more? Would it help if the international players were asked to visit schools and clubs and hold coaching clinics? Would this help people identify closer with the squad? Rather than selling tickets through Ticketmaster would it help to make tickets available from the clubs with maybe deals for parties of ten or more? Why not make an announcement that those attending the Kenya ODI's on 24th, 25th and 27th August at Stormont will be given first preference to the England game in 2009 or for T20 World Cup tickets? Just a few suggestions from someone who enjoys attending cricket matches and is baffled why more don't attend. The saying “build it and they will come” is taking a long time to bear fruit for international cricket in Belfast.

Can anyone clarify, is it true that the crowds in Dublin for the Europeans were crap?