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most people believe their home ground to be a beautiful place to watch cricket (and i'm no different) so for those who have never visited the meadow in dundrum........treat yourself. enuf said

I was disappointed this morning when I checked the local press and saw not a mention, report or photograph from yesterday's Graham Cup final. My interest being greater as Muckamore were victorious yesterday over Instonians. Now this has long been considered a prestigise trophy within NCU. I was more surprised knowing that the NCU P.R.O. is a member of the club that donated the original Graham Cup. We need to keep promoting cricket at grassroot and youth level.

Why Andy?
I don't work for you or need to 'qualify' to express an opinion. As soon as I state my background it becomes your focus. Suffice to say I passed my 11 plus and your cricket CV is fairly normal. Nothing wrong with that either.
A 'glib critic?' You said it not me.
Don't get so touchy when others answer back because you start plenty of banter yourself and that's what forums are all about. This little screen makes us all big boys in cricket without having to get elected. Little wonder the suits don't like us because so many of us never have to put our money where our mouth is. But the Lord loves us all nevertheless.

As someone who has been involved with cricket, as a schoolboy, since 1959 and played until 2006 when I took up umpiring I trust that Michael Patterson doesn't regard me as a "glib critic". Perhaps he could state his bona fides.

Oops :-)

I think he meant MoylenA Ivan.
Anyway good news on your ground and better news on your under 15s. Well done.
And you're right about the ground. None more beautiful as long as the wickets stack up.

Andy Kennedy is 100% correct . Muckamore were in the middle of preparing for the Under 17 inter pro when the League Secretary rearranged a 1sts league game for that day v Downpatrick and informed us that he would get another venue for the Inter Pro. I'm sure Roger Bell can confirm this. We certainly didn't renege on our commitment. If as we hope we get new pitches laid this autumn then by 2010 I would expect us to be a favoured hosting club for major games. On a nice sunny day can there be a more beautiful setting than the tree lined Moylena. On the playing front our Under 15's picked up the Graham Cup today with a 20 run victory over Instonians. That's two Graham Cup wins in three finals for our youth coach Andy Gleghorne. Well done to Andy and the boys.

Bit strong Paul. Five year bans and fines. You must be a footballer?
Having read the explanations you may wish to say.............oops!

Andy, it's that royal 'we' that you put in your emails that makes us website correspondents think you are speaking on behalf of the club. If it's you and the wife that's OK.
Now that Lisburn and North Down have clarified their positions maybe we can get on our buses and head to Twenty20 action where hopefully there'll be no gib about the hosts. They deserve medals for taking on such a bunch of ungrateful critics in the midst of some genuine supporters. Love of the game? Sorry Ivan, times have changed.

Re Junior Cup Final
North Down regrettably informed the Union on June 18 that due to unforeseen circumstances, we would not be able to host the NCU Junior Cup final as previously agreed. It was with respect to the importance of the competition that this decision was made.
Our groundsman of many years informed us at the beginning of May that his services would no longer be available and despite an extensive search, at the time no replacement had been found.
We felt that since we might not be able to supply a pitch and ground at our normal high standard, it would be best not to let ourselves and the competition down by hosting the fixture in these circumstances.
This position changed in the second week in July when we were able to appoint a temporary groundsman for the remainder of the season.

Andy/Michael - thanks, think we can leave it there. Andy, your explanation would in many ways simply reemphasise what my general point was, that being how other people can jump to wrong conclusions when not in full possession of all of the facts.

PS Michael K: Michael Patterson, who may be living or working in Lisburn, is not a club member or (to the best of my knowledge) a club supporter. Just thought I would clear that up in case forumites took him as a Lisburn CC spokesperson.

re Michael's posting about Muckamore not hosting an interpro - if I recall correctly -and I'm open to correction -this game was moved to facilitate a re-arranged game between Muckamore and Downpatrick - something that we had no control over so Ryan's problem in looking for a ground was not iniatiated by Muckamore.

Michael Patterson.

Will need to look into the Inter Pro not being hosted by us. There must be a good reason behind it. But well done for stepping into the breach. Sounds a bit like Moylena hosting the Ireland A match last season after a certain premier league ground was "unplayable".

But I think we can all put the JC issue to bed, you have fully justified your position in my opinion. I just hope we learn the lesson for next year.

Lets look forward to the Twenty 20 action this weekend. The Muckamore supporters bus is full and we intend to enjoy ourselves. Are any other clubs willing to join us?

thanks to Michael Foster for that very full and lucid explanation.
The opinions that I put express are personal and in no way should they be construed as being the "official" Muckamore view.
I am not close enough to the decision-making process to give any explanation about the inter-pro - I'll leave that to others.

Andy - lets put this JC Final stuff to bed.

Lisburn was asked to host the JC Final after ND pulled out, for whatever reason. There is more than a little history behind this, which might aid you, and hopefully will allow you to move on to something else.

Our patron, Cecil Walker, is a huge fan of the competition. As you know, we have hosted it many times in the past. Last season we experienced a few difficulties on the day - horrendous weather beforehand being the chief problem. One of the teams involved, we are led to believe, allegedly complained to the NCU about our ability to host a final of this nature. I wont say which one, but lets just say there is more than a hint of irony involved. The net result was that we applied to host the final again, but were unsuccessful. Cecil was extremely hurt by this decision, but is much too dignified a gentleman to have caused any subsequent bother.

The NCU asked us to consider taking it again after ND's decision. Cecil put the earlier issues behind him and was, initially, delighted at the prospect of hosting the game. However, as a club, we agreed to consider the request, we never agreed to actually host the match, officially, unofficially, whatever phrase Andy suits.

It was others in the club who pointed out to Cecil and the committee that the 2nd XI were in big trouble in 2.1. One win out of only 4 matches played, bottom of the league, horrendous fixture pile up. Cecil's initial desire to host the game was tempered by the fact that a home fixture against Ballymena would require rearrangement, no doubt for a Friday, another one with 3 already rescheduled for the 2nds.

With the holiday period, our committee werent all about, but while some members of the club may well have thought we had agreed to take the game, this was never actually decided. After approx 10 days, we concluded that it was not in the club's best interests on this occasion to accept the offer to host the game. We let the NCU know accordingly.

Two further points: if we had been the original hosts of the match you can rest assured we would have hosted the game, no matter what the circumstances of the 2nd XI.

Secondly, Lisburn has already stepped in to help at short notice this season in taking a fixture that another club has "reneged" on, for want of a better description. It was the NCU -v- North West U17 interpro game held in late May, where Ryan Eagleson was frantically trying to find an alternative after the original club let him down. We accepted, at very short notice, and hosted a great game, on a fine wicket, with a superb tea, and received glowing praise from all involved. And the original venue of that game???????? More irony indeed, and perhaps our two Muckamore men Andy and Ivan can provide readers with the answer, but just for a clue it begins with M and ends with A.