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Stewart
Your posting covers a lot of the issues. As a club Ballymena have done no wrong. They have just taken advantage of the veto on Sunday cricket offered by the NCU. It's the NCU who I think need to re thnk this stategy. As looks likely next season your 1sts will play in Section One and that means more cricket and possibly more rearrangements. I can't see the difference in clubs being allowed out of playing on a Sunday because they have some players unavailable to the likes of Waringstown having to play league games with at least three players in the full Ireland squad. Can we expect the representative players to take more time off work to play league games on a Friday ?
I spent all day yesterday (Sunday) from 11am at Beechgrove watching three different 20/20 games. The ground was packed with a crowd that may only be bettered at the NW Cup final or the Irish Cup final. Great days fun and if the International 20/20 at Stormont is as good then all cricket fans should get along.
On the field Donemana looked a thoroughly professional outfit. Boyd,R McBrine,Olphert,Dunn,Britton and Dougherty are all fine young players while McGonigle and McGerrigle probably have their best years ahead of them but to me the stars were the McBrine twins .A couple of years ago I watched Birgade thump Donemana in a league game and I thought James and Junior were starting to show their age. Well yesterday both guys were sharp in the field, were as excited as any of the younger players when a wicket fell. I read in today's paper they are approaching 45 years of age well what odds (Jeff) on them still playing Senior cricket at 50. On watching Gary Wilson keep wicket surely it's only a matter of time until he's playing county cricket.

re the 20/20 - there's a bus going from Muckamore so at least we're supporting it.

To go back to a posting earlier in the month from Jeff re the Dundrum pro - had the pleasure of being at Dundrum on 14th and I can only say what a nice guy he is. Perhaps he could show a guy a bit further down the road from Dundrum how a cricketer SHOULD behave!!
P.S. you weren't there so Richard and I missed the coffee!!

Stewart, very good post and very fair all round. Pity about the last paragraph because cricketers should support the national team especially when the matches are in their area. The NCU has got enough stick in the past for not having closed dates so we can't have it both ways.
I like your idea to play cup games on Sundays but it would remove some very good players from the competition and perhaps that's unfair. As for too much cricket there was a time when we couldn't get enough of it. How times have changed.

Sunday cricket is always an issue no matter which league or country you play in. I have been fortunate in playing league cricket in the NCU (for Ballymena) Scotland, and two leagues in England. Out of those four different leagues the NCU is the only league I have played in that plays its main league games on a Sunday. Sunday cricket is played but it is a different league (40 overs a side). Leagues found that clubs had weakened teams playing on a Sunday as cricketers were not able or willing to take out a whole weekend to cricket. This was effecting the overall league. Clubs were putting pressure on individuals to play on Sundays as it was the main league competition and this was making people leave the game altogether as they either had beliefs to not play on a Sunday or had other family committments. I at that stage was single and was able to play Saturday and Sunday from end of April through to September and therefore benefitted. Now as I have a young family I would not want to play on a Sunday as one full day to cricket in a weekend is enough. When I played in England on a Saturday I would play either 2nd XI or 3rd XI cricket but on a Sunday I was always in the 1st XI. This was due to players choosing not to play on Sundays and it indicates the numbers of cricketers choosing to not play two days a weekend. There is never going to be an easy answer to this problem:-

1. No rearrangements of fixtures.

2. Cup cricket to be played on a Sunday only

3. Less teams in league leaving free Saturdays

None of the above is likely to be a solution and no matter what the rules are some clubs/teams will feel disadvantaged. I can certainly reinforce previous comments that within the Ballymena club there is always debate about whether we should play Sunday cricket. A few years ago while I was captain of the 2nd XI we gained promotion in a very tight league. We only managed to do that by playing some rearranged games away on a Sunday otherwise we would have not completed the fixtures. In total we only completed 16 anyway. As far as I can remember we did not have more than two of the non starred first eleven playing and had a few normal 2nd XI players missing and the teams we played against were in a similar posistion. Now as a club we cannot rearrange on a Sunday and that is fine as we were asked by the NCU to say if the club would play on a Sunday or not and democratically we decided not to. This may actually have an adverse effect on some other teams in the club but there you go we live with it and just get on. There is another point to Sunday cricket in that in the lower leagues there are quite a few instances of clubs having their initial fixtures on a Sunday. This may be so they can fulfill fixtures for the number of teams they have entered as if they were to try to put out full elevens on a Saturday they could not. This is probably a good thing as it will give clubs more cricket but there are disadvantages as well.

As a final note my team have a rearrangement to make again following a wet Friday last week a perfect date for that is the 2nd August but it is a closed Saturday so we cannot play. As a quick straw poll last Friday it seemd that we had no-one who was going to the 20-20!!

Danny , alive but not very well as still gutted that i was supporting Poulter as had backed him at real big odds to win 2grand ,but thanks too the english press starting which i think was scaremongering i backed Harrington at 64 1 on BETFAIR ,have too hand it too him he held his nerve again. Vanburn i actually tipped CISN too pul of the shock & you wont like this but will be supporting them as still have lot friends in the service side of your fine club . danny i was away england last too weekends thanks too ROYAL ASCOT & wasnt online so u will be sorry too hear that fancied Jargelle too win sat &duly obliged at 20 1 (betfair 36 1) mighten no a lot bout Cricket but still fancy making a few £ on the nags.PS vanburn i will buy you a couple as i will put it on HOLMSEY TAB .it will be cracking CUP FINAL & has too be said what fantastic job Holmsey& the DOWN DEMOCRAT have done promoting it.

Fantastic effort by Donemana yesterday. Regarding the venue the final has been in Dublin for years now. North County are a fantastic side and it will be a real David v Goliath encounter. Let's even the whole thing up and have the final in the North West. Cricket fans will come out on mass and Donemana will be emptied. Even at a neutral ground in the North West they will be underdogs but they will go in to the game believing they can win. There was a real buzz going round the North West yesterday when the scores were coming through from Merrion. Fantastic stuff.

Massive win from CSNI yesterday in the Challenge Cup as well. If only they could have Gary Wilson all season it might change the landscape in the NCU. North Down have had the indian sign over Waringstown so now they will believe they can win it too. Going to be a great NCU final.

Vanburn

Its a pity you weren't a betting man as you might have got good odds from Jeff on csni beating north down yesterday!

Congratulations to CSNI on their well deserved victory.

Ps.Jeff you still alive?

Jeff Maguire - Tips (horses?)
Jeff
Spoke to Holmesy at Comber yesterday during Challenge Cup Semi, and it seems my previous posts (should that read Starting Posts?) have perhaps been taken out of context? Feel free to continue with your horse racing tips, it would seem you know more about the nags than you do about cricket!!!! Maybe I should take more notice, and who knows I might make some money, but then again it is at times difficult to understand your language! Look forward to seeing you at the Cup Final on 15 August and having a pint (or should that be a "punt") with you. Holmesy says first pint is on you?

Congratulations Donemana on reaching the Irish Senior Cup final. Now we can have a true North v South final which is what the competition is all about. I understand the venue has yet to be decided but let's toss for either Dublin or North West and not fall into the trap of playing at Stormont. Either venue would guarantee a good crowd but with no NCU team involved the match should not be staged there.

Without getting into the sunday debate I feel that amateur sportsman being asked to take holidays to play cricket on a friday is farcical. The self employed give up a days work, others take hard earned holidays to play cricket.

Re Sunday Debate

I don't want to turn this into an argument over religious beliefs but I would like to point out that on Sunday the Ulster GAA Final will take place in front of 30000 fans.

Surely this is an example that people can have their religious beliefs, go to their place of worship but still find time to play and watch sport at the highest level.

Perhaps the 28 members could learn a thing or two from the GAA.

Paddy

Ps loved your reply Michael Patterson!

Michael, what's the cricket difference in 28 players not being available on a Friday because they have to work? Conscience is obviously very important to certain individuals but to many others, economics is just as important. Also you have to respect the views of others who don't subscribe to the 'no sport on Sunday' culture because your club elects to play within a union structure that makes democratic decisions based on a two-thirds majority. There's no easy solution because every club has its own problems and we live in an era where dog eats dog to get an advantage, and perhaps four points. Goodwill to all men is the common sense solution that seems to be getting less and less every season.

Michael
I think we need to be careful that we don't turn this "Never on a Sunday " into a Ballymena issue. I think the town suffered in the past being referred to as the Bible Belt, locking the swings and closing the swimming pool never mind the cancelling of an ELO concert. You will play cricket for a long time anywhere in the world before you find a nicer or more popular group of individuals as the Kennedy brothers, Carl Williams, Mark Adair etc. As you know from being our scorer at the time I captained a Ballymena 2nds team for a couple of seasons that was made up primarily of guys whose Christian beliefs forbade them playing Sunday cricket and we had great comaradere and great fun. I just happen to be of the opinion that the "witness" part of being a Christian might be better served relaxing this reluctance to take part in "only a game" on a Sunday.
So lets not focus on any club and lets just look at the wider picture. If the majority of teams want to play Sunday cricket why the power of veto. I hope our country is a civilised country or at least aiming to be. We are moving away I feel from this Ulster Protestantism mindset to a more multi cultered society and abolishing the Never on a Sunday stance is another step in that direction. I know that at Muckamore we now probably have more spectators at our Sunday games than we do have on a Saturday and I think this might be the case at other grounds.

Andy,

This issue extends throughout the whole club.

To the best of my knowledge, of the 62 players who have represented the club at men's level so far this year, 28 (45%) would not play cricket, or any other sport, on a Sunday.

Admittedly this does not constitute a majority, but so significant is this proportion that it is clearly impractical for Ballymena to schedule fixtures for Sundays.

Good luck to Donemana tomorrow in the ISC, you're flying the flag for the whole province, not just the North-West!