Forum

OK Neale you win!
I still don't know your views on the rule and your support of your colleague should not have carried the assumption that you supported the rule. We'll have to leave that one out there in cyper space because I'm a little confused.
But don't get your knickers in a twist about youth cricket as it has been around for years and has been full of inconsistencies, bias and poor adminstration. I'm sure its working better these days because there's more youth cricket and that's a challenge in itself. I've always felt the rule of common sense transends all rule books and that's where the suits scored with this ruling. Good luck with you work on the committee but as for sending in rule changes or going to AGMs I'd rather watch Lurgan play Derrriaghy on a wet Saturday afternoon if I want to punish myself.

MICAHEL
You still have neither produced any quote from any source which indicates I was "defending the NCU Rule book".
Now you are asking whether I do or do not support the rule. Can every reader now take it you accept I have never expressed any support for it?

Are you still unable, even in light of your admission that you dont know my views, to accept you were incorrect?

As regards my views on the particular rule, these are well known to members of the NCU Youth Committee. As a member of such, that the appropriate place to express my views. I do feel able to say that I am in favour of a review of the rules in relation to the various youth comopetitions. To that extent, I am sure that informed and helpful views on the subject would be welcome.

I look forward to receiving your considered proposals on the running of the youth competitions and ammendments to any of the laws. You will find this takes rather more time and thought than snide 'digs' based on prejudice and ill-informed assumptions.

Neale, do you support the rule or not?
Simple question.

I would have thought that rearrangements would have been a topic covered by the NCU’s Development Plan, where is that by the way?

MICHAEL
1. You do not know if I support the relevant rule or not (yet this was the very allegation you made!) This is because I have never expressed any view on it. I have said that as a member of the NCU Youth Committee I felt to do so would be inapproriate.
2. I agree that law and sport should not mix. Again you have made a mis-informed assumption that as I am a lawyer I have somehow brought the law into a historical matter. I did not. Indeed it was the other side in the historical matter who ran the argument that the NCU were in breach of European Law! We simply pointed out how the the rules had been breached.
3. As you have failed to point out anywhere that I allegedly supported the rule in question, can I assume you will withdraw this suggestion?
4. Defending a colleague, when unjustly accused is not 'treading a thin line', but rather something I felt moved to do.
5. It seems odd that the Muckamore contributors to the other forum appear to have accepted the 'point of information' as to how the decision was reached - indeed Ivan McCombe specifically asked if the reason for the decision could be explained, yet you have an ongoing problem.

Cheap shots from a distance are easy, apologies take some guts. I wait the withdrawl of your allegation.

Well Neale, I certainly won't be calling you "Your Lordship!'
What I'm now unlcear about is whether you are supporting the rule book or not if you say you are supporting your colleague rather than the actual rule. Thin line don't you think?
The law and the rule book are strange bedfellows and the former has no place in true sport.
The North Down thing was a straightforward club mistake we have all been told and the reason why you didn't support your NCU colleagues who accepted it then was because you are a Waringstoewn man as you clearly state. But that's old hat now and they got what they deserved because they are too full of themselves anyway.
As for Friday night I won't be watching Under 15 cricket as that's my drinking night with the boys when we talk cricket, football and politics, and try to sort out the problems of the world.
Maybe we'll see you in the Planters after the game?

RE: MICHAEL PATTERSON
1. I have never indiated support for the 'rule' in question.
2. I merely pointed out in the face of accustaions to a hard working administer that he had acted 'arbitrarily', that he had, in fact, simply applied the rules.
3. I am at a loss to understand what this has to do with North Down last year - do you have another agenda?
4. I do not understand the sarcasm directed to me and what I do for a living - I represented my club's interests last season. I beleve we all know the outcome. If you were in a position to assist your club would you refuse?
5. What relevance is being a Waringstown member with regards to this issue - this game has no affect on Waringstown at all?
6. On a personal note I am delighted the semi-final will be played.
7. The Lord chief Justice is referred to as "Your Lordship" and not "Your Worship".
8. I am proud to be a 'Waringstown Man'. However on Friday I am representing the NCU Youth Committee at the under 15 League Final rather than watching my son play for Waringstown. What are you doing?

MICHAEL - PLEASE QUOTE WHERE I HAVE DEFENDED THE RULE BOOK IN THIS OCCASION OR BE MAN ENOUGH TO WITHDRAW THIS SUGGESTION.

You're right Dee.
But we won't have to wait long because we're certainly going to have another major controversy this season with all these matches still to be played and the rule-book about to be kicked all over the place.
Watch this space!

Would it be possible to get a list of the remaining fixtures, with dates, on the site?

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm Mr. Patterson?!
I think we have enough to worry about ending this season without dragging up issues from last year…

Just read the NCU has changed its rules and applied common sense to the re-scheduling of the under 15 semi-final. And guess who was in the middle of it all defending the NCU rulebook but none other that cricket's Lord Chief Justice Neale Matthews?
But wait, didn't the NCU change its rules this time?
Now why was the law of common sense not applied last year 'your worship' when North Down made a flippant error in Peter Connell's registration?
Perhaps it's because you're more of a Waringstown man than an NCU man!

Ok, the latest Ireland squad has just been announced and I must say, I'd rather have Jason Molins than Dominic Joyce! This guy is a very good cricketer but he has had chances galore and not taken them - why has he not been discarded?!?!

Can anybody update us all on what happened to the NCU Development plan? It arrived in a blaze of glory but seems to have disappeared off the radar just a quickly. Was it the fact that the NW didn’t want an Ulster League that buried it?
For that matter, is the NW going to produce a development plan?

Its tight at the top of the Senior League this year isn’t it? If Donemana beat Brigade then it will go down to the wire. Pity there is no relegation as the way the NCU is shaping up, every team will be involved in something until the last games are played!!!

Agh Robert you really got me there!
Apart from Jason Molins I don't know anybody else who wants to play for Ireland!