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Would certainly hammer CSNI and Lisburn that team.....

Seems to be a lot of pessimism in Bangor towards the ability of players in section 1. Interesting that two or three of their players have been mentioned in teams of section 1. Maybe the lack of ambition explains their languishing league position.

People need a reality check. I watch clips of the Knights playing and see wide half volleys and half trackers being bowled at Ed Joyce. You are delusional if you think Craig Lewis or Jonny Terrett wouldn't mash that all round the park too.... Templepatrick got relegated from section 1 two years ago, the same season they scored 250 against premier league champions instonians. By this time last year Craig Lewis had more runs in the PL than he does this year, is the bowling really much better? Derriaghy beat CIYMS and Donemana last season, the same team is currently in the bottom half of section 1.

So much delusion and snobbery from the Premier League. When in reality if you gave the section 1 clubs a first class pro they are no worse than half the premier league. Look at Muckamore! Took them 3 years to get out of section 1, now challenging for the Premier League with a good pro.

If you look back on the emerging Knights fixtures last season. It is your Bryans, McCords, Burns and J.Magee performing. Not your Haggans and Berrys. Although all 3 have started this season well it must be said.interestingly several muckamore lads starred for them last year too and have been left out?

But to throw and umbrella over section 1 players and say they can't compete at that level is a joke. Ross Adair is box office. Four 90s/100s in a row? But yes, these guys don't deserve a go. Play 30 year old Craig Lewis and Stephen Bunting and other full Knights in the emerging Knights, great for the future...

I see Tom Stanton is in the Lightning team for next T20. Another division 2 player aged 21 making his lightning debut. We complain about our small pool of players and wonder why we can't compete. Leinster don't rule out 18 clubs like we do, might be a small part of it.

NCU BYE-LAWS (2017 Edition)

w) Umpires Players acting as umpire in the absence of officially appointed umpires shall wear a white coat.

re jimmys section 1 team.

it would get relegated from the Premier league.

Section 1 XI

Few players from Woodvale would be miffed not to be in that line up, Gelston from Armagh would also walk onto any League select. Park wouldn't be the 'keeper either.

Given junior league matches only consist of 20/ 25 overs with the agreement of both clubs at the fixtures arrangement meeting could they not play some matches midweek thus taking the schools cricket congestion out of the equation it would I think make more of our limited summer and facilitate more participation and less walkovers

Arthur

My Auld Granny hated young people not dressing for Church until the Minister pointed out that he was grateful they were there at all.

Please don't continue :)

I agree totally with Arthur. Standards are slipping. I want more handlebar moustaches, cream teas and 5 day matches for u11s.
And we should bring back this disciplined attitude to other areas as well. Bring back the cane at school, hanging and other forms of corporal punishment, bring back kids working in the mines and let's take the vote back of women.
Progress and advancement in cricket? Who wants that?
Or maybe not Arthur. Maybe we should move with the times. All sports and fashions change and I for one embrace it. Bring on the tattoos and the piercings as long as people play our game
Sammy

Don't you realise Arthur that if that guy hadn't taken his phone with him he would have felt totally isolated from his world? He wouldn't have been aware of where his friends were eating, drinking or giving opinions on world shattering events?! Concentration on the game wouldn't come into it!

Would just like to make a comment RE Section One players and not being recognised for Knights Selection. The reason for this is that these players are not being watched. There isn't even a stats zone in place to keep track of good consistent performers. We can't keep letting these players slip through the system and be penalised for not playing for a premier league club. I would love to see a game of the best premier league vrs the best section one. I would say it would be a lot closer than people would think! My NCU Section One team to play:

C Lewis (Captain)
P Park (Wk)
M English
R Adair
J Terrett
R Smyth
A Nixon
M McCord
R Boultwood
D Kennedy
C Moorhead

Re Arthur...
your comments regarding 'sinister tattoos' are nonsense to be honest. What reason do you have in mentioning that the individual in question had tattoos?

Seem to be stuck in the past. And yet another person who would push people away from the sport of cricket as it seems to me that tattoos just aren't gentlemanly enough for your liking.
Very disappointed in these comments.

Hope for Ireland.
West Indies defeated Afghanistan 3-0 in the T20 Series. ODIs will follow so we'll judge them in comparison with contemporaries ie; a test team at the bottom of the ladder and the strongest currently Associate member. Ireland will test them again facing Afghanistan in July and then West Indies in September.

Re Arthur

I agree with some of the comments you have made in your post regarding match lengths- however I don't think that the fact the umpire in question had tattoo's (whether ghastly in your opinion or not) is relevant or points towards "typical sloppiness" in the game.

Would you have all players sporting tattoos banned from playing the game because it offends your sensibilities or doesn't fit the old image of gentlemen cricketers?

I could list several top test players who have tattoo's...

I refer to my previous posting of 12 May.

The following posting was mostly written during Oct/Nov last year, but I do not think it has dated too much.

At the moment I am convalescing from quite a serious operation. House bound and in a certain amount of discomfort, means there is plenty of time to reflect on the cricket season just completed and on the state of the game generally, as I see it. Some optimistic noises have been aired such as, "Successful Annual Dinner, and AGM," and "Cricket in Good Place." Nevertheless I am far from convinced.

One incident from last season, a particular low point so far as I am concerned, stands out because it typifies, in my opinion, much of the malaise that our game is in at the present time. It concerns a chap who went out to umpire at a junior match ( not a match involving TCC). He looked as though he had just stepped off the beach at Tenerife. He was very tall, sun burnt, wore flip flaps, no socks, shorts, a loose open multi coloured garish shirt, shades, a mobile phone in one hand, an ear piece in one ear, and the most outlandish hat imaginable. He also had sinister looking tattoos on an arm and a leg.

Going out to umpire dressed as a "beach bum" and with such "distracting accessories," which is not unique, and not forgetting the ghastly tattoos, is I feel typical of the sloppiness or casualness, that has crept into our game in recent years, particularly at junior level, where the overs have been reduced so much that the game is barely worth playing. What sort of message does this send out to our young players, and what do the parents, who sometimes appear at junior matches, think? However much one might like to pretend otherwise, appearance and what we wear does matter. Just ask our local politicians, the gents in their sharp suits and the ladies in their smart jackets and statement jewellery.

It was not ever thus. Back in the day when Templepatrick was a Parks Club playing at Mallusk, and playing 45 overs cricket (proper cricket), things were very different. I was one of the main organizers at that time. I had a check-list of all the necessities for each match. On that list there would always have been two umpires' coats. Mallusk was a busy place then. There would have been four matches there every Saturday, each progressing in a most dignified manner, with all of the umpires properly dressed, wearing white coats and concentrating fully on the task at hand. Where did it all go wrong?

I do not think we have too far to kook. The shorter games of 30 overs duration, and increasingly now of only 20 overs, are in fact different games and create a different mind-set within the players. Cricket is both a team game and an individual game, and if all of the players are to be meaningfully involved, then the game must be of sufficient duration. As the Americans say, there is no free lunch. Everything has its cost, and the cost of playing shorter games is that they do not provide sufficient cricket for a relatively large number of the players.

Is it any wonder that many of them do not seem to be enjoying it? For too many players it appears to be nothing more than a joyless chore, and the body language often suggests that they could not care less. They do not play with as much passion as they used to, and my feelings are that a lot of them are only going through the motions because they are not sufficiently involved, and their minds are therefore elsewhere. During the second innings, batsmen are hurrying away as soon as they are out. And the tea, if there is a tea is often taken at the end. This is to rush things along even more, and further players are scurrying off without even bothering with the tea. An inverse time law would seem to apply: the less cricket there is to play, the less time people have to play it.

To be continued.

The Lone Umpire..

'Mark this and mark it well
a fine, upstanding deed,
he journeyed far to ring the bell
so others may succeed

With rumour rife of ill-health
a sporting constitution in decline,
some chose the sanctuary of wealth
rather than dig in and mark time

But two cricket clubs of invention
from nearby, boarding lands,
knew cure was better than abstention
thus employed new hands

Arranged a game, a rival match
down by the factory ground,
encouraged newcomers, bat, bowl, catch
so they flocked from far around

A problem then became apparent
organized chaos may ensue,
but fears allayed by arrival of a gent
dressed in attire of navy blue

Proceedings quickly fell into place
those unsure soon got it right,
for this gentleman with gifted grace
guided each with unfettered oversight

Now few are born with midas touch
though all deserve a chance,
and the lone umpire knew as much
that's why his forthright stance

So if your club is undermanned
don't hide behind the door,
negate with resources found at hand
then like the lone umpire...You'll know esprit de corps'

Re: Ballymena man

Maybe Andy did make a mistake in your game. But I'll bet there were a few wrong decisions given by all umpires in the games at the weekend. That's because umpires are human and make mistakes. Andy comments on a lot of things on this forum that I disagree with but he is honest as the day is long and if he didn't give a batsman out it's because he didn't hear a nick or the batsman didn't hit it.

You should be ashamed in naming an umpire in these circumstances. They do the job for the love of the game, get paid a pittance for what could sometimes be a 10 hour day and then have to face these sort of comments from someone who hasn't got the balls to name himself.

Just think where the game would be without neutral umpires.