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re the Waring cup I would ask why Instonians have not been "required" to replace the base?

Following the AGM of NIACUS which was held on 10th October 2011 at Stormont the following officers and Committee members were elected to serve for 2011/2012.

Chairman - Alan Neill
Vice Chairman - Louis Arneill
Secretary - Jonathan Lyttle
Treasurer - Michael Ross
President - Peter Lunney

Committee

Noel McCarey
Kevin McConville
Ivan Reid
Alex Adams

Umpires Appointment Secretary
Ian Houston

NIACUS would like to extend their most sincere appreciation to outgoing Chairman Noel McCarey and are delighted that he will continue to serve on Executive Committee. The Association is also delighted that Ian Houston will remain as our Appointments Secretary. Ian is a dedicated and much respected servant to local cricket and we are happy that he will continue to work for the greater good of local cricket. Finally congratulations to our new Chairman Alan Neill and I know that we wish him every success.

thanks Neil - Instonians "lost" it! Then it has been "missing" for a couple of seasons. I think if that is the case then is it not appropriate that they should replace it?

Andy

Regarding the base of the Waring Cup, refer to Inst 2nds as they lost it.

Muckamore Award night last Friday - what a pity that the base of the Junior 2 Trophy was missing. I'm sure somebody somewhere knows where it is and perhaps it will be available at the City Hall on 15th!! Also what a great night at Downpatrick on Saturday night - great to see another generation of the Ferguson family winning the "best junior" award.

CIYMS Cricket Club are seeking to appoint a Player/Coach for the 2012 season to assist our newly appointed Youth Development Officer - to see a description of the role and how to apply please see www.northerncricketunion.org or C.I.Y.M.S C.C Facebook Page

whats the ncu going to do about teams not playing on sundays i know from experience that getting a team on a friday can be a struggle should not be made to play on a friday why dont they play away on a sunday

At late notice two tickets have become available for Lisburn CC's 175th anniversary gala dinner which takes place tomorrow night.

Details are on the Lisburn website - the guest speaker is David Lloyd and we are delighted to welcome him to Lisburn. Bumble rarely does after dinner speaking so this is abunique chance to hear him in the flesh.

Tickets are £60 each and the first two to call me will secure. I can be reached on 07740986343

AGM Serials

Some interesting serials this year. What will the next installment in league structures? Surely the lesson to be learnt here is not to delay the introduction of a proposal for 1 year - allows it to changed before it gets implemented. I think the 8,10,10,9 is better then 8,8,8,13. We must have the only governing body who is promoting less sport!!

I see we are going to play more Sunday cricket next year as a result of Serial 3. The 4th Sunday will be the default date for all re-arrangements (I wonder how I'm going to explain that one to the wife!) I wonder how this will affect those teams who do not play on Sundays - immediate relegation using serial 13 and some embarrassment to the NCU for some clubs not fulfilling a lot of fixtures! It would be interesting to hear their comments.
Duckworth Lewis for all senior matches - there will be some head scrathing in section 2 and 3 where getting the books to add up is a success.
Serial 6 looks good - 50 over re-arrangements where possible, it will be interesting to see how many clubs take advantage, with many clubs prefering the 20 over dash.
It is hard to see how any of these proposals, along with the Junior league proposals will improve the local game.
There are still too many teams not fulfilling fixtures, and clubs struggling. It would be interesting to total the number of adults playing more than 8-10 matches per season to determine the true state of our game. The NCU should spend more time getting coaches into clubs that need help than fiddling with rules. Maybe there should be a mentoring approach where larger, well structured clubs can assist those clubs struggling to attract and develop players.

All active umpires are asked to return their nominations for the Team Fair Play Award at the AGM of NIACUS on Monday 10th October 2011. We have moved from an individual award to a team award and would encourage umpires to participate in this exercise. Forms will also be available at the AGM.

Andy, I would agree with you if more teams were going to be relegated based on the proposed 8, 10, 10, 9 structure. But as I've stated before less teams are being relegated with this proposal so unless I am missing something more clubs will stay where they are.
The other thing I would say again is that at the roadshows this was what the majority of clubs wanted.

there is something that rankles with me about the proposed league changes. in the interests of fair play this should have been decided BEFORE the season started so that everyone was starting on an even playing field and knew what they had to do. To change have way through seems to me unfair - shades of the retirement speech by Geoffrey Howe having a slap at Thatcher about "taking the field with broken bats"!

Clarence - I've had an e-mail from someone who is probably older than both of us put together (he remembers the batting glove with the "wrap around" thumb) and he was recounting playing for Cloughfern in the final of the irish Junior Cup so its a true saying "there's nothing new under the sun"!

Bruce,

Yes, I realised that mistake and reposted before your post came on, but there seems to be a delay! Sorry for the error.

Stevie Max

Donaghcloney are not relegated at the moment as we were tied sixth with Woodvale and Holywood. The final decision would come down to net run rate and I suspect ours will hold up as we did not suffer too many big defeats and had some very big wins in the second half of the season.

As usual I will have to add that the views expressed here are my own and may not reflect the view of Donaghcloney Cricket Club.