Forum

William, it was sort of tongue in cheek. It was in response to various posters saying that it would be easy to get this firm to sponsor this and that firm to sponsor that. eg a kit supplier to sponsor the coloured clothing (sorry Jeff). I’m afraid the NCU’s experience is to the contrary.
The NCU's sponsorship officer, Richard Johnson, has been proactively seeking a sponsor for the NCU’s Challenge Cup for the last two seasons and has come close to signing up a few firms on several occasions only to be let down at the last moment on a couple of occasions. Along with Finance Director Dawn Johnston and several others they have produced an excellent sponsorship brochure that they approach potential sponsors with in the first place.
Jeff/Jim (and others), I am not 100% sure of the numbers being sought but I believe a figure somewhere between £6-7k to sponsor the Challenge Cup and £2-3k for the Twenty20 tournament would not be far off the mark.
So if anyone knows of a potential sponsor (for any competition) then contact Richard Johnson and have a chat with him (his number/email is on the NCU website)

Wylie,
What is the figure needed for NCU sponsorship? I'm sure through all our wide range of players occupations, we can come up with someone, but a figure would be helpful.

Wylie - you would think somebody asking to delay the start time back would be a lot more suspicious than bringing it forward....???? You would think there would be more teams looking to start earlier if there's no school kids involved especially considering the majority of them would be in the senior leagues.

I just don't think that the coloured gear and rule changes have been given serious thought throughout the clubs and NCU as a whole. Maybe its about time we did....!

Wylie,
Maybe it does! Jeff seems to lining up Paddy Power, or Ladbrokes or the Bay Inn or whoever.
Has the senior cup got a sponsor?
If not maybe the Lisburn council could take it on as the final is at Wallace Park.

Wylie,
I hope the last comment in your email is tongue in cheek? I would like to think the NCU committee is taking a much more professional approach to finding a major sponsor than a one-liner at the end of an email on UC website. Don't sit waiting at the phone because it doesn't happen like that.

wylie , without selling ncu short give us a BALLPARK figure too say sponsor the senior cup?

Neal: teams who agree to start a game earlier than the scheduled start time can do this under the current NCU rules and have been able to do so for a number of years.
However being the suspicious so and so's that we are a lot of teams say no when asked to start earlier than normal as they assume there must be an ulterior motive for their opposition asking for an early start!

Coloured clothing/white balls, etc debate - The NCU will be running "roadshows" in 2011 related to Senior Cricket I believe, so if clubs believe this is the way forward then get to one of these and let your feelings be known. Since no club put a proposal forward for coloured clothing, etc in all competitions at the NCU 2010 AGM then it would seem they do not want it yet.

Oh and if anyone knows of a major sponsor wishing to get involved with the NCU then for goodness sake let someone within the NCU know.

Must give Dundrum C.C. w.a.g.s. their fare dues, especially Mrs. Maxwell & Co.
Last season catered for our team plus all our day-away travelling supporters, without any prior knowledge of them attending even nipped home and got seconds made up to bring back & feed our hungry lot.

Can't ask for any better hospitality than that..can you ?

Our turn this time to return the compliment and looking forward to it already !!

I wonder what the WAGS would say if they read the comments on this forum. So far, Watty and Brendan are the only ones that can be identified!! I'm staying silent lol

Brendan

Come on down to Cregagh on a Saturday afternoon and see the best WAGS in the NCU.

They help out at all the home games for 1sts, 2nds, and 3rds and even lend some vocal support and all it takes is a few bottles of wine and a kebab on the way home.

Sometimes I think the kebab spoils them but you didnt hear that from me ;-)

met the REAL sports minister yesterday an fair play without his support from meeting us we wouldnt have got the grant for new artifical wicket an sitescreens an nets etc so thanks .If any of our juniors want play premier or better they will get my full backing as thers a fair chance they go anyway an id love see any that were good enough play at highest level and if Dundrum cant get thier then id never want see any junior play at his highest possible standard .I dont think coloured clothing get lot more involved but talking too the juniors they seem think it be good an they are the future .ps the late late show rte 930 tonight has nial& kevin obrien ,john mooney an trent johnston on so it be good see were they thing irish cricket is at

PS
Sports Minister.
Maybe I have met her? What was her maiden name?

Pre-nuptial is the way to go Sports Minister. If you are really a civil servant you'll be able to backdate it.
At least you have a sense of humour and you need it here. Best post I've seen recently was from Simon Corlett saying he values the friendships he made in cricket much more than his achievements and he had many. Like a lot of us he's maybe a dinosaur but I fear some cricketers won't have either to fall back on in the modern game. They'll do well to keep the WAGs happy! lol

Re - Brendan

The short answer is yes, we are all wimps...!

If you met my wife you'd know where i'm comming from :-)

Re- Jeff

If the coloured clothing arguement is right, we will actually be inundated with umpires as they've been "colourfully clad" for a few seasons now.

Watch out for driving lesson being bandied about for those two schoolboys by the way.

It's also just dawned on me how many committee "singletons" in the NCU are there ? I can think of a few.
Is this the real reason for the late start times..?

- maybe the answer is all women committee's or marriage as a pre-requisit...?

I'll bring it up in the Big House later.