Forum

Would like to congratulate Bobby Rao on receiving an MBE.
A tremendous man and very well deserved,

Well done Bobby.

Sounds fair to me, as I would imagine TP 2s will be more competitive in L3 than Dee would have been, just thought it was a bit odd. Will be tuff to call which two teams will go down from 3, lets hope for our sakes its not Academy and Templepatrick!

Thanks Peter

Robert Best
Templepatrick CC in JL3

Donaghadee approached the NCU and Templepatrick and requested to move down to JL5, their reasoning for this as far as i am aware was that they wanted to remain competitive and that JL5 would be the best league for them as a club. Templepatrick were in agreement with this proposal but the decision was made by the NCU and competitions committee.

all parties concerned are happy with the outcome and the common sense approach was taken, but perhaps somone from donaghadee can clarify or back up what i have said

Just been looking at the new Junior Leagues on the NCU Website and noticed that it appears Templepatrick 2s are now in league 3 at the expense of Donaghadee 2s who are now in league 5 despite finishing above TP last season? Why did this change happen?

M Parks,
Just on the 2013 in JL3, with Junior league 1 reducing to 8 teams at the end of this season in line with the reduction in the senior league, then as far as i am aware there will be no promotion at end of this season. Which means that it will be 2014 before your up in Junior 3 ( but someone please feel free to correct me if im wrong)

Thanks Peter. Its highly unliklely that more than two of our games on days other than Saturday, but I was still curious. I'll make sure to keep that in mind for 2013 (the year Victoria II will be in Junior 3!!)

M Parks.
AS far as i am aware no there is no limitation on Victoria IIs. The original thoughts of JTF was to limit teams which were not a clubs lowest side but this proved unworkable for league matchesand so I believe the competitions and management committee recommended that the fixture restrictions be placed on teams in Junior 1,2and 3. This means that teams in these leagues can only schedule 2 matches on a sunday with the exception of Millpark II ( as they are the lowest team in their club)

Would I be right or wrong in saying that Victoria II's would be limited to two games not on a Saturday in Junior 5?

NCU WOMENS CRICKET LEAGUE

Three teams (so far) have expressed an interest in the formation of a Women's League for the coming season - North Down; CSN and Waringstown. If there are any other clubs interested please contact either myself or indeed any NCU official as we are hopeful to get things up and running.

Cliftonville are running a Reunion Dinner incorporating the Inaugural Hall of Fame. The dinner will be held at the Penthouse Suite of the Belfast Europa Hotel on Saturday 16th April 2011. It is an open invite all members, former members of Cliftonville together with members of other clubs who may be keen to come along.

Tickets are £35 each and can be obtained by sending cheques, made payable to Cliftonville Cricket Club, to either Jim Munn, 20 Grangeleigh Avenue, Ballymena, BT42 2AP (Tel. 02825 649386) or Crawford McCully, 51 Schomberg Avenue, Belfast BT4 2JR (Tel. 02890 760593). This invitation is also extended to wives and partners.

To see the shortlist of nominees for the Hall of fame visit our website cliftonvillecricketclub.co.uk

GOOD NEWS is we have some cricket grounds SURROUNDED with beautiful scenery.

BAD NEWS is we have a LOT of sub standard playing surfaces on which cricket is played on.

The recent postings on number of runs scored are irrelevant.Many runs are scored on POOR pitches due to the inadequacies of bowlers who are unable to take advantage of "helpful" conditions.
Generally, the only SCIENTIFIC figures[to name but a few] that really matter when determining the quality of a cricket square are:

Clay Content
Soil Strength- Breaking Strength
Binding Stength
Silt Fraction
Organic Matter Content
pH values

How many of our clubs KNOW or want to know this information about their OWN ground.

Unfortunately,we must live with the fact that most local clubs are unable/unwilling to provide the resources [financial and human]to construct AND maintain the playing surface to the standards we see at many grounds in England.

I can assure you that whilst a "holiday" visiting a few county grounds and viewing their preparations for a match is interesting it has a "deflationery" effect on one`s own mindset when you think about NCU surfaces and one`s own club back home.

Nevertheless,when you recover from the shock you have to remember that we are amature clubs/players with an amaturish approach playing generally village cricket to 10 men and a dog for spectators.............so why get so concerned about where a cup final is played........it doesn`t matter

If you don`t think I am correct take a jaunt over to a few county grounds and before you go view a few websites on cricket pitches ......the ECB one is a good one to start with.

Happy Cutting/fertilising/rolling etc,etc

Wylie,

You are quite right: those figures are far from scientific. I think, however, they give a decent, if a little rough, indication of how pitches performed across the season,

Michael

No Dundrum in the Ulster Shield draw this year. Was just wondering reasons behind this?

Ivan raises an issue that hasn't been picked up - a sponsor for the Challencge Cup. In the past there have been some fantastic sponsors such as Touche Ross. In the absence of any progress I ask if there is any input available from Cricket Ireland to assist in the marketing of this competition or are they totally focussed on the national team? I also recall an earlier posting from Wayne Horwood regarding this so we seem to be in the same position as last year.

Re Paul
NDCC certainly did. I think the players would like to see the FINAL shared around the 3 top grounds.
In Oz grade cricket has a comprehensive system of reviewing is in place to determine ground gradings which transparently indicates the good and bad grounds. 1 or 2 is just not enough.