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The Officers and Members of the NIACUS would like to tender their most sincere sympathy to the family of the late John Doherty who was fine umpire from the North West and who had a distinguished career both at local and international level. I hope that his family are comforted by our thoughts and prayers at this sad time.

Michael Ridley last Saturday night at the NCU dinner - Excellent! (Can't believe I'm saying that of one so closely linked to the Master Race)

Andy, thanks again for you support & encouragement.
Not just for attending our end of season awards dinner, but also earlier on this season helping both ourselves & Donacloney C.C. by umpiring a friendly game between the two clubs, enabling a bunch of new players from both sides get some cricket action.

We may not be a 'high-flying' big name premier league outfit, but you still chose to give up your time to help us out and have been very generous towards our 'wee' club.

Speaks volumes of your integrity and respect for grass-root club cricket and we at Victoria C.C. are indebted to you and very grateful to for all your support.

Thanks again Andy, (I loved the way you casually winked at me during the dinner, when Gerald was vociferously reminding you of the 'thousands' of wickets he has taken in his career, including Irish,ex.Irish internationals and many more such like !!)

Classic entertainment indeed !

by the way umpire Ronnie Mcalpine didnt sing as his backing group DUCKWORTH LEWIS didnt get cleared too play by the NCU LOL

RE , Clarence the reason Dundrum cricket club couldnt attend as once again our dinner clashed with the NCU date so ill make sure that we dont clash again but one of the hard parts in getting people too attend from here is the fact that the driver is usually the same players that take their cars too away games an cant take a drink an its a long drive home listening too the chosen few pi$$ed up. Dundrum had local star Patrick Keilty and the gorgeous Zoey Salmon as the FREE entertainment both singing with us altho as Paddy said the police should been called as Zoey an him murdered the classic song islands in the stream. Paddy has played lots games with Lords taverners and offered us a game at private estate in the cotswolds.PS cant find paddy in many off the pictures or videos but stevie max was obviously under orders too FOCUS on Zoeys FANTASTIC FIGURE an i suppose the short mini skirt kept Paddy out the limelight

I would like to extend my thanks, and the thanks of Victoria Cricket Club to Andy Kennedy. After all the talk of after dinner speakers at the NCU dinner on here... Andy proved himself to be an excellent after dinner speaker, and had the crowd captivated with a bit of humour!!

Thanks Andy. Hope you enjoyed your evening, and didn't mind Gerald stealing your wife for a "twist" or two!

Great night had by all at Victoria C.C. Roll on next season!!

I attended my first NCU Annual Dinner for a few years on Saturday. The best part of the evening was the announcement of Newsletter Team of the Year as very few knew in advance who would be selected. This is a good innovation and it would be a good idea in future years to also do this for Sections 1, 2 & 3. Hopefully this would enhance the event and lead to a bigger attendance from clubs in these sections.

great to see the progress at Victoria - Brownlow House is a helluva club house! Just to advise Vic that Flossie has just about recovered from the "strictly come dancing" with the "senior pro"! I was also delighted to meet Harold McCrory again - one of the real gentlemen of the game. A really enjoyable evening!

Thanks Andy, I kinda forgot about that!

Anyway, looks like I've no takers for a spot of poetry as it happens, but hopefully if we can build on this season's success at our club, then maybe next year I'll get to the N.C.U. dinner as of right, because one of our teams has either gained promotion, or won a cup competition.

You never know !

seems good Vic but is there not a bit of double booking clash with your own dinner? Remember one we attended in the Thruppenny Bit at the King's Hall - yes its that long ago! - and the speaker was so memorable that Dessie Kane started reading the Ireland Saturday Night! Ah the good old days!!

vic, don't you offer yourself up for any speeches.

Dundrum Cricket Club Dinner saturday evening - Maghera Inn. If there are any other club members in the area, you will be made very welcome to the after dinner entertainment. We need someone who can wrestle the microphone of Ronnie McAlpine! Hope you can't sing Vic.....

Wylie,
If the N.C.U. are stuck for a speaker or two for their after-dinner ceremony entertainment, I don't mind reciting some verses of poetry and I'm sure I could persuade Gerald to accompany me and tell a wee story or two, maybe sing an odd song as well.

He was telling me the other day about the conversation he overheard in Cafollas cafe, two ladies bumped into eachother after years of being apart from their childhood days, the conversation went thus:

Lady 1."Its lovely to meet you again after all this time, how's life been?

Lady 2. "Oh not bad, I got married you know".

Lady 1."Oh that's good"
Lady 2."Oh it's not so good, he's very old"!
Lady 1."Oh dear,thats bad".
Lady 2.Well it's not so bad, he's very rich" !
Lady 1."Oh, that's good"!
Lady 2."Well it's not so good, he's very mean"!
Lady 1."Oh dear,that's bad"!
Lady 2."Well it's not so bad, we live in a huge mansion"!
Lady 1."Oh well, that's good"!
Lady 2."Well it's not so good, it burned down to the ground, yesterday"!
Lady 1."Oh dear, that's bad"!
Lady 2."Well it's not so bad.....

.....He was in it"!!!

(Ps. No payment necessary !)

on the question of speakers and the NCU dinner - this is an "awards night" and the event will always be well supported by the winning clubs in a particular year and as such is completely different from club dinners. I don't honestly believe that the speaker adds too many more to the attendance. As the Ed. writes in the "feature", dinners are more about the socialising, etc. with a tasty dinner, a few drinks & an entertaining speaker. I can only quote the Muckamore experience where we have had good speakers over the past few years, Jim McDowell, Ken Reid, Carl Monteith and this year Philip Gregg - much more entertaining than hearing some guy going on about "when I played with so and so" - becomes a bit like listening to Mike Summerbee, Rodney Marsh, etc. telling the same old stories about George Best - gets a bit repetitive.

NCU Dinner
I have read with interest the comments on here about the NCU Dinner and would love the NCU to be able to bring over a "big name" guest to speak at it as in my time attending we have had some fantastic speakers attending. However Peter Wood hits the nail on the head when he says that to get a “big name” speaker is very costly these days, especially for a Saturday evening. I note that the cost of a ticket for the Lurgan dinner is £40 compared to the NCU dinner at £25 and I am pretty sure the cost of preparing a meal in Lurgan is not more expensive than a Belfast Hotel. So I assume the mark up on the price of a Lurgan ticket is to cover the costs associated with the guest.

If the NCU raised the price of a ticket to £40 that would easily cover the cost of bringing over a major cricket celebrity but would it put some people off because of the price or would the fact that a well known cricketer was going to attend attract more people to the dinner despite the £40 cost?
The numbers attending the dinner were in decline even when someone like this was in attendance at the NCU Dinner.

I for one would like to hear if people have alternative ideas.
I note that James from Belfast suggests the need for change without actually offering any ideas himself!

Division 1 Averages
Is Interested Spectator enquiring about all Division 1 sections or only the Premier League?
The Premier League averages have been published in the NCU’s annual report and appear on the CricketIreland web site. No averages are usually published for Sections 1, 2 and 3 as this is not something that the League Secretaries for those sections are requested to prepare. I think in the past Ryan McMaster did ask for clubs to send him their averages for Section 2 and he was going to compile these together but he received a very poor response from the clubs.

Any idea when the Division 1 NCU averages will be published?