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Premier League Team of the Year :

1. K. McCallan
2. R. McCann (wk)
3. R. Haire
4. J. Hall
5. N. Jones (c)
6. D. Heasley
7. G. Thompson
8. E. Moleon
9. D. Simpson
10. M. Moreland
11. R. Hanna

it is hard to pick teams of year. People talk about stats but based on my viewing of opposition, results here is the team i feel had the biggest impact on their teams over the course of the season to winning matches. I am excluding my own club members in most cases and i have added brief rationale for choice .

1. Z rushe - stand out innings to beat muckamore in only defeat of season. Very talented and his bowling could come out of the closet next season and do ok.
2. N cahill/s hegarty - either or really. Both seemed to have good seasons. Any time they did well their teams did well. A lot of runs.
3. M hutchinson - the class act of the league.
4.J van der merwe - for one so young he has a top cricketing brain. Will stand him in good stead next year.
5. A nixon - again a top innings to beat muckamore, a lot of runs and a good seamer.
6. P mccormick - best all rounder in the league and a number of match winning performances with bat and ball
7. r adair - class knock against muckamore and nearly won a game that looked lost. Excellent talent
8. J maguire. Best off spinner in the league and a decent bat with it.
9. C boultwood - impt runs and keeping coming on leaps and bounds.
10. R bell - best seamer in the league by a country mile and v impt runs.
11. Macca - my skipper got a bit of flack and despite being the blindest git i have seen he stood up and was counted with the ball all year and got impt wickets for zip all.

The stats would be interesting reading

if i was playing fantasy cricket craig lewis would be in every week. Awesome striker and top 50 against muckamore. ross boultwood, andy bassett and paul robinson could all slot on easily.

1. N.Cahill
2. W.Horwood
3. M.Hutchinson
4. J. Van Der Mewre
5. A.Nixon
6. S. Hegarty
7. P. McCormick
8. C. Boultwood (wk)
9. J. Maguire
10. M. Mckeown
11. D. Kennedy

Honestly think this was the best of the bunch this year, I'm sure stats would probably back this up, have the luxury of getting a few overs out of the likes of Nixon, van der merwe etc as well, very solid team

Section 1 dream team.

Minus overseas players naturally or else Kamtekar and Ellison would have been hard to ignore.

1 W Horwood (muckamore)
2 D Munn (cliftonville)
3 M Hutchinson (bangor)
4 A Nixon (bangor)
5 P McCormick (c) (holywood)
6 S Johnston (woodvale)
7 B Dunlop (muckamore)
8 R Bell (Bangor)
9 A Whitcroft (armagh)
10 A Bassett (dundrum)
11 M Yeates (saintfield)

Ref: M.Parks V.C.C.

Vennard... as you say is still only 18yrs old !

Boomer by contrast is conceeding a few years to him, so I reckon he edges it over the younger man, by virtue of 'star-quality' and that 'X-factor' appeal that the crowd do so love to be entertained by !!!

Team of the year

Z Rushe
N Cahill
J Van Der Merwe
M Hutchinson
A Nixon
P McCormick
C Boultwood
R Coetzee
R Bell
M Nixon
A Bassett

End of another wonderful season...for what its worth, he is my selection for Section 1 team of the season:
1 B Baguley, Muckamore
2 W Horwood, M'more
3 M Hutchinson, Bangor
4 A Nixon, Bangor
5 P McCormick, Holywood
6 R Adair, Holywood
7 C Boultwood, Saintfield
8 A Magennis, Laurelvale
9 R Boultwood, Saintfield
10 M Shannon, Holywood
11 A McCulloch, M'more (Capt)
12th man S Johnston Woodvale

section 1 team of the year

1 b baguley (muckamore)
2 s johnston (woodvale)
3 m hutchinson (bangor)
4 j van der merwe (muckamore)
5 a nixon (bangor)
6 p mccormick (holywood)
7 j maguire (dundrum)
8 b dunlop (muckamore)
9 r bell (bangor)
10 m yeates (saintfield)
11 d kennedy (holywood)

12th man d munn (cliftonville)

based on personal opinion and maybe not backed up by stats, but shouldnt be too far away.

RE Graeme

You seem to have been worked particularly hard this season, as from my reckoning 8 of those 11 are regular 1st XI players for their club who have been de-starred for the occasion.

I see that Davy Jacobs & Kieran Noema-Barnett are featuring in the current T/20 competition in South Africa and indeed one of them is captain of his side. Has playing at the this level any affect on their qualification for NCU cricket?

Which I'd got a score against Templepatrick so that I could be considered for selection in the 2:3 team of the year!!

Obviously my suggestions are closer to home. At Victoria we had a star in Darren Vennard, scored a century, as well as some other biggish scores, and only 18, while Caleb Boomer posted some excellent figures with the ball.

Guys who impressed against us... Ali (Portadown), opener/WK for Templepatrick, an Armagh batsman who's name escapes me. Those are the ones that spring to mind at the moment.

just seen Graemes team for 2:3 so thought id have a got at it too again with who played well against ourselves

(1) Stu McCart (Millpark)
(2) M Simpson wkt (Cregagh)
(3) M Hoey (Armagh)
(4) L Hamilton (Armagh)
(5) J Maxwell (Millpark);)
(6) L Maxwell (Dundrum)
(7) J Haddock (P'Down)
(8) T Jackson (Cregagh)
(9) C Marshall (Victoria)
(10) G Pollock (Cooke)
(11) D Maxwell (Millpark)

lets get some more of these up lads :)

So the kit is back in the roofspace and a most enjoyable season I'm sure was had by most helped in a large part by the decent weather.
Lots of chat on here about those at the top so i've tried to put a bit of thought to recognise thise a bit "lower down". Below is my div 2:3 team of the year, its based purely on my experience of those i've played with, against or have shown up well in the results so abley advertised by wylie on another channel. I'm sure it is full of errors and inaccuracies so don't shoot me

1 G Lucy (Cooke Collegians)
2)Stu McCart (Millpark)
3)J Keenan (Ards)
4)D Bailey (Dundrum)
5)P Kerr (Cregagh)
6)M Steenson (Armagh)
7)M Brownlee (Armagh)
8)M Hoey (Armagh)
9)M Thompson (Cregagh)
10)T Lennon wkt (Cooke Collegians)
11)R Jose (Portadown)

these guys all showed that there is a bit of talent down there.

5.
So with a man he knew,who runs the N.C.U
He called and had some kindly words,
Now a brand new team is no longer just a dream,
He has given onto us 'Victoria.. the Thirds'.

6.
The skipper of this team he was
He steered her well, without faux-pas,
No team of his, from league withdraws
And to his credit and much applause
All bar one did they play,
Beating Bangor on the way
And so it proved an erstwhile,worthy cause.

For verse's 1.2.3.4. 7.& 8. see details of previous post.

With the season all but over now, may I say thank-you to all the hard working officials who run the office of the N.C.U. including the Umpires and a special mention goes to Wylie McKinty.

His N.C.U. website was a pleasure to read and always up-to-date, even at the lower levels all match results were entered and updated on the relevant league tables very quickly and that takes commitment indeed. Well done Sir !

And while I'm here, could I be a little self-congratulatory and say well done to the managment of my own club, Victoria.
We may be considered a 'small outfit' by comparison to others, but this has been the club's most successful season ever, by 'a long shot'!

Our 1st team finished third in their league, our seconds mid-table, but our greatest success was our 'fledging' third team, created,inspired and led by Gregory Mullin, they fulfilled every fixture bar one and even managed to 'bag' a few wins on their merry way.

Greg himself is standing down this year as third's skipper, previously having amongst other posts within the club, been the second's Captain for many years.
And boy that's been tough going at times, but he leaves a once 'battle-weary ship',well primed, rebuilt and ready for action next season.

I've composed a 'little' tributory poem by way of thanks and appreciation for his sterling service to Victoria C.C. and I'll re-post a couple of verse's on here, (Editor permitting) for readers to have a look at, but feel free to log onto our website to read the complete version.
www.victoriacricketclub.co.uk
(click onto the Vic Johns blog)