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TAYTO, surely you know STRANGFORD ROAD better than me as for BETTING i will give you two bets you choose double or quits the 40£ you owe from last year ( seems like 3 years ago) Dundrum to beat (the section winners)Downpatrick ? or you can have 50/50 ill take Lurgan too win the section & us too beat you 20£ on each?? considering you work for the Halifax £ shouldnt be a worry.Think the game will be on and hope it is as at least gives fine day sat. ps you cant lose as every one(YUR TEAM MATES) says you never pay yur DEBTS.LOL
Alan . my english always was bad to try to clarify NDCC could have said on fri that they want to wait & travel with umpires but only them & robin knows why they didnt . last year Armagh rang me and said the ground & game was off but i said that Dundrum would travel + rang housty too send umpires and let them decide ,lo & behold it wasnt perfect but was playable and we won a very hotly contested game on a beautiful ground + not sure saintfield would agree but it deservedly kept us in this section & it was hard for me to not take someones word over the phone but we needed too play or we would have agreed too call the game off. I really do hope both Armagh & Saintfield get back up as they both have fine grounds & lots fine players.
Jeff
As a captain in the Premier League for 8 years, I have never travelled to a ground when the opposition has phoned to call a game off. I always ask the question 'is there ANY chance of play?' and if the answer is no, then their word is good enough for me.
I hope I never have to change this policy.
We play virtually every Saturday and Sunday of the summer (very willingly) but if a game is off then the last thing most people with this commitment need is a day standing around not playing to compound the issue.
If anyone has done in the past or does in the future use this policy to try and gain an advantage over North Down, it hasn't worked so far.
Only time will tell if that is the case in the future...
Shieldsy
jeff what odds do you give for our game being on tomorrow never mind who is going to win it? Hold on i shouldnt ask questions like that i could end up in more debt to you.
Forecast is terrible for today, not so bad tomorrow, fingers crossed we get playing looking forward to the banter
Jeff, that posting looks like a good each way bet!
Kimberley, because they didn't believe it I guess?
I'm only going by what has been posted.
I'm sure Robin and his supporters can speak for themselves.
on the fast bowler issue, i think some people look to the past thru rose tinted glasses. sure, there were some quality fast bowlers, but i don't think they were any quicker than some today.
the first time i opened the batting for derriaghy i was facing russell adams of instonians, he was sharp but i dont think he was quicker than say coulter or connell.
there have been quite a few quicks in the ncu...mccrum, eagleson, mccoubrey...but i think the majority of quicks were overseas players. some pros were actually quite scary, especially when 15yrs ago you rarely seen anyone wearing a helmet and a thigh pad was a luxury.
and with the 15 overs per bowler rule you could bowl the lions share of the overs with only 3 bowlers. if you had a resonable opening bowler and a good spinner at a club all you needed was a decent pro and you had a good bowling attack. maybe with 5,6 or sometimes 7 bowlers being used now the quality of bowling is somewhat diluted.
i think the quickest bowler i have faced is probably Iqbal from rush a couple of yrs ago in the ISC...very rapid.
p.s. kimberly...as a former captain i know it was my responsibility to let the PLAYERS know if a match was off. i dont think i ever phoned round all the spectators. so maybe, as it was a good day, the spectators just didn't know the match was off.
Kimberley :
I would have thought Robin Haire would have been told be his own son that the game was off. I reckon Robin has gone up anyway just to wind things up, as we all know that is all he is doing and what he is best at, as many of his friends in Irish cricket will confirm!
robin , surely north down could ( maybe should) have exercised all clubs entitlement that if they not happy about cancelling the day before that they inform ian houston to send umpires and travel and let umpires decide if its fit for play.As match sec i offer clubs that option if they think that they not happy with some ones word , but personally id take steven hughes word everytime although sometimes any club can be a bit quick to call off a game as the forecast and good drainage can make a fool of anyone.
Mark - dry your eyes. Why did anyone travel since the match was called off the day before?
Interesting debate on the demise of fast bowlers. There are fast wickets in the West Indies yet the demise is just the same. Also look at the Asian countries and although they play on hard wickets spinners hold court. It has to be in the coaching and development. I'd like to hear Simon's views!
I think there's truth in some of your observations Nile but looking back were there really all that many fast bowlers around? We've seen a number listed by Gareth but that's over a long period. If you look at most clubs they had very few genuine pace bowlers and that's probably still the situation. Number 5 is probably the biggest factor!
Nice gesture Kimberley but too late.
Robin and the North Down supporters that travelled have already had their eyes wiped!
The only reason i see for the lack of fast bowlers is dedication, its takes a lot of fitness ( weights etc ) to have a body strong enough to cope with the fast bowling demands, then there is the hours of bowling required to have an action you trust ( run up, staying tall at the crease, wrist position etc ). This requires a lot of time which in an amateur support is hard to find. Im not overly convinced about the pitches as im not to sure if they have changed that much from when Patto, Eagy and Scooby were steaming in and bowling much quicker than alot of bowlers today.Still alot of fine bowlers playing NCU cricket though.
Lack of fast bowlers - possible reasons
(1) Slow Pitches
(2) The tighter interpretation of the wide rule (since mid 1990s)
(3) The 3 hr 15 mins rule
(4) Lack of quality slip / gully catchers (to catch off proper quicks in first 10 overs);
(5) Laziness - it looks like a lot of very hard work, training, dedication needed.
Anyone agree?
Can someone give me directions to North Down cricket club. I've an industrial sized box of Kleenex to deliver to a Mr R. Haire....
Why did you travel since the game had been called off the day before? Wuldn't be like you to look for something to cry about.
