Forum

Thanks for the invite Jeff but I think the postings say it all. Yesterday was the busiest day ever on our forum but to put the issues into perspective sport lost Tommy Burns and Robert Dunlop in tragic circumstances. Two great ambassadors of their sport.
What a sad day.

Thanks Wylie. Now we have the facts and we have them from the right person. Well done as you take the hits so you should take the compliments even although the decision is absurd. I have to say most people are shocked that a club can get their match postponed with one player absent and your precedent will open a huge door for abuse. Shame on Brian Walsh and Instonians for going this route. Very negative approach from someone who has been involved in 'developing' the game. Don't know the Bangor chairman but he must be going down to the marina on Saturday afternoon to watch the wee boats come in! Does anybody want to play cricket out there?

Wylie
I think your response goes a long way to explaining the decision making process and I think this positive use of the forum boards by you is commendable and certainly counters the postings that the Union despise this media.

really cant believe games being put back because off 1 player missing but if CLIFTONVILLE would like too give us a BETTER CHANCE they should call it off as we have 2 missing .cant believe that we have best weather for 10 years & we already have 3 sunday games ,playing sat&sun is ruining peoples lives & i love my SPORT but after playing 35 seasons think it is time we looked to the future as BELIEVE me in less that 20 years their will be very few STALWARTS &a lot less 2nd 3rds 4th teams as life has a lot more too offer than working 5 days &then being asked too give up your sat &sun too play our beloved CRICKET.(editor whats your VIEWS ON games OFF?)ps think CLIFTONVILLE playing us because they no we are RESTING PLAYERS FOR SUNDAYS GAME.lol

does anyone know whether the new bye law that allows a team to postpone their senior cup game if they have someone playing for ireland includes ireland a,ireland u23,ireland u19,ireland u17 or is it just the senior team.

Who are the selectors of the NCU Junior side ?. I would assume they would be attached to Section Two clubs.If they are considered too old or barred because they are Ex Internationals could I suggest that Charlie McCrum and Michael Shannon would know most players at this level inside out.Andy Clement and Reggie Stinson are two other guys who have a good knowledge of players at this level.

Rodney your right with your comment 'Well I say, if you arent good enough to play in section 1 then you should accept the arrangements in section 2 etc.'

However if you think that I/my club don't accept arrangements in Section 2 then your a bit naive - Goodness sake we've been in Section 2 five years now and just get on with playing week in week out and giving our all! Yes our aim every year is to return to Section 1 but we by no means think we have a divine right to get back to Section 1.

I respect your views however should you really be commenting on individual clubs/players who you know very little or anything about?

All

The NCU are preparing a press release on the postponements of the two cup games this weekend that should be out later on this evening.

However I will try to detail the timeline for the match postponements:

The NCU were contacted by Waringstown on Monday evening at about 8.00PM.
I was made aware by Billy Boyd of the existence of a ruling made in 2004 by the NCU Management committee that clubs were allowed to postpone cup matches (but not league fixtures) if they had a player (singular) involved in Irish matches. On Tuesday I received a copy of this and contacted a number of senior NCU officials and discussed this ruling and how it affected Waringstown. We agreed that Waringstown could indeed postpone their fixture because they have three players involved with Ireland. This was conveyed to the Waringstown and Woodvale secretaries by email late on Tuesday evening (around midnight). Part of the reason for this is that I was attending a Northern Ireland Cricket Association meeting at Coleraine RFCC and did not arrive home until 11.30PM.

On Wednesday morning I was contacted by the Instonians Chairman, Brian Walsh, letting me know that they were thinking of requesting postponement of their game against Bangor. We received an official request from him at 5.15PM on Wednesday evening. I then contacted the same NCU officials and it would be fair to say that not all were in favour of allowing the postponement. However a majority thought we had to abide by the previous ruling and I made the decision to allow Instonians to postpone their game. Both Instonians and Bangor were contacted on Wednesday evening at around midnight. I also spoke to the Bangor chairman who thanked me for the call and did not object in any way to the match being postponed.

The NCU plan to look at this ruling in the coming weeks to see if it needs to be changed in any way for next season and will also try to avoid scheduling our cup matches on the same weekends as Irish matches. This is not as easy as it sounds with the number of matches Ireland play in early May.

Forum posters should also be aware that all of us are volunteers with proper paying day jobs and it is not easy for most of us to reply instantly to messages posted on forums during a working day.

Wylie McKinty
Chairman, NCU

PS if Ivan would like to sponsor my phone bill for the last three days I am open to offers!

Roger at least you had the decency to address some of our concerns and thanks for that.
Why is it such a big issue for the NCU officials to answer the questions on postponements? The longer the silence the more the plot thickens.
Communication is transparency.

R.E Junior Interpro

I think in theory this is a good idea to continue to play this game but what is achieved by playing guys approaching or into their 30s? What do they get out of it is my query?

Why dont both Unions decide to reward the young guys playing 1st XI Cricket in Section 2 by making this a Under 20 fixture?

rodney

We will have to agree to disagree on this one. Firstly your comment regarding not being good enough to play in section 1 you have to accept the arrangements in section 2. Of course we accept the arrangements in section 2, we play cricket in any section and do our best each week , hopefully to get back to section 1. This is a forum and i am airing my personal opinions , not those of downpatrick, im sure there are probably guys on our team who would like to play in a junior inter pro. The point i was making is that there is no actual point in it other than another sunday where clubs cannot rearrange fixtures. You can hardly compare playing for ireland to play in a junior inter pro so if you are 100th choice for that team it would still be an honour??.
Fair play to you for having the passion rodney but personally i think the young kids can aspire to playing for the clubs first xi and getting as high up the league as possible.
I dont think my views on this are isolated there are quite a few boys out there who would agree.
with regards the junior inter pros being able to compare standards between the unions, then we already have the ulster shield for that , where north west and NCU teams can be compared.
No one is undervaluing of forgetting about section 2 , because it has probably had more chat and publicity than in any other year, and will be one of the most exciting leagues in years. I dont think a junior interpro would add to that.
But we are all have different views

taito

I agree with most of your selections although I havent seen a few of them play.

With regards the reason behind having a junior interpro. I totally disagree with you. Are you saying if you were 4th choice to play for ireland or even 100th choice, you would turn them down because you thought there was no honour in being less than first choice? I think its rediculous to make such a comment. Also I think your post signals everything that is wrong with NCU cricket at the moment. You place importance in Senior Inter Pros whereby the supposed best players in the country play against each other. I think this is a good indication of the different league standards however does it really represent the standard of the lower sections, sections were grass roots cricket is at present undervalued. Having a junior interpro allows a comparison to be made between lower level cricket which gives another good representation of what the standards are like. Too many people forget about cricket below section 1, perhaps if there was more effort / emphasis put into clubs in the lower leagues then it would improve the state and strength of the union. Look at Dundrum for example, there is newcastle, dundrum, castlewellan, seaforde, clough, kilkeel, annalong etc that is untapped. Junior interpros are a first step for the youth of today to aim towards and I think most people would see it as an honour to represent the union, I know I would. Readers will notice that the people who undervalue junior interpros have indeed played at senior level and play for clubs who should be section 1 clubs. It is obvious that these clubs / players are only interested in themselves. Well I say, if you arent good enough to play in section 1 then you should accept the arrangements in section 2 etc.

SECTION 2 TEAM

1. Johnston (Woodvale)
2. Sharkey (Holywood)
3. J Kennedy (Ballymena)
4. Dunlop (Muckamore)
5. Kirkpatrick (woodvale)
6. McCormick (Holywood)
7. Donnelly (Woodvale)
8. Cleland (Woodvale)
9. Gill (Muckamore)
10. Glass (Ballymena)
11. Shannon (Holywood)

I have left out players from Saintfield and Dundrum as i have never played against them and players from Lurgan and Downpatrick as i havent seen them in quite a few years.

Roger

Fair play to you for leaving a comment on the forum to hear other peoples opinions, perhaps something the NCU should consider going forward. What date will the team be picked on?

Rodney

See what you started Ivan?
I'm not sure Junior Inter Pros is the correct name if the team is from section two as players like David Kennedy would be automatics in a senior interpro team. For many years players outside section one were picked on senior representative teams. Junior interpro teams were selected from clubs that particiapted in the Junior Cup.
As for Rodney, you are picking a County Down team!