This year there has been great difficulties in Intermediate cricket in the North West. I apologise to regular readers if this topic doesn't interest you but I have been asked to submit my thoughts here as it would be too long to post on a forum.

The difficulties are the continuity of fixtures. This has arisen because of the fact there are 8 team leagues. Intermediate 1, 2 and 3 will therefore play 14 leagues games. Intermediate 4 still have 10 teams will play 18 games. The program has been thrown into confusion because senior cricket has still got 10 teams. This means the corresponding fixtures don't always match up i.e. 1sts at home and 2nds away to the same opposition on the same day doesn't happen as often as it should.

For young players at some clubs this could mean they drift off. For example Billy Henderson of Eglinton was telling me of a young lad in their senior team who could do with some practice wasn't able to drop down to the Intermediates as he would have no game for 2 weeks. If the weather then causes a postponement it could mean 3 weeks without cricket and then 2 weeks of double headers. It has been the stop start nature of the fixtures which has caused the real difficulty.

Meanwhile the teams playing Senior Cricket in the North West and indeed the NCU are competing in so many competitions they are playing double headers almost every weekend. A successful side in the Faughan Valley Cup, Senior Cup, ClubTurf Ulster Cup and Irish Senior Cup will complete 34 competitive fixtures. When you count the times you turn up when play is not started or completed due to weather, this amounts to a considerable commitment.

What also causes some difficulty is the fact that the Ballyspallen club is playing in the Intermediate leagues and Bready and Donemana have strong 3rd elevens. There is a reluctance to promote these teams as the clubs will have two teams in the same division.
There has been a call by some to amalgamate Senior 2 with Intermediate 1 to improve standards but I'm not sure that would work and it would a nightmare for the Section secretary to administer the fixtures. In principle I don't have a problem with the concept of senior and junior clubs but the North West has only 2 sections so Senior 2 must be kept separate to Intermediate cricket.

I think most people would agree that 8 teams in the Intermediate league hasn't worked. If there were 24 senior clubs in the North West you could have 3 senior leagues of 8 teams. Its (Intermediate) chances of success would be better if there were 8 team senior sections where the fixtures could then match up. That is not going to happen in the short term because (a) we don't have 24 senior clubs and (b) clubs around the bottom of Senior 1 and Senior 2 aren't going to vote for it!

Ballyspallen may feel ready in 2009 to enter the senior league and if so should be encouraged to do so. However they should think carefully about the timing as they haven't exactly walked away with Intermediate 2. If they feel ready then they should be readmitted as a senior club. Assuming they don't it means there are 34 Intermediate teams and currently 4 leagues. Bready 3rds are running away with Intermediate 2 but currently cannot be promoted.

If we decide to keep the status quo and continue with 8 team leagues then there must be a way to ensure players are playing every week. One way to do this would be to have a cut off point in the season possibly around the time of the Senior Cup final or the following week where the 14 league fixtures would have to be completed. This would ensure there is regular cricket to around mid August. I would then introduce another trophy. The top four in each division would have playoffs for a league cup. Top plays fourth and second plays third in the semis and then a final. Thus Intermediate teams would compete for a league, a cup and a league cup in a season.

The other alternative would be to go back to 10 team leagues with 14 in Intermediate 3. I would have no qualms about promoting Bready or Donemana 2nds and 3rds into the same league. If they are good enough, then why not? There are player starring systems in place to ensure everyone knows who is eligible for each team and as long as there are umpires at the matches and team sheets submitted there shouldn't be any problems.

Intermediate 3 would have 14 teams so they could play each other once as traditionally it has been more difficulty getting teams out at the bottom of the structure.

Whichever way you go will have difficulties but it isn't working at present so something needs to change.