Well it's that time again. We've had glorious sunshine for the last couple of weeks followed by the rain. It must be the start of the cricket season. We never know if it is going to rain on the first half of the season or the second half. Often it rains throughout all the months we rather optimistically call summer.

The weather might be changable but North Down's supremacy in the NCU is not. I may not know when it's going to rain but I know come September, North Down will reign again as champions. Ho hum.

I've nothing against the men from The Green in fact quite the opposite. But predicting they will win the league at the start of the season has become...well, predictible! Everyone seems to do this every year. Ah nostalgia, it's not what it used to be!

Aside from Waringstown, North Down has been largely unchallenged apart from the brief periods when Regan West was at Bangor and when Regan West was at CSNI. Regan is still at CSNI but the Ireland team has first call on him now. I don't expect him to play much more than a third of their fixtures. The big left arm spin bowler had helped Bangor win the title in 2004 and at CSNI his presence helped them start to believe in their own ability. (Considering the talent at their disposal it makes you wonder what had been going on at Instonians in the intervening years when they finished nowhere with White and West about).

The Comber men will be attempting to lift their 8th title in 11years. It could have been the 9th title in 11 years if the NCU hierarchy hadn't intervened in 2006. But then again it might still have only been their 8th if the NCU hierarchy hadn't intervened in 2008.

When you sit down and try and analyse who will win the league you look at partnerships batting and bowling. You consider opening batting partnerships, opening bowlers, spin attacks, middle order players, big hitters and accumulators. But one combination has the potential to be lethal: the rain and the NCU rule book. Let's all hope they both have a quiet summer.

North Down welcome back old faces Neil Russell and Marty Dalzell from their brief stint at Glendermott. Marty will have learnt how to ‘let her rip' and Neil will have learnt how to ‘pick up the wans'. Both men now realise that in North West cricket, passion is very heavy rain and a spanner is not something from a toolkit but someone who usually comes on in the 16th over.

New faces Johnny Terrett and overseas professional Iain Robertson complete what was an already formidable line up. The side looks balanced and it doesn't appear as if they will suffer from international call ups. Peter Connell will be moving to England for work reasons however ND had already budgeted for his absence. He should be back to provide support as they attempt to win their own holy grail, namely the ISC.

The only weakness you can see is their once mighty squad is reduced to simply a mighty team. The cupboard is bare in the back up department where a few players have moved on to play senior cricket.

CSNI who pushed so magnificently last year only to be thwarted at the death will probably be the main contenders again. There is no doubt they will miss Regan but they have recruited Gareth McKee from Cliftonville. He is a talented player and I am a big admirer of his game. Knee problems have put his career on hold but he is now injury free and training hard on his fitness. This will plug a hole in the runs department.
Stephen Dyer, despite the horrendous form he displayed over the last few seasons, always maintained that there was still another big score left in him. His hundred against the champions last year proved he was right. If this signals a return to form for the big man it will be like having a new player because the guy has ability, no question.

Gary Wilson's Surrey and Ireland commitments will limit his appearances to a handful but other than that CSNI are unchanged. Young players like Beverland and Heaney will improve and Coulter and Jones are probably the best opening bowlers in the league. In fact Nigel Jones and Allen Coulter won the Larry Warke batting award and the Sonny Hool bowling award respectively for the best performing players in the NCU in 2008. Both feature in the Ireland A squad.

The new professional Kieran Noema-Barnett hails from the same club in New Zealand as Ewen Thompson. He is young, strong, a very clean striker of the ball and a more than useful fast medium bowler. If he performs anywhere near as well as ET, CSNI will be delighted. Rob Arthur, Colin Andrews, John Costain and the evergreen Wayne Horwood make up a strong unit who will push North Down all the way.

North Down start their campaign on Saturday away to Lisburn where they suffered a rare defeat in the corresponding fixture last season. CSNI were due to play Waringstown at Stormont but the ground is not available due to Ireland committments. A longstanding offer to reverse the fixtures was eventually declined by the Waringstown committee. If you rearrange the words 'yet', 'professional', 'arrived' and 'hasn't' into a sentence you will work out why. Welcome back NCU cricket, where some things never change.