I always thought that Bangor was an unpredictable team. But it is not their performances that are unpredictable but their team selection. It is said they can beat anyone on their day. Indeed that is true but only if the day happens to coincide with a decent performance and a full strength team. Witness the victory in the Ulster Cup over Donemana at the start of the season and compare it with their performances at the end of the season where they managed 66 all out against CSNI followed the next day by 57 all out against CIYMS, a result which kept the Belmont club in the Premier League.

Just a week or so earlier they had lost eight wickets chasing down 100 odd against Derriaghy. Astonishingly these performances were good enough to make Bangor joint 3rd in the final league table. No, that's not a typing error. They were joint 3rd. They also managed to use 24 players in the NCU league and cup and possibly more if you take into account the ISC and the Twenty/20 competition. What is more significant is the 24 did not include Chris Cargo, Paddy McMillan, Andy Williamson, Brian Millar or Michael McCord. With such inconsistencies on availability the following maxim is also true: They are capable of losing to anyone on their day.

Bangor is similar to Lisburn in many ways in that many of their young players go to University and often don't return. Whereas Lisburn has the pedigree to cope with that Bangor do not and often their results pick up from June onwards when the students return. Lisburn and Bangor both relied very heavily on their respective overseas professionals in 2008 and excellent performances from them pushed the clubs into the top half of the table. But both clubs came third with just eight wins in a particularly weak NCU. Any middle of the road senior club should have managed that last season.

Lisburn, Carrickfergus and CIYMS have recognised how fortunate they were to escape relegation and took measures to strengthen their sides. Bangor has a different philosophy and with no new faces at Uprichard Park the side suddenly looks very threadbare in quality. The newly promoted sides will be no pushovers in 2009 and most other sides have strengthened.

If Bangor are to have a decent season they need to hope Mark Hutchinson and ‘pro' Yasas Tillekaratne continue to produce the goods. They need to show some consistency in selection and stop using as many players. And finally hope the younger players take some responsibility for their own performances. Looking good and being good are different things. The difference is application.

Instonians Old Boys are sometimes referred to as the ‘Master Race'. Usually though the comments come from ex Methody or Campbell College pupils. It must be some sort of in joke as I never thought of either of those schools as forelock tuggers. One thing is for certain though the ‘master race' tag cannot be levelled because of their superiority in cricket. Instonians last and indeed only Senior 1 league success came in 1962.

Unfortunately I cannot see that changing in the foreseeable future. A couple of seasons back the club won the Clubturf Ulster Cup overturning a strong North Down team. There was every chance they could forge ahead mount a serious league challenge. It never materialised.

Simon Wells and Neil Carson seem to have vanished, Richard Johnston's appearances have been sporadic, Colin Siller is coaching Fiji, Phil Clark has departed these shores, Regan West is now at CSNI, Andrew White will be involved with Ireland and it remains to be seen how much cricket James Shannon plays for the club in 2009. He is likely to have bigger fish to fry.

The arrival of the talented but largely untried Daniel Graham from North Down will not plug those holes. Even so the clubs performances last year were disappointing when you consider the quality at their disposal. Something is not quite right at the club.

If it is possible they should try to play as many games as possible at Osborne Park. It is a beautiful ground with a good track. It is a place that would inspire you to play cricket. Compare and contrast that with Shaw's Bridge which suffered the ignominy of an abandoned ISC match last year.

The club are blessed that RBAI is such a committed cricket school and churn out young talent. But unless they start getting their act together they will find out that there is no guarantee those kids will stay with Instonians. (Dalzell and Russell returned to their home club rather than stay with their school club). It is a fickle world we live in.