And so the Inter-Provincial cup competitions are over for another year (the Bob Kerr final notwithstanding, obviously) and all in all a decent showing from the North West contingent against their counterparts. Donemana set the standard by reaching the semi-final of both competitions while Brigade obviously went one better and collected the Club Turf trophy on Sunday evening.

As we know the balance of power seems to shift from region to region every number of years but little doubt that the gap between Leinster and the rest remains visible at present. In this season's Irish Senior Cup there were just seven Leinster v North West games in all with the southerners winning five, Richard Kee's men the only side from this neck of the woods to draw blood for the good guys with wins over Pembroke and Railway. The NCU v North West debate looks much more evenly poised however- six contests in the All-Ireland between them with four falling the way of the Belfast boys while in the Club Turf, 14 ties between the two regions finished 7 apiece (although the North West won on penalties).

With the other two main regions already operating the 8-team league structure it could be interesting to gauge how the local Union's move next year impacts on the stats. It seems pretty clear for now however that the next big challenge to the Dubliners is set to come from this side of the Glenshane...

And as the domestic league season enters the final straight thoughts now turn to the promotion and relegation races as we move towards those 8-team Divisions. The latter of course is quite straightforward- the two teams finishing ninth and tenth in the top flight will drop out while the Nedd's withdrawal from Division 2 means that only one team will be demoted from there this season to even things up. The promotion issue is also clear but I have to confess that I'm not a fan of this bit. The winners in Division 2 will play off against the eighth- placed team in the top flight to see who will take their place in the new Premier League in a one-off shoot-out.

On one hand I agree completely that there has to be a reward for winning Division 2 - no problem with that and supporters of the fancied sides have been saying all season that the winners must be given their chance to compete at the next level. That's all well and good but a one-off play off? Surely that's a free pop for the second division side against a team that has battled hard all season to stay out of the bottom two places. The obvious solution would have been at the bare minimum a home and away aggregate contest or a best of three although the weather will probably have impacted on that.

I had this discussion with a number of people at the cup final recently and as you would suspect those involved with clubs at the bottom of Division 1 agreed while those at the top of Division 2 were horrified. Some of them felt that there should have been an automatic promotion place for the Division 2 winners which is also understandable but how on earth could you relegate three teams from the top flight and promote one from the second tier and still be sure you had the best eight in your elite league? The die has been long cast of course and we are where we are but make of it what you will.

Finally for this week I would like to pass on deepest sympathies on behalf of the local cricket community to those affected by recent bereavements. Mrs Sadie Doherty, mother of North West president Joe Doherty passed away in Strabane at the weekend and our condolences are offered to Joe and indeed the entire family circle at this difficult time.

Former Eglinton player and North West umpire Lawrence King also passed away at the weekend and will be sorely missed by family and friends alike. Lawrence played all his days with the village side bar a few seasons with Cliftonville in the NCU and Robin Glenn was glowing in his references of his former team-mate. "Lawrence is talked about as a larger than life character and while that is true, he was a seriously good wicket-keeper and batsman.

Lawrence was one of the reasons why Scott Huey enjoyed such great success as a bowler and when he left to go to Cliftonville having started a new job in Belfast, he was hard to replace. I would go so far as to say that not until Shaun Bradley come on the scene did we ever fill the gap otherwise Scott would probably have had many more wickets. Lawrence was also a decent batsman and he could really hit a cricket ball. He was actually part of the Eglinton side that won the treble of league, cup and Faughan Valley Cup around 1958. Lawrence's death means that James Moore is now the last surviving member of that great team. I talked him into umpiring about 12 years ago and he was a really popular member of our Association until ill-health forced him to finish in 2010. He will definitely be sorely missed".