Rumours of the demise of the Ulster Cup competition have, not for the first time, been doing the rounds this winter however once again the stories, to paraphrase an old saying, seem to be greatly exaggerated. The all-Northern Ireland tournament has had its detractors for sure; its Sunday schedule not sitting well with many players whose weekends are already crammed full without it.

Regional administrators would also happily make alternative use of the extra space if they had their way however Cricket Ireland see things differently. The parent body obviously feel that Irish cricket needs more inter-regional competition as opposed to less and they appear very keen to see the Ulster Cup flourish. What will change however is that the competition will no longer be sponsored by Club Turf and until further notice it will simply be known as the Ulster Cup.

Whether or not anything else changes in the near future remains to be seen. There are still several clubs in both regions who would rather see the competition integrated into the regular domestic programme enabling fixtures to be played on an occasional Saturday as well. The number of competing teams would probably be reduced as a result of that meaning that maybe the top 4 in each region would go forward.

That would make the competition truly elite of course, which might be no bad thing either. However while the Ulster Cup, and its Shield and Plate siblings remain a valuable component of our domestic season one thing really needs to stop. In the past few seasons rounds of this competition and the Irish Senior Cup have been played on the same weekend- an inexplicable demand on time and resources of players and officials.

There seems to be some strange fixation with playing all the rounds of our cup competitions in the first month of the season. Teams knocked out in the early rounds (take Strabane as an example last year) then have little to play for in the final two-thirds of the summer. The new North West T20 competition will go some way towards filling the gap but if the Ulster Cup is to thrive perhaps it is time to look beyond the current format.

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I haven't mentioned the Warriors for a while so the Blue and Greens are overdue a shout as the 2014 campaign looms into view. There were a few cheap shots taken at the North West side last year from some quarters but Bobby Rao and his squad kept their heads down and continued to go about their business. Results weren't what the Head Coach had hoped for or expected, but the former Indian Test player never lost sight of his objectives.

He saw the series as a chance to build the next generation of Regional prospects and indeed Ireland hopefuls and the official launch of the Warriors Academy last month was the next step in that process. Youngsters at North West clubs now know what they have to do to make the next level and an ever growing band of dedicated coaches are trained and ready to help them.

The detractors seem to have conveniently forgotten that the North West was the only Union last year that had to stand by and watch players from here ply their trade elsewhere. Not much talk either about the fact that the Warriors appointed a 20 year old skipper who, along with Craig Young and Stuart Thompson have already progressed to the perophery of the full International squad.

I'm quite sure Bobby, Ian McGregor and the team will be delighted to be written off again this summer but cricket supporters in this corner of the country couldn't be happier with the progress

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Finally for now a reminder that Sion Mills are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year and the club are curently looking at ways of marking the occasion. Various options are currently under discussion including a representative match at the Tyrone ground in July. A spokesman for the club has said that they are hoping for the support of their sister clubs in the North West as they aim to celebrate the anniversary.